part 1
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Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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my parents, it's mrs laura here.
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Um today I'm going to just walk you through what
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we do in kindergarten, so let me start off with
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our presentation.
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So here is our class outside.
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Actually I did this Um on Wednesday was beautiful outside,
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we have a great class, 14 boys and eight girls.
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So pray for me this year.
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No, there there are a lot of fun.
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So today I want to go over um the agenda,
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So we're going to start with introductions and usually when
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you're here in person, I ask you to introduce yourself
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and give me two words that best describe your child.
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And um since you're not here, that's gonna be your
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homework. So email me two words that best describe your
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child. That way I will know that you watch the
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video. I'm going to go over my goals, the curriculum
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what a typical day looks like and you as a
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volunteer notice, it says maybe someday.
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Alright, so here's an introduction of myself.
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I'm originally from Pittsburgh pennsylvania.
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I went to a small college north of Pittsburgh called
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Westminster College and um after I graduated from Westminster, I
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then moved to lancaster pennsylvania and I taught second grade
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there and while I was teaching, I earn my Master's
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degree from Millersville University.
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Yeah, After I taught, I decided to be a stay
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at home mom.
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So I was a stay at home mom for 14
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years and at that time I had four Children and
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when my youngest started into kindergarten I decided to go
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back into teaching and I worked my way around both
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the public and private school substituting and while I was
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substituting um at one of the schools ST joe's grade
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school, they asked me to take over a maternity leave
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for first grade.
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So I did that and then I taught kindergarten at
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ST Monica's which was a catholic school for primary catholic
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school now I think it is part of the Mishawaka
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catholic And I've been at ST pious since it opened
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in 2008, so I'm one of the old women on
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staff and my assistant is mrs brackett and she has
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three Children and I had all three of them in
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kindergarten. Sure, so a little bit about my family, I'm
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married to my husband brian and this is probably the
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last picture we have of everybody together at my daughter's
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wedding up in Quebec.
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But um the one on the far left is my
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youngest Caroline.
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She is a consultant in Chicago and my daughter in
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the middle is my oldest, Emily, she's also doing consulting
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work and lives in Quebec.
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My husband used to work as a director of Notre
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dame submissions and now he's working for the Holy Cross
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congregation um helping them raise money and he also does
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a side business um consulting for students who are trying
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to get into um top tier universities and then to
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the right of him is my daughter Megan and she's
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married now and has a little girl and she was
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a teacher as well, she says stay at home mom
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now and on the far right is my son Nicholas
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and he is at Northwestern right now.
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Getting his PhD in theoretical mathematics.
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So here's a couple um fun little pictures up on
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the top left that's uh are african gray bird named
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tipper. You may have heard about her.
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So she um I was blessed.
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Well I shouldn't say blessed, but I inherited this bird
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from my grandparents and she is now 21 years old
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and I was told she lives to be about 70.
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So lucky me, she talks, she says over 200 phrases
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so she can be a challenge.
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And then in the middle, that's my grandson Charles And
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he's about 15 months.
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And the top right is violet.
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My other granddaughter who is going to be a year
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next week.
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Mhm. So my goals for this year is first of
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all I just want to create an environment in which
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your child looks forward to coming to school.
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Um Just provide an atmosphere that's academically stimulated, also enjoyable.
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And ultimately I want to get them ready for first
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grade, our curriculum that we use, we use the foundation's
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program. So it is a phonics based program for reading
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and you will see a lot of these sound cards
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coming home and it's a little drill practice, a apple
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at, helps them remember the sounds for the letters.
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We also um started a handwriting without tears program a
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few years ago and I absolutely love it.
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It's a multisensory handwriting program and using this program I
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see a lot of um those bees and D reversals.
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That problem tends to be fixed.
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The reversals in general tend to be fixed.
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The kids are doing all sorts of hands on activities
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with their handwriting program.
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Our reading is a scott foresman and we also have
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access to a Fontes and leveled library system.
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So I meet with students three times a week.
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We do an oral language group work.
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We do shared reading and um I have leveled reading
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groups as well.
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Mhm. The daily routine when they come to kindergarten the
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first thing they do I tell them they have to
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get out there snack and their water bottle out of
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their backpack.
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So it really helps to have that snack in a
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separate bag.
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And then they grab their gold folder and they look
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me in the eye every morning and say good morning
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mrs lore and I just love that one on one
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connection it just starts the day off for them.
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You know it's just so important.
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And then um then they take their gold folder and
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they put it in their mailbox after they put it
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in their mailbox.
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They go over and sign in at the beginning of
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the year.
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They're just like this week they're just writing some of
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the letters that we've learned with the handwriting without tears
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program four times next to their name and their name
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is we are only focusing on upper case letters right
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now. So if your child is writing their letters lower
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case, I want you to encourage them to only use
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uppercase letters at this time.
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Mhm. It's cool.
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Um after they sign in at the beginning of the
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year for the first few months, they have some free
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choice activity and they play for a good 30 minutes
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and then I gather them in circle in the circle.
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We start with our Good Morning dear jesus Prayer.
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We always marched to God bless America and we have
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a flag holder.
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We march around the room singing And just it's just
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a transition.
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I just don't believe Children this age should sit longer
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than 10 minutes without getting up and moving.
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Then we come back and we do our calendar and
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I tried to incorporate as much spanish and english in
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that as much as possible.
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And we also do a lot of singing and movement.
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Um after that we break down into center groups.
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So in our literacy centers we have a drama center
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will have crafting, We have building, They come to me
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and leveled reading groups three times a week.
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They listen to a story and they do a reflection
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sheet on the story.
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They go to a reading center, a writing center at
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the ipads.
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They work on reading eggs and they also have a
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mrs brackett center.
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Just here's our, these are some pictures of some of
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the centers that the Children go to a couple more
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pictures of them.
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Some of these kids actually are in high school kind
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of funny.
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Um this is just a picture of writing center and
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to the right at the beginning there um learning about
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using those body parts for them that man there reading
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I and M.
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Those are going to be our first to sight words
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and then they're going to transition into using those sight
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words for writing and illustrating.
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And as the year progresses and as your child's ability
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continues to grow, we get to modify that where they're
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going to be writing their own sentences and illustration and
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illustrating those.
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Mhm. This is just a couple fun little centers as
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you can see they very every week and it's always
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exciting for them to see what they're going to go
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to next.
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After centers, we go out for recess and we will
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go outside even in the winter.
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So all the snow gear, the boots, the gloves that
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you know, all that, yep, we go out, we go
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out in the winter once because there's so there's no
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stuff gets so wet and then we'll have an afternoon
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recess in the afternoon.
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So those velcro slip on shoes.
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I highly encourage you be cut to get those if
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they don't have them now, you know, they're taking their
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shoes on and off numerous times throughout the day.
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And it really helps when they can do it themselves
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after recess.
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We eat lunch and we've been eating lunch in our
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classroom and that's been working really well.
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Um they're eating in their private offices after they're done
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eating, they have to raise their hand, may I be
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excused? And then they disinfect their area and then they
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go back outside to play again after they come back.
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We have rest time and I'm sure you've heard about
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the rest tickets.
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This is just a little motivation Um for them to
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stay on their rest mats and stay quiet.
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It's really just a self reflection quiet time.
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They can read a book, they can rest, they can
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take their shoes off and it's really no more than
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10, 15 minutes.
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15 minutes is probably the longest.
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And then when they're done, they get a little punch
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on their card and after they receive 10 punches, then
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they get a coupon and the coupons good for a
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day of not having to rest while the other kids
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are resting.
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They could play on the iPad or do a little
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crafting activity And then they have to earn another 10
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punches to get a coupon.
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Um, so they get so excited to get those special
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coupons and then um after that we have show and
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tell and keep those show and tells coming.
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They love love love show and tell.
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So if you forget it, they are devastated.
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So please if you don't remember anything try to remember
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your child's show and tell every week and then we
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have math centers in the afternoon that they visit three
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times a week.
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Um we have snack in the afternoon and here is
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just to run down of are scheduled to changed a
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little bit.
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So monday we now just have art mrs Byron's move
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to friday Tuesday is Cacace is of the good shepherd.
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That's our religion program in the atrium.
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It's a monastery based hands on religion program and Wednesday
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spanish gym and library and thursday gym.
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So I know a lot of parents are thinking we
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only have gym once a week but it's Wednesday and
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thursday so make note of that on friday we have
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music, we have computer time and we have mrs Byron
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that comes in and we call her our feelings to
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teacher that's the social emotional learning.
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And on Tuesday every other Tuesday we are going to
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go to church but it's just a small kindergarten prayer
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service. We will not be going to mass at all
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this year.
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Last year I talked father bill into just having a
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mass strictly for kindergarten or not massive prayer service and
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it was only 10 minutes long.
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It's perfect.
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The kids don't complain about going, we can all sit
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close together, we don't have to distance and he does
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a fabulous, fabulous job and I asked him if we
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could do it again this year and he said he
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would love to um math, we have the everyday math
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program and it's a very hands on.
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You're not going to see a lot of paper pencil
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things. It's a lot of strategy games and thinking games
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and fun activities that Children do.
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It's just a couple.
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Oh goodness, thanks, hopes they don't want to.
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So anyway, these are just some fun little math centers
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patterning there when we're learning to add using base 10
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blocks. Here are these two boys are learning how to
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add by putting little pebbles in their egg carton and
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shaking them and opening them up and they're going to
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see like two plus two, the marbles land on a
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two and a two and they can do some adding
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activities with that.
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Yeah, our behavior system, I told them we only have
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one rule that they had to sign their name for
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and