Welcome
to Kindergarten!!
Daily
Schedule:
A)
Arriving
Activities: After the children
come in, hang up their coats, and get settled at their seats/check their
book bag, they have an activity to begin their day.
These vary from day to day and include things like play-dough,
stencils, books to look at, a color or art related activities, and a mix
of hands-on manipulatives.
B)
Restroom
C)
The
Pledge
D)
To
the Carpet Area! Here we do
the calendar, the weather and finger plays, songs, stories, days of the
week, months of the year, rhyming words, opposites, numbers and letters.
We also have our Buddy Bear home visit reports.
We come to the Carpet Area several times during the day for many
other things, too. Like our
writing lessons, stories, and much of our reading program.
E)
Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays-on these days we do a few papers, done completely
together now, step-by-step. They
include math pages, numbers, printing names, listening for comprehension
and detail, and other types of readiness activities.
Also on these days we do our reading program lessons, which include
songs, poems, posters, reading and reading books, and lesson related
papers. We will also be doing
“journal” work, a pre-reading and pre-writing activity.
We look at each paper and give the children a smiley face, a stamp,
or a sticker for their effort.
F)
Tuesdays
and Thursdays we will have “Imagination Stations.” These are 8 areas
set up in the room with different, mostly hands-on, materials for the
children to do. The class is
divided into groups of 3 or 4 children, and these groups move every 12
minutes.
G)
Pass
out notes
H)
Restrooms
I)
Snack
J)
Outside
play, if nice weather
K)
Dismissal
to buses-11:00 a.m. and
Special
Activities:
Mondays-Reading/Writing and Computer Lab
Tuesdays-Imagination
Stations
Wednesdays-Gym
and Music
Thursdays-Imagination
Stations
Fridays-Library and Science Lab
Houghton-Mifflin
Whole Language Literature Based
This
program stresses literature, phonics, and beginning writing skills.
Much of this is presented at the Carpet Area to the entire class.
The first semester we stress alphabet letter names and sounds, and
introduce words. There are 5
themes, or units, each semester. We
spend approximately 3 weeks on each of these themes.
There are also papers we do to stress the skills taught and to
encourage creative thinking.
D’Nealian
Penmanship/Modern Manuscript:
This
is used throughout the elementary school. I have sent home a sample
writing paper.
Math:
We
do several math papers a week and do math related skills daily, like the
calendar and counting aloud. The
Saxon Math Series is used as a guide line.
Child
Evaluation Reports:
We
do not have kindergarten report cards.
We have “evaluations” and our first one will be conference with
each of our parents in November. The
second evaluation will be held in March and we hope to be able to have
conferences at that time, as well. At
these conferences, we will have checklists and will have evaluated each
child individually. Since
these replace an actual report card, it is very important for you to
attend. The third evaluation
will be a written report sent home at the end of May.
Then during the last week of school we will send a packet home that
includes the checklists from both conferences and the written evaluation
for you to keep.
November
Conference Days:
Times
for these will include morning, afternoon and evening appointments.
During the September Parent Meeting, you can sign up for a time
suitable for your schedule-otherwise I will assign you a time.
Please remember this is the first evaluation, in place of a report
card, so it is important that you attend!
Parties:
Please
sign up to help with one of out parties-Fall Harvest Day, Christmas, or
Valentine’s Day. You will be
contacted before that party- a great big THANK YOU!
If your child would like to celebrate his/her birthday at school,
please write a note/e-mail or call so that we can plan around our class
out times.
Kindergarten
Wish List:
In
kindergarten, more than any other grade level, we use a lot of consumable
supplies. We have created a
wish list of things that we frequently use in the classroom and would
appreciate it if you could donate any of the much needed items.
Snack time items are also donations we welcome: cups, napkins,
drinks, and snacks. Items
needed will be posted on “Our Parent Helper Tree” located directly
inside my room.
Field Trips:
You
will always be asked to sign a permission slip allowing you child to
participate. Some field trips
will require chaperones (NO younger siblings).
Imagination
Stations:
The following is a list of some of the various skills and different
materials that may be used to reinforce these concepts during our
“Imagination Station” days. The
goals of this program are learning through visual and tactile experiences,
and to utilize and develop the children’s creativity.
Ø
Alphabet:
activities to reinforce the alphabet letter names and sounds such
as upper and lower case alphabet stamps, and alphabet puzzles.
Ø
Math:
activities to reinforce the math skills such as unifix cubes to
pattern, and small, plastic bears to count number values.
Ø
Penmanship:
activities to reinforce penmanship skills such as tracing giant tactile
upper and lower case letters, and stamping words from example.
Ø
Puzzles:
further development of eye-hand coordination and sequencing.
Ø
Computer:
basic introduction to computer skills using educational discs.
Ø
Miscellaneous:
an assortment of activities to strengthen various skills, and many
of these are at our Carpet Area, as well as, listening centers.
This
is a small sampling of the many materials that we have accumulated the
last several years. We do art
projects, and sometimes even go outside for some of the activiti8es.
The rom is divided into 8 stations and the children are grouped
with no more that 4 per group. We
set at timer for approximately 10-12 minutes, and when the timer rings,
each group rotates to the next station.
Every child gets to all 8 activities.
General
Policies:
A)
Please send a note when your child is absent from
school, stating the specific reason. The
state/health department requires a note so that all illnesses can be
reported to them.
B)
Please notify me if you child has a communicable
illness such as chicken pox, lice, impetigo, etcetera.
C)
Please notify me or the school if your child is
riding another bus, staying after school or of any other change in normal
routine.
D)
When sending a note with your child, please put it
in an envelope marked “NOTE” with my name and your child’s name on
the front.
E)
Morning class begins at
F)
If you come to get your child early from class, you
must sign him/her out in the office before they leave the building.
