Welcome!

Hello family and friends!

Welcome to our classroom blog! This will be a place where you can read about our weekly happenings and see pictures of what we've been up to at school. I hope you will be encouraged by what you read each week as you watch us learn and grow.

This first week has been wonderful as we have welcomed both old and new CJDS friends into our classroom family. I have been amazed at how quickly everyone is already adjusting to our new routine. Everyone seems to be getting along well and we've already seen some new friendships starting to blossom. For this first week, we really wanted the kids to take ownership of their classroom. We want them to feel that this classroom is their area to learn and explore. We want it to be a place where they feel comfortable and welcomed.  We've been working a lot on getting used to our routine and schedule. We make a special effort to keep our schedule flexible. This means that we cater to the needs of each child. If your child is hungry and it's not snack time, they can still eat. If it's rest time and they don't want to nap, we allow them to work on activities while others rest. We want our classroom to be driven by the children and their individual needs. You'll also notice that our schedule may seem to include a lot of overlapping. For example, our schedule may read "centers/workshops/small groups" instead of separating them. This flexibility allows us to let the children work at their own pace and when they feel most comfortable. We believe that children learn through play so we never want to take them away from a meaningful play experience!

To start off our week, we spent time getting to know one another, building a foundation of how our daily routines will run, and exploring different materials in our classroom. We have slowly introduced the students to one or two new routines each day. One of the first things we introduced was "Morning Meeting". This could very easily be my favorite part of the day! This is a time where we all sit down as a class to greet one another, share news/stories, read our daily morning message, sing songs, and read together. This is a great way to transition from home to school, as well as welcome the kids and set the tone for the rest of our day. It develops a sense of community that creates trust, confidence, and inclusion.

We have also spent a large part of the week exploring centers. Each day we would go to a different center as a class. We spent this time talking about what could be done in that center, what we were learning through our play, as well as appropriate ways to use the materials in the center. This is a guided discovery where we introduce and model the work that can be done and then allow the kids to explore. After exploring a center together, we let the kids branch out and explore the room on their own. There are countless ways to experience math, language, science, and socialization during center time. For example, some children sat down with counting bears and started to make patterns. They began counting and comparing the size of the bears. As they did this, they grouped them into like categories. They were working through the process together. In a matter of minutes, we were able to informally assess math and science concepts, their socialization with one another, as well as their verbal language. This is just one great example of learning that takes place through play!

We also spent time this week making our class sign and our new sign in system. Our class name is "Tzemach" which means "plant". We talked about the meaning and spelling of our class name and then let the kids decorate some wooden letters to spell it out. We also started making a sign in system. We wanted to give the kids a way to sign themselves in but we also wanted them to be involved in the planning process. We decided to make small popsicle stick people that they can move into a "here" pocket. The kids looked in mirrors as they drew their faces and bodies. Next week, we will finish this by allowing the kids to decorate their own "here" pocket. Once it's completed, the children will have their own handmade popsicle person to move into their very own "here" pocket. We will hang these in the hallway so that the kids can make themselves present as they enter into the classroom.

Next week, we will be adding some workshop times into our classroom schedule. Throughout the week we will be doing workshops on math, reading, and writing. These workshop times will involve concepts such as math games, introductions to books and other forms of literacy, and introductions to writing/drawing journals. You'll hear much more about this in later blog posts but I did want to give you some insight into what we will be focusing on throughout the rest of the year. I feel confident that we will be in full swing in no time!

Each week in my post, I will be listing different standards we met throughout the week. These will be just a handful of the many standards we cover each week. It's amazing how much we learn through exploration and play! I think you'll be encouraged to see so many standards that are met in just one week. I will use the same language listed on the standards so you have a clear explanation of what was done. If you ever have any questions about them, please just let me know. The standards will fall into one of four categories: 1) Approaches to Learning 2) Social & Emotional 3) Language and Literacy 4) Mathematics. You'll see some of this week's standards listed below.

I'm also flooding you with pictures this week! I know the first week can be difficult for parents as they know their little ones are facing a new environment with new teachers. I hope these pictures capture how much fun we've been having this week!

We are looking forward to a wonderful school year! I'm excited to see just how much your sweet ones learn and grow in the next 9 months! As always, feel free to call, write, or stop by with any questions or concerns you may have. I hope everyone is ready for week 2 and enjoys their weekend!

Love,

Ms. Rachael


Approaches to Learning:

• Show curiosity in an increasing variety of activities, tasks, and learning centers.
• Demonstrate growing initiative in selecting and carrying out activities.
• Show ability to focus attention for increasing variety of chosen task and activities for short periods of time (10-20 minutes).

Social & Emotional:

• Describe characteristics of self and others.
• Use classroom materials responsibly, most of the time.
• Develop friendship with one or two preferred children.

Language and Literacy:

• Make relevant comments or appropriate responses to story events or characters.
• Participate in choral speaking of poems, songs, and stories with repeated patterns.
• Creates a picture and labels it orally.

Mathematics:

• Use emergent mathematical knowledge as a problem-solving tool.
• Classify objects in their environment by color, shape, size or function.
• Begin to show an awareness of numbers in the environment.

It's our first day of Pre-K4!...

Center explorations...

Decorating our class name...

Enjoying lunch with new friends...

Drawing self portraits for our "here" pockets...

 We love playing outside!...