Hello, everyone!  This week I am going to tell you what my lesson plans were for the first week of Kindergarten.  Each week, my lesson plans will be aligned with the free Pacing Guide that I posted a few years ago and have been updating yearly.  I hope that will find this post useful, particularly those of you that are new to Kindergarten!

 

When you look at my lesson plans, keep in mind that we are on a half day kindergarten schedule for the first four weeks, from 8:15 – 11:35.  After that, we teach from 8:15 – 1:20 until the end of the second trimester at the end of March.  Then, during the last trimester, the children stay for a full day, from 8:15 – 2:15.

This is just the first two weeks of my Pacing Guide, but if you check it against my lesson plans, you can see that I am teaching the same concepts this week that are on it. 

So here we go!  I’ll include links to other blog posts or my web page if there is more information  available by clicking on the link.

 

Monday:  First Day of Kindergarten!

1.  Attendance and Flag Salute

2.  Calendar
This daily activity includes: identify the month, sing the Days of the Week Song, count how many days we have been in school.  Later, once they know the days of the week, we sing the Months of the Year Song instead.

3.  Concept Board
Next to the calendar, I have stapled some flash cards for the letters, numbers, and words that we are focusing on this week.  I drill the class on them by pointing at them and asking them to identify each card.

4.  Read Wiggles Learns the Rules at School

We read one of these Wiggles books nearly every day as a way of teaching and reviewing the procedures and rules. 

I read this book and had my little doggy puppet help me act out the story.  The children LOVED it!  In fact, they have been begging to hear it each day, which is great because it serves as a way to teach the class rules.

5.  Introduce the Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin Shapes cards and movements. 
When we review them every day, it REALLY helps them learn to recognize the numbers and shapes quickly. Plus, the review only takes as long as the video below (One minute & 16 seconds.)  There is more information on how to use it on my blog post here.

 

 

6.  Sing the Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin’ Shapes Songs.

 

My Pacing Guide indicated that I only needed to get through the songs for numbers 0 – 5, but my class has a very decent attention span this year, and the DVD held their attention easily all the way from 0 – 10!  After that, we took a quick break to let everyone get a drink and then started again.  (Be sure to check that link to find out how to manage letting kids get drinks in a quick and easy way!)

7.  Art project:  Self Portrait
I explained how to do the project and then sent them off to the tables to do it as a whole group.  I also designated four different toys that they could play with when they were finished, such as unifix cubes, pattern blocks, alphabet magnets, and books to read.  Below you can see the self portrait that my own daughter made on her first day of Kindergarten, so many years ago!  She is now 22 years old, but I keep it in my files as an example to show the children each year.  She is now an art education major; can you tell?????

This is the Self Portrait that my, now ADULT, daughter Katie made on her first day of Kindergarten! 

Then after school I put all of the self portraits on a bulletin board.

The children cut out the face and glue it on the white paper.  An adult “frames it” on the colored paper later. 

8.  Read a Book
Then, after they finished their projects, we all sat down on the carpet again and read The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing, which is one of my favorite books for the beginning of school!  The children had just about had it, so we (my new job share partner and I!) sent the children outside for recess.

9.  Shape Copying Portfolio Paper
After recess, we had the children do a visual perception shape copying “test.”  It’s really just a way to find out what their little eyes can perceive and what their little hands can draw.  You can find out more about that here, all of these pages are free downloads.  I again designated a few toys and some books for them to play with and look at when they were done.

The children try to copy the shapes as best they can.  This gives us an idea of their fine motor and visual perception abilities. 

10.  Playtime!!!!
Need I say more?  And BOY, were they ready!  My wonderful job share partner Remie took pictures of the children holding the “My First Day of Kinder” frame, and then we posted the pictures on the wall later to make a bulletin board out of them.

We purchased the frame at a craft store, and then spray painted it yellow. The letters are just taped on, so that they could be changed out later if needed. 

11.  Zoo Phonics Cards
I introduced the Zoo Phonics letters and sounds to the class.  It was as quick and easy as it always is!  I meant to sing some songs from Singable Songs for Letters and Sounds to help them learn the alphabet, but we ran out of time.  I wanted to read “Wiggles First Day at School” today also, but we spent so much time establishing procedures that it simply wasn’t possible, so I saved it for Tuesday.

12.  Dismissal!

 

Tuesday:  Second Day of Kindergarten!
To save space and make this go quicker, I am now going to give you the “condensed version.”   A lot of the things that we do for the rest of the week are reviews or repetition of what I introduced on the first day of school, anyway.

1.  Attendance and Flag Salute

2.  Calendar

3.  Concept Board  (See above.)

4.  Review rules with Wiggles Learns the Rules at School.

5.  Sing some songs from my Letters and Sounds DVD to help them learn the alphabet.

 

6.  Review the Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin Shapes cards and movements. 

7.  Art Project:  School Bus (<–It’s free! Click to find it.)
We made a bulletin board out of it after school, too!  Then the children also graphed how they got to school today.

 

As you can see, there are varying levels of ability in my classroom! 

I use the same top part of the graph every year (laminated), and tape a piece of construction paper onto the back for the names.  Then we use return address labels to print out the names of all of the students.  No bus riders this year!  One child was absent, and another was not yet enrolled.  There are 26 kids names on that graph! 

8.  Shape Copying Portfolio Paper #2
This is similar to the first paper, but with slightly harder shapes and figures to copy.  You can find out more about it here.  All of the portfolio papers that we do are free downloads at the indicated link.

This second copying sheet is much harder!   But you know that the kids that can do it really have some skills. 

9.   Recess!

10.  Read:  Wiggles First Day at School
I was so glad that we had time to read this book today!  Things went more quickly on Tuesday now that we had a few more procedures and routines established! The children liked it so much they cheered for it!  They now beg my job share partner and I to read a Wiggles book daily.  🙂

11.  Sing the Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin’ Shapes Songs.  
On Tuesday, we sang the rest of the shape songs and the Counting to 100 song.

12.  Playtime!

13.  Sing I Can Follow the Rules and When the Bell Rings, Freeze! from my Music For Classroom Management.

 

I’m so glad that we had time to sing these songs today!  The kids especially liked the When the Bell Rings, Freeze! song.  One of the kids asked for it by name on day three!

 

14.  Dismissal

 

Wednesday:  Third Day of Kindergarten!
My job share partner and I decided to go ahead and start doing a group rotation with the children on our third day of school!  This is earlier than I usually do it, but since there was going to be two of us (plus our aide!) in the room all week long, it seemed like a good time to start it. 

1.  Attendance and Flag Salute

2.  Calendar

3.  Concept Board  (See above.)

4.  Review rules with Wiggles Learns to Pay Attention

5.  Zoo Phonics

6.  Sing some songs from my Letters and Sounds DVD to help them learn the alphabet.  (A-D only)

7.  Explain and model how to do the group rotation.

8.  Begin group rotation.  (We stopped for recess after two centers and then restarted the rotation again after.)

Language Arts Table:

Name writing test, (<–free download) and then introduce rhyme with Rhyming Bingo Cards .

I used just the cards from the Rhyming Bingo set to introduce rhyme.  We’ll play the game next week 

Math Table: 

Do number copy portfolio paper, (<–free download) and then practice counting objects if extra time.

The children do this at the beginning of the year, and then again at the second and third trimester so we can compare them. 

“Extra Center” Table

At our extra table, we usually have a parent doing something that reinforces either a math or a reading activity that we have already introduced.  Today, we had no parent, so we sent the children up into the loft to explore it, read books, and play with the doll house that’s up there.  The playhouse is underneath it, but we did not let the children go in it because I was teaching my rhyming lesson at a table right next to it, and it was hard enough to hear what was going on with all of the commotion in the loft!

This is our loft, and how we decorate it for the holidays. 

Art Table

At our art table today, we made a stop sign!  If you would like to see it or download free the pattern, click here!

 

9.  Sing the Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin’ Shapes Songs and review the cards. On Wednesday, we started the DVD back at the beginning again and played it all the way up to number 10.

10. Playtime!

11.  We were supposed to read this story, but ran out of time:  Signs On the Road.

12.  Dismissal!  (Hurry, it’s time to go home!!!!)

 

Thursday:  Fourth Day of Kindergarten!
My job share partner and I decided to try to get our class off to a great start by being there to support each other every day for the first week.  This really helped a great deal!  Next week, our volunteer parents will begin coming.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that they will be faithful!

1.  Attendance and Flag Salute

2.  Calendar

3.  Concept Board  (See above.)

4.  Read:  Wiggles First Day at School to review general procedures at school.

5.  Zoo Phonics

6.  Sing the Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin’ Shapes Songs and review the cards.

7.  Begin group rotation  (We stopped for recess after two centers and then restarted the rotation again after.)

Language Arts Table:

Sound Sort with T, P, M, and S.  I put the materials on a large lid so that it could be passed around the table from child to child, since there are seven students in each group.  (There are 28 students in our class!)  The objects to sort came from a very old Houghton-Mifflin reading series kit.  They sure don’t make them like they used to!  We use these manipulatives every year!

 

Math Table: 

Play Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin’ Shapes Bingo to practice shape and number recognition.  We played one round with the picture side of the cards, and then flipped them over and played it again using the back of the cards, which shows just the plain numbers and shapes (with no picture cues.)  It was very successful!

The kids like this game and tend to sing the number and shape songs as they play! 

“Extra Center” Table

At our extra table, we usually have a parent doing something that reinforces either a math or a reading activity that we have already introduced.  Today, we DID have a parent volunteer that I knew could be trusted to come in and not have her child have a meltdown because mommy was in the room!  So I gave her one of the portfolio copying pages to do with the kids, (the lower case letter copying page,) and then had her do some Marcy Cook Dot Tiles with them.  (For more info on Marcy Cook’s tiles, click here and then scroll a LONG way down.   This set of tiles is named “Dot Tiles.”)

These number tiles are from Marcy Cook. 

Art Table

At our art table today, we made an apple!  If you would like to download the pattern, click here.  We also tasted and graphed our favorite apple at the art table, because the apple project didn’t take very long.

This is how I set up my art project to demonstrate for the next day.  You can see my iPod and dock right there next to it! 

I use the same top part of the graph every year (laminated), and tape a piece of construction paper onto the back for the names.  Then we use return address labels to print out the names of all of the students.  The children stick their names on under their favorite apple. 

8.  Sing some songs from my Letters and Sounds DVD to help them learn the alphabet.  (A-D only)

9. Playtime!  Yikes, I think they only got ten minutes to play today- maybe less!

10.  Stories:  Under the Apple Tree and Amazing Apples  (We picked out two but only had time for one.)

11.  Dismissal!  (OMG, is it 11:30 already????  Where did the time go?)

 

Friday:  Fifth Day of Kindergarten!

1.  Attendance and Flag Salute

2.  Calendar

3.  Concept Board  (See above.)

4.  Begin group rotation  (We had to start EARLY today because we had to be at the library at 9:55!!!!)

Language Arts Table:

Zoo Phonics and Alphabet Bingo
I made this Zoo Phonics bingo game myself using their Zoo Phonics Font.  I still prefer their “old style of letters!  They have made newer ones with cuter artwork, but I am kind of stuck on the old ones, I guess!  I’m a little bit afraid to try the new ones, because the old ones work so perfectly well.

The little Alphabet Bingo game is sold on my website with a lower case version and a sound matching version as a set.

This is the Zoo Phonics Bingo game that I made with their font. 

This is one of the ABC bingo games sold on Heidisongs.com. 

Math Table: 

Sorting by color activity!  I taught the group to sort and sang them the Sorting Song from Musical Math acapella.  Then I passed out a bunch of different manipulatives to sort with and let them each try it.

We have a bunch of bags of “junk” to sort! 

“Extra Center” Table

At our extra table, we usually have a parent doing something that reinforces either a math or a reading activity that we have already introduced.  Today, we DID NOT have a parent volunteer, so we gave the kids the last alphabet copying portfolio page.

Art Table

At our art table today, we made an traffic light!  If you would like to download the directions, click here.

 

5.  Go to the library.

Someone threw up on the way.  And a child was afraid of a dog that was barking nearby in the neighborhood and basically climbed up my aide, and then had to be carried to the library, and back to class again later (by me.)  Oh well.  At least there were three of us!

6.  Recess!  (Thank God!)

7.  Sing the Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin’ Shapes Songs and review the cards.

8.  NOW we finally read:  Signs On the Road.

9.  Playtime!

10.  Dismissal!  (TGIF!)

 

WHEW! Week 1- done!

-Heidi

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