The ABC's of
Kindergarten
Pella Christian Grade
School
A
Attendance/Absences
Each day in Kindergarten builds
on the previous day, so it is very
important that your child is at school
unless they are ill. If your child will
be absent, please let the office or
myself know as soon as possible. The
school office number is 641-6282414. They WILL try to get ahold of
you if we have not heard anything by
9am for the sake of safety for your
child.
Art
Art instruction with Mrs.
Keegan will be once a week throughout
the year. She will meet with them on
Wednesdays in the Art Room.
easy snack is fine, no drink needed.
Please remember the school’s peanut
and tree nut safe policy.
C
Communication
The best way for us to
communicate is by phone or email. I
check my email every morning and
after school, but not consistently
during the school day. If you need to
get a hold of me during the day it may
be best to call the office. I will send
out “KA NEWS” via email from my
website on Fridays to encourage
conversation with your child about
what we are learning.
I will also be using an app called
Bloomz to share reminders, photos,
links, etc. Sign-up for this app will be
available at open house.
Crystal Schreur
641-628-2414 (school)
641-628-4137 (home)
schreurc@pellachristian.net
B
Birthdays
We will be learning all the
months of the year and celebrating
our birthdays as the year goes.
Summer birthdays can be celebrated
on their half birthday. The best time
to celebrate is right before morning
snack recess at 9:55 a.m. or 1:50
before afternoon recess. You are
welcome to bring a snack or non-food
treat to share with the class. Just an
Conferences
Parent-Teacher conferences
are a time where we will formally sit
down to discuss your child. If you
ever want to discuss something with
me, please don't hesitate to call. We
don't need to wait for the conference
time to talk!
Caring Classroom
One of my goals is to have our
classroom be a place where we all care
about each other every day. We will
learn many ways that show we care
for each other. Mrs. Sheryl
Hanthorn, our wonderful school
counselor, will visit our room once a
month and teach us many ways to walk
like Jesus. We love Mrs. Hanthorn!
wonderful examples in His word as we
study the Old and New Testament.
E
Emergency
If there is an emergency at
school, I will contact you with the
information you have given to the
office or me on the Getting to Know
Your Child page.
F
Mrs. Hanthorn
Chapel
You are always welcome to join
us for chapels. They are usually
advertised in the school newsletter
and start at 8:35 a.m. in the gym or
music room.
D
Dismissal
If you are picking your child up
from school, please pick them up at
our room at 3:20. I then walk all bus
riders to the buses. If your child is
going home a different way than usual,
please send me a note or email.
Devotions/Bible
Throughout the year we will be
memorizing special Bible verses that
go along with our Bible curriculum.
We will be learning all about God’s
wonderful promises to us, His
children, and how God works His plans
out through us. He gave us many
Fields Trips
We enjoy a trip to Camp
Creation in the fall. We prepare
several songs to sing at The Cottages
in the winter and spring. An
experience to a farm is always a treat
before school gets out. More details
to come!
Faith
Your child’s faith is very
important to me. I pray you will see it
grow and develop as the year
progresses.
G
Grading
Kindergarten students will not
be given letter grades for their work,
but we have sets of skills that we will
strive to master by the end of the
year.
Gym
We will have Gym (P.E.) with
Mr. Van Maanen on Fridays each week.
We add a second gym class on
Mondays 4th quarter. They will need
to wear tennis shoes on P.E. day.
H
"Homework"
I will be sending things home
for you to practice with your child. I
suppose this could be called
"homework", but it is really going to
be very simple activities to reinforce
“STAR words” or reading practice.
Your child will come home with
small, paper books which you will read
with your child three times and then
return for a sticker. Keep these
books as they are great for them to
practice reading on their own. 
“Handy” Helpers
Each day a couple of students
will be my “handy” helpers. They will
do various jobs in the classroom to
help me or other students. We talk
all year about how we can be a servant
heart to others throughout the day.
Our job is to do our best work for
God all day long…that is just one way
we can praise Him!
I
Independence
Your Kindergartener will grow in many
ways this school year. I am planning
to help them gain independence in
many ways. One way you can help is to
encourage them to do things
themselves like zipping their coat,
tying their shoes, learning their phone
number, etc... I know that when they
come to school they will need much
assistance, but they will soon be
showing us “they can do it”!
J
Journal Writing
We will be doing a lot of writing
in Kindergarten. Please be aware that
children go through many
developmental stages with regard to
writing. You will see progress. Please
don't be alarmed if you see your
child's writing and something is
spelled wrong. In the beginning,
children need to be free to write the
sounds they hear, which often won't
be a correct spelling. Journal Writing
will be a time of freedom, where I
won't be telling them how to spell
something correctly, but rather
where I can see their understanding
of the sounds we are learning.
K
Kin-der-gar-ten
noun. a pre-school for children
before the first grade, a class to
prepare children for school, a garden
for children.
It is a big adjustment with so many
new things to be learned!
KA News
I will be sending an email on
Fridays with a link to my website. You
will see a tab for the KA News. Please
take a few minutes to read through
this each week and mark important
dates on your calendar
L
Lunch
You (or grandparents, etc.) are
always welcome to eat lunch with us.
Please let me know so I can notify the
kitchen staff. We eat lunch at 11:50
in the classroom. Lunch is $3.20 for
visitors.
Library
Kindergarteners will go to the
library on Wednesdays. Please return
books the following Wednesday so
they will be able to check out new
books.
M
Music
We will have music on Mondays
with Mrs. Howerzyl. We add a second
music class during 4th quarter on
Thursdays.
Miss U.
Miss U is our wonderful aide
every morning from 9:00-11:00 during
our Literacy and Math to help me
assess and work with small groups of
kids. She is such a blessing to our
class!
N
Numbers
Each day we will be adding a
number to our Hundreds Chart in
great anticipation for when we reach
number 100 and have a big
celebration!
O
Open Doors
Our classroom/school wants you
to feel welcome at any time to come
and visit. It is helpful to let me know
ahead of time, if possible, in case we
have something different going on
that day. We love parents to be
involved in their child’s education.
P
Progressive Schedule
We begin the year with full
days of Kindergarten on Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays. After
Christmas break, we will add
Tuesdays. 4th Quarter we will add
Thursdays, so we will be 5 days a
week! Expect extra tired children
when we add days, school is hard
work!
Prayer
We will be learning how to pray
silently and in front of our class.
Please pray for our KA class and our
school in your daily prayers and know
that we will keep you in prayer, too! 
Q
Questions?
Call me anytime about
anything…we are a team!
PCGS #: 641-628-2414
Home #: 641-628-4137
Email: schreurc@pellachristian.net
R
Rest Time
Each day after noon recess will
be a time for the Kindergarteners to
rest quietly or listen to a story for
10-15 min.
Reading Time
Reading one storybook to your
child every day will really compound
what we are doing in school. They
learn more than you think just by
listening to you read and it really
boosts their language development,
which will aid in their reading
development... and they love it! I
encourage you to make this a daily
routine in your house!
S
Snack Recess
A small snack for morning
recess is a good idea. Make it
something small so they can eat and
still have time to play. Please
remember that our school is a peanut
and tree nut safe school!
Sight Words/Star Words
Sight Words are those words
that we encounter while reading that
can't really be sounded out
phonetically. These are words that
need to be recognized instantly so
that the reader's time can be spent
decoding other words that will help
their comprehension. Starting in
Kindergarten, we will be learning many
of these words – which I will be
calling "Star Words". I will be asking
you to help your child review these
words at home. A list of them can be
found on my website under the FILES
tab. Make flashcards and have fun
with them.
Spanish
We will learn some Spanish with
Maestro Munoz on Wednesdays.
During the 4th quarter, we add
another session on Thursdays.
T
Theme
Not About Me” is the
"
PCGS theme for the year, based on
Luke 9:23
U
Unique
I believe each child is a unique
creation of God, with a unique
personality, and a unique set of
abilities, who come from a unique
family, etc... It will be another one of
my goals to treat them as unique
individuals and find the way that each
of them learn best.
V
Volunteers
Volunteers are always helpful in
our classroom during Centers Time
from 2:40-3:00. It’s a great way to
interact with the other kids in Ka as
you play a game, read, or help them
with a craft. Let me know when you
want to get involved! A schedule will
be out soon!
W
Winter Clothes
As we get “white stuff” on the
ground it is important that they bring
boots, snow pants and proper gear so
they can play in the snow. I have
sleds for each of them to use if they
want to go sledding at noon recess.
Please label what you can because
there can be many identical black
snow pants!  If they keep a plastic
grocery sack in their backpack we will
do our best to put out “wet stuff” in
it when we go home.
X
Exciting!
Kindergarten is a very exciting
place where we move around a lot and
learn things in many different ways. I
am excited to help each child have a
passion to learning more about God
and His amazing world.
Y
You!
Your ideas and special gifts are
important to me. I would love to call
on you to come to our class and share
something with us. Maybe it could be
a story you would read to us or maybe
you would tell us about your job or
some hobby that you have. Please
don't hesitate to give me ideas that
you have. I welcome your ideas!
Z
Z-z-Z
Please help your child have a
regular bedtime routine so they can
be well rested the next day. Kids are
much more alert and focused when
they get a good night sleep. As we
add days to our schedule be aware
they will be tired and it takes extra
rest to get into the new routine.
Blessings!
Crystal Schreur