Beginnings~ Part 1

"All beginnings are somewhat strange; but we must have patience, and little by little, we shall find things, which at first were obscure, becoming clearer."
 ~ Vincent De Paul~

Last week we started our first full day of kindergarten in our school district.  Like any new experiment, much preparation went into play.  What would the day look like if you had only one session full day instead of two sessions per day for two and half hours?  How would you fill the hours without over burdening the young child?  Over the summer, the grant from the state of Massachusetts provided inservice workshops for the kindergarten teachers to discuss and wrestle with these questions.

By it's very nature, kindergarten is an educational situation less formal than that of elementary school.  Kindergarten, in the past, has served as a transition from home to the commencement of more formal learning.  Children are taught to develop basic skills through creative play and social interaction.  As a school, we wanted to continue this practice as we moved forward with the concept of an all-day program.  We wanted to keep using songs, stories, games and hands-on manipulatives to develop basic skills.  We wanted to emphasize social interaction and learning through creative play.  We did not want to adopt a more didactic academic instruction.  Come take a peek at our first week of all day kindergarten.


Here we are all lined up to go in the building.



Some of us look happy....and then again, some of us don't!  That will change!



There are 22 children in our class.  There are 17 buses that transport us to and from school.  We wear bus tags with our names on them so we don't get lost.  When we come into the classroom, we go directly to circle so we can do "lunch count"  In kindergarten that means going through everyone's backpack to find out if they have a "ticket" or money for lunch or they brought everything from home.  Last week, it took us an incredible long time to do this....but already, we have managed to get it down to a science.  After putting our backpacks away, we regroup at circle for reading readiness activities.  We learn new songs, we dance, and we read "big books".  We talk about letters and the sounds they make.  We listen to stories and then we "respond" to the literature.  We talk about authors and illustrators.  Literally, we are emerged in literacy.


After reading the big book The Little Red Hen, we looked for patterns with Mrs. Parsons, our teaching assistant. 


Sometimes, we respond to literature by illustrating our favorite part.  Here, Mrs. Staples is helping a young person with writing her name.




At 10 0'clock we go outside for a fifteen minute recess.  When we come in we usually do a whole group math lesson on the floor at circletime. 




We might also "explore" math manipulatives.







Soon enough it's time for LUNCH!










After lunch, we have another recess.





At 12, we come inside and grab our head rests for naptime.  It is time when we are asked to rest our minds for a half hour. 


At 12:30, we have "Free Activity" time......that means we can choose what we wish to do....


We can play in the housekeeping center....


or "construct" with big blocks....or


play trains



or play at the shaving cream table.  There are many things to choose to do during the forty-five minutes.  At 1:15, we have a "Special" everyday....art, physical education or music. 




Then we have snack and just maybe a story before lining up to go home at 2:45.  We have had a long but productive day.  Thank you for spending a "full day in kindergarten" with us.