I have linked up with Teaching with Z for a linky party about the first day of Kindergarten. I have to admit that this is only my 2nd year teaching Kindergarten, so my plans are not to MY level of expectation yet...but they are coming along. So...on the to the things that I have planned for our first day...so far.
As students arrive, our grade level has a color sheet that all students are given to color. It includes the date and our school name. It is really cute...and made with DJ Inkers clip art (link posted below). Generally, parents walk their precious little ones in on the first day of school and we (the teachers) are caught in what I call doorway conferences.
After we send the parents off to the BooHoo Breakfast, we get down to the fun with the kiddos. I start by welcoming the students with several welcome songs inviting them to the carpet area. We always sing "Good Morning" (I think it is Greg and Steve). As that ends, we sit down and spend some time discussing our carpet rules. We also go over "Our Promise to Each Other" and talk about classroom rules. Because I believe in keeping the students interested, we get up and sing again...this time Dr. Jean's "Hello, Neighbor", along with a couple of other songs...maybe even an alphabet song/video (from HaveFunTeaching).
After a couple of songs, I read "First Day Jitters" to the students. We complete an extension activity about why or what they were most scared about before coming to school. This year, I am also going to serve Jitter Juice (Hawaiian Punch and Sprite)...found this on Pinterest! (Gotta love Pinterest)!
We do lots of walking in the halls the first week of school. This is mainly to get the students accustom to where everything is as well as how to walk in the halls. So, we will take a school tour, and learn how to go through the lunch line as well as find our lunch table. We will discuss lunchroom behavior while in the lunchroom.
We also teach our students how to use their supplies during the first week of school. The first day is the use of their crayons. I found a really cool coloring expectations chart on Pinterest (click on the pic below to find it on Pinterest) this summer, so I will be creating my own to use in my classroom. We also teach our students that they must use at least the same number of colors as they are old...so, if you are 5, you need to use 5 different colors in your picture.
We also do our first day of Calendar Math (on the SmartBoard only). We will get into the students recording Calendar Math in September. However, this year I am starting Number of the Day...and the students will help and record this activity on their own.
Our (the teachers) main goals the first couple days of school are to make sure we get the student's fed and back home the correct way. If we accomplish anything else we find ourselves on cloud 9!!! It's like herding cats some days in Kindergarten...especially the first few! Hope this is helpful to someone!
sorry it is not editable...I am just learning some of this stuff!
Have a great first day...whenever yours arrives!
Jen
2 comments:
Hey Jennifer! Thanks for linking up...this is a great post!!!!:) I just wanted to let you know that your link is not working (from the linky party page). I could only get to your page by clicking on your comment. I think you can delete the faulty link and try it again. Let me know if you are having troubles:)
~Rachel
Teaching with Z
Thanks for letting me know! I fixed it a while back, but was not able to remove the number 8 link...so I just added a new link that should take you to my blog.
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