Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Flow of Our Day: Morning, Continued




Yesterday I wrote about the Flow of Our Day, focusing on the first part of the morning. It's amazing to reflect upon how much is "uncovered" in these early hours of the day: personal and social skills, oral development, printing and reading skills, numeracy, making connections, sharing experiences...it is almost impossible to keep track of all the wonderful skills small children learn by playing and interacting! It is also when the children are most energetic and open to gathering and sharing knowledge (although that goes on every moment they're awake, doesn't it?).

Our students go outside for recess, then come in for another healthy snack. We keep the lights off for most of the day, as we feel it keeps the overall "feel" of our room calm. We are blessed to have large windows that let in a lot of light. When the children have tidied up their snack, they choose a book to read alone or with a friend at the carpet. I love seeing the Senior Kindergarten students sitting close with a Junior Kindergarten and "reading" familiar stories aloud!

When everyone has finished, I read a story aloud. Sometimes it's just for pleasure, or a story I've read many times before (I've even recited stories, with no book in hand, to the great attention and delight of the children). Other times, it is a deeper, richer text (what we call a mentor text) that we will read again and again through the week to unveil deeper understanding by asking HOT questions (I'll write a future post about these!).

The rest of the morning follows a similar flow to the earlier part...small, flexible groups to work with a grown up on specific tasks, games, and skills. We usually focus on numeracy/math concepts at this time of day. 

Then we gather at the carpet to say Grace, before we have lunch and recess.

I promised I'd share the flow of the afternoon today, but in the interest of keeping these posts of a reasonable length, I'll postpone that till tomorrow!

Thank you all for joining the Inquisitive Children Facebook page...I'm amazed at how quickly it's growing! I appreciate your encouragement and interest, and would like to invite you to leave comments here or on the FB page so I know you're reading!

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