Kindergarten sub plans: community helpers day

8:10–8:35Morning work

1. Take attendance and the lunch count the way the office asked.
2. Put the morning board on the projector (/board/morning) and type today's schedule into it.
3. While you take attendance, students answer this on paper or in their journals: “Tell about a time when you were brave.”
4. Students who can't write it yet draw it and tell you about it.
5. Read the plan for the day out loud, so the class knows what's coming.

On the projector: Morning board for the projector

Break: Rock climb (30 sec, silent). Reach one hand up and then the other, as if you are climbing a tall rock wall. Pull yourself up higher and higher, then climb slowly back down.

8:35–9:40Reading: Pip Helps Out

1. Hand out “Pip Helps Out”, a fiction passage of 59 words. Print 24: the student copy is in this packet.
2. Read it aloud once while the class follows along with a finger. Then partners read it to each other in whisper voices.
3. Ask the 5 questions out loud, one at a time. Students answer with a partner first, then share. Each student draws a picture of their favorite part.
4. With five minutes left, go over two questions out loud. The answers are on the key page: keep it with you.

📄 Pip Helps Out (passage and key)

9:55–10:40Writing

1. Write this on the board: “Should we have a longer recess? Tell why.”
2. Give partners two minutes to tell each other their idea out loud before anyone writes.
3. Students draw a picture first, then write one or two sentences about it. Sound words out together rather than spelling each one for them.
4. Volunteers read theirs aloud at the end. Collect the papers for the teacher.

On the projector: Writing prompts by grade

Break: Ski down the mountain (45 sec, silent). Swing your arms from side to side as if you are skiing down a mountain. Lean left, lean right, and slow to a stop at the bottom.

10:40–11:40Math: make 10

1. Warm-up: count together by ones to 20, then by tens to 100.
2. Hand out the make 10 sheet (16 problems). Print 24; the key is on its own page.
3. Students work on their own for twenty minutes, then check with a partner.
4. Early finishers write three problems of their own and swap with a neighbor.

📄 Make 10 (sheet and key)

1:05–1:30Read-aloud

1. Open the read-aloud shelf (/read-aloud) on the projector and pick a book for kindergarten. Read it aloud, or let it read itself.
2. Before: ask what they think the book will be about, from the cover or the title.
3. After: ask who the story was about, what the problem was, and how it was solved.

On the projector: Read-aloud books for the projector

Break: Balloon breath (1 min, silent). Breathe in slowly through your nose as you picture a balloon filling up. Breathe out slowly through your mouth as the balloon lets its air go.

1:30–2:20Social studies: Who Helps at School?

1. Before reading, students fill in the first two columns of the K-W-L sheet: what they know about community helpers, and what they want to know. After reading, the last column: what they learned.
2. Hand out “Who Helps at School?”, a nonfiction passage of 47 words. Print 24: the student copy is in this packet.
3. Read it aloud once while the class follows along with a finger. Then partners read it to each other in whisper voices.
4. Ask the 5 questions out loud, one at a time. Students answer with a partner first, then share. Each student draws a picture of their favorite part.
5. With five minutes left, go over two questions out loud. The answers are on the key page: keep it with you.

📄 Who Helps at School? (passage and key) · a K-W-L sheet

Break: Thigh drumroll (30 sec). Pat your thighs faster and faster like a drumroll, then slow all the way down and finish with one big clap.

2:20–2:40Extra time

1. Hand out the maze. Students who finish draw a maze of their own on the back and swap with a neighbor.
2. Anyone who would rather read may read their own book.

📄 a maze

If your school's filter allows peabody.kids: Deep Dig: put it on the projector and let the class call out the answers together

Break: Jellyfish arms (30 sec, silent). Float your arms up and ripple them like jellyfish. Wiggle faster as the current pulls, then go slow again.

2:40–2:55Clean-up and the note

1. Tidy the room on a five-minute timer (/timer/5-minutes on the projector).
2. Ask each student for one thing they learned today. Passing is fine.
3. Fill in the note to the teacher (the last page) and leave it on the teacher's desk with the papers you collected.
4. Dismiss the class the way this school does it. If you're not sure how a student gets home, ask the office before you let them go.

On the projector: 5 minute timer