Beginning of the Year!

I am so excited that I have a whole new group of kinders this year! The beginning of the year is always hectic and stressful, but totally worth it.  I wanted to share some of the things that I do those first few days of school. Along with rules, procedures, and expectations we do lots of stories and activities with getting to know you themes.  The first day I read The Kissing Hand and we made these cute Chesters:

                                  

I also read David Goes to School and we discuss appropriate behavior and actions at school. We also did a Kagan structure called Find Someone Who, where they go around a find someone who likes pizza, sports, ice cream, etc....I also made the students "Magic Playdoh" to start off the day right. It is seemingly white at first, but as they play with it the Playdoh turns a color.  They are so excited and amazed.

The second day I read Monstergarten and we made these glue dot glitter monsters to teach about glue control.

                                 

We also read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and make torn paper trees, which we put foam letters on to spell their names. Sorry, I forgot to get a pic of these! My favorite first week project is the name rainbows shown below. I read Chrysamthemum and then we make our name rainbows out of torn paper. I usually leave these up all year if they don't fall down because of the crazy Kansas humidity!

                                   

I simply cut a sheet of construction paper in half lengthwise and then write their name with a Sharpie. They then have to cover up the letters with paper, going in the order of the rainbow.

The first two full weeks of school we study a color each day and do a special activity, along with wearing that color. It is neat and I will post more about that later.  I am so excited to be off to a new year with my new kiddos!