We have had a great first two weeks in kindergarten! A big part of the early weeks at school is learning routines. One of our favorite routines is Morning Drawers. Every morning students put away their things then go to find their morning drawer. These 12 drawers are filled with fun, engaging activities that focus on building fine motor strength. The muscles in our fingers and hands are so important for writing but also for everyday tasks like getting dressed and opening lunch items. So getting to strengthen those muscles through play is a win for students and teachers. The class also works on academic skills like name recognition, patterns, number and letter recognition, and so much more all in the first 15 minutes of the day!
We had so much fun building a garden box for the St. James Gala. A big thank you to my husband for heading up the project! These kids loved getting to use the power drill!
Read alouds are one of my favorite activities in kindergarten. It’s a perfect time for a little rest in the middle of a busy day and the class loves to listen to stories- both new ones and old favorites. Of course we slip in some learning too! We talk about characters, setting, and plot, make predictions, and compare ourselves to the characters. But the best part is just listening to a good story. This week in honor of Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’s birthday we decided to count up all of the stories we’ve read this year. We made it to 100! This isn’t counting the books we read in library or other classes. What an amazing feat! We also had to have our monthly Flashlight Friday this week. So, what good book have you read lately?
One of kindergarten’s favorite celebrations every year is 100 Day. It is quite an accomplishment for these five and six year olds. 100 days of growing mentally, physically, and socially! We geared up for our big day by learning how to count and write to 100. Numbers have patterns and rules just like letters do so these tasks became a lot easier once we learned those. On 100 Day we all dressed up like we were 100 years old! Some students really got into character! We found 100 Hershey’s kisses hidden around our room, counted how far we could get in 100 steps, did 100 exercises, made trail mix with 100 snacks and so much more!
December was a whirlwind of activity in kindergarten. We had a great time with our December morning work drawers, especially learning how to make paper chains for the Christmas tree and cut snowflakes. The wrapping paper station was a big hit too and students were definitely working those finger muscles by cutting paper and tearing tape. We even had some exciting visitors to help make our last week of school so much fun.
