Where To Begin

Since it is the holiday break, I am finding time to actually write in this blog. I am not sure where to begin with my kindergarten news because it is the middle of the school year; however, I thought that it would be best to write about some of the things that I will be working on when I return to school. Of course, in kindergarten it will feel like the first day of school all over again when we return to school, but I believe that the kids will adapt quickly (fingers crossed).

I currently have 20 children in my classroom. There are 14 boys and 6 girls, so that is a little bit of a challenge in itself. Luckily, most of my boys are older, and they seem more mature than what I originally expected. I believe that I cried when I originally saw my class list way back in August! Overall, the children are a great group, and they add many creative thoughts and ideas to our class discussions. I have found that some of the girls are starting to play with the boys during play time, and they are really getting along. I tried to encourage this earlier in the year, but some of the girls only wanted to play with the other girls (which was extremely limited). In order to build relationships, I switch the seats daily. What I mean is that when the children come into the classroom, I place their namecards in a different location every day. Part of the child's job is to find their own name and work quietly at their seat. I try to mix up the boys and the girls, but that has been very challenging this year. Over time I learn what children work really well together and what children to not. In my class there are a few personality clashes, and I am trying to help those children problem solve or ignore each other during work experiences! Overall, this has been helping the boys and girls build relationshis; therefore, they are choosing to play together more often!

When I return to school I have some goals in mind: create guided reading groups, assess all of the children in my classroom (using MLPP and Fountas and Pinnell), decorate the classroom with winter pictures (right now it is mostly holiday stuff), and create new math and literacy groups (these are groups of 4 children). I am hoping to have 2 sets of guided reading groups: one leveled, one not. I believe that the children can learn a lot from each other, which is why I think that a mixed level will work. We shall see! If you have any creative ways that you run guided reading groups, I would love to know. :o)