So What's the Deal with Pre-K

I haven't talked much about this group yet.  We have a very, VERY large pre-k department for the size of our school.  There are 7 classes of 10 kids.  Two classes are 3 days a week, but the others are 5 days a week.  They are all a full day program.  For us that means 8:25-3:05.

Right now I am seeing the students for 30 minutes.  We start with a story-time song that I stole from the internet somewhere.  My version goes like this:
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (repeat)
If you're ready for story, if you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story clap your hands.

Other verses - jump up high (we say "wheee" as we jump), turn around (just once), do all three.  The final verse:
If you're ready for a story take a seat.
If you're ready for a story stay in your seat.
If you're ready for a story, make your hands all nice and neat,
If you're ready for a story, stay in your seat.

Originally each line was "take a seat," but one year I had a group of kids that would jump up so they could sit back down.  It sounds kind of cute thinking about it now, but at the time it drove me bonkers.  Probably because they would get so silly it was hard to get them to focus again.

Then I read a story.  I usually have some kind of a theme that ties things together.  To break things up we will play a game, do a finger rhyme, or get up and dance and sing.  We follow that up with another story.  Depending on the length of the various books and activities, I may have more that we do.  We end with another song that I stole from somewhere a long time ago.
Touch your nose, touch your chin,
That's the way this game begins,
Touch your eyes, touch your knees
Now pretend you are going to sneeze (ah-choo).
Touch your elbows where they bend
Now jump up and whisper
The end.

If anyone knows where I may have stolen these songs from please leave a comment and I will edit accordingly.

Last week we started doing book checkout.  With this group they select one book that is checked out to their teacher and stays in the classroom.  For now, I select about 30 books and put them on the tables for the students to choose from.  The books are usually selected from my book returns to save time.  Later on I teach them how to use shelf markers, but not yet!  I have a parent volunteer (my mom - she's a parent) that does my shelving.  I think she would quit if I let pre-k loose on the shelves at this point.

In a few weeks we will be extending our time to 45 minutes and it will include using the computers.  One year I did start with the full 45 minutes including computers from the first week of school.  I don't do that now!  They need to get a little more in the swing of school and a little more self-sufficient before I'm ready to tackle computers with them.  They are pretty savvy when it comes to mobile devices, but mice throw them for a loop.  They are also used to having a parent or someone around that can help them in they run into a problem.  They are not used to having to wait their turn while I am helping 9 other students.