My Classroom Minute By Minute in 2013

Hello Monday.  You officially win today.  I’m beat.  But since one  of my  teacher BFFs (shhhhh don’t tell anyone!) asked me to do this post, I just have to do it.  So this post is for you, Jenny From The Block!

I get this question a lot:  How do you fit it all in?  A couple things.  Remember, we have an extended day so we have an extra hour!  We do have an 8 hour school day so that helps.  We also have small class sizes so that helps too.     So here is what my day looks and how much time we spend on each thing.

7:45-8:00-Students arrive.  They put things away and work on their journals.   (I pull “fire drill” to work with her one on one during this time!)
8:00-Announcements
8:05-8:20-Morning Meeting (This lasts for about 15-20 minutes)
8:20 (8:25ish)-Sing.  We sing 4 songs each morning and this usually takes about 10-12 minutes.

We kick off our literacy block routine.  To read a detailed post on this routine, CLICK HERE!  

After the song, we turn to the screen and do our letters and sounds.  I project our letter chart on the screen.  We say the letters, pictures and sounds.  This takes about 1 minute.

Next, we do sight words.  To read about my sight word routine, click here.  Sight words take about 5-7 minutes.

Next, we work on our sound and skill for the week.  This could be rhyming words, syllables, CVC words, word families, etc.  This usually lasts 5-10 minutes.

Then we do our story and work on comprehension.  This takes about 15-20 minutes depending on the story and the comprehension skill.

Next the students get independent work as their ticket to centers.  This is usually a picture sort or comprehension activity that the students can complete independently.  This is when I pull my first group.

All of this happens by 9:00-9:15.  When students finish their work, they go to centers.  I continue pulling groups.  I see each group for about 10 minutes.  We work in groups and one on one and at centers until 10:05.

At 11:10 we return from specials and work on writing.  This can be predictable charts, shared writing, or independent writing.  This lasts for about 20-30 minutes, depending on what we’re writing.  When we finish writing, we go back to centers and I pull students one on one during this time.

12:10-Lunch
12:40-Recess
1:00-Water
1:05-Calendar (10 minutes)  Our calendar routine helps us meet several Common Core standards every day!  And it only takes a few minutes!

Here is our calendar routine:  date, count to the day, today, yesterday and tomorrow; number of the day (write the number, draw the picture, make the ten frame, even or odd)
Mental Math-2-3 minutes
Math Review-3-5 minutes
Whole Group lesson 10-15 minutes (sometimes longer depending on the skill and if it’s a new concept)
Independent work or activity to practice what was learned in the whole group lesson)
Small Groups and Centers
Closure-math journals

2:30-3:15-Science/Social Studies/Art/RTI
If have seen every child during our reading block (and I usually see them all in groups and most on on one) we use this time to hit science and social studies and do some art!

3:15-3:30-Afternoon meeting (share 1 thing we learned today, say goodbye) 5-8 minutes
Pack up
3:45-Dismissal

So, that’s our day and how much time we spend on each item.  Of course, these are estimates and yes, I move at a very rapid pace.  But here are my arguments for the short, rapid fire pacing:

1.  Attention-they have attention spans of about 5 minutes!  So we change gears frequently to keep them engaged
2.  Since we do this daily, we hit the skills over and over again.  This allows us to spend a few minutes a day instead of long lectures once or twice.  It’s repetitive which is what kindergarten needs.

My differentiation occurs during centers and small groups.  I also differentiate during whole group with my questioning (especially during the read aloud) and when asking students to practice a skill such as blending or rhyming.

Questions?  Comments?  Snide remarks?

Here is a set of calendar numbers for October (actually 2 sets…1 is Halloween and 1 is just pumpkins!)

Thanks for asking for this post Jenny From The Block!  Love ya!

If you have something you’d like to see me post about, leave me a comment!  I have 2 weeks of Fall Break coming up so I will have lots of time to blog!  Just tell me what you’d like and I’m on it!