"A Day in the Life" in Mrs. Evans' Class
Children enter the class and begin to unpack and settle into the day. They hang their things in their cubbies, unpack their folders and place them and any notes in the "For Mrs. Evans" basket by the door. They do their Lunch Count, use the bathroom and begin reading with their friends quietly on the rug. At this time, I go through the notes, take attendance and send our lunch count to the cafeteria. We listen to a Morning Message and prepare for the Pledge of Allegiance. We complete our calendar routines, then gather on the rug for our Morning Meeting.
Morning Meeting: This is the time for us to pass a respectful greeting around the rug and share anything that is new with our friends. Our Morning Meetings are held in order to provide a supportive and caring community within our classroom on a daily basis. They last about 15 minutes.
Language Arts: Our entire morning instructional time is devoted to Language Arts. We use a Balanced Literacy Approach to teach reading,writing, speaking and listening.
Students participate in read alouds, shared reading, guided reading with leveled text, independent reading, and phonics instruction.
In additional children are engaged in modeled writing, shared writing, interactive writing, writers' workshop and independent writing. Literacy Centers are utilized to engage children in all aspects of our Balanced Literacy.
Lunch is from 11:00-12:00. Children have 30 minutes to play at recess, followed by 30 minutes to eat lunch.
Math: In the afternoon we have our Math lessons. We use the Everyday Math Curriculum which incorporates many games, partner activities and manipulatives into our instruction. Math lessons involve much movement, cooperation and application of skills.
PAWS: PAWS is our RTII period. Some days we will have this language arts intervention period in the afternoon. At this time children who need extra support will work in small groups while other children who require less support remain in the classroom to work on developing literacy skills.
We have our special area classes from 1:00-1:40. (Monday ~ Art; Tuesday ~ Gym; Wednesday ~ Library; Thursday ~Music; Friday ~ Technology)
We have a period of recess, snack and independent quiet reading time. During this quiet time, the children are able to rest, read or write independently while I conduct additional Guided Reading groups.
After our quiet time, we have a lesson in Social Studies or Science. Science is a time of investigations with our FOSS Program. The main focus of our Science in Kindergarten are Trees and Animals Two by Two, however we introduce many other topics as well. The focus of our Social Studies lessons is communities. We will be learning about communities close to home and around the world.
Then we end our day together with a wrap up of activities and a story. We shake hands each day as we leave and wish each other a good evening.
Homework: Children will bring home a green communication folder each night. I ask that you empty the folder every evening and discuss the work your child did during the day. You can place anything that must be handed into school in this folder. I will check it first thing in the morning. Most days your child will bring home a "Book in a Bag". Children have read this book in school with an adult and are bringing it home to read several times to build fluency. Please fill out the log sheet for every book and return it the following day.