Kat...

[MaryL]

Just curious...

I want to change some routines this school year. How do you handle the children arriving in your classroom each a.m.? I'm thinking of starting a "Question of the Day" where they would need to sign their name under their "answer" to the question. (Mostly yes/no type questions) Do you have your kids do journals right away when they arrive? Typically mine have entered...have a short table activity (puzzle/game/ find-it book, etc) and wait for announcements/prayer/etc to begin. Then I do lunch count/attendance, etc. Kind of bored with that, and want to try something new.

Do you do centers? How do you manage those? You're full day, so I'm sure it will be different...but I'd love to hear what you do.
If you prefer to e-mail me privately, let me know and I'll get my addy to you.

Thanks!!!!:)

[kat]

We have a 20 minute window of time when the kids are coming in. I usually have a coloring sheet (or color, cut, glue activity) on their desks first thing and they check example board for instructions (finished product or rebus sentences) and I have Sesame Street on. That way they can get started on their own and I don't repeat instructions 20 times. We do journals too. I keep a "journal jar" with topics they've brainstormed as well as some I definitely want them writing about. We will do a graph guestion like you mentioned. Sometimes yes/no, sometimes a question relating to a lesson and then 3 choices followed up by a journal entry. I usually will set this up at the end of the day and they know what to expect the next morning.

I don't envolve my kids in attendance taking, though I know alot of teachers do. After we've listened to morning announcements which includes saying the pledge, birthdays, special honor recognitions by the principal, the kids put finishing touches on morning activities and I quickly note attendance and do my lunch count.

From there we go into our daily calendar activities which can take as little as 5 minutes to as much as 30 minutes. Our math program is Saxon but my calendar is taken more from Math Their Way though that's where Saxon got the idea, I prefer the extra things in the Math Their Way calendar. Our reading program is Sing, Spell, Read and Write and I absolutely love it.

Late afternoon is when we do centers (though in Saxon we do lessons 3 days a week and 2 days of math centers in the mornings). That has also been the time my title aide comes to my room. I do social centers as well as fine motor, math, reading, writing, enrichment, remedial, etc. At the beginning of the year I rotate kids through the centers. Depending on the number of kids I will do 3 to 5 centers, one has me, one has the title aide, others are independent. Later in the year I make center assignments based on needs assessment and some days it's free choice. I also get the hs kids in the child development classes help out during center time. During the last quarter of the year, the kids are really beginning to read well and I get 4th graders to come help me introduce the kids to taking eccelerated reading tests on the computer. We incorporate that into center times as well.

I hope I've answered your questions. I know how it feels to be in a rut. That's one reason I love the new reading program. We've had it 3 years and after 14 years of Letter people I was going crazy. I rarely use the same bulletin boards more than a couple of years. I like to keep things fresh.

[MaryL]

Thanks Kat! It's always interesting to get a different perspective. I use the Letter People in my Pre-K class...so your comment made me laugh! It's only my 2nd year with "them", so I'm not tired of them yet....but I can see it could happen. LOL I also rarely re-use bulletin board and art projects. Mostly because I need to be excited and "fresh" about the things I present to children. Do your kinders get "free play" time? It's hard to fit it in...but I usually give them some time.

Thanks again!!!:)