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ENGAGING ACTIVITIES YOUR STUDENTS WILL LOVE!

First Week Wrap-up

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So I made it through my first week in kindergarten.  Exhausted on Monday and Tuesday but by the end of week I was doing pretty good.  Boy is this different from third grade!  I just keep reminding myself to take baby steps.  Line-up is not a command I give yet.  We had to start with “what is a line?”  But I think I am getting the hang of slowing down and being patient.  What do I love – well besides my 21 cuties, I love all the fun stuff we get to do!  We spent a lot of the first week singing our procedures.  I think I have a song for almost everything that we do when it comes to moving around our room.  Wasn’t sure how it was going to go over (third grade mind-set) but they LOVE it!  More than once I heard “Are we going to have more songs today?”  Made my day!  Many of my songs/videos come from the amazing Harry Kindergarten!  If you have not heard of him you must,  yes MUST, quickly visit his You Tube site.  Here are a couple of the videos I am using in my class and they are working GREAT!  This first video is what I play as soon as we get to the carpet.  My kids knew the words by Wednesday and love it.  They even started it themselves a couple of times.  By the end, they are sitting quietly waiting for what is next.  (I had to teach that this was I expected of course).

 
 
This next video is what we use when we move from the carpet back to our tables/seats.  No voice command from me, just hit play and off they go.  I also taught them that once  back at their seat they get into “learning position” and wait to find out what to do next. (Learning position is sitting (criss cross on floor or in chair with feet down), hands in lap or on table, mouth zipped, eyes watching and ears listening).
 
 
 
I use more of his videos and I’d be happy to share which ones if you are interested.  Just leave me a comment and let me know – I just don’t want this post to be too long. 🙂
 
 
But I will leave you with one last video that goes to my kindergarten classroom management strategy – IF ALL ELSE FAILS – DANCE!  I pop on a video/song when they start to get that dazed look, too wiggly to pay attention, etc.  Here’s one of my favorites!
 

 
I’d love to know how you made it through in your first week of school.  Any great tips or tricks?  I’d love to know those too!
 
 


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