Peek at My Week…Color Days!

Last week was getting to know the rules and routines. I pretty much feel like I got nothhhhing done except for that. I over planned so now I have a huge stack of extras that you might pop up here and there for the next few weeks. After doing this for a few years, I know that trying to cram too much in can be exhausting for me and the kids. I just always have it planned just in case…but I don’t even know why I bother 🙂 We have to practice getting in line at least five times without taking someone out on the way so it leaves little to no time to get in a lot of academic work.

I tell you this so you know it’s totally normal to not get to everything the first couple of weeks, or maybe even all year. You just have to get a feel for your class and what they are capable of doing. Some years, you will fly and other years you will have a huge load to take to the recycling bin at the end of the week. Just know that every year is different and each group needs a little different TLC.

This week, we are going to start color days.

Monday- Red Day

Tuesday- Orange Day

Wednesday- Yellow Day

Thursday- Green Day

Friday- Blue Day

Of course, those aren’t all of the colors so it will extend in to next week as well. The whole Kindergarten will do the days together and it’s always fun for the kids (and teachers…) to dress in the color for the day. Parents always comment on how easy it is to get their kids dressed for the day since they only have so many clothes that are one color.

Here is my week.

Here is what my bookshelf looks like.

And if you’re asking whether or not I let my kids “touch” and “read” the books on my bookshelf. The answer is ABSOLUTELY! We did “Book Lover vs. Book Bully” lesson last week from Kim Adsit’s Reader’s Workshop and they know what the expectations are for handling books. I tell them that books are THE most important thing in the classroom…other than them. If they drop a book on the floor, we make a big dramatic “OH NO!” and they pick up and hug the book. It’s all very dramatic and silly but it gets the kids to respect and take care of books. If you teach them the expectations, they will not disappoint. This is always a lesson I do the very first week of school.

This summer, I created a unit that follows what we do each day for Color Days. If you are interested in carrying out color days with your kiddos, you can find everything you need in this unit.

For morning work this week, they are doing this differentiated color work. 

I am starting literacy stations this week but I am not doing reading groups and I am going to be spending that time with them in stations helping them rotate through. We are also going to start BUILD tubs, but again, I won’t be meeting with groups. During that time, we are going to be learning how to move to stations and how to find them. Then, we are going to work on staying on task. Last week, we did the “staple” stations…the ones I pretty much keep out all year. Stations like Read and Write the Room, Dictionary Drive, Listening Station, Computer Station and Magnetic Mountain.

I am currently (and hopefully finishing today) working on a Read and Write the Room unit for the year. I will let you know as soon as it’s ready to go!

BUILD is a concept that I use for my math tubs. We are going to be using August BUILD as well as Math Spins.

In honor of Red Day tomorrow, I’d love for you to have this Red emergent reader freebie. We are going to do them for each of the colors as part of our color days.

So there’s my week! Hope you have a great week and maybe if it’s your first week you won’t do like I did and bite off more than you can chew 🙂

My friend Erica shared this week me…so true!