Hands On

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2004 : October : 10

Hands On
By Kinder

This is my second year in K. I found myself in the situation that you described. These websites really helped me.

www.electricteacher.com/newteacher/
www.kizclub.com
www.dltk-kids.com
www.Kinderhive.net

As
far as making sure you cover everything.. . I practice the most esential skills with my students daily during our Calendar time.
1. I have the students tell me what month it is. I point to the month and we spell it.
2. The students identify that months pattern with the number tags. This month is an AB pattern. Orange - yellow- orange-yellow. I write the correct number on the

tag after we count the pumpkins.
3. We write down the date including the year on the white board.
4. We sing a days of the week song. We identify what day is today, . . . yesterday . . . tomorrow (you get the idea).
5. One student checks the weather and we graph weather it is rainy, cloudy, snowy or sunny.
6. We sing the alphabet song. We play the sing your way to _____ game. We pick a letter and the students sing the alphabet song until they reach that letter.
7. We count how many days we have been in school with straws.
8. Morning Message. We read the letter I wrote to the class "Dear Class, Today is Monday. We are going to go to the library today. I read the letter out loud (modeling reading left to right). We count the number of words in each sentence. We highlight letters we are focusing on that week. We find high frequency words that we are learning.
8. We go over the alphabet and sounds in the morning . . . while we are waiting in the lunch line sometimes. . .

You may already know these activities .. .If you cover these things daily you are covering a lot that Kinders need to know.

I know that last year I felt that I needed a text book. I felt lost. Do you have a university near you. Last year I went to a local university and made photo copies of a Kindergarten text book. It helped me to see the order that skills were taught. Could you borrow a text book from one of the teachers at your school?

As far as thematic units. . . my first year teaching Kindergarten (all day Kinder 8:00 - 3:00) I didn't even attempt thematic units. This year it is easier so I have been including themes . . however, I don't choose what I am going to teach based on a theme. Don't worry about sticking to a theme.