Welcome to Mrs. Tyler's Class!

Meet our new puppeteers inspired by the Milkweed Puppet Theater!
Photos of the Milkweed Puppet Theatre

Fun and Cozy Pajama Day! The kindergarten classes spent a week learning about night time. On Friday, we all wore pajamas. It was a cozy way to do our work on a cold winter day!
Don't you wish bedtime was this easy!!!

Literacy Centers

Abc Center This is some sort of game or puzzles involving the alphabet Alphabet Race A spinner with capital and lower case letters. Children spin and write the letter. Tangram Animals This is a picture of an animal that begins with the sound of the week. Children must use tangrams like a puzzle to make the animal. Phonics Center This comes from our Houghton Mifflin reading program. Children match pictures with letters they begin with, or make a sentence with word and picture cards. Read the Room Children use a seasonal pointer to point to and read letters or words they know around the room. Write the Room Children take a clipboard and pencil and write what they see in the classroom. Sometimes they can choose the words, and sometimes they must find words that begin with specific letters. Writing Center Children may use seasonal paper to practice their writing skills. Ask a Question Children interview their classmates, asking the question of the week. Make a Word Children use letter stamps, letter tiles, or magnetic letters to make and read words.

A day in the life of a Mrs. Tyler's Class! Our Classroom Schedule
8:30 – 9:00: Math tubs	Four activities to review math skills. The tubs may include activities involving number recognition, number writing, graphing, addition and subtraction, money, geometry, or measurement. The children rotate through them during the week.
9:00 - 9:15:  Morning meeting	Calendar work, attendance, morning message to practice reading skills
9:15 - 9:30: Teacher read aloud - a big book or story	We talk about story elements such as characters, plot, setting, problem, solution, beginning, middle, end, our predictions throughout the story, illustrations, and reading the text. Reading the text involves going from left to right, jumping to the next line, the difference between letters, words, and sentences, finding letters and words we know, counting words in a sentence, etc, etc. Parents - you can do this at home now and then while reading stories to your child.
9:30 - 9:45: Snack	We encourage healthy snacks and drinks. Remember - a snack should be thought of as a tiny meal, not an occasion to eat junk food. A bottle of water makes a fine drink!
9:45 - 10:45: Literacy centers	This is where the bulk of our reading instruction and practice comes in. The children have 3 "star centers" (must do centers) each day. These are: The teacher's table, independent table, and handwriting. After that, they may choose from various centers, which change weekly. See above for some examples of our literacy centers.
10:45 - 11:00: Movement activity:	We play a singing circle game, do exercises, march around, etc.
11:00 - 11:25: Math lesson	Math lesson
11:25 - 12:05: Recess and lunch	Time to refuel and get some fresh air - Yeah!
12:05 - 12:15: Daily phonemic awareness	This changes throughout the year, beginning with rhyming words and moving on to syllables, counting words in a spoken sentence, deleting syllables, beginning, ending, and middle sounds in short words, naming all the sounds in words. These skills are essential to reading success!
12:15 - 12:45: Writer's Workshop	We read a story that will make us better writers. We use what we learned in the story in our own writing notebooks. Sometimes I model good writing, letting the children help me spell the words. We talk about capital letters, punctuation, and how to write down a letter for every sound we hear in words.
12:45: Rest time	By now, we all need it!
1:10 - 1:30: Recess	A fun time of day!
1:30: Calendar math:	We add more to this throughout the year. We write the date on a calendar, make tally marks for the date, keep track of the day of school, the weather, birthdays, lost teeth, and the "code" which is the date written in this form: 3-25-07.
1:40: Choosing time	Our favorite time of the day!  Children make choices of where they want to be. The centers change weekly (some change monthly). Some are: art, science, cooking, finger fun, puzzles, books, board game, make believe, blocks, school, math, writing, and listening to a book with headphones.
2:20: Clean up & afternoon wrap up	We review our day, what we learned and how we behaved. We mark our behavior charts, collect our mail and notices to go home, and collect our coats and all our belongings.
	When we don't have snowsuits and boots to deal with, we have time for another story and/or song before we leave.
2:45	Dismissal Begins
This is our general schedule. It changes from day to day because of special classes or events.