March 2004...
Maria Prencipe's KindergartenPast Features:
November | February 2002 | March 2004 | May 2004 |You will love this kindergarten. Maria is young and enthusiastic and has some great ideas. I love watching her big beautiful smile when she is with the children and I am sure that they love her. Here are some pictures of her class for you too look at. I have also included a copy of Maria's notes on Opening Exercises with the children. Check it out on the downloads page
In these two photos, you can see that Maria has the children sign in each day when they arrive at school. What a great way for the children to practise writing their names and what a great way to track their progress. I also love her little chart with the 5 carpet rules. The little diagrams make it easier for them to associate with the words. I can just imagine that half-way through the year Maria can remove the pictures and the children will read the sentences. Then she can mix them up and watch the fun!!! It is always fascinating to see how many children will be able to read it in June. It is also fun to see the importance of a literacy laced classroom!
In this picture you can see all the wonderful things that Maria does with her class at the beginning of the day. On the cookie sheet she has dimes and pennies to show the ones and the tens. You can also see the same ones and tens in the straws in the jars. What a wonderful way to teach place value. The children at this young age are seeing the concrete materials but have no idea what an important concept they are learning for the future. Adding and subracting double digits will come easily for these children when they reach the higher grades! I love how you can see her Weather Graph and her Number Graph in the background. Lots of learning is going on in this classroom, that is for sure.
These pictures give us a good idea of how exciting Maria's classroom is. When the children arrive, they sit by their names. Take a long look at all the exciting and educational items on the learning wall. Thank you so much Maria for sharing your ideas with us.
Maria prepared some notes about the beginning of each day. I am sure that you will find these very helpful in planning the start of your day.
Welcome to Room 1 Mrs. Prencipe’s JK/SK
Afternoon Class at Baycrest P.S.
Classroom entrance and routines:
• When the students enter they will first sign their names in the “Sign in Book”.
• Next, they will find their own name card. The cards are set around in a large circle formation on the carpet. Once they have found their name, the children are to place the card in the basket (that is in the middle of the carpet), pick up a Level 1 or Level 2 book and return to their spot and read. The assistant and myself will then go around and read with them.
• Once this is done, I ask them to stand and leave their books in front of them and sing O’Canada. After O’Canada, I collect the books and the children sit down.
• Once they are all seated I choose a Special Helper. There is a list behind the rocking chair with all the names and it lets me know who is next. The special helper wears a medal and helps put away the books, name basket and take the attendance down to the office for me. They also get to sit in the Special Helper Rocking Chair and play at water play (this way everyone gets a turn at water play and it is one persons responsibility a day to tidy it up).
• Once the Special Helper returns from the office, I will read the afternoon message (this let’s them know what we will be doing today) and then the Special Helper will assist me with the Calendar.
1st. Sing the days of the Week song:
Sunday Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday Friday, Saturday
Sunday Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday Friday, Saturday
There are 7 days, there are 7 days, there are 7 days in the week
There are 7 days, there are 7 days, there are 7 days in the week
2nd. Next read the Months of the Year chart using a clapping beat.
3rd. Count the numbers on the large calendar and place the next number in the pocket (this is an opportunity even to integrate patterning).
4th. Complete the smaller calendar and orally say
Today is______________
Yesterday was_____________
Tomorrow will be_________________
5th. Next we sing the Weather Lady/Man song.
What does the Weather Lady/Man, What does the Weather Lady/Man, What does the Weather Lady/Man say today?
What does the Weather Lady/Man, What does the Weather Lady/Man, What does the Weather Lady/Man say today?
Is it Sunny?
Is it Rainy?
Is it Windy?
Is it Cloudy?
Is it Foggy?
Is it Snowy?
The Special Helper tells the class the weather and then she/he will colour in the weather graph.
6th. Next, we all count how many days we have been in school and figure out what comes next. You can use a hundreds chart or just cut out long strips of paper and write the numbers. We count to 100 Days of school. Then we move over to the “penny pizza tray” and place the right amount of pennies to correspond to the number of days at school; and the Special Helper adds 1 more penny. Next, we count the straws in the ones and tens jar and add 1 more straw in the ones jar.
7th. You are now done and the Special Helper can sit in the rocking chair as you complete the lesson and then get the students working and going to centers.
Classroom Rules:
Carpet rules:
1. Legs are crossed
2. Hands in your lap
3. No talking
4. Eyes on the teacher
5. Good listening ears
“You make it you break it”
We use the Tribes Agreements at our school. I really like to use “no put-downs”.
Pick up children list:
There is a copy in the Supply Teacher binder and I have one posted on the wall by our coatroom entrance. It is easy for yourself and anyone in your room that day to see who is going to daycare and who is being picked up to go home. I also have any student ALLERGIES posted there too.
Assessment
• Personal File – I have a file for each student and I place certain samples of their work in this file that I share with the parent at interview time.
• My Observation File – I have Post-it-notes along with the students names and I try to observe once a week what they are doing at centers.
• Checklists – Monthly
• My own Assessment tool, Letter Identification, Concepts About Print, DRA (Spring)
Resources
• Letterland – But in addition I do a lot of Letter Id. Games and songs.
• Joanne Sleightholm’s (retired Kindergarten Teacher from Armour) fantastic web site: kindergartenconsultant.com This site links to many of my other favourite sites like
www.kinderkorner.com
www.janbrett.com
www.starfall.com
www.atozteacherstuff.com
www.beginningreading.com
I think you can easily see why I wanted to feature Maria as one of the Kindergartens that you would love to see. If you ever want to ask her any questions, you can just email me and I will put you in touch with her. Have fun visiting her classroom.
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