The posts that are going to be used for this journal are going to be titled by the date that I spent in the classroom. For example, if I had written this post on Thursday like I was supposed to, it would be titled: "Thursday, January 19th." These might not always be very in depth, as I'm just supposed to write about what I did that day; and let's be honest, although every day in a kindergarten class is quite the adventure, some are more distinguishable than others.
Thursday's are my more mellow days in Room Three. It's the day that most of the ELD students spend the morning in Room 4 with all of the other kindergarten ELD students doing language enrichment activities, so our class size is about 18 instead of the usual 27 (Yes, you did the math right, we have 9 ELD students in our room). So I spend the first hour/hour and a half doing classroom prep work with Mrs. B. before the kids come in at 8:45, filling papers in their Friday folders, and prepping activities that the kids will be doing later in the semester (this last week I was cutting out 100 masks for the 100th day of school - hence the sliced finger).
After the morning routine including singing the weekly song, talking about the letter of the week, and completing the calendar activities, they all go to the library. This Thursday, they all got their last sticker on their school library card, which means they are now able to borrow books to take home. They are all very excited about this new responsibility - it was all they talked about all week ("Miss Downing, guess what?! This week I get my third sticker and that means I can borrow books to take to my house!"). While they are gone I finish up all my quiet work and set up the classroom for Reading Workshops that we start when they come back.
I lead a group of about 6 for a "I Can Read" type book - a lot of repetitive sentences and high frequency words (can, like, have, my, etc.) and pictures that match the words. This week's main book was "Objects All Around." It was describing that pretty much anything is considered and object; we would read a page together and discuss the picture for comprehension purposes. Some words were a little difficult for them, especially for the ones who haven't quite mastered the art of sounding out a word. It's challenging in a setting like that to get the fast readers to slow down and stay with the group - they're so eager to get through as quickly as they can. I think the point of slowing them down is to make sure they are understanding what they read; but possibly also to help the slower learners gain some confidence. I've played around with having each student read their own page with my help - I kind of like that better so far. That way, when a slower reader has trouble with a word on their page, a quicker reader can help them with the tricky words.
The hardest part is keeping them focused. They see something that reminds them of a story or something that happened in their life and they want to tell you all about it; I want to listen because I think their abilities to communicate are a vital part of their education, but when there are certain things that have to get done, it's hard to take the time to deviate to listen to them. They all just want so much attention all the time, but more often than not, I have to remind them to save their stories to tell me at recess (and of course, it's usually long forgotten by then). And if their own stories aren't enough of a distraction, some of them just get so silly when they get to do small group activities with me! I haven't quite figured out why that is, but I'm hoping the more we do it, the more they will see that Reading Workshop is a time to focus on reading, not on trying to make Miss Downing think you're funny.
After Reading Workshop, the ELD students return and we go to recess where I open snacks, tie shoes, break up arguments, and hear stories about everything I've missed in their lives. You see personalities so much more at recess.
Quiet time to finish unfinished work comes after recess and then they head off to the computer lab - I usually go with them to help with log-ins for the students that aren't great at number/letter recognition yet. This Thursday they had to take a little Fruits/Vegetables survey that big buddies helped them with, but normally they do a reading and/or math program that is supposed to be supplemental to classroom activities. Once they are all there and logged in, I jet off and head back to school for Spanish class.
Well this ended up being significantly longer than I planned on, but well...there ya have it! I'm going to make some solid attempts to start writing the afternoon after I'm at Room Three, instead of days later. But expect other posts in between that...not related to my actual classroom time. :)
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