Reflecting and Planning for the Upcoming Year

Summertime...pool days, hot sun, lazy days, beach trips, lake days, family time, vacations etc. These are all things I look forward to as summer gets near. But summer also signifies a time of reflection, planning and preparing for next school year. I am like a little kid in a candy shop when I start thinking about next year. I dream of what my room will be like, the changes I will make, the improvements that will be made and of course I think about the cute little giggly kindergarteners that will grow and mature under my care.

This summer, I have BIG plans for next year. I am so excited that several members on my team have decided together to start Daily 5/CAFE in our classrooms! I know that my kinders are going to LOVE IT! I ordered the Daily 5 book during the school year and being the nerd that I am, I read it in ONE NIGHT! Seriously, I took a nice bubble bath and read Daily 5. It is an EASY read and I highly recommend you read this book if you have not. So I am spending my summer preparing notebooks of resources to make the first 30 days a little bit easier. I also just ordered the CAFE book and I am sitting on pins and needles for its arrival!

The last several days, I have been thinking a lot about the Read to Self time. I am super excited about teaching my kinders about stamina and taking the time with the mini lessons to help mold them into readers. I know taking the time at the beginning of the year will be well worth it! Our district already requires independent reading for 20-30 minutes a day so  I am feeling fairly confident about the Read to Self time. Because my school requires this time (also known as 100 Book Challenge) all of my students will do Read to Self together and I will do independent reading conferences during this time. (I also plan to allow it to be a choice for them.  If they want to read twice during the day, I am not going to stop that!)

I have been thinking a lot about our book boxes for next year. I have a class set of cute neon orange and purple book boxes. (I stalked Target last summer for several weeks to  buy them!) This year  my kinders kept their 100 Book Challenge books in them, school library book, class library books and I got a DonorsChoose project funded for some leveled books that they read. They had several options but I feel like they still need MORE especially at the beginning of the year to build their confidence. So my kinder team was doing a lot of thinking and our plan is to add: ABC charts, a book that they can add their sight words in and maybe a book with all of their friends pictures with their name. I want my kinders to know that from the beginning that they CAN read. So what do you place in your book boxes? Are you planning any changes for next year? Please share!