Saturday, August 14, 2010

Highlights from the First 1.5 Days of the School Year

It's official!  I am the teacher of 18 adorable Kindergarteners.  I imagined them as soon as I saw their names on my roster and my imagination did not let me down one bit!  I have only had a school day and a half with them so far....but I can already tell it is going to be a great year.  Here are some memorable highlights.
  • During center time, some of my new friends opened up a restaurant in the Dramatic Play center on the first day.  I even had one student who carefully sorted and "washed" plastic vegetables before cooking and serving. I was quite impressed.
  • During story time, they listened contently to "The Kissing Hand" and predictably giggled at the part when Chester's Mom kisses his palm.  They liked the story so much that I read its sequel "A Pocketful of Kisses" too.
  • I incorporated a tour of the school based upon "The Kissing Hand" story.  I placed heart die cuts around the school and we went on a special search for them. No hearts were left undiscovered.  Including those on one friend's shirt and belt!
  • At calendar time, they loved the new days and months song that I chose for this year by Busy Beavers.  I featured this song on an earlier post.
  • They caught on quickly to our new classroom rules.  The rules are positive affirmations based on  Dr. Jean Feldman's "The Rules of the Classroom."  I incorporated her recording of the song with gesture commands from Whole Brain Teaching. It was terrific.  I think the kids will remember the rules fluently by Labor Day!
  • After introducing our "Feel Good Basket," which is based upon the research of  Dr. Becky Bailey who wrote "Conscious Discipline,"  they utilized it!  I was amazed when one friend recognized that his seat mate was a little sad, so he fetched our stuffed Chester from the basket and brought it to his new friend for comfort.
  • I added a new book for the first day of school, "Kindergarten Rocks."  The kids were very inquisitive about the term "custodian" that is featured in the story and were delighted to get to meet Mr. Kenny, our classroom custodian, in person.  I love it when unexpected moments like that happen!
  • And finally (and most importantly on the first 1.5 days of school) everyone left on Friday with smiles on their faces and made it home safely for the weekend.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jan,
This is WONDERFUL!
You were meant to be a Kindergarten teacher- what a gift you have!