Hi, friends! I am 10 days into Kindergarten and am LOVING my new Bunch!
While it is still fresh in mind, I wanted to recap some of favorite activities, resources, and ideas that I used to survive the craziness that is the first week of Kinder!
It makes me DIE when they say hilarious things like, "What is a book bag?", "What is a binder?" or "What does have a seat mean?" HAHAHA! Such sweet babies!
{POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT}
Skittles, people! Get you some! One big bag is great - I started weaning by the end of the week. But for the first few days -- they push their chair in and come to the carpet nicely, they get a Skittle! They put their paper in the basket and come to the carpet, they get a Skittle! They walk nicely to line up at the door, they get a Skittle! I was only giving about 4 - 5 a day the first few days, but they work like a charm! By Friday, I was down to one Skittle a day and started the second week Skittle free!
{WAKE UP WORK}
7:30 - 8:00
SIMPLE coloring pages so you can be free to help them unpack, dry tears, give hugs, and chat with parents!
{MORNING MEETING}
8:00 - 8:30
Pass a stuffed animal around and share their name and something about them!
"Hi, my name is Kelli and my favorite color is pink"
We shared the favorite color, animal, sport, food, and holiday the first week of school.
We sang and danced too!
We sang The Mack Chicken Dance, Rise and Shine by Dr. Jean, Welcome to School by Stephen Fite, Tooty Ta by Dr. Jean, to name a few!
Read Aloud: We did a fun read aloud for our first week of morning meetings! We did Pete the Cat Rockin in My School Shoes, Five Little Monkeys, etc. Something they could listen to and look at with the story!
{BATHROOM BREAK}
8:30 - 8:45
The first of many! :)
{MATH}
8:45 - 9:15
We did our wall calendar and the Starfall calendar during this time. Next week, calendar gets shifted to the morning meeting time, but for the first week, learning our calendar routine is our math lesson!
{LUNCHROOM PRACTICE}
9:15 - 9:30
We went down to the lunchroom and practiced walking in the lunch line, holding our tray, and putting our number in at the end of the line. It really helped for them to practice while it was quiet and not crowded! :)
{BATHROOM BREAK}
9:30 - 9:45
Again!
{PHONICS}
9:45 - 10:15
We played the Can You Guess My Letter? game from Babbling Abby!
We did 5 letters a day {6 on Friday} and it was SO much fun!
It was also a great informal assessment to see who could identify beginning sounds!
The first week we focus on all the letters in the alphabet as we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!
Monday: Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Tuesday: Listen to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Wednesday: Watch Chicka Chicka Boom Boom DVD
Thursday: Read Chicka Chicka 123
Fun Friday: We made a coconut tree craft with their names and made a coconut tree snack!
I got the Cinnamon SchoolBook Alphabet and Number cookies from Trader Joe's! The kids LOVED them!!!
{BRAIN BREAK}
10:15 - 10:30
Go Noodle for the win!
We started with the Koo Koo Kanga Roo channel!
Wiggle It, I Get Loose, and Ninja Training for our first week faves!
{LUNCH AND BATHROOM}
10:30 - 11:15
{SOCIAL STUDIES}
11:15 - 11:45
Cool to be at School
We used the David series to talk about good and not so good manners at school!
{SPECIALS}
11:45 - 12:30
Whoo! Take a breather!
Mark behavior, pack up and pass out binders!
{PACK UP, SNACK AND BATHROOM}
12:30 - 1:00
{KINDERGARTEN STORYTIME}
1:00 - 1:30
We have a para pro who does a phenomenal story time with all our Kindergarten classes!
She does a great hitting the response to literature CCSS and aligns the stories with our Social Studies and Science themes each week! We also do Zero the Hero during this time!
{RECESS}
1:35 - 1:55
{DISMISSAL}
2:10
I will be back with the second week of Kindergarten ideas soon!
Have a RESTFUL weekend!
