Kindergarten Chronicle
October 2015
Kindergarten in full swing
We have officially finished the first six weeks of school and we are loving every minute of it! The first month we have focused on getting to know each other, building trust, and establishing a safe environment where everyone feels comfortable to explore, learn and have fun! October is a busy month and we are sure it will fly by. Look below for important dates to remember and also know that you can always find important information on our Haiku calendar.
September 29, 30, Oct 1st- Rachel on 4th grade camping trip (Ta'ler, lead discovery teacher, will be filling in)
Oct 3rd & 4th- Atlanta Maker Faire
Oct 8th & 9th- Parent Teacher Conferences (Sign up on Veracross)
Oct 12th & 13th- Fall Break, school closed
Oct 15th- Fernbank Museum field trip (Email us if you'd like to chaperone)
Oct 19th & 20th- Rachel out for Vision Team meetings
Oct 24th- Halloween Carnival
Oct 30th- UNICEF Halloween Parade
BCC
Natalie kicks off our building character and community traits with learning about Respect, and how to show loving kindness everyday. The children are working hard to fill up our "100 Acts of Kindness" chart, and are determined to get even more than 100!
Keeping Safe
We are using a safe pocket system in the classroom which started by a discussion of how kangaroos keep their babies safe in their pouch. We talked about how it is our job as teachers to keep all the children safe in school. Each child in the class has their own pouch with their kangaroo. Throughout the day it is their job to follow our agreements and keep themselves safe. If they need a reminder we have them move their kangaroo to the teachers pouch until we see them being safe again.
How the Safe Pocket works...
The Safe Pocket is based on teaching children new life skills and gives new chances in every moment to self-correct. Young children live in the now. They need a system that lives there with them! The Safe Pocket system is based on the idea that children are learning and want to do the right thing.
The natural progression on academics
Since much of the first weeks of school are based on learning and establishing routines that will last through the entire year, we are very careful and slow to introduce various academics. We start the year with short periods of independent reading, writing, and math activities. Throughout the weeks we build up their stamina to allow for the teachers to go around and check in with each of the children and record their progress.
Sight Words
Its a new month, therefore we will be adding 10 new sight words to our daily routines. The children have been working hard learning these important words that "glue" our sentences together. Check Haiku under "resources" to see the new sight words.
Small Literacy Groups
Throughout the week we work in a range of small language groups that each focus on different skills, whether it is learning beginning sounds, letter recognition, decoding, or blending. As the year goes on we will be adding different activities to meet the needs of our wide range of skills.
Math
The children have really enjoyed learning about same and different. We have played games, sorted objects, and created our own search and find pictures. Along with our daily calendar routine that helps us practice counting, patterns, numeral writing and recognition, we will be adding something new to it every week to keep it interesting and build on more skills.
Thursdays at Piedmont
Weather permitting, we have been enjoying our Thursday adventures to Piedmont Park. This past week we observed geese, turtles, and birds at the pond before heading over to the playground to work on our muscles. This opportunity is so wonderful for us to watch the children outside of the TCS environment and share and interact with other children in the community. We are sure to remember our agreements as we venture off campus and the children have been doing a remarkable job!
Sensations
Our first field trip was a huge hit! The children continue to talk about their adventures at Sensations Therafun. Some of the favorite activities shared were the zip-line, the trampolines, the rock wall and the quiet room. We've even been asked "When are we going back?"
Our next trip to The Fernbank Museum will most definitely be another hit, while we see an IMAX on Robots!
Experimenters and Makers
For the Atlanta Maker Faire, our class has decided to experiment with making various types of sensory doughs to to touch and feel and play with. So far we have made different colored play-dohs, moon dough, slime, and cloud dough. We will continue our exploration this week and bring them to the Maker Faire for everyone to explore!