Schofield Scoop

The daffodils are blooming! I'm greeted by these smiley faces each morning as I enter the school. What a happy way to start a fun filled and joyful day at Forestdale.

Speaking of joyful.... the images this week are from our fantastic and joyful Kindergarten. Our teachers have a tall task of facilitating engaging and strong academic experiences for our learners. These pages show the joy that students experience working at their Kindergarten "job". We hope that the images reflect how much excitement and energy the students bring to our classrooms daily as well as the thoughtfully planned challenging academic activities the teachers provide for your children. Please know that every attempt was made to depict students from each classroom, although not every K student and teacher are pictured here. I do hope you enjoy seeing what a day of Kindergarten looks like!

Kara Schofield, Assistant Principal

Part of a Kindergartener's day includes whole group learning activities, and students may use this format in a variety of ways throughout the day. Mornings start with a meeting, where students greet each other by name, look at the calendar and schedule for the day, read a morning message together, and often read a poem as a group. Teachers share read alouds, work with UFLI, Heggerty phonics skills and writing, and introduce math concepts. This whole group instruction time allows all students to be joined as a group, and all students receive the grade level academic instruction that is the basis for further small group instruction which occurs later in the day. Kindergarten days can end with a meeting, allowing for students to reflect upon the day's highlights and provide opportunity to say goodbye to classmates and the teacher.

Small group work takes places in both ELA (writing, reading, phonics, phonemic awareness) and Math. In these learning situations, students are paired or in groups of 6 or fewer and all are working together on the same activity, with or without a teacher. A teacher may be providing instruction to the group of students, or they may be working together as a group, following the directions previously given during whole group instruction. They are assisting each other in their learning, and the goal is for collaboration and sharing. Students can be paired up, working on an activity that was detailed during whole group, and teachers float through the room, providing assistance to groupings as needed. Students may do some extension or additional support activities with a teacher in even smaller groupings, allowing the teachers to provide the necessary academic support to ensure the students' understanding.

Independent work is what students are engaged in while the teacher is providing small group instruction to other classmates. During independent work, students are completing tasks that are just at their level, ensuring full engagement and success with this form of learning. While students may be all doing the same activity, each student is completing their own task, and students are not generally working together to complete the work. This differs from small group working together in that student in small group work are working together on one, combined, group activity.

Every day students participate in a 1 hour special - Physical Education, Science, Music, Health, Library, Art or Technology. Since they are in specials for 7 days in a row, students can dive deep into the content and concept, having repeated experiences with the information for a number of days. This allows teachers to provide in depth learning into the concept, usually culminating in an exciting "day 7" activity.

These two activities help provide students with some of the most memorable experiences in elementary school. Think back to when you had lunch and recess - fun, unstructured play time with peers and chatty, busy eating time with friends. By this time of year in the cafeteria, students are very adept at opening their own milk cartons, packages and wrappings. They are able to use the time to eat (most of) their food, and can clean up where they ate. Outside is an oasis for our students. We are so very thankful for the amazing playground to play on. There really is no sound of joy like the squeals and shrieks of students playing on the playground.

Kindergarten students have a built in, purposeful play time each day. This is a chance for students to choose what and who they wish to play with. Unlike centers (small group, independent work) where there is a specific task to be followed and completed, students at play time can create and direct the play they choose with the materials they choose. Teachers rotate the items of choice, although there are some favorites that get a lot of "play time". Dramatic play areas might have babies, shopping items or cooking activities. Floor play bins might have Legos, Magnatiles, Knex, animals, blocks or puzzles. Students can also choose activities to bring back to their tables, such as waterbeads, drawing supplies, or playdough. This play time is meant to be a social, cooperative, engaging, student led activity, which many see as the primary, foundational skill for Kindergarten. We are lucky that our teachers prioritize this type of learning for our students in addition to the academic curriculum.

Share feedback here: kschofield@sandwich.k12.ma.us Thanks for all your great suggestions and ideas.