A Day in the Life

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Linking up with Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits today to show you "A Day in the Life" of my classroom!   

5:30  My alarm goes off.  Let's just say it is my goal to get up when my alarm goes off.  :)  I do some morning prayer/reading the Scripture readings of the day, get ready, and head downstairs for my coffee and breakfast, and get in the car around 6:45 for my 30 minute drive to work. 

About a year or so ago, I realized the need to invest some time making my morning routine more pleasant and consistent; laying out my clothes, making sure I eat a breakfast I enjoy, having a packed lunch ready to go, leaving a little early, drinking my coffee made at home rather than from a drive-thru, etc.  It makes a huge difference in my mindset when I arrive at work, and how I start my day!  Mornings are one of my favorite parts of the day now. 

7:15-7:20ish  I usually get to school about 10 or 15 minutes before students do.  I'm not one of those people who get to school really early, but I do make sure everything is set to go before I walk out in the afternoons.  I have a few quiet minutes to lay out breakfast, take down chairs, and take a quick look at my plans before our day is off and running! 

7:30-8:00  Students arrive and eat breakfast in the classroom.  There is SO much that happens in these precious 30 minutes...unpacking, coat hanging, chatting, collecting any forms or money coming in, checking home communication books, taking lunch count, recording who ate breakfast, signing yesterday's attendance, submitting today's attendance, shew, it makes me tired just writing all that out!  It did take me a few weeks when I first started to get it down to a routine, but it goes much more smoothly now.  Either that, or my kindergartners have just matured a whole lot.  I have tried to delegate as much as possible to students and the 5th grade helper, but a lot of it just needs to be done by me.  

While I am doing this, students are (SHOULD) either be A) eating, B) doing morning work C) reading in the library or with the helper.   I came up with these posters so they can look and see what to do: 

Around 8am announcements start and students also do a few minutes of quick exercises led by a helper to warm up their brains for the day!  

8:05 We are settled on the carpet and ready for our day.  I will admit, I would love to revamp our morning meeting routine.  When I took the class, I sort of grasped at straws to come up with something based on what I've seen done in other rooms, and what little I knew of what the students were already used to doing.  I know, that sounds terrible.  It works for us for now.  (That's my motto this year, by the way.)  But I've been keeping an eye on any good blogger posts about what other teachers do so I can come up with a more meaningful routine next year.  This year I am not making any more changes; my students seem to NEED our routine to be exactly the same every day...they like the repetition, and also love the music I've incorporated.  I know there is more that we can/should do; however, I've only been teaching kindergarten for six months, so I'm cutting myself some slack.  :) 

If it's Monday, or the first day after a break or time off, we'll do a Monday meeting with time for each student to share something they would like to tell the rest of the class.  I've written more about our Monday meetings previously. 

1.  For now, we sing a gathering song.  Then students help me fill in the date and fix a sentence that I type at the bottom.  They also circle any sight words in the sentence.

 

2.  They repeat our class promises.  Students helped me come up with these.  :) 

 

3.  We sing a days of the week song, then a months of the year song. 

4.  Our weather helper helps with the weather. 

By the time we get through this, students are ready to get up and stretch, so we take a class bathroom break (I usually don't let them go during the first hour of the day, so that we can all get in and settled.  They are used to this by now.)

**One thing I have learned this year...woe to us if something goes wrong during this first hour of the day; breakfast is late, I couldn't copy morning work, my music wasn't working, the board is not working (heaven forbid!) or if we have any kind of change in routine at all.  I guess that's just the nature of five and six year olds.  :)  But I try my best to get us off to a good, consistent start every day.

8:30  We are back in and ready to start our language arts lesson!  Our district is using a new reading program this year.  I tend to start with the vocabulary/Big Book/reading comprehension lessons, rather than letter and word work, simply because of pacing the stretching that the kids need.  The program comes with a letter of the week song and dance routine which my kiddies really enjoy, so I use that halfway through our whole group lesson to transition them to work on letter skills and sight word work.  It seems to make a more gradual warm-up...I love starting our morning off with a good story and lots of opportunity for conversation. 

9:30 Reading groups start!  Right now we are doing three rotating groups...writing table, reading or word work with me, and either reading to self or reading to a partner, depending on the day.  Again, I realize there is so much more that could be done during this time.  It just works for us right now, and for my stage with being the first year I have taught kindergarten.  After trying to plan all kinds of activities going on during this time, and frustrating myself and the kids with ever-changing activities, I realized that I really just wanted my kids to do two things:  read and write every single day.  So this format ensures that is happening in my room without adding a lot of chaos.  For writing, we currently are loving The Moffatt Girls' beginner writing prompts for every month...they are clear, easy to follow and fun!   

Lunch and recess happen after reading groups.  We are back in the classroom by 11:30.  Before starting math, I read a few pages of a chapter book while students settle down, get drinks, and take turns using the bathroom.  It does take about 10 minutes, but I feel like is time well spent.  Our current read aloud favorite is Charlotte's Web and the kids are mesmerized!  

11:40-12:00  Whole group math- we count straws for the days of school, count Box Tops, and take a look at the calendar and update countdowns for any birthdays/special days coming up.  Then we do a counting cup with a number talk, subitizing practice, or practice our skip counting in a circle.  It just depends.  (Reading Alex's math posts at The Kindergarten Connection has given me so many good ideas for math time!)  My kids love this time.  I review current objectives and focus the lesson, but prefer to spend teacher table time actually teaching the new concepts rather than in whole group.  I just find that it is easier to keep students engaged this way.  I also use this time to introduce any new math games or stations they will be using.  

12:00-12:45 Math group time.  We currently have teacher table, where I teach the new concept using manipulatives, whiteboards, or whatever we need.

My kids really like it when we write on the table too.  :)  Wet-erase markers work great for this!  I will also quickly write names at places if a certain group has trouble finding seats.  :)

I have an independent work table group (worksheet, dry erase, or other activity) and a carpet group (Promethean board game or carpet game) going on during these times as well.  

We have a 10 minute "quiet time" before specials.  I turn off the lights and play classical music.  I tell the kids to rest their brains.  :)  It helps calm and deescalate things before we go to specials. 

1:00-1:45 Specials for the kiddies and planning time for me. 

1:45-2:00 Snack time! 

2:00-2:20 Center time!  I switch some of these out periodically, but right now we have dramatic play (kitchen), blocks, paint, play doh, writing, science, puzzles, reading, and iPad/computers.  Next year I really want to incorporate a sensory center.  I have my kids sign up for these so I can take a glance and make sure everyone is where they are supposed to be, and so that I can make sure kids are getting to different centers rather than always choosing the same one.

2:20-2:30 Clean up time, pack up time, and go home time!  

I usually stay later three out of the five days of the week.  On Mondays I make any final preparations for the week that I need, usually finalizing ideas that I came up with over the weekend.  On Thursdays I make copies and stuff my daily folders for the next week (see below).  Fridays are my "special project" organizing days, creating centers, new spaces, etc.  This is fun for me so I do it on Fridays.  Wednesdays are usually staff meeting days and I try to save Tuesdays to slip out "early" to run afternoon errands or shopping.  At least, in a perfect week, this is how it goes. :)  I get out the next day's folder right before I leave every day.  It just makes me feel better and so prepared to walk out with this on the desk:  

Inside I keep the day's worksheets, homework, any office forms that need to be completed or "to do's" as well as any sticky note reminders. Because...if it's not written down, I'll probably forget it! 

The daily folders are a management tool my mentor teacher showed me while I was in college, and I love this system. 

I finish my day with dinner with my large family and working on my part time online job and my online masters classes. On an ideal evening, I'm also running and reading a few pages of my current book or two.  I try to make it to bed by 10 or 10:30 to start it all over again!