Advent in Kindergarten

During the Advent season, I try to teach my kids the meaning of Advent and Christmas.  We talk a lot about preparing our hearts for Jesus and getting excited for Him to come on His birthday.

Here is our Religion bulletin board.  We have the poster that came with our religion curriculum.  There is one small chapter about Christmas and Advent, so I've done a lot of supplementing. 

We completed this page together as a class.  I found scriptures that go with each candle and we read them from the Bible together.  Then, we talked about what each candle means and why this is so important.

We also talked about the colors of the calendars and how the Christ candle is white because Jesus is pure.  We discussed how our wedding dresses and Baptism dresses are white also.  Then, we talked about the meaning of candles and how Jesus is the light of our life.  The advent wreath is made of evergreen leaves because they are everlasting like God and Jesus. 

Each student also wrote what gift they are going to give Jesus this year.  Since God and Jesus give us gifts every year, we wanted to give back to them.  These little papers are placed on the Religion board.  We talked about all the things we can give Jesus and how we love Him so much!

Merry Christmas!

Teaching Kindness

In the classroom, one thing that is so important to teach is kindness.  This is something I have been focusing on this school year because I hear so many students speaking harshly to one another.

One way I decided to help promote being kind was to do random acts of kindness.  I taught my students that kindness is when you do something from your heart, and not because you want something in return.

When someone does something kind for someone else, they feel good about it.  They are welcome to share it with me, but they aren't able to write their name on the chart.  I want them to do nice things because they want to, not because they want their name on the chart.

In order for kids to put names on the chart, they must have had someone do something kind to them.  For example, if Billy helps Suzie pick up trash.  Suzie can put Billy's name on the chart for doing something kind.  Billy can then be excited that she acknowledged him, but he is not putting his own name on the chart. 

I love how my students have really been excited about this!  They are constantly doing nice things for one another and sharing what they did.  Many students are quick to recognize other students and get excited to add their friend's name to the chart.

I highly encourage trying this in your classroom.  It did take lots of modeling and guiding my students in the beginning, but now they do it all on their own!

Classroom Substitute

This is one of my new classrooms jobs this school year.  I LOVE it, and so do the children.  Basically, one of my students is the classroom substitute.  Instead of subbing for other students when they are absent, the student is MY substitute. 

Each time we transition from centers or lessons to the next activity, the kids usually gather on the rug.  This is when my classroom substitute comes forward and does sight word flashcards with the students or points to the number grid to practice counting.  

The substitute picks two students and shows them a flashcard and whoever says the word first wins!

This is SO helpful for me because I can spend this time helping students finish their activity or prepare my things for the next lesson. 

What are some of your favorite classroom jobs? 

Classroom Faith Buddies

Our school brings the older students together with the younger students.  One way we do that is by having what we call faith buddies.  If you are in a non-religious school, you could call them classroom buddies, reading buddies, buddy (insert school mascot), etc.

You can see my kids working with their faith buddies.  They LOVE getting to see them. 

Here my kids are making thankful turkeys with their faith buddies. 

It's a great way for my kids to practice conversation skills and get to know the older kids.

My kids feel so special when they see their faith buddies.  They really enjoy seeing them in the hallways.

Here is a list of things we do with our faith buddies:

1.  Read together.

2.  Celebrate our reading or writing units.

3.  Play math games.

4.  Make a craft for the holidays.

5.  Go to mass together.

6.  Eat lunch together. 7.  Go on a field trip together. 8. Share a snack and tell stories. 9.  Play a game together. 10.  Make gifts for each other.
Do you have faith buddies at school?  If so, what do you call them and what types of things do you do together?