We're off to a Great Start!

Our first week of Kindergarten together was such a blast, and we have learned so much already in these past few days! Here is a brief outline of what we did this week:  

Life Skills:

This week, the children learned some important life skills that are necessary to be successful in a classroom setting. The students learned skills like: when we want a teacher’s attention we raise our hands, when someone says our name we stop what we’re doing and say “Yes?”, and we also learned when we say “good morning” or “hi” to a friend, we look at their eyes when we speak. The children have been working so hard this week on these skills, and they have been doing a great job! We will continue practicing these skills, and more, throughout the year!

Read Alouds:

During our first week of school, we have read many stories about friendship and starting school for the first time. Some popular stories we read this week include:

The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

What I Do Best, by Allia Zobel-Nolan

David Goes to School, by David Shannon

Franklin’s New Friend, by Paulette Bourgeois

Activities:

Throughout the week, we did some fun activities together, including making self portraits, painting our hands for the Kissing Hand poem, making new friends during morning meeting and recess, and getting active during our “brain break” dances!

Brainstorm Class Rules:

This week, we talked about why it is good to have rules in our classroom, and the children began a wonderful list of rules so far. We will continue working on this list next week!  

Belonging Assembly:

On Friday, we had a school assembly in the cafeteria about what it means to “belong” in a community. All Kindergarteners did an outstanding job reciting the “Friends” poem together!

Guiding Questions:

To bridge the home-school connection, I will post some things you can ask and/or talk to your child about each week regarding what we’ve been doing in school. Here’s a list of things you can ask your child about this week:

• How are you a good friend?
• Doing fun “Brain Breaks”
• Earning “tickets”
• Read-Alouds
• Creating self portraits
• What are some good rules to follow in a classroom?
• Playing games/using manipulatives during free-choice