9:00-9:10 Arrival
Children arrive, sign in, greet friends, and check the message board. The message board indicates jobs and activities that need to be done before coming to morning circle.
9:15-9:40 Spanish
Tuesday and Thursday mornings
9:15-9:45 All-School Meeting
Wednesday mornings
9:15-9:45 Morning Circle
We gather for a morning circle; we start this with a time of quiet reflection together. After our quiet time together, the children have the opportunity to share with the group. Monday through Thursday this sharing is verbal only. On Fridays the children have the option of bringing something from home to show and share (this starts later in the year).
Following this, we do our calendar, talk about the activities of the day, sing songs together, and read a story. Learning to be a good listener, waiting one’s turn to speak, and being respectful of one another are important group social skills we work on at this time. Language development and phonemic awareness are key components of learning at this time. Lessons are incorporated around the story, with discussions and questions becoming an important part.
9:45-10:00 Snack Time
We often have sanck time as a whole group while reading a story.
9:45-11:00 Writing Workshop
This is a time when we work on beginning writing and reading skills. This time will often begin with a mini-lesson focused around a specific skill. Such lessons might incorporate talking about where authors get their ideas; looking at and recognizing letters and letter sounds; listening for rhyming words; working with basic sight words; and much later in the year learning long and short vowels along with consonant sounds.
Following this, the children settle in to do their own writing and/or drawing. It is the hope and expectation that everyone will be able to express their ideas, thoughts, and stories through writing as well as pictures. The children are at various stages of this developmental phase. Some children are drawing pictures with an adult writing their words, and other children are at the very beginning stages of writing a few words by sounding them out on their own. As the children gain confidence and knowledge in letter sound relationships, they are encouraged to use phonetic spelling. This enables them to become independent writers. We encourage children to read their own writing back to themselves or to another person. Your children are already thinking of themselves as authors and are very proud of the books they are creating. All of the children keep records of their writing in their writing folders filed in the room. We will use these to assess our work and will choose exemplary pieces that will become part of the student’s permanent portfolio.
11:00-11:20 Physical Education
We work on skill development and cooperative game playing. Being a team player and working on good sportsmanship are emphasized, along with the understanding that being physically active is important to our overall health and well-being.
11:20-12:00 Math
This time might be focused on a group math activity oron small group actvities. Children will be exploring math manipulative materials in a variety of ways as we work on one-to-one correspondence with counting, classifying, number recognition, recognizing and using geometric shapes, measuring, patterning, estimating, graphing, and problem solving. As your child progresses, he/she will begin to do computations using addition and subtraction. From time to time throughout the year, the whole group will engage in math projects that combine a variety of disciplines. Literature, art, and problem-solving will frequently be incorporated in these projects.
12:00-1:00 Lunch and Recess
All children in the school eat together and play together at this time under the supervision of adult staff and/or volunteers. This is a break time for full-day classroom teachers.
1:00-1:45 Quiet Reading
A storybook is read to the students, followed by a period of sustained quiet reading, where children are reading on their own. This is a time when the teacher circulates and reads independently with different individuals. Fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary are worked on as children begin to develop as independent readers. Reading response journals are used for those children who are reading.
1:45-2:45 Games, Project Work, and Free Choice
We play group games, work on projects, and have time for children to choose their own activities. Science is often a focus during this time.
2:45-3:00 Clean up and Closing Circle
Children do their assigned jobs and come to circle for closure to the day.
I feel fortunate to have Melanie Houser working with me this year as a practicum student for her early childhood certification from Ivy Tech. She works full days on Tuesdays and Thursdays and afternoons on Mondays and Wednesdays. In addition, you will be hearing about Ean High, an Earlham senior Art and English combined major, working with us to teach art. Hannah Reed and Emma Cooke, also from Earlham, are returning to help out in the classroom as they did last year. The students are thrilled to have them back, and I am too!