KINDERGARTEN

kindergarten teacher

Mrs. Erin Hughes

A graduate of Western Illinois University, Mrs. Hughes brings a wealth of life experience and a deep love for early childhood education to our Kindergarten classroom. Though she is a Warsaw native—where she currently resides with her husband and attends Sacred Heart Church—her journey has taken her across the country, with time spent in Chicago, Cape Cod, Nebraska, and South Carolina. During those adventurous years, Mrs. Hughes chose to step away from the traditional classroom to raise her three beautiful children, cherishing the opportunity to use her teaching degree to learn and play right alongside them at home. Once her kids were older, she joyfully returned to her vocation by joining the Sts. Peter and Paul family. Now celebrating roughly a decade of teaching at SPPS, Mrs. Hughes has a profound passion for Kindergarten and holds a very special place in her heart for our school community.

“I think if you love teaching, then you have to love learning, because you are going to learn something new every day. You’re going to learn how to be more flexible, more patient, more loving and more giving. And none of those things are bad. Even then, you’re still learning, you’re still growing. I love that teaching gives me that opportunity. I love that every day I’m not just the teacher, but the student too. God works through all of us in His own amazing way.”  -- Mrs. Erin Hughes

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A day in the life of Kindergarten!

Kindergarten's day begins right when the kiddos walk in the door. They hang up their backpacks, make a lunch choice, get a workbox and work at their seat, or sometimes the carpet, until it's time for circle prayer. This is what we do every morning. It's one of our routines and, especially at the beginning of the year, there is comfort in routine. 

Here's a peek at our day . . . Please keep in mind that times may vary here and there, because sometimes we are really excited about what we're learning, and sometimes we need a break.

  • 7:45-8:10- Backpacks and morning work

  • 8:10-8:25- Circle Prayer

  • 8:30-8:45- Morning Meeting - This is where we talk about what we are doing today, what news the kiddos want to share, we read a book and we do a phonemic awareness lesson together.

  • 8:50-9:45- Superkids Reading Program - We break our reading program up into different parts. We do handwriting, Superkids songs, workbooks that we work on together, stories and letter/word games. 

  • 9:45- We have a snack and some recess time and then we come back in for math.

  • 10:30-11- I use a program called KinderMath that builds on the skills we have learned. So, we start out with identifying and writing numbers 1-10 and sorting by different attributes then we move on to comparing numbers and then to identifying teen numbers and so on. We start out at a slower pace and then build on a strong foundation.

  • 11:00-11:20- Religion - We usually read and discuss Bible stories, sometimes we act them out, sometimes we have a game that goes along with our story. This year I want to incorporate the lives of the saints more into our day. I have a few new ideas for that. I think it's important to give kiddos real examples of kindness and I'm excited to give the saints a bigger presence in our classroom.

  • 11:20-11:35- Orton Gillingham sound cards and blending, followed by writing letters in sand trays

  • 11:40- We have lunch, afternoon recess and, when we get back into our classroom, we have rest time. The kiddos may not fall asleep, but I think it's important that they have a bit of a break to relax. 

  • 1:15-1:50- Centers or Science - At the beginning of the year, centers are very simple. We spend time making center transitions and good behaviors part of a routine, so later on the centers can be run by the kiddos. That way I can work with smaller groups or one-on-one getting in some extra practice with a Superkids story or learning a new skill. For science, we use Amplify Science and our first unit will be on butterflies.

  • 1:50-2:20- Specials, either PE or Music

  • 2:25- Calendar - We end our day with calendar time and maybe count with our puppet, Harriet, or play a math game.

  • 2:45- We pack up and go to the gym to say good-bye with our school family. 

And that's a typical day, but things look different on Friday's, because we have mass in the morning. Fridays are also our day for art, so we don't have centers or science in the afternoon. We have clergy visits on Wednesdays and a House Challenge might pop up sometime too. And, sometimes, we just take a break and play. In Kindergarten, we like our schedule, but we need to be flexible too. :)