I am continuing my Sunday feature of sharing a schedule and activities from the upcoming week. However, since I have not started back to school yet, I can’t really share that so I am sharing some general schedules from my kindergarten room. And I even created a button for my new feature!
Today I am going to talk about our afternoon or closing meeting. We use those terms interchangeably. I decided to start doing this meeting when I implemented morning meeting last year. I loved how morning meeting brought us together and started our day off in a positive way. I wanted our day to end the same way. I had been struggling for years with dismissal procedures. It always seemed chaotic, loud and frankly, out of control. After implementing the afternoon meeting, I can say that our dismal is so much better and a lot less out of control.
Here is my afternoon meeting schedule:
3:25(ish)-Clean up and come to the MONSTER PIT (circle carpet)
3:30(ish)-We go over our goals. In response to the new TEAM evaluation system here in Tennessee (if you’re so curious about this system, Google it. BTW the state just released it’s report on how effective the system is and the state itself called it a “systemic failure” hmmmm), I started writing our goals for the day on our easel. I go over our goals in our morning meeting and then at the end of the day we read the goals and the kids say YES or NO depending on whether we met out goals. If we met them, they say YES and then scream as loud as they can CHECK because I always put a check mark beside the ones we met. I usually get a response about how we learned a lot or did a lot of work once we go over our goals. This is a great way to help kinders be responsible for their learning each day. It’s simple, quick and effective.
We go around the circle and each child shares one thing they learned that day. Sometimes they will share that they learned how to listen or get off the chart, but more times than not they share something more educational.
After we share what we learned, we sing a song. At the beginning of the year we learned The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America. I feel it’s important that my students learn the songs that are so important to our nation. After that we learn those songs, we get to learn some fun songs. Last year we learned Firework by Katy Perry, Born This Way by Lady Gaga and I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas! Disclaimer: These were the child friendly versions of the songs!! No minds were corrupted by these songs. I chose these songs because of the powerful message they send. Firework and Born This Way especially talk about being yourself and that no matter who or what you are you matter. This is what I want my students to remember as they leave the safe and loving environment of our classroom and go home to places that might not be as loving and safe.
After the song, we pass a goodbye. Usually this is a quick “Goodbye, ________” but sometimes we give hugs, we shake hands, we do sparkle fingers (bump fists and wiggle our fingers) or high five.
We quickly go over homework and then we line up. The students who made it to the top of the chart of off the chart get to choose a pencil. We go to the hallway to get our backpacks and clean out our cubbies. Finally, we walk to the auditorium for dismissal.
3:45-dismissal from the auditorium
I hope that this gives you some ideas or inspirations for your dismissal time!
I posted three new products to my TPT store, so I hope you’ll check them out. I posted a set of ELA vocabulary cards, a write the room book and a sound spelling book!
