Today, after a very short Choice Time, we talked about our new (and improved!) kindergarten schedule. Instead of Choice Time at the beginning of the day, we will start with Centers, in which the kids will work on a skill from either math or literacy in small groups. I will also run guided reading groups with the kids at this time. We talked about the centers for the week, and then had a chance to try one of them out. We will begin with Centers in the morning tomorrow (Choice Time will be at the end of the day now).

After our "Centers Practice," we had our Afternoon Meeting, and then had a little bit of time to read our Star of the Week poster (great job reading, Annie!). After Star of the Week, we worked on the counting books that we began in Math Workshop last week. We reviewed Anno's Counting Book, and then worked on our own books - they are looking nice! We also had a chance to read another counting book - We All Go on Safari - A Counting book from Tanzania.

Today we also talked about our new system for behavior management in the classroom. Each child has a pocket on a chart in the front of the room. In the pocket is a green, a yellow, and a red slip of paper. Every child starts the day on green ("go - you're doing fine"). As a warning, if a child needs a reminder about their behavior, they will go to the chart and pull out the front (green) paper, which will leave the yellow tag ("slow - think about your behavior"). If there is another behavior incident, the yellow tag will be pulled as well, and read will be left (red = "stop"). If a kid reaches red, they will miss part of their choice time for that day. If the red card needs to be pulled as well, I will call home. I like this system because it is another opportunity for a conversation at home -- you can ask your child for a behavior update based upon their card color each day.

After our reading (we also read another counting book called Down in the Swamp), we headed up to the Computer Lab for our time there. We went a half hour later than usual, so by the time we got back down to the classroom, it was time for us to get packed up and head to Spanish class or home!