Daily Schedule

08:50 - 09:00 Settling-in time 09:00 - 09:15 Community circle time 09:15 - 09:45 Shared reading time 09:45 - 10:40 Choice time 10:40 - 10:50 Sharing time 10:50 - 11:10 Clean-up & outside 11:10 - 11:30 Preparation for home and story time

Settling-in Time

Purpose
The tone of the settling-in time is relaxed and informal A quiet ow of activity and conversation as the children arrive in the classroom Help make a smooth transition from morning activities at home and the trip to school to the
community learning environment in the classroom

Activity
Line up to sign in Hang up coat and bag Put note in the basket telling me that she is going to day care after school Put his home/school journal in the basket Put books in the library basket, ready to exchange at the school library Share informally with their peers and teacher what they have brought (for sharing table) Sign out books from classroom library

Sign-in
Procedures
Put date and day at the top of the sign-in paper Put the sign-in sheet on a table for the children to sign as they come into class Have the entire class sign in on one paper because it shows our classroom community as a whole When children gather for community circle time, teacher read the list to the class as a way of joining children together, and as a means of taking attendance As the children show interest, they take over this activity

Assessment
Fine motor skills
- Can they write their name in full? If they indicate they cannot, teacher teaches them so they can participate - Are they right- or left-handed? It is important to observe this periodically to note if the children have established dominance - How are they forming the letters
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Sign-in (Contd)
- Is their letter size consistent - Is their letter huge size - What upper- and lowercase letters do they write

Information about the children as individuals and as classroom community members

- Who always manages to get to the table to sign in rst - Who cuts into the line - Who elbows and pushes in line - Who suggests that we need to form a line - Who forgets to sign in - Who crosses out other childrens names - The reactions of other children to their peers in this process

Validating a childs progress

- Commenting on what teacher notice he or she is doing, such as I notice that you are using the lowercase e.
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Sign-in (Contd)
Observation of progress during the year
- Keep every sign-in sheet

Sign-in and handwriting (More) Other sign-in procedures

Children sign their names in response to questions posted about a variety of topics
- In October the sheet has a green pumpkin and teacher wrote on a piece of paper, Will this pumpkin turn orange? The children wrote their names in a yes or no column - Which kind of fruit did you like best in the fruit salad we made? The children wrote their names, followed by the name of the fruit

Children taking the initiative

- After a few demonstrations they begin to think of their own questions

They ask for favorite foods, colors, TV shows, cars, games, animals, etc They also ask comparison questions: Which do you like best, pizza or spaghetti? music or gym? the book A or B

Sign-in (Contd)
- Sign-up sheets appear around the room - Children take a clipboard and interview their classmates, using a class list to record their responses

Community Circle Time

Purpose
After settling in, we begin with community circle time, which sets the tone for the day. Children and
teach sit in a circle so we can all see one another and participate as equal members of the group

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Activity
Discuss the daily schedule Share Headline News Include sharing from home Read Mr. Bears journal Talk about the calendar

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Discuss the Daily Schedule

Preparation
Every morning before the children arrive, teacher write the days schedule on the chalkboard Always use the same words to describe the daily routine so that the children can begin to read the schedule themselves Have these daily events written on 3 * 6 oak tag cards, which the children arrange in a pocket chart during settling in time

Discuss the daily schedule

Go over the daily routine Mention special events such as gym, music, and school meeting Acknowledge anyone who is not in school, and share anything we know about their absence Greet visitors or parents who have come to help

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Headline News
Purpose
Knowing some of the things that are important in the lives of everyone in the classroom is essential in building our classroom community Helps the children to understand, trust, and care about their classmates Helps each child realize others have feelings and situations similar to their own

Procedures
At the beginning of the year, teacher model the procedure As the year goes on, the leader for the day directs Headline News by telling his or her news rst and then calling on each child in the circle to either tell his or her news in a sentence, or headline, or to pass Limiting the news to a headline gives everyone a chance to share and enables us to learn something about each other in a short amount of time Sometimes someone asks a question for clarication, and if the news is of special importance to the children or me, we talk about it in greater depth

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Headline News (Contd)

Teacher participate as an equal member of the group and encourage the leader to direct the dialogue Teacher tries to relinquish his or her own dominant role as much as possible during this time so that the children will have charge of the direction of the conversation

Examples
Marys cat didnt come home last night Sams grandmother is coming for a visit Steven is going to Sarahs house to play Teacher is going to viist her mom for the weekend

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Sharing from Home

Purpose
Teacher can build curriculum around childrens interests See Chapter 12 (Sharing Table, Children as Teachers, Celebrating Me projects for details)

Procedures
Sharing table
- As circle time begins, children place the stuff they brought from home on the sharing time to be looked at further during choice time - Examples:

Pictures and artifacts the children have made Special items agreed upon by the child and teacher Stuffed animal Trucks and cars for use at the block area Transformers, guns, war toys, and TV interactive toys are not allowed

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Sharing from Home (Contd)

Children as teachers
- Introduce in January and continues for the rest of the school year - The children take the role of teacher (or demonstrator) and teacher becomes one of the participants - The children are assigned one day a week when they can teach the class something that they have planned at home - As children sit on the teachers chair, they are encouraged to explain why they chose what they did, tell a few things about their sharing, and respond to questions from the audience - At the beginning of the year teacher act as scribe and write the information on a special form (Appendix A 1), which is displayed with the item on the sharing table - As the year goes on many children choose to write their own sharing description - Children draw a picture to accomplish the writing - To involve parents, send a letter home explaining the procedure and listing each childs sharing day - Depending on the size of the class, between four and ve children are assigned each day - If a child is absent, or there is no school, the children who miss their day can share the next day
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Sharing from Home (Contd)

- Those who forget their day wait for the next week - Examples

Books or art projects they have made Artifacts from another culture collections or hobbies Something from nature, science experiments, magic tricks, a poem or song to teach the class A favorite book to read

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Mr. Bears Journal

Procedures
Read Mr. Bears journal and pass Mr. Bear (A stuffed animal) on to the child who will be taking him home for the upcoming night Mr Bear travels in a bag, along with a composition book that serves as his journal, his toothbrush, and other artifacts that he has accumulated along the way A letter written by Mr. Bear is at the front of the journal and explains where he came from and the general procedures for his visits Parents, children, and other family members are encouraged to write and draw about Mr. Bears visit to their house As the year goes on he makes repeated visits When a journal is lled, he gets a new one and all the journals travel with him so families can read about his adventures in between stays at their house

Purpose
Provides a meaningful way for the class to learn and care about each other, and involves the families in the classroom community Let the teacher know the home life of the children and gives the families a way to get to know the teacher, since the teacher takes Mr. Bear home too
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Calendar
Focus the attention on events that are meaningful to individual children and classroom happenings
Birthdays Holidays School routines such as gym and music Special school meetings and assemblies

Procedures
The leader hangs the days date on the calendar during settling-in time To celebrate the day, children count the number of days they have been in school as teacher point to a chart with the numbers to date As the days accumulate, children begin to count by twos, ves, tens, and twenties, and children can also choose other numbers as well About half way through the year, teacher makes a weekly graph that guides children to count in different ways each day As children count the last number, the leader pops a ballon that teacher has pinned on the days date on the calendar
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