Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Whew!.....FINALLY a post!

Four weeks into the new school year and I am FINALLY getting a minute away from lesson plans, making new stations and centers and everything else in a teacher's life. The only thing I do not have pictures of yet are my classroom. I promise that will be in my next post (hopefully later this week).

Mrs. B (the other Junior Kindergarten teacher) and I are working together this year and will be switching our classes throughout the morning each day. Students will be in each classroom for 1 hour and 15 minutes each morning completing either: centers (free play time), stations (Integrated Learning) or workshops (Math and Language). If the learning takes place in my room on a specific day, they will have their centers in Mrs. B's room and vise-versa. We've been in school four weeks and the children have adjusted well to our schedule and LOVE switching classrooms and having four teachers. 

Below are two pictures of students completing a whole group station in my classroom during the second week of school.
Each student had a letter pinned to their back and were given a grid with letters listed on it. After they were given the directions, they were set out to figure out what letter they had on their back. Children walked around looking at their friends back and crossed off those letters and the final letter on their grid brought them to their letter. The kiddos loved this activity and we will do again throughout the year with different concepts.



We love our reading center, our fun circus tent and reading buddies!






Something else we introduce to the kids during our week is SCIENCE and SOCIAL STUDIES. I teach Science and Mrs. B teaches Social Studies. During our first Science lesson we discussed What is Science? and What is a Scientist? 
We have one student from each class dress up in a lab coat, silly glasses and carried tools used by a scientist. We then used the anchor chart (thanks to my aide, Miss V!!!) to write words relating to a scientist. Last week and today, we learned about our 5 senses. Keep a eye out for our next two weeks of science lessons. 

What is Science? and What is a Scientist?



Five Senses








I hope you're still with me.....
Stations and Workshops
Our stations incorporate Math, Language, Science and Social Studies (Integrated Learning). Workshops are twice a week. Tuesday in Mrs. B's room students have Math workshop and Friday are Language Workshops. Our themes will change each month. 
This month students are learning about the CIRCUS!
Here are some pictures during stations and workshops.





On Tuesday, we have a special visitor--Rollo the Clown! We all had a fabulous time (I think the teachers enjoyed his visit too!!)






And if you're still here...I PROMISE to update more often so you don't have so much to read/see when you come back to visit! 
PA Families...please feel free to share with your friends and family!

Xoxo,