Thursday, August 15, 2013

First week exploration

Tomorrow is the end of the first week of school! Other than being TOTALLY exhausted, it's been a great week. I have a smart, sweet group who are quickly learning the ropes of kindergarten. Even though I'm very excited to work with this new batch of kiddos, I always forget how totally nonexistent their attention span is at the beginning of the year!!

To battle this, we do a lot of "room exploration" the first week of school. My students think it's play time, but really:
     1. They are learning how to use all of the materials in the classroom
     2. I am assessing what they can and can't do
     3. I'm getting a look at how they interact with others

Isn't that sneaky of me to add such productive things to playtime??

Anyway, I start exploring time by putting a different tub of math manipulatives on each table. Students had about 7 minutes to play with explore each tub. Then I rotate the tubs to the next table (The first week of kindergarten, I definitely believe in rotating the stuff, not the students). We continued until everyone has a turn.

I also did rotations with color word activities. We read books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes and talked about the color words. Then we had 3 stations:


Group 1

Group 1 had a choice: Write their color words on the white board or use cards to spell color words. I was amazed at how well the majority of my students could form their letters!


 
Group 2

Group 2 used playdoh letters to spell color words. The cards are from KinderKids'fantastic Brown Bear, Brown Bear Unit on TPT.


 
Group 3

Group 3 used magnet letters to spell their color words. This really gave me insight into who could recognize letters and realize that letters are used to make words. I also meant to get the wikki sticks out for them to use, but I forgot. Oops! That will be an adventure for another day.

All and all, the room exploring was a big hit! Now it's time to walk my poor dog who must be wondering why she's all alone during the day now. Poor baby!



3 comments:

  1. Looks like your first week back is going well. I LOVE your new button and need to change it out on my page. It's bedtime now, though! Enjoy your last day of the first week!

    Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late
    Follow me on Bloglovin!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It sounds like your first week went well! I always feel bad leaving my pup when it's time to head back to school!!

    Sarah
    A Sunny Day in First Grade

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations on making it through week 1! We start after Labor Day, but that first few days is always sooooo tiring!!!

    Lindsey at Forever First Grade

    ReplyDelete