Learning lots of new things in our second week

The first two weeks of school are filled with meeting new friends, learning routines, and exploring the classroom. We spent a lot of time learning about each area in the room, and playing at "free choice" time, where the kids can pick anywhere in the room to play. 

We did projects that helped us learn how to use different classroom materials, like glue bottles. Below are pictures of the kids practicing the mantra "dot dot, not a lot" when using liquid glue. :)

We got to visit the school garden, and spent lots of time playing in the sunshine on the playground.

We are lucky enough to be paired with a third grade class as our "reading buddies." They come on Friday afternoons and sit down with the kindergarteners in pairs to read them favorite children's books. It's great reading and listening practice for both groups of kids, and it also helps the kindergarteners form relationships with older students in our school community.

And of course, we spent LOTS of time reading books! We learned something exciting this week that -- all of us can already read!! This was exciting news for the kindergarteners, who often feel defeated when looking at a picture book with tiny words that are indecipherable to them. But we learned this week that one form of reading books is called "reading the pictures." This is a great way for young learners to pick up a new book from the bookshelf or library and immediately become immersed in it. They can just study the pictures and tell themselves what is happening in the story told in illustrations. I encourage you to have your kindergarteners "read the pictures" in the books they bring home from the library!