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Kindergarten Classroom Daily Schedule

Daily Schedule

Full Day Session: 9:20 a.m. – 3:55 p.m.

Students begin their day in a circle with their Morning Meeting. After sharing time, students complete the calendar, explore math and language through our excellent curriculum and supplementary activities. Students spend about an hour each day with one of our Specialist Teachers. Full day students have a lunch period, followed by recess. Students also spend a portion of their day exploring the world through science and social studies activities.

Specialist Schedule:

Classrooms have a three day rotation for specialists.

  • The specialist classrooms rotate which are:
    • Physical Education
    • Music
    • Art

Guided Reading Groups

Guided Reading groups meet several days a week (Monday–Thursday, usually) for approximately 20 minutes. These groups are teacher led and ability based.

  • Guided reading groups are fluid. Students move in and out depending on their individual progress.
  • Guided Reading Group Activities (examples):
    • Letter sound games
    • Beginning reading activities
    • Sight word introduction and practice
    • Word family introduction and practice
    • Reading at grade level

Star of the Day

Each day of the month, a different child is assigned to be the Special Helper in the classroom. This role allows students an opportunity to participate as leaders. 

Six Key Components of the Responsive Classroom

Kenny uses Responsive Classroom to guide school climate. Responsive Classroom is based on sound principles of Child Development theory and on a commitment to teach the social skills of CARES: Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self-control.

The components of classroom practice at Kenny that teach these skills are:

  • Morning Meeting which provides students daily opportunity to practice greetings, conversation, and activities and motivates them to meet the academic challenges of the day ahead
  • Rules and Logical Consequences, which are generated, modeled, and role-played with students, and become a cornerstone of classroom life
  • Guided Discovery of learning materials, areas of the room, and routines—this is a technique that moves students through a deliberate and careful introduction to new experiences; there is no assumption that students already know how to do something before they begin
  • Classroom Organization that provides active interest areas for students, space for student-created displays of work, and an appropriate mix of whole-class, group, and individual instruction
  • Academic Choice for all students every day, in which they must take control of their own learning in a meaningful way, both individually and cooperatively
  • Assessment and Reporting to parents, an evolving process of mutual communication and understanding.

Kindergarten Curriculum

Themed lessons and activities focus on these instructional goals: Oral Language (rhymes, chants, motion songs); Phonemic Awareness; Letter Recognition; Concepts of Print; Reading; Comprehension; and Writing and Language. 

 Reading.  Kenny kindergarten teachers use the Benchmark Curriculum. This curriculum focuses on the following:

  • Phonics
  • Independent Reading
  • Reader’s Theater
  • Writer’s Workshop
  • Guided Reading

 Mathematics.  The Bridges Curriculum is used to teach mathematics at Kenny. Kindergarteners receive an introduction to these concepts and principles:

  • Counting & comparing
  • Patterns & functions
  • Measuring & counting
  • 2 dimensional & 3 dimensional geometry
  • Addition, subtraction & the number system
  • Data analysis

  Science.  Kindergarteners at Kenny will use FOSS (Full Option Science System) materials in the classroom. The Minneapolis school district requires two or more units of Science. Kenny teachers also do additional units on seeds and plants in the spring. Kindergarten Science units include:

  • Trees (taught throughout the year)
  • Paper, Fabric, or Wood
  • Seeds and Plants
  • Animals
  • Bee Bots, an introduction to coding

  Social/Emotional Behavior.  Activities in the kindergarten classroom enable students to develop awareness and acceptance of self and of people different from self. Through the Responsive Classroom, Second Step curriculum and Amaze, students are encouraged to interact positively and build relationships with others, to share and play cooperatively with adult support, to separate successfully from parent or caregiver, and to participate in both group and self-directed activities. 

(revised 12/2023)