A Day Our Way Linky

We're so excited to link up with Amelia and other great bloggers to learn all about classroom schedules. It's so crazy to see how many different ways you can arrange a school day. Each teacher just has a specific spot where each lesson fits. So here is ours!

Now let's break it down!

Arrival & Centers-Students have a 20 minute window where they are arriving before the bell rings. This is our free choice center time. The kids unpack, put their lunch box and green folders away and then they get to play. Announcements come on right at the end of the time and then we clean up.

Morning Meeting/Calendar-We all gather on the carpet and have calendar time on the SMARTboard. We are working on a calendar notebook to go along with this. We have a helper who puts up the date, days of the week, tally marks, number of days in school, weather, teeth, etc. Then we read the message, fill in missing words or letters, pair share, and circle sight words. Then we all sit in a circle and say good morning to each other.

Literacy Block-Just like it sounds. We teach anything and everything to build literacy skills. We work on beginning & ending sounds, letter/sound correspondence, rhyming, syllables, CVC words, long & short vowels, and on the list goes. Once we are finished with our lesson the students work in Literacy Centers. There are 5 groups and they have a different center activity each day.

Literacy Block ends before we know it and it's time to get ready for lunch aka BRUNCH! It's the earliest stinkin' lunch in the history of the world (okay, we're exaggerating a little), but seriously sometimes we are still full from breakfast and don't want to eat. The kids get 20 minutes to eat and 25 minutes to play.

Read Aloud-After lunch we have some down time with read aloud and read to self. It's a nice quiet time to settle back in from recess. This also allows us to finish up leftover items from Literacy Block, assess students, work one on one, etc.

Specials-Our kids rotate between Gym, Music, and Computers. Each day they come in and look to see where the special is for the day. It's still as exciting on day 88 as it was on day 1.

Math-During math we start with a whole group lesson, practice the skills on the SMARTboard, with a game, or with manipulatives. Then the students go to their math centers, again 5 groups and 5 jobs.

Snack & Recess-because we eat breakfast lunch so early we find it absolutely necessary to have a snack to make it through the day. And a little more exercise is so important for wiggly five and six year olds.

Theme Time-This time is for whatever goes with our theme! This week it was our Jan Brett author study. We read the stories, did crafts, worked on some of the story elements, etc. Next week we will study a Polar animal each day. It varies depending on what our theme is for the week!

Pack & Play-Once we are finished with our final activities for the day the kids pack up. Once their mailbox is empty and their things are packed up they get a free choice center. This allows them to play while we help finalize loose ends, write notes, etc. Then we can dismiss as needed.

So that's a quick glance at our day! How is yours? We'd love to read about, please go visit Amelia and link up!