Getting Started in Kindergarten: Getting to Know You

     It's so easy for me to get caught up in the back-to-school to do list of room set up and name tags that I sometimes lose sight of the most important goal for September - getting to know the children.  In the first month, I don't have to teach them all how to read, use number bonds, or stretch words, but I do need to explore where they come from, what their interests and abilities are, and what their hopes and dreams are for kindergarten. They also need to get to know me and the rest will come a lot easier if we take this time. 

     Here are some of the first experiences we had last year during those “Get to Know You Weeks.” 

     We drew birthday cakes and shared how old we were (well maybe not me!) and found out which of us have birthdays in the same month.  The cakes were a nice first sample of their drawing and coloring.  

     We read stories and sang songs of characters with unusual names such as Tikki Tikki Tembo, Chrysanthemum, Bingo and Catalina Magdalena.  Then we looked closely at our own names, counted the number of letters and made name cards.  We did this in small groups which gave me the opportunity to see if the children could identify and sequence the letters independently or if they needed support.

     We looked closely at our faces in mirrors and explored the ways we were the same and different.  We created faces with loose parts and drew self-portraits as inspired by the books Let's Make Faces and Faces.  The self-portraits were repeated at the end of the year to show our growth over time.

     We shared our writing folders, which were decorated with pictures to tell about ourselves, and would later be used as a source for writing ideas.  We learned about each other's likes/dislikes and I was able to observe their listening and speaking. 

     We explored our school's motto (Treat others the way you want to be treated) and talked about what that meant to each of us. We made a concrete representation of it in the form of a golden circle.

     We took a fall walk and wondered about the things we saw and touched.  We created a chart of our observations and began to ask questions about the season.  I noticed that some children were able to offer a question while others struggled to do this.

     We explored the centers and materials in our room.  Some children played alone while others worked together. Some were able to sustain play while others flitted from one choice to the next. I watched to see which centers they were most interested in and which they visited the least.

     We sang lots of songs and paired them with movements.  Most children enjoyed participating but a few were more self-conscious.  Some children had good body control while others needed a little support.

     We read, talked, and responded to many books, including The Invisible Boy, and the children were invited to make connections between themselves and the characters and/or stories.  Their connections told me about their experiences and gave me insight into their language use. 

This year I'll be offering some of these same experiences, while adding a few new ones.  Most are included in the last deck in the Kindergarten Kick Off series, Getting to Know You.  You can find it here:

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie

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Getting Started in Kindergarten: Launching Learning Blocks

     "What’s math?" I’ve just told the children we are going to “do math” and this is what I hear.  I’m surrounded with socks and sorting circles and wondering how I am going to answer this. I realize that in my efforts to get this train rolling, I may have forgotten something.  It never occured to me that maybe their first lesson should have been about the "big idea" of math (leave it to Kinders to always let you know what you need to do).  So now I do a two-day launch for each learning block.  Here are my launch suggestions to avoid your own “derailment!” 

sock sorting lesson

What’s the Goal? Let chidren know where the train is headed before they get on board. Talk about the goal/purpose for each part of your day in terms of “What good readers do, writers do, mathematicians, etc.”  I use children’s books such as Max’s Math by Kate Banks or Rocket Learns to Read by Tad Hills to illustrate children taking on these roles.  Create charts of these goals to keep you on track all year long.  

     

What Does it Look Like?  Just as a train is made up of many cars, your learning block is probably broken down into smaller segments (i.e. mini lesson, worktime, sharing).  Since these are not visible in the daily plan/schedule that you post, help children "picture it" using a graphic, such as a pie chart, to show how it is broken down.   

 

What Does it Sound Like?  You wouldn’t use the same voice in the sleeping car as you would in the snack bar! Each segment of your learning block requires different voice levels. I use the The Three Bears  to help my Kinders hear the difference between soft, loud, and "just right" voices.

Using soft voices like Mama Bear while reading

You’e Got This! Once your Kinders have some idea of the goals behind each learning block and a picture of what it looks and sounds like, it’s time for you to embark on a trial run.  keep the content light in order to keep the focus on the structure.  Introductions and explorations of materials are great for this! Continue to use this same structure from here on out to keep things consistent.

exploring pattern blocks

You can find the full plan for launching learning blocks here! 

     

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie

  

Getting Started in Kindergarten: Opening Centers

     It's usually about thirteen minutes into the first day of kindergarten when I here, "When can we paint? When can we use the trains? When can we play?"  I'm showing them where their lunch box goes, but this is what they REALLY want to know! Here's what I tell them:  

Each center is like a big, beautiful present waiting to be opened. Is opening presents the first thing you do when you get to a birthday party? NO! You usually have to wait a little bit, right?  Do you open all of your presents at once or one at a time?" ONE AT  A TIME!  Well, it's the same with centers.  We have to wait a bit before we begin opening them and we will open them one at a time.

Last year's science center - waiting for children to arrive!

Here are some more tips for opening centers:

• String crepe paper across the centers and cut the ribbon as you open each one.
• Open 1-2 centers each day.  Use a similar routine for your "grand opening" to provide consistency and a predictable language around center use.   
• Begin with centers in which you have the most materials since the whole class will be working at these 2 centers in the beginning. I start with construction and math because I have a lot of blocks and math manipulatives.  Since they all won't fit in the center space, temporarily extend it to floor or table areas in other parts of your room.      
• Dismiss children to centers by asking, “Who would like to work in the _______ center today? Invite children to raise hands or stand up to show their interest.  If the whole class raises their hand for one center (oh no!), ask for volunteers to choose a different center.

Once the centers are all opened, it's your "gift" to stand back and observe the children happily engaged in exploring, experimenting, discovering, and creating. 

You can find my full plan for opening and introducing each center here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie

Getting Started in Kindergarten: Building Community Through a Shared Language

     When I think of community building, my first thoughts are of ice breakers or team building games that I use to help children get to know one another.  Yet, it's also about a shared language that can either be intentionally set in motion by the teacher or left to develop on its own.  If you've ever been to an Apple Store, you may have experienced the Genius Bar "vibe" that comes from explicit training in empathy and a manual that clearly defines the specific language used when helping customers.  It's pretty impressive and not as evident in the Geek Squad at Best Buy.

     So for my little "geniuses,"  I'm going for the intentional approach with guiding words in the form of a class motto, a set of promises, and affirmations.  The plan is to introduce and model this language with the hope that children will internalize it, transfer it to self-talk, and begin to use it "out loud" in their interactions with one another.    

Think about this when developing your own shared language:

Choose Your Words Carefully: Whether you decide to call them rules, agreements or promises, choose language that is kindergarten friendly. Break down terms such as "respect" into smaller, "bite-sized" chunks for kinders.  Here's how I whittled down respect into four promises: 

We take good care of ourselves. 

We take good care of each other. 

We take good care of our learning space. 

We take good care of our Earth.  

Then, I further broke down the promises into affirmations to get even more specific. You can get the posters here:

Make It Transferable: 

Your "big ideas" need to be transferable into your every day interactions with children.  Identify prompts or catch-phrases that you can use consistently and make sure they are ones you would want to hear the children saying to each other!  

Make it Tangible:  Create a concrete version of your guiding words to help children visualize it.  Use this to introduce each rule/agreement/promise, slowly adding to it in the first weeks of school.  When finished, use it with pairs or individuals as a support tool and set it out for children to explore during their play.  Here's the one I'll be using!

The wood pieces represent our community circle and will be personalized with children's pictures.

Language Do's and Don'ts:  Use the phrase, "We don't talk that way in here," when addressing language that is not positive or appropriate.  Children will also use it to respond to others who are speaking unkindly. 

If you'd like a kick-off plan for developing a shared language with your children, check out the third Kindergarten Kick-off Deck: Our Motto and Promises where you can find my plan for the year.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie

    

Getting Started in Kindergarten: Establishing Routines and Procedures in a Fun and Engaging Way

     So it's the first day of kindergarten and your new kinders are all excited because everyone has been telling them how much they are going to love school.  Then, they get to school and you start talking and talking and talking about how to use the bathroom or be a good listener and, well, let's face it, it's not very exciting! Here are some ways to make introducing routines and procedures a little bit more fun and engaging.

1)  Tell a Story:  Use a book or tell a real-life classroom story to set the stage for the routine/procedure you are about to introduce.  I like to read the Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein when introducing good listening habits and tell the story of how a child waited all year to hear her birthday announced on the loudspeaker and then missed it because she wasn't listening.      

2) Use Gestures:  Many routines involve several steps. Create a hand motion for each one, use them as you are naming the steps and invite children to "mirror" you.  You don't have to know sign language to do this just make up the motions as you go along or ask the kids for their ideas.

3) Set it to Music:  Create a little "ditty" to help children sing the steps of the routine. Just take a familiar tune such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and change the words. Don't worry about how good it is or how well you sing (just apologize to your teaching assistant in advance), the kids will love it! In the beginning of the year, I "sing them in" with our Hello Jobs song as they enter and begin unpacking.  This not only focuses them on the task, but reminds them of the steps.

4) Act it Out: Use a My Turn, Your Turn approach to practice the procedure.  You model the correct steps (My Turn) and then choose students to show the class how to do it. (Your Turn).  Follow that up with a chance for the whole class to practice while you provide feedback.  This gets them up and moving and gives you an opportunity to see who might need a little extra support.

5) Use Props: Use puppets or stuffed animals to role play or model the desired behaviors. I use a big stuffed Teddy Bear to model ways to sit on our carpet.

     These ways are not only fun and engaging, but are multisensory strategies that help the brain secure learning to memory.  You can find some of these strategies sprinkled throughout the second Kindergarten Kick-off Deck: Routines and Procedures. 

     What are some fun ways that you engage children while getting your classroom up and running?  

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie

Getting Started in Kindergarten: Introducing Materials

     In a previous post, I wrote about Getting Started in Kindergarten and the deck that got me organized for the beginning of the school year. I’ve had some teachers ask if I would be willing to share it, so I decided to "fancy it up" this summer and make it more usable for others. In doing so, I broke the deck into several decks that could be used alone or combined to build your first day of school (and beyond!) I'll be sharing the rest of the decks along with more Getting Started ideas in future posts.

     The first deck, Introducing Materials (you can get it here), uses the Responsive Classroom approach of guided discovery to introduce classroom supplies such as glue sticks, pencils, crayons, scissors, and more.  The goal of guided discovery is to get children excited about the material, provide opportunities for free exploration, and to establish routines for caring for and storing materials.

Here's a quick summary of the approach.  

Introduce and Name: The teacher builds interest, names the material, and creates a shared background knowledge.

Generating Ideas: Children are invited to think and share ways to use the material.

Exploration and Experimentation: Children use the ideas shared in the previous step to explore and experiment with the material.

Sharing Exploratory Work: Children learn from each other as they share the ways they used the material during the previous step.

Cleanup and Care of Materials: Procedures for storage and use of the materials are modeled and practiced. 

Open-ended questioning is used throughout guided discovery to give children a voice in their classroom community and to let them know their ideas and suggestions are valued.  

     This has been my go-to method for not only introducing school supplies, but also math manipulatives and some center materials.  How do you provide first experiences with materials in your classroom?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie