The Year Has Begun!

Oh my, oh my, oh my! Our first week of kindergarten is over and our second week is about to begin. The kiddos did so well adjusting to a longer day full of big kid expectations. I for one came home every night exhausted, so I'm guessing my little ones did too.

To start the week off, we all reviewed the rules and expectations of our classroom. We have four rules that we follow and respect.

1. Keep hands, feet, and other objects to yourself.
2. Raise your hand to talk.
3. Listen and follow directions.
4.  Walk quietly inside of school.

All three kindergarten teachers have the same four rules for inside of the school. We also have recess rules, these are very similar, but there are some details about swinging and sliding on their bottoms, as well as keeping rocks and sticks on the ground. All in all, we want our kiddos to be as safe as possible so that they can learn and thrive in school.

Along with our rules we also started our Clip Chart on Tuesday.  Kennedy is a PBS school, which stands for "Positive Behavior Supports" and this means that teachers and staff focus on the positive doings of kids, rather than the negative. In my room I use our Clip Chart to encourage the kiddos to do the right thing first and then I reward them just for that! Every day the kiddos clips start on green (Ready to Learn). As the day progresses they aim to get to the top, which is red for OUTSTANDING! This week all of the kids were above green and were simply rockstars.

Red = Outstanding

Orange = Great Day

Yellow = Good Job

Green = Ready to Learn

Blue = Think About It

Purple = Teacher’s Choice

Gray = Parent Contact

Along with practicing routines and procedures we also learned two letters!, We started with the letter "P" and the character Polly Panda. Polly has her own story and song. We glued popcorn kernals onto purple p's and found words that start with "P" using our SMARTboard.

On Thursday we met Uncle Upton, who stands for the letter "U." Uncle Upton loves onion soup and he is an umpire, so we talked about our favorite sport and read "Curious George Plays Baseball." Friday we read the book "Aliens in Underpants Save the World." It was hilarious and really got the kids engaged. After reading the book we colored paper underwear and I strung it up around the room!

Please continue to send those BEE books and snacks! We appreciate all the help that we can get!