Yesterday, my last 2 students finished up their apple learning centers.  I packed them away for next year (excited that I now have 3 centers ready to go - no make that 4!!!).  My November centers are out and ready to go on Monday.  The class is already excited about them.  They are really getting into centers.
K-5 was so excited when they walked into the room on Friday!  They kept pointing and saying "Look!" at all the new things they saw.  We had to spend some time sharing what new things they had found.
This is going to be a busy week-end with lesson plans and report cards.  Help!

I am so glad that I read The Daily Five this summer.  I learned so much about taking the beginning of the year to train your class how to do things.  We have been working on fine motor skills and centers.  The class has become very independent.
We have started our second unit, "Apples" by Kindergarten Smiles.  Wow!  What a difference from our first unit.  They are working independently and getting them right!  Copying words is becoming much easier for most of them.  They love centers where they use the clipboards.  Markers are always a hit.
I'm still trying to figure out the book "bags."  I'm sure it will be much easier when I have more than one reader.  Right now they just tell the story by the pictures and retell the story.

Well, we have finished our first unit.  We did Kindergarten Smiles, Back-to-School Monster unit.  The class enjoyed all the cutting and gluing.  They really needed the practice.  They love centers that require clipboards.  They also enjoy markers.  When I introduced the last two centers, dice and spinners involved, they became the favorites.  What neat skills to learn!
This week we started An Apple Unit.

We finished our first full week of school.  Friday, I introduced centers for the first time.  They were very excited, and most of them did a fantastic job!  Write the Room was the favorite choice!! 
Our school does Open House before school begins to get the students acclimated to the room and Back-to-School Night for the parents about a week after school begins.  It's a lot to plan for, but it seems to work well on both fronts!  The students had 2 books finished to give to their parents for Back-to-School.  Both were from Kindergarten Smiles:  Monster Rules and I See Monsters (color words).
We're having a great start to kindergarten!

Getting started

I'm starting this Blog so I can blog with other Kindergarten teachers.