Classroom Pictures and Procedures

The children and I create the classroom rules and role play them to check for understanding.  We then illustrate and display their rules.  Mrs. Merrill and I take time at the beginning of the year to walk the children around the playground and practice the playground rules.  You can be consistent at home with your rules and encourage your child to help you to make the rules.

As the children enter the room they hang their things up on their assigned hooks (coats above and backpacks below), change their baggy books, bring money and notes from home (in their blue folders) to the carpet and sit quietly while we attend to these issues.  Each child's notes are posted by them on a cork board where they can refer to it as needed during the day.  The children are often comforted by seeing their notes posted. Red folders go home on Fridays and are returned on Mondays.  You can have your child write you notes and post them.  You can write notes to your child and post them at home.                                     

Each morning after taking attendance and bus notes we pledge the flag and begin our daily opening exercises.  Children mark the calendar, the weather pie graph, move the thermometer accordingly, insert a  penny or trade 10 pennies for a dime and record place value for the day after marking the 100's chart.  We discuss patterns in all of these numbers and individually record the information in our calendar folders.  You can ask, "How many Thursdays were there in this month?"  "How many tens and ones are there in 72?"  "How many sunny days were there this month?  How many more sunny days than windy?"  You can read the thermometer with your child.  You can listen to the weather on the television, computer or radio.  You can predict what will happen with the weather, temperature and calendar next month.  You can talk about which month of the year your child was born in and which month is cold or warm.  Notice with your child patterns on the calendar and record them for your child to read later.  Below is one such recording of what the children noticed about our calendar and a page from a child's recording of his/her personal comments on the month as well as his/her prediction for the following month. 

We also read a written message each morning,   This message contains a greeting, a statement of plans for the day, the calendar information and a math question for the children.  We read it together noticing the friendly letter format.  Each punctuation mark is accompanied by a gesture (exclamation mark - hands up over head).  In this letter there is usually a question that the children answer with a tally mark.  There is usually a mini-lesson derived from this letter immediately following.  It might be a work family, ight, ake, etc. or a math lesson.   You can write notes to your children, have relatives write letters and help your child write in return, send emails to friends with your children. 

The children then sing a song together and practice counting by 1's,  2's, 5's, or 10's while moving their bodies in rhythm with numbers said or words sung.  We share a piece of literature related to our current theme.  Discussion about the literature ensues and often we relate personal experiences to the theme or book.  I then present directions and model completion of two of the four tasks that will be expected from the children that week.   These will be accomplished at center time.  Center time is a time when the children work cooperatively to accomplish their tasks in small groups.  Sometimes there is one task for them to do and other times each child is responsible for completing their own task with the help of other children in the group who are working on the same task.  Often there are parents or other teachers assisting with these groups.  You can notice how your children follow directions and slowly increase from one direction to multi step directions.  You can practice the skills found on the math page of this site with your child.  You can discuss the books you read with your child and ask them to share what they think or what the book reminds them about.  You can draw or write about a book read together.  You can write a sentence on a strip of paper, cut each word out, have your child mix the words up and re-order them.  Below is such a mix and fix sentence with a painting to illustrate the meaning.

Once the directions have been given for these two centers, the children move from the carpet to their seats at tables after collecting their healthy snacks, calendar folders and diaries.  They eat while chatting and completing their individual calendar work, recording the days temperature, weather, calendar and number chart.  Each child then writes in their diaries (this can be a topic given by the teacher or child generated).  You can discuss healthy bodies and what keeps them healthy.  You can keep the snacks simple and quick for school.  You can write a number each day with your child to create a number line. 

Snack lasts 15 minutes.  We clean the tables, floor, put away our things and meet back at the carpet.  Another related piece of literature is read and a mini-lesson is taught.  The children listen to the directions for the final two centers and begin working in centers after a quick review of the process.  While centers are being completed, I usually work with the children, reading  and writing in groups, one on one, with assessments or with a difficult center.  This is a time that Mrs.or Mrs. Hardy takes children to read as well. Parent volunteers also work with children in centers as well as with our volunteer reading program.  The volunteer reading program is held in the hall at one of the tables where the children will be less distracted.  Each child reads a book that they have selected to a parent while the parent records important information about their reading process.  Together they select a second book which is either taken home as a baggy book or read.  We work on language arts integrated with other disciplines until 11:00 when we prepare for lunch by cleaning our work areas, washing, dressing for recess and hopefully finding our lunch tickets.  At 11:10 lunch begins.  You can read with your child and your child's friends at school.  You can build confidence in children by being specific in your praise of them while they are reading; "I noticed you looked at the pictures to help yourself figure out what that said."  You can read with or to your child every day. You can encourage your child to try new things independently.

The children come in from recess at 12:15 and begin D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read).  They read to and/or  look at books with a friend for about ten minutes (more or less, depending on their maturity).  All of our specials are in the afternoon.  We work on writing, social studies, cooking, performing arts, math, and health in the afternoon in addition to what we do with these integrated subjects in the morning.