Our Pre-K class is off to a great start! The children are quickly adjusting to the routine and are showing excitement towards their new schedule.  We have used the first two weeks of school to learn our routine, rules, and responsibilities.  During our initial meetings, we created our classroom rules as a group and signed our names.  Our rules will hang on the back of our door all year, and we will revisit them as necessary.

I am happy to report that our literacy work stations are a huge success!  The children are able to follow our work station chart and manage their centers independently, which allows extra time for small groups and individualization.  Now that the children are mastering how to read our station chart, where the stations are, what materials are available, and how to use those materials properly, we will continue to add new items to our centers!

During writer’s workshop, we discussed what it means to be an author.  The children were eager to sing our author and illustrator songs, which explains  that the author writes the words and the illustrators draw the pictures.  We discussed that authors write about what they know and are interested in.  They were even more excited to learn that each one of us will become an author in our class this year. As we move forward, we will begin writing a class book.  This will allow students to develop a better understanding of the writing process before they begin to write independently.

In our math workshop, we have been playing games to reinforce many basic concepts, such as colors, shapes, positional words, and identifying various attributes.  When children are able to build on what they know, it is much easer to gain a deeper understanding of new concepts.  As the class masters these games, they will move from math workshop into our work stations for continued practice!  One of the class favorites was “the hidden cube.”  Each child was assigned a colored unifix cube.  I hid them in various places throughout the room.  Then, they were each given clues that used positional words (far away from the cubbies, behind a tissue box, in the art center, etc.) to begin their search.  This activity was a huge hit!  Try hiding a certain item and giving clues for your child at home, in the car, wherever!  We will continue to work on these initial concepts before we begin work on patterns.

This year, I am participating in a research project that is approved by the Ohio Department of Education and being run by The Ohio State University.  The study is focusing on intentional teaching for children in preschool who will be entering kindergarten next year.  Our class fits these qualifications perfectly!  On Friday, each child received a consent packet.  This packet needs to be returned by Friday, September 14.  Whether you are granting or denying consent for your child to be part of this study, the packet still needs to be returned!!  Thank you in advance for your help!