Teaching with Modified full day Kindergarten Program

[kindernj123]

Hello,

I am new to the website. I am looking to hear from teachers who have moved from half day programs to a modified full day kindergarten program. This means we have two afternoon groups for two days that are half size and all students attend all day on Wednesday.

We are in the process of re-organizing our program and would like to hear from teachers regarding what you feel was the best use of the extra time especially since there are two small groups two days a week (A group and B group). What did you do with the small groups?
What did you find worked best during that small group time? Did you find creative ways to enrich your current curriculum or did you and more to the curriculum?

I would love to hear from you. Thanks for your time and advice.

[javamomma]

That is an interesting approach to K. Our district does full time every day. The K students have the same schedule as everyone else in the building (k-4).

[SLP]

My son's kindergarten class really enjoyed the Kid Writing program. It involved small groups. They did not have small enough groups, so the parents signed up to help out every week. The program encourages kindergarteners to keep a journal & draw and write about what they drew with a phonic based writing approach. Here is the website:

http://www.kidwriting.homestead.com/

The kids really liked it and each child had a nice journal to remember events of his life at the end of his kindergarten year!

[dolmansaxlil]

Our school is a halftime program, but full day. So my son goes Tues, Thurs, every other Friday. The other group is Mon, Wed, every other Friday.

The biggest problem for us is the transition into junior kindergarten. Our cutoff date for ages is December 31st, so a bunch of kids are still 3 when they enter. Late in the afternoon, story time often means that kids fall asleep.