Full Day Kindergarten

So here I am... A few of months away from my first year of teaching Kindergarten completed and I am so excited to see how the students have progressed throughout the year. The other kindergarten teachers and I have been talking about how this year has been different from years past just because our students are a lot further along than years past with half day kindergarten. We are actually having a problem with trying to find assistance to help us with guided reading groups throughout our classes! It's a good problem though! Our students are high enough that they are beyond phonics and need help with reading. Another thing that I have been doing is working on adding things or changing my literacy centers to keep students interested. One problem with this, is I am having trouble with management during the center time because students are becoming so comfortable with their centers and with their center buddies. I need to figure out what to add to keep students working and have them try their hardest. So far, picking a student, at the end of center time, to get a prize is working somewhat, but I want the students to want to work hard and have fun while doing centers without having to give a prize. But overall, having the kids for full day is paying off and instead of teaching them how to read in first grade, we are now doing it in kindergarten.:)