A Day in Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a key time in a child’s life, full of exploration and rapid learning.  Kids at this age are very eager to learn. There are numerous types of learning opportunities taking place in our room.  The students learn to read and add, but they also learn so much more like independence and how to interact with peers.  They have to unpack on their own and then pack back up at the end of the day.  They have to make sure they don’t forget things like their folders and water bottles.  They have to learn to work independently and solve their non-emergency issues without me, when the class stop light lamp is on.  They learn when to tattle and when to keep it to themselves. They learn to cooperate with all the kids in our room and how to sit at circle time and listen. 
 

Kindergarten at CDS is like none other.  The students are studious and the parents, well… they can’t get any better.  All parents in our class are supportive and stay involved.  We are fortunate to have a small class and a shortened day.  A small class and shortened day makes for busy students with lots of individualized learning. 

 

So the question is, how do you fit it all in?  Below is a brief look into a day in the life of a kindergarten student at CDS:

 

8:55 to around 9:20 – Students enter the classroom and unpack. There is always morning work on their desk.  It ranges from handwriting practice, math review to journal writing. Often it involves working on specific skills we are concentrating on that week. I also use this time to pull students who are working their way through the Bob series reading books and to catch up any students that have been absent or need to finish up prior assignments.

 

9:20 to around 10 is Circle Time – Pledge, calendar time (today is.., weather, months of the year, days of the week; counting the number of days we’ve been in school, etc.), whole group reading; sight word, phonics games; vocabulary and basal reading story.  Sometimes we sneak in some math here too! And of course we share anything fabulous that has happened to us over the last 24 hours, and you can be sure that a 5 year old has one interesting life.  J

 

10 to 10:30 – After all this time learning, we all need a little social time.  At this time we do a combined snack and recess.  If it’s nice weather, we enjoy our snacks outside under the sunshine!

 

10:30 to 11:15 is Reading Groups – At this time, everyone does something different.  Our class is full of readers on different levels. Currently, I have 4 different groups to rotate through during this time.  We work on appropriate levels for each group.  For example, I have one group who does upper first grade work, one group on upper kindergarten, one on kindergarten and one on alphabet letter/ sound review.  Groups are constantly changing, because, when it clicks, it clicks! Science and Social Studies are also incorporated during reading groups.  For example, if we are studying animal habitats or adaptations in Science, we read non-fiction animal books pertaining to this subject.  Each child just finished researching an animal of their choice and wrote a paragraph full of facts they learned.  This week each child has picked another animal to research, with my assistance, and are creating a flip-book.

 

11:15 to noon is Math – During this time we do whole group and small group pull out.  We have hands-on math-centers that the kids rotate through.  We often incorporate and reinforce reading and writing in math also.

 

Noon to 12:45 – We play catch up, and then we enjoy our lunch! 

 

Different days also brings different pull outs. We have library, art, music and Bible Buddies once a week.  Pull outs occur between 10:30-12:15 each day.  We also have a reading resource teacher who pulls students out during reading group times three times a week.

 

Whew… and that’s how we get it all in. I think all the parents will agree that we don’t leave anything behind. We learn, learn and learn some more.  We aren’t always at the table with our pencils.  You can find us lying on the rug doing writing assignments with our clipboards, or on the floor playing games. Often you might look in and see us using the iPad for research or drawing pictures in our journals to illustrate our vocabulary or popcorn words.  Learning in kindergarten is different than any other academic stage.  In kindergarten, you determine what type of learner you are, and we incorporate each style of learning, each day, in some way.  Some kids learn best by listening, some need to see it, and some need to put it on paper. We work hard every day to figure out what that style is!

 

I wasn’t always a kindergarten teacher.  I previously taught 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grade.  In the past, I would publicly state I loved 3^rd grade.  However, if you ask me now…. I love Kindergarten!  The students love you, they respect you, and they are always seeking more knowledge!  I love everything about teaching a kid to read and being the one that gets to send that email or text saying, “They read their first book today!”.  I love when something first clicks for them and they get so excited!  The students are kind and I never tire of the high-fives and daily hugs.  I also love the stories I hear each day and how their innocence still shows.  And most of all, I love that I can teach each child on their own level. 

 

-Tammy (Kindergarten Teacher)

How to Prepare Your Child for Preschool

We have been giving lots of tours around CDS for next school year, and so many parents have been asking what they should be working on with their child to prepare them for preschool. Many parents are purchasing workbooks and flashcards to make sure their child knows their letters, number, shapes, colors, and even trying to teach them to read!! While we are super impressed with how motivated these parents are to “prepare” their child for preschool, we have our own list of things we would rather parents be working on.

~Encourage independence. Simple things like teaching your child to hang their coat on a hook or opening their lunches is SO helpful to us!! Practice at home by packing their lunch once a week in a lunch box and when it’s time to eat, show them how to open everything. It may sound silly but when you have a class of 14 children and two adults, it makes things so much easier when children know these simple skills J.

~Plan play dates! If your child is not normally around other children their age, make time before school starts to introduce them to some new friends and allow them to experience having to share, cooperating with playmates, and even clean up at the end of the play date. It’s amazing how much your child can learn while you sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee with a friend!

~Read to your child!!! This is so important, I should say it again. READ TO YOUR CHILD!!! There are so many benefits to reading to your child daily when they are young, but really, who doesn’t love that 15 minutes of snuggle time with your precious little one each night?!

Well, that’s it. It’s a short list but very important. Have fun and enjoy this time. We are so looking forward to having the opportunity to teach and love your child and working with you to make sure they have everything they need to be successful!

-Ashley

A Small Glimpse of our Day

It's that time of year for lots of new parents to be touring our facility along with their notebooks full of questions. When I'm giving a tour, I often think about how hard it must be for these parents to know what is the right decision. I know me, and I know how passionate I am about teaching, and how much I absolutely love the children in our program, but how do these moms and dads know that? How difficult it must be for them to leave their sweet little kiddos with strangers. I wish I could show all the moms and dads out there what I get to see on a daily basis "behind the scenes". I wish I could show parents how Miss Veronnica can't help with pick up line because she's busy hugging and holding one of her students that needs a little extra attention that day. I wish I could show parents how Mrs. Rogers cheers and claps when a child masters a skill they have been working on. I wish I could show parents how Miss Jane dances with her class (I'm sure she's glad I can't show parents this :). I wish I could show parents how long Miss Michelle sits in front of the computer making the "perfect" worksheet to teach a simple skill. I wish I could show parents how hard Miss Kalyn works to keep the classroom clean and safe for the students in her class. I wish I could show parents how Miss Tammy agonizes over her lesson plans because she wants to provide her students with the BEST kindergarten education (which by the way, she does.) I wish I could show parents how Miss Shelley talks so sweetly to her class and how much those precious, little two year olds love her. I wish I could show parents how Miss Caroline runs around the school each day obsessively making sure everything is running exactly how it should be. And I wish I could show parents my notebooks full of idea and plans for our school and my dreams of what it will become one day. I wish all parents could get a glimpse of what goes into our school day. The loving, hugging, cheering, clapping, dancing, teaching, cleaning, playing, laughing fun that we get to have each and every day.
-Ashley 

New Year, New Space

We are so thrilled to be back in the groove of things after a long break. Like the beginning of each school year, I LOVE the first of the New Year. The possibilities that the New Year hold are so exciting and this year will be extra exciting for us here at Coastal Day School! Over break we received a phone call that our neighbors will be relocating their business and we can take over their space. This is something we have been praying for and we are so thankful that it’s happening. Of course, I went straight into planning mode and made new Pinterest boards with all my favorite décor and furnitureJ! The new space will allow us to add two new classrooms, an office, and relocate our library. We will be getting our keys on February 1^st so check back for our “before” photos and follow us as we start our journey of renovating (one of my favorite things to do!!) Best wishes for the New Year!!

-Ashley

Season of Thanks

It’s that time around Coastal Day School where all our sweet little students are learning about Thanksgiving and being asked “What are you thankful for?” about a hundred times. We always love their answers. Of course we get the usual mom, dad, and toys, but we love it when we hear that their thankful for their toilet, unicorns, dirt, farts, and monkey bars. Kids are funny and they don’t even mean to be. They are simply being honest and expressing what it is they are truly thankful for. So, I’m going to take my cue from them and list what I’m honestly, truly, so very thankful for. I’m sure some of it will be silly and maybe not make sense to you, but here it is, what I’m thankful for, in no particular order J

My husband and his patience with all the ideas and projects I have

My spunky, sweet, hilarious girl

My best friend, Jesus

My other best friend, Caroline

My sweet dog Lucy

My amazing family and friends

My amazing business partner and staff at Coastal Day School as well as the amazing families we get to know

Sweet Tea

The ice at Andy’s and Smithfield's

Leaves scented candles from Bath and Body Works

Bathroom fans—life would just plain stink without them J

Snicker Bars

Hand Sanitizer

Hulu and Netflix

Reach Community Church (10am at Leland Middle School if you don’t have a church home J)

Cheese

Chick-Fil-A

RSVP pens

Tomatoes

Mascara

Texting

 

-Ashley

 

 

 

 

 

A little more about us…

It’s so hard for me to believe that this year marked our seventh anniversary!! Time is flying by! I always love telling people our story, sharing our times of celebration and excitement, and also sharing what it took to get where we are today, which wasn’t always fun. I am amazed as I look back over the years and see what we have accomplished and the lives that were touched through our little school. Here is a little play-by-play of the last several years here at Coastal Day School:

2006: We found a location!! In June we signed a lease for a 1200 sq. ft. unit on the second floor of Cross Creek Commons located along highway 17 in front of the Leland Walmart. Construction started and after a few months of hard work we opened for business on September 12^th. At the time, we operated as Kids At Play Drop-In Child Care. We offered drop-in care and soon after we opened, we added preschool and after school care. Our first preschool class had 4 children. I was excited to be leading the way along with my two awesome employees!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2007: This year was pretty uneventful but good for Kids At Play!! This year we changed our name a little to Kids At Play Education Center as we began to put more focus on our preschool classes. This year our preschool grew to 12-15 students. Our drop-in business and staff were slowly growing as well.

2008: What a year. Not every year has been great and this was one of those years. We discovered this year that we could no longer offer drop-in care if we were going to offer full time care for our after school students when they were out of school. We had a tough decision to make and when you only have 15-20 preschool students and 10 after school students, it’s a BIG deal taking away half of your business. It was a tough year full of struggles and at many times, I wondered if we would survive as a small business. Thankfully, I have an amazing business partner that stuck with me through this hard time and helped keep me sane and the electric on! She’s truly a blessing in my life!!

2009: Time to move!! We secured our new location on Blackwell Road and began renovation. Let me tell you something, it took vision to see what it could become. We spent many long days (and well into the nights) scrubbing, sanitizing, and scraping to get our new facility to a place where we could finally paint and install flooring. For the month of December we lived on Mr. Frosty’s subs and Claritin Allergy medicine. We were operating on no sleep and stress levels were high, not to mention we were broke and trying to upfit a new space. Things were tough but somehow we pulled it off and were ready to open January 1^st!

 

Here are a few "before" photos of our new location

 

 

 

This last one was our lobby. The front right door is now our Kindergarten room and the second door is to our library. We had to cut an opening on the back wall to gain access to the hallway. Crazy to see the difference!!

 

2010: As 2009 ended, the only way to go was up!! We opened in our new location on January 2^nd and things finally started getting better. We spent this year working to improve our location adding a playground and security system. We grew a lot this year. As 2010 ended, it was nice to look back and see that all our stress and hard work paid off.

 

 

2011: This year was full of change. This is the year we decided that we would add Kindergarten in the near future, Miss Caroline transitioned into her new administrative role (this was hard for me in the beginning—first person ever to know the inside workings of our business and the first person I was able to give up a little control to), and decided we would change our name to Coastal Day School. We also built our awesome library this year. We added a few new staff members as well this year taking our total to 8 teachers, the most we ever had!! We were averaging around 40 preschool students and 12 after school students at this point.

 

Our awesome library

 

 

2012: My favorite year ever!! This is the year with the most growth ever, we added some amazing teachers, we officially changed our name, and I got to teach the most wonderful class of four year olds! This is also the year I learned to give up *almost* complete control to Caroline in the office to free myself to teach. We added our resource classes this year along with our reading pull-outs (ending the school year with 7 readers.) With our new name, we worked hard to add some coastal flair to our facility. We added our new lobby area and landscaping. Often times throughout this journey, I have felt unequipped and pretty much a failure. This year changed that for me. This is the year that all the pieces started falling into place and I stepped back and was amazed with what I saw. We were thriving. We had an AMAZING staff that I thanked God every day for. There was so much learning and laughing going on each and every day and I was so thrilled about it. I was loving my life and my job. I spent a day this year re-watching all our end of year DVD’s and my heart was so happy looking back at all the incredible families I had the honor of meeting and so many of those people will forever be part of my life. I felt like the luckiest person in the world that these parents allowed me to be part of their child’s life and trusted my staff and I to lead, guide, and teach their precious children. Have I mentioned I REALLY LOVE my job?!

 

My AMAZING class at our Halloween Party!!

 

Our new lobby

 

 

2013: And here we are, another amazing year to add to the books. With new families and teachers, and our very first Kindergarten class, we are getting ready to end another year full of learning, giggles, and fun! We are now averaging 65-70 preschool/kindergarten/MMO children and 20-25 after school children along with 11 teachers leading the way. I'm looking forward to our future plans of building a new facility and expanding our elementary grades! What a truly blessed person I am. I am forever grateful for all the moms and dads out there that stepped through our door and saw a place for their child to grow and learn.  I am touched each day by your encouraging words and support. Coastal Day School would never be what it is today without all of you and your faith in our program and in me. Thank you for helping me to become the teacher, leader, and person I am today. I love all of you and am thankful you all play a part in my story.

-Ashley (owner/program director)

 

 

What's inside a pumpkin?

Teaching children is such a joy to me!  Even more than that, teaching two year olds is the most exciting thing to me! This is my first year teaching at Coastal Day School but I have had experience teaching two year olds before and when I was given the opportunity to teach this age group again, I was ecstatic!  It has been so exciting to already see the two year old class grow and learn new things.  I love that, what we as adults would think it is the simplest thing, they are so excited over.  The month of October we have been learning about the color orange and talking ALL about pumpkins.  We have talked about their shapes, texture, stems, and what is inside a pumpkin.  When we asked what was inside we got answers such as seeds, orange, water and even a few were convinced there was a pumpkin patch IN the pumpkin! I loved the creativity in children!   After we talked about and let the children play with the pumpkins we decided to cut into them.  They were finally able to see what was really in the pumpkin! After we gutted the pumpkin we created a sensory bucket of the seeds and “guts” for the children to be able to feel and play with it.  As an adult all I could think was “Ugh, this is gross,” or “Maybe I should just throw this out,” but as a teacher I HAD to let the children explore and I was so excited to watch them as they were learning.  I know this seems crazy to think that they were learning while they were just playing with the “guts” of the pumpkin but I was able to ask questions like “How does it feel?”  “What color is it?”  “What could you make with it?” “What do you think the seeds taste like?” After we asked all those questions they were able to actually taste the pumpkin seeds.  I toasted them and brought them back to school and with the AM snack I gave each of them an opportunity to taste them.  Of course they were a different texture so most of the children didn’t really care for them but I had a few that kept asking for more.  Most people probably would have no clue that so much learning could come from just a simple pumpkin but the children are beginning to learn the difference of bumpy or smooth,  tall or short, the color orange, and what a circle looks like.  As adults we have to remember that everything around us is a learning environment for children, we just have to let them learn and explore, even if that means getting the “guts” of the pumpkin all over us! J

 

-Shelley (Two Year Old Teacher)