Traditions

The start of a new preschool season is upon us today. We have sent off a handful of ripe Kindergartners and welcomed some new bright faces. Any teacher knows the first day of any new school year sets the tone for the rest of the year. In our classroom we have adopted some traditions, little rituals we use at the beginning of each year to set a tone of community and respect in our classroom.

The first thing we do is set up a Buddy System. We pair our Greenie Ambassadors with a new friend. This gives our older students a sense of responsibility to the new friends; you should see them beam with pride as they show their younger Buddy around the room, take their little hands and show them the ins and outs of being a Greenie.

An older Greenie helps a new friend put his blanket away. 

During our circle time we talk about our classroom rules. The classroom rules are kept simple in our room.

1) We will take care of ourselves.
2) We will take care of each other.
3) We will take care of our classroom.

This pretty much covers all bases as we talk about the nuances of each rule. It would be easy to make a lists of 'no's' and 'don'ts' but I have come to find that for the most part kids are good at knowing what they can't do, rarely do we get a chance to celebrate what they can do and how their choices positively affect themselves, each other, and their environment.

We are looking forward to also having home visits and a class social in the coming month, which are great at building our family community.

Here's to a great new year! Cheers!