I was super proud of how well my kiddos remembered our arrival routine. I am using numbers on their coat hooks this year because 1. I share my room and it reduces the amount of labels in the cubby area and 2. Using numbers means I don't have to make any changes when kids inevitably move and I receive new students. We use numbers on our iPads, so I figured why not use those same numbers for their backpack hooks and mailboxes. So, given that it's tougher to remember their particular number, I was impressed with how many kiddos actually did remember exactly where to put their backpacks. Yay!
We covered more rules today and read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? I introduced our class bucket and the kiddos were very excited to learn how they can earn recess since we don't typically have recess. They also liked the animated version of Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen that I found online.
And, they were very excited to Tootie Ta. Giggles galore!
I started a teenie tiny toe dip into reading instruction, which will continue to increase little by little until we truly start Journeys curriculum the week after next. Tomorrow I am assigning carpet spots and partners and I am very interested to see how that goes. I spent a long time this afternoon figuring out how to fit all 25 bodies on my carpet and who will work well together. It's tough to know who will click after only knowing the kiddos for two days, but I did my best. I laminated a color printout of the carpet I have and used a Vis a Vis pen so that I can easily change spots and rearrange partners as needed.
The end of day departure routines were a bit more chaotic than I would have liked in terms of getting everything put away, getting backpacks, and lining up in bus groups, but the kiddos did pretty well once we got outside for dismissal. I always line the whole class up on a crack in the sidewalk and dismiss pickups one at a time to make sure I actually make eye contact with parents and release their children to them. Then I take kids to the bus. This year I am the only AM class, so I have really been taking my time with that so the kids stay organized.
I have to turn in my professional goals by Friday so I need to spend some time working on those. There's never enough time during my actual work day. I have been spending between 1.5 and 2 hours everyday after school at home to get caught up. Par for the course I guess. Half time doesn't really mena half time.
Hope everyone is having a great start to the school year!
1 comment:
I used to teach half day K (1 class) so I know how you feel. Other than obviously the opportunity to spend more time with a baby/child, I would never do it again haha. I swear my job barely got harder when we switched to full day, in fact I think it got easier because I was not trying to cram everything in, and my paycheck was better lol.
I'm glad to hear that your kids are leaving the arrival and dismissal routine though. I have only had 1/2 the class each day, so I don't know how they will do all together tomorrow. Yikes!
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