Routines and Expectations

A little honesty. We are extremely fortunate to only have eight children at the start of this year. This being said, some goals will be more quickly accomplished than a larger TK class with only one teacher. The first week was reasonably easy; we allowed the children to explore the classroom and acclimate to new routines.

Part of our curriculum is to really hold the children accountable through multiple avenues. First is through "Job Opportunities". During Monday morning meetings, the children are asked to choose a job for the week. Not all children will have a job each week. Compared to years past, we will be reminding them of their tasks a lot less- holding them accountable to remember and complete their job each day. Another strategy we have implemented to encourage responsibility is to hold the children accountable for the messes they make. This year, they may not leave one area to start something new before completely cleaning up the previous task, compared to years back where they could have left an area, regardless if they're coming back to it, and clean it up later.

As mentioned in the Daily Schedule post, we have already made adjustments to create a better flow in the day. Starting our day outside for 15 minutes has made for a much easier morning meeting time; the children are more focused on the topic and teacher speaking because they are no longer thinking about the game they left only a few feet away or the friend next to them they were just involved with. The children are also more open to engaging in other activities after morning meeting.

In order to indicate the start of morning meeting, we have implemented the use of a music box; one child is asked to wind it up, and they take turns each day. We feel this routine helps the children to transition into gathering and change their focus.

The biggest part of our morning gathering is the use of our Flower Calendar. We will dive into a larger discussion of this routine in another post. For now, this is how we are starting to discuss days of the week and daily activities with the children.

Over time, we will be challenging the children and ourselves more and more. We are so impressed with the work the students have accomplished so far. We are already a week ahead of our planned curriculum!