Kindergarten holds a special place in my heart and always
will. This is the grade I completed my student teaching in and the grade where
I started my teaching career. Kids of
all ages are sponges and will learn anything that a teacher is willing to teach
them, but in Kindergarten, their sponges are in full force and absorbing any and
everything! Kindergarten is where kids learn what school is all about,
essentially this is the beginning of their “school career” and where teachers
get to show kids how much fun school can be while learning! Although I was sad for my friend and
co-worker, Mrs. Tammy, to leave last year, I was excited to get a chance to be back
in kindergarten teaching and we have had a blast learning this year!
Here are a few highlights of some practices that were
implemented this year and will continue to be implemented at CDS in
kindergarten and other elementary grades in the future…
Coastal Day
School has plans to expand in the very near future and a goal that we have at
CDS is to implement the practice of “looping.”
This is the idea that teachers will teach their same group of students
two years in a row. So if your child is
in kindergarten with me one year then the following year they would also be in
first grade with me and then move onto a new teacher for 2nd and 3rd
grade. You might ask, what are the
benefits of looping? Well, I actually got
to do this with 3 of my students this year because I had them last year in
pre-k and they stayed at CDS for kindergarten!
I got to pick up where I left off with them and I already knew their
strengths and areas they needed to improve.
The growth I have seen in each one of them is tremendous. All of us have really grown to understand
each other. They knew what I expected
and came in from day one ready to learn!
For example, last year one of my students absolutely hated school and
would not hesitate to tell me this and told me multiple times that what we were
doing was not fun. After working very
hard for their approval and having things turn around towards the end of last
year, I was excited to be able to see this child continue to flourish in
kindergarten. I didn’t give up and neither did the child. Now, after two years of hard work, this child
comes in with a smile on their face, eager to learn, has fun every day, and
doesn’t hesitate to give me a hug in the morning! I would consider this a huge success and the
growth that all teachers want to see!
And I would also say that if that child started completely over with a
new teacher that knew nothing about them then the child probably would not have
grown by leaps and bounds like they did! How awesome would it be to implement
this successful practice at CDS in the future that forms strong bonds between a
child, their teacher and the parents!
Have you
ever heard of S.T.E.M.? Well S.T.E.M.
stands for science, technology, engineering and math. Often times these areas can get overlooked in
education especially in early education because there is such a big emphasis on
literacy. Now don’t get me wrong,
literacy is extremely important!
However, we can integrate all of the subjects and still be very
successful when teaching. I have had the
opportunity to implement many S.T.E.M. activities and teaching methods this
year in kindergarten and the kids have really enjoyed this. S.T.E.M. activities and teaching methods are
hands-on and many are inquiry based.
These activities challenge the kids to think in ways that worksheets or
sitting at the carpet, listening to me teach, do not. Often times S.T.E.M.
activities keep the kids engaged longer and allow them to have more in depth
discussions with each other of what is going on in front of them. Currently, I am in a master’s program at UNCW
and conducted an action research project on the effects of S.T.E.M. teaching
methods and activities in the classroom versus the traditional ways of teaching
and the results were astounding and showed that kids were more successful and
less likely to get off task when presented with activities that were hands-on
and S.T.E.M based. I have really
enjoyed watching how the kids interact with these activities this year and look
forward to continuing to implement S.T.E.M. based learning at Coastal Day
School in the future! I will include
some pictures below on some of the S.T.E.M. activities throughout the year!
Overall, I would say we have had a very successful year in
kindergarten. I sure did have a smart,
sweet, and caring class that kept me laughing every day and I am going miss all
of them! Next year, Mrs. Caitlin will be
taking over teaching kindergarten because my child will be in that class and I
will be going back to pre-k; however, I am very excited for Finley to have
Mrs. Caitlin again and be able to “loop” with her! And I am very excited to teach the upcoming 4-year-old
class! I know Mrs. Kalyn and Mrs. Stephanie have them well prepared for
pre-k! I hope everybody has a great rest
of the school year and a FUN and relaxing summer!
~Mrs. Natalie
Building shapes with toothpicks and
marshmallows! The toothpicks represented
the sides and the march mellows represented the vertices!
Learning to work together and make shapes by
using one piece of yarn! Team building was in full effect!
We had some LEGO lovers in class so for the 100th day of school
they had a challenge to build anything of their choice with 100 LEGOS!
How many cups does it take to make a tower from the floor to the ceiling
of the classroom?
Each group had 100 cups and had to design a
tower! We had lots of variety!
What happens if we take and drop colored water on ice? Will the colors mix when the ice melts?
How does it rain? Well we decide to experiment and make our own
cloud and rain! The class saw that once the clouds can’t hold any more moisture
they burst and the rain starts to fall!
Examining glitter tornadoes during our weather
unit!
What can you do with a bunch of empty Easter eggs? Their imaginations were at work here!
Painting with marbles and learning how to make different lines
(horizontal, vertical and diagonal) to get the result that they wanted!
