Daily 5!!

Well...I had seen it on Pinterest, I had heard about it from a fellow teacher, now it was time to really do it! 

What do you do first? Purchase and read the book, "The Daily 5" by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. I read the book from front to back absorbing every detail and making many mental notes. Then it was time to go back through book a little slower and make my plans to make it a reality. I think this year it has really caught on in our school district and I even joined a study group with teachers from all over my district in varying grades and got some good ideas from them too.

The 5 parts include:

Read to Self

Read to Someone

Listen to Reading

Word Work

Work on Writing

I plan on introducing each part in this order. As of today, I have introduced the first three. Next week, I plan on introducing Word Work. 

I am amazed at their accomplishements thus far, and am amazed how some of my busiest students have settled down to sit in a cornner and read a book. Below is a picture of lesson I taught about picking books for their basket. The idea came from the book and they really enjoyed it. 

The point of the lesson is to show them that just as the baby shoe is too little for me, some of the books they choose are too little or easy for them. And just as some shoes are too big for me, some books are too big for them, or some shoes may fit just right, but are too fancy to wear to work means that they may be able to read the words, but just aren't interested in it. After they were trained to choose those just right books, they were ready to read to self. 

I used the clock on the promethean board and we started working on our stamina the first week of school. It took about three weeks, but we finally worked up to 10 minutes of reading in one spot without stopping. It was so much fun to watch them pick their spots and listen to the stories they were making up since they couldn't read yet.

Then I was ready to introduce read to someone. I exaplained that when they are reading to their selves, they are preparing to be able to read to someone. We learned to sit EEKK style and they love telling people what that means. "Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee, Book in the middle so we both can see." Coming from 5th grade, I was prepared for picking partneners to be a huge ordeal. I actually only have one or two little girls that are struggling with accepting whoever chooses them.

Reading under the table is a very popular choice. :)

They are taking elbow to elbow to a new level, but so cute!

With these two groups up and running, I was able to start pulling some small groups over for table time. we have listen to reading whole group and I have modeled for them what I expect in their groups. I am a little nervous, but excited to get 4 groups going at one time next week. I will let you know how it goes!

Staggard Enrollment Day

Glad my room does not have to be totally together the first week of school, due to staggard entry to Kindergarten. 25 students per day come on the first day, so we have a 6-25 ratio in one classroom. The students were all together in the morning for a little while and then we broke out into 3 groups with 2 teachers in each group to give them a reading assessment. Then later that day we gathered back together for a cute little activity.  Before I read the "Gingerbread Man" to them, we showed them some gingerbread cookies on a tray that we were going to put in the overn to bake while we were having story time. When the story was over a teacher went to check on them told them that they had ran away just like in the book.  We decided to go on a hunt for them them which was really just a tour of the school. When we came back to the room another teacher had put the cookies on the table ready for snack. The students really enjoyed it, but after the 4th day, we (the teachers) never wanted to hear that story again! Then they worked on some Gingerbread color sheets and watched a movie about the Gingerbread Man to compare and contrast. After that they headed off for rest time while we graded their assessments from that morning.  They were not that informative, but did help administration create our classes a little more fairly. Not sure I am crazy about the way they do things, and will make suggestions for next year, such as putting only 4 or 5 kids in one room for the whole day. This way they can really have a chance to learn proper daily routines, even if they are not going to be in your class the next week. Less stress!!! Maybe even consider testing them in the summer with a more comprehensive type of test too.

While the kids were working on their color pages, I called them out one by one to take their first day picture with the cute frame I made. Yes, I am a pinterest fanatic! I can't post their faces, so I will show you mine. :)

The week was concluded by a parent meeting Friday morning, now that we knew who our students were. By that day, I had made a lot more progress in my room. Below is my area for Morning Meetings.

Each day I choose a helper to read the morning message with me.

We are using puzzle pieces to count up to 100 day!

Share time is also part of our Morning Meeting. Obviously the names are missing right now, but if their apple is picked, they get to share that day.  ,

I would love to hear what other schools do for the first week of Kindergarten!!

Room Prepartions Began

Yes, I know a whole nine weeks of school has passes since I posted something here, but I got so wrapped up in school stuff and my family life, that I forgot to take you on my journey with me! BUT....It is fall break and I am ready to catch you up.

Lets go back to the days when I was getting my room prepared for those sweet babies to walk in the door. I started by doing some deep cleaning. I could not even think about unpacking boxes and puttin up boards until my furniture was in place and my room had been cleaned. Take a look at the before and after pictures of the sink in my room.
                                                                                                                                                                 

  

It is amazing what a scouring pad and some baby oil can do for stainless steel sink. Much better!!!

Then I did a little repair job to the table and chair set that was left for me. It had a lot of rips in the top and seats. I just used some fabric to recover and I thought they turned out really well. I decided it would be great for my Listen to Reading center.

Then I got started on a bulletin board and ran out of border. I searched 3 Dollar Tree's and nobody had it anymore. A sweet teacher that I have never met saw my distress call on our teacher Face Book page and came to my rescue. I believe this is the before I picture I posted for them. 

Above is my daily 5 tracking chart. This will be my first year using it, but I am so pumped and can't wait to share my results with you.

Here is the writing center! I know it will be many months before we are ready to use it. But  I was pretty proud of the turn out!

Well...I am off to run some errands and will add more info soon. :)

Belonging, Significance, and Fun

What do these three words mean to you? They took on a whole new meaning to me after attending my first ever Responsive Classroom training this summer. It was the most amazing and beneficial training I had ever been to! Not to mention that it was timed perfectly to me starting my kindergarten journey. If you have never heard of it, you are so missing out. It is very hard to put RC into a nut shell, but basically it is a philosophy of teaching that helps you understand how to provide those three basic needs of human life into your classroom. Belonging, Significance, and Fun! I always thought I had those things in my class, but my whole teaching philosophy has now changed and I can't wait to implement it fully in the classroom this year. If you want to learn more about it, you can visit https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/ and here are some great books to get you started on your path, but if you ever get to go to the week long training, it is a must!

First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete
Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4–14  by Chip Wood
Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete
Power of Our Words Teacher Language That Helps Children Learn
by Paula Denton, EdD

These are some things I made after the training to get me started. I also made a power point after the training so I wouldn't forget all the amazing things I learned. I will see if there is a way to post that on here for you. If you are a Responsive Classroom teacher, I would love to hear any advice that you may have for me.

Saying Goodbye to 5 and Hey to K!

When I got my degree 10 years ago, I just knew I would be a Kindergarten teacher. I just didn't know I would have to wait 10 years to get my chance. I have been on a roller coaster leading up to this point. I graduated from the U of M, and immediately moved to Florida. I took the job over the phone and was told I would be teaching 5th grade even though I had made it clear I really wanted the younger grades. I taught that for 2 weeks and was moved to 1st grade due to an overflow of students. My family thought I should be thrilled that I was getting what I originally wanted. However, you guys know that we teachers put our heart and soul into getting our rooms and MINDS ready for the coming year and being moved after the start of the school year brought me to tears. After the shock wore off and I packed up all my chapter books, I did love that grade. After that school year, we moved back to Memphis and what grade did I get? 5th for two years until I switched from private school to public. Then I got my shot at 3rd. It was a perfect blend of what I loved about 1st and 5th. I did that two years and then asked to go to 2nd. (I just didn't want to get stagnant in my teaching.) Then I was asked to go back to 3rd. I negotiated and went to 3rd along with all my 2nd grade class! Looping was such an awesome experience. So after two more years in 3rd, I asked to go up. Yes, you heard me right. Up! I wanted a chance to be departmentalized, SO back to 5th I went. I loved teaching reading ALL day! I even got most of my looping babies back for a third year. But the next year, we were not going to be departmentalized, so I asked to go back down. Preferably to K or 1st, but she asked me to stay. What's a teacher to do when her principal has faith in her abilities and needs her in a certain grade? I tell you what. She stays in 5th grade. But....It was time for her to have faith that I could do great things in kindergarten too, and I am so happy to say that she took the leap of faith and I will be teaching K! I have had so much fun getting ready this summer. I went to the Responsive Classroom Training and it was FANTASTIC!! I participated in a Daily 5 book study with other teachers in my district. We had so much fun learning from each other. I have not officially taught one day in K, but I think I am here to stay!! 

 Good Bye to 5!

Hey to K!