Well, school is out- or was out!  I had an entire three day weekend before heading back to my classroom.  Summer school started this week and I am enjoying it so much more than I thought that I would!  Of course, it is somewhat discouraging that I have 4+ hours to work with kids during summer school and my schedule feels just about perfect.  How am I ever going to get used to doing it in <3 hours again this fall ;)

Of course, being in my own classroom also allows me to work for a little bit after school each day-organizing and preparing for next year.  It is pretty nice being able to just put in 30 minutes or so here and there instead of taking time away from the pool in oder to go into school for an entire afternoon.

So what I am so eager to work on over the summer that I am not rushing home after summer school in order to hang out at the pool with my kids?  Well, I am excited about starting Daily 5 next year.  I already rearranged my classroom- with Daily 5 I figured I wouldn't need my writing or library or ABC centers anymore- they will now be part of the Daily 5 routines.  That means that I can spread out my other social centers more evenly around the room (in other words- opposite side of room from my reading table!)  I plan on keeping dramatic play, puzzles/games, art, math buckets, and blocks.  I'll let the kinders find quiet spots in the room to do their Daily 5 work- which should leave my corner of the room quiet enough for guided reading and MTSS groups.

I love the way my classroom is arranged now!  It feels much more open and simplified.  Sometime this summer I will have to consider how to change my center schedule in order to reflect Daily 5, and start working on my anchor charts.  I am excited to get it started this fall with my new kiddos.

My other task is also about room arrangement.  I've been lucky the last few years with my class sizes- between 13 and 20.  But next year we are going to be big- as off right now I will have full classes of 23 and 23 (unless we go over enough to add another half-day section.)  That means that I might need to find room for another table, clear out my cubbies to make room for a possible 46 slots, buy more buckets for my table supplies, maybe tie-dye more canvas bags to hang on the back of the chairs.  There is a good chance that I won't need to do all this, that we will add another section.  But I don't want to bank on that- I'd rather have extra space than not enough in case I do have 2 extra full classes :)

I also started working on my long range plans for next year.  Really I should wait until I can get with my team to plan out our social studies and science themes- but I don't know if they are quite ready to get back into kindergarten yet.  It has been just a week since we said good-bye to our last crop of kindergartners- maybe I should wait a few weeks before calling them up and seeing if they are ready to start planning.  But then again, I am lucky enough to work with some pretty dedicated teachers.  They are probably searching the blogs for new ideas, too, just like me :)

Hello!
This is my introductory post to my new blog.  I was inspired to create a blog describing my work as a half -day kindergarten teacher after finding so many great kindergarten teachers blogging about the awesome things they are doing with kids.  The only problem was- they are mostly full-day kindergarten teachers and many of their ideas are so much harder to fit into a half-day schedule!  I tried to find other half-day teachers out there blogging about how they make it work, and found a few.  But they were few and far between compared to all you full-day teachers.  I know that there are others out there like me, looking to make the most of our time in half-day kindergarten, finding ways to be true to our district's curriculum and standards, maintaining high academic expectations for our students, communicating with twice as many parents, doing twice as many assessments, all while still keeping the magic that is found only in kindergarten alive and thriving in our classroom.
Anyway, I hope that other half-day kindergarten teachers find this blog and we can share how to fit it all in.  Of course, starting this with 2 weeks of school left, a kindergarten spring program to rehearse and prepare for, Mother's Day writing and art project still unfinished, plus end of the year assessments (including Rigby reading levels for all of my kiddos!) and reports cards to complete, class lists for next year, a few more transition meetings, pillow cases to tie-dye, volunteer appreciation gifts to come up with- well, let's just say that this blog may get off to a slow start!  But please do check back, as I aim to slowly over the summer get this in gear.