Back in the Game

It’s the first Sunday in January and that means only one thing… back to school tomorrow!

If you are anything like me you sprinted out of the classroom in late December with only minimal organization and plans for the week after vacation. Oops.

This is what I do know: my kids are being DIBEL’d this week, I will be out of the classroom for a few hours a day starting on Tuesday because I will be DIBELing my friends class (because obviously the week after vacation is a great time to be out of my classroom, oh did I mention… never trust teachers to DIBEL their own class!), next week I will be assessing phonological awareness skills and letter/sound ID, my kids were insane before break and I need to reign them back in!

Yes, that’s right in Kindergarten we do not pay attention to the fact that kids have had 10 days without probably any learning at all, it’s assessment time! That means tomorrow I have to focus on reviewing letters and beginning sounds, while also reminding the kids of the rules.

So far I’m thinking…

Arrival- The kids will do calendar folders and math journals as usual.

Morning Meeting- Review of the Meeting Rules, Morning Message, Schedule, Favorite Part of Our Vacation Share

Writing Workshop- Regular Journal Time (I have a lot of new things I want to teach in writing, but I know the kids will be excited to share their vacation adventures so I’ll hold off for a day or two)

Reading Workshop

• Play ABC Bingo. I’m going to give each kid a Bingo Board with lowercase letters. First I’m going to simply call out letters and ask children to place one cube on their board if they have that letter. Once they get fast with this version of the game, I’m going to switch it to a beginning sound/letter game. I’m going to call out words and if children have the letter the word starts with then they will place a cube on their board. Whenever I play Bingo in my class I always make the winner cover the whole board so it takes longer (they get more practice). Some of my students who are still working on fluency with letters and initial sounds will play this same game in a small group later in the week.
• If time permits after ABC Bingo I will do “Daily Five” (I only do 2 stations per day in my class). I will not introduce anything new tomorrow but I will review anchor charts/expectations for each choice.

Recess- I’ll need to review the procedure for putting on winter clothes. You can download my visual for putting on Winter Clothes and my visual for taking off winter clothes when they come back inside.

Math- We are going to start Patterns this week. Most of my students have some idea of what a pattern is so tomorrow I’ll ask students to start brainstorming what they think a pattern is. Then I’ll have students create patterns using math materials at each table: unifix cubes, colored links, pattern blocks, digi blocks and colored tiles. A few years ago I took pictures of a bunch of patterns I made to get students started if they are having trouble. It’s also helpful for kids who are ready to extend a pattern, but cannot create their own pattern yet (or can only do AB only).

Lunch- Yay

Read Aloud- I think I want to start a new chapter book tomorrow, but I’m not sure what yet. Perhaps My Father’s Dragon?

Physical Education

Recess again- ah nothing I love more than the clothes process twice in one day. Though I’d never give up recess, ever.

Choice Time

Then it’s time to organize myself so the rest of the week is a bit more planned. According to my calendar I actually don’t have a meeting tomorrow afternoon which means that the powers that be actually considered the difficulty of coming back from a vacation. I’m going to go ahead and guess I made an error in my calendar because that seems way too unlikely!
What are you up to in the classroom tomorrow? Any good Chapter Book recommendations for Kindergarten?

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