What Are you Teaching? August 8

Hello friends! It has been awhile since I've had a planning post but let me tell you...I have been doing a lot of planning today! The beginning of the year can go that way sometimes! You would think a half day program would require half of the planning but somehow it just doesn't! I think I just spent 5+ hours in my classroom. I promise I don't do that every week!

Here's a quick glimpse at our plans as of now. I will let you know how it goes!

Morning Work: It's Week 1! Here is a little peek at what our morning work looks like. The key is that it is consistent so students can complete it independently. This gives me a chance to take attendance, check notes, and get my head straight. 

Centers: This week is all about ABC Centers. I will introduce Cut & Glue, Listening Station, and Write the Room a little later but right now I want to get our procedures down for choosing a center. I make all of our centers super easy with lots of hands on stuff to use to manipulate the alphabet. I will continue to add to this until eventually it becomes our Word Center. 

Writer's Workshop: We are handing out notebooks on Monday! I decided not to wait so long this year. Last year I waited about 2 weeks as I have always done but I am trying a little earlier this year. We will see if that works! All of the mini-lessons I have listed are from Jessica Meacham's site.  

Math: Guiding Kinders. I love starting all over again. We did the first couple of days last week so we are already on day 3. Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills did such a fantastic job on these units and not they are revamping them. I can't wait to see them all when they are finished! 

Wacky Wednesday: We have a weird day on Wednesday because we get out early and we have dubbed it our "Wacky" day. I use this day to teach some of our additional units because with half day kinder, well....there is just never enough time! This month we are talking All About Families as part of our IB Who We Are unit. I can't wait to get this started! 

That's that! We had a terrific first couple of days and we already completed our first fun art project for the year. We make these each year and when I say "we" I mean our awesome extension teacher completed these with them. We keep them up in the hallway all year because they are so much fun. I am thankful to my mentor teacher for showing me these so many years ago!

That's a lot for the first full week! Remember this is a half day program so we do all of this and then I start all over again at lunch time. I won't lie, it is exhausting but super fulfilling at the same time! If you want to save this post for later pin it here.