December is a time of fun, chaos, and sweet surprises in kindergarten. We’ve spent a lot of time this month collecting items for our community service project benefiting Hands On Texarkana. Our St. James families brought in all kinds of nourishing foods and hygiene supplies and the kindergartners packed the supplies into bags to be passed out to local senior citizens in need. They loved seeing how full we were able to get the bags and got so excited every time we were able to add a new item to the bags.

We also had a fun visitor show up! Bumpo the elf came back to kindergarten for his 13th year and is spreading his Christmas magic. Let’s hope he can hang in there until next Thursday!

Kindergarten went on a hunt for nouns before Thanksgiving break. We learned that nouns are people, places, and things (animals too). We read the book Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt and got all dressed up for our Noun Hunt. We walked around campus looking for nouns. It was a great way to burn off some of their holiday energy while still learning!

It was show and tell Friday in kindergarten. Show and tell happens once a month but the kids always look forward to it. I don’t mind it either because I know how many early literacy skills are being developed. Cognitive development skills are practiced when choosing an item to share and planning what to say. While it may seem like just a chance to bring a toy to school show and tell is actually building rich descriptive vocabulary, strengthening storytelling skills, and fostering connection and inclusivity! Children that love to share get a chance to do so and more reserved children get a chance to practice public speaking skills in a safe environment. The audience is building listening skills and empathy. Show and Tell is a win for everyone!

We have enjoyed exploring pumpkins this month! We picked our pumpkin at the Dixie Maze field trip then brought it back to the classroom. After reading the book Pumpkin Jack we talked about the parts of a pumpkin and the pumpkin life cycle. We were even able to taste roasted pumpkin seeds! The class helped carve our pumpkin and we waited eagerly to see some signs of decomposition in him. As soon as we saw mold we took him out to the garden beds where we can watch his full decomposition! On Friday we gathered ingredients and made our own pumpkin pie (in a cup). Students are always able to pick which ingredients they would like to avoid. Most found that they actually liked the taste even if the looks of canned pumpkin threw them off a little!

Mornings can be a little busy in kindergarten. Students may not even be fully awake yet but a full day of learning is starting. I need them to come in and get to work relatively quickly, quietly, and independently so that I can handle all of the issues that pop up in the morning. Ideally, I also want them engaged, excited, and working on important skills. Our Morning Work Drawers fulfill ALL of those things! Students come in and find their name on a drawer then pull that drawer out and get to work. Each drawer works on an important skill like number, letter, and name recognition, sight word knowledge, patterns, counting, etc. But perhaps more importantly the drawers all work on fine motor skills that are often weak in today’s students. They are excited about all of the fun finds in their drawers and I am excited about all of the hard work that they are doing before 8:00 in the morning!