Kindergarten

A Kindergartener’s day is a very full one, complete with many learning and socializing opportunities.  Routine is very important, so below is a sample of what we do on a typical day in our wonderful “Mouse House!”

Chapel (all school): Whether it’s an inspiring message on Monday or Tuesday, fun songs on Wednesday or Friday, or Thursday’s Eucharist celebration, we love being together and sitting with our 5^th grade Buddies.  

Morning Meeting: We begin every day with a fun welcome song.  The Smart Board guides us through our daily routine of reading and writing enrichment that includes choosing a leader, setting the date, reviewing our daily schedule, writing a sight word sentence, and reading a morning message that introduces us to our lesson of the day.

Language Arts~Morning Groups: Diving into small work groups allows for more individualized, guided practice with reading (decodable, leveled readers), phonics review, and Journal writing.

Snack & Recess (20 min.): We love being “big enough” to join the 1^st-3^rd graders on the playground.

Math: Once again the Smart Board leads us through a Math Meeting with counting songs, recording the days of school (emphasis on the base-10 system and place value), and skills reviews.  Daily math lessons (Singapore Math) are taught through a variety of methods including concrete hands-on manipulatives, the Smart Board, pictorial clues, or games, and are practiced in take-home booklets.

Lunch & Recess (40 min.): Being able to eat lunch and have recess time with our older friends allows for wonderful sharing of conversation and play.

Shared Reading: Whether it’s listening to a book about our current theme, reading our own work out loud to our friends, or hearing what happened in the next chapter of a Magic Tree House book, Shared Reading is always a favorite time.

Rest: Kindergarteners are hard workers, so a resting time is incorporated into every day.  Rest doesn’t necessarily mean sleep time, but instead just a chance to be still and quiet while looking at books.  Rest time also provides another daily opportunity for extra independent skills review or for working on smaller projects.  As the year progresses, the amount of down-time each day decreases.  

Centers: Center time is work disguised as fun!  Centers, two teacher-guided and four independent, are theme-based and review skills and previously taught concepts with fun and engaging activities.

Afternoon Meeting:  We spend the last few minutes of every day reviewing all of the events that happened.  On Fridays it’s fun to be able to take home the complete list of our weekly Mouse Chatter!

Specials: We are so lucky to visit our “Specials” teachers throughout the week:

• Spanish & P.E. (twice weekly)
• Music, Library, Art, Religion, & Science (once weekly in split groups)

Buddy Time: We always look forward to getting together with our 5^th Grade Buddies after Chapel on Fridays.  Making gingerbread houses, going on a scavenger hunt, conducting interviews, completing measurement surveys, and reading are only a few of our favorite activities that we do with them throughout the year.