Please sign on the sheet
provided on the table.
We will begin in a few
minutes…
Welcome to
Kindergarten Parent
Night 2013
Kindergarten Odds and
Ends
Presented by: Kaitlin Gallamore
Odds and Ends
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School starts at 8:55. Our learning
begins right away!
Breakfast is optional. Bus riders who do
not eat stay on the bus until the bell
rings. Early drops offs to the cafeteria
(8:20 to 8:55) can eat breakfast or sit
and wait until they are dismissed to the
classrooms.
Children need a snack every day. Please
do not send candy.
Water bottles can be taken to P.E. and
recess. Twistable lids only to prevent
spilling in back packs.
Closed toed shoes should be worn every
day for safety.
Lunch money should be labeled and sent in
your child’s PAWS book. Lunch can be
paid for on-line.
Odds and Ends
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PAWS Books are sent home every
afternoon and are to be returned
to school the next morning.
Pick Up Procedures. Afternoon
pick-up students are escorted to
the cafeteria at 3:10-3:15. Please
do not ask to call your child to the
front office after 3:05.
Bus students are escorted out to
the bus ramp at approximately
3:20-3:25.
If your child’s transportation
changes at any time, contact the
front office and then your child’s
teacher.
Attendance
•Attendance is important, even in Kindergarten.
•Our work begins as soon as the bell rings at 8:55
and continues until about 3:00.
•If your child comes in late, please check in with
Mrs. Pichard in the front office.
•We administer many of our assessments on Friday.
Please keep Friday absences to a minimum.
•If your child is absent, YOU MUST send in a dated
note on the day that they return or your child will
be counted as unexcused. This is a new policy.
Homework
•Kindergarten homework activities are developmentally appropriate and
related to the current concepts/skills that our students are learning
about throughout the school year.
•Many of the activities will have end products that are saved and placed in
“Memory Books” that are given to each parent at the end of the school
year.
•Activities are designed to promote oral language between parent and
child and should take no more than 30 minutes per week to complete.
•Homework assignments are sent home in PAWS Books on Friday and due
back the next Friday.
5 Ways We Communicate
• Daily PAWS book
• Weekly newsletter
• Grade level webpage on school
website (www.wakullaschooldistrict.org)
• Email
• Telephone 926-3641
• Conferences (sign up tonight)
Curriculum and Grading
Presented by: Amber Stallings,
Staci Welch, Kelly Willis
Common Core Standards
• All grades have implemented National
Common Core learning standards in
English/Language Arts and Math.
English/Language Arts:
Foundational Skills
Kindergarten students must master
the following in order to be
promoted to 1st grade:
• Recognizes letters
• Gives the sound that each letter
makes at the beginning of words
• Understands that vowels make
long and short sounds.
• Provides a word for each letter.
• Blends CVC words (eg cat, pig,
map)
• Segments CVC words into
individual sounds.
• Identifies simple rhyming words.
• Recognizes the 60 Kindergarten
Sight words as well as color and
number words.
Foundational Skills cont.
• We focus on 2-3 letters each week and will
be finished with the alphabet by the end of
the second nine weeks.
• In January we will begin to read fluency
passages containing sight words and
decodable words.
• The letters are not learned in alphabetical
order. They are learned in an order to
promote word building.
• Reading with your child for 10 minutes each
day is highly beneficial.
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English/Language Arts:
Oral Language and Writing
Our Kindergarten Language curriculum teaches your child how to
express an idea first through drawing and then through writing.
We learn that reading and writing uses a top to bottom and left to
right progression on a page.
We learn how to write a simple sentence using a capital letter at
the beginning and correct ending punctuation.
We learn how to write based upon narrative, informational and
expository text.
We also learn the parts of a book, the characters and setting in a
story, and how to sequence the events of a story.
We learn how to tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction
books.
We learn how to follow one, then two, then multi-step directions to
complete tasks.
We learn how to speak in on-topic sentences in small and large
groups to convey opinions, ideas and information.
Penmanship
• We use the Zaner Bloser style of handwriting instruction
• Help your child practice writing letters correctly using the
chart provided in the PAWS book.
• Letters and numbers are formed from top to bottom.
• We use a combination of blank paper, boxes, single lines,
double lines and double-dotted lined paper depending upon
where your child is in their handwriting development.
• Practice helping your child to hold their pencil correctly.
• Only use pencils (no crayons or markers) for handwriting
practice and homework.
• Penmanship progress will be listed under Language Arts.
Math
• We use Harcourt GoMath!
• We use lots of hands-on
manipulatives to learn Math as well as
some paper and pencil activities.
• Assessments include oral and written
assessments. When we assess
numbers they are not order.
Math
• In order to be promoted to 1st grade
your child will need to be able to:
– add and subtract within 10
– count to 100 by 1’s and 10’s
– compare numbers using tally marks, a
number line, sets of objects, ten frames
– recognize number words to 10
– be able to create and solve word
problems
– Recognize plane and solid shapes and
define them by sides, edges, and
vertices (corners).
Science and Social
Studies
• We use National Geographic Science. Themes
include Making Observations, How Things Move,
Living and Nonliving Things, Basic Landforms, Sun
and Moon.
• We use a district written Social Studies
curriculum. Themes include Being a Good Citizen,
Long Ago and Today, Transportation, Community
Helpers, Needs and Wants, Map Skills, Learning
our address and phone number.
• We use Harcourt-Brace Health. Themes include
Good Medicines/Bad Medicines, Our Body Inside
and Out, Dental Health, Basic Nutrition and
Hygiene.
Work Habits and
Citizenship
• Daily behavioral grades are communicated daily in your
child’s PAW’s book and are directly related to our
basic Kinder Cub Rules.
• If there is a serious need, we will also contact you by
phone or email and will request a conference with you.
• Expectations for work habits will build throughout
the school year as our students mature. They
include: taking care of one’s belongings, working
neatly, working independently, using work time wisely,
transitioning throughout our daily routines.
Grading Scale
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E – Excellent
S – Satisfactory
N – Needs Improvement
U – Unsatisfactory
We take grades for paper/pencil activities as well
as hands on participation and observations of your
child working.
• It is OK to make S’s and sometimes an occasional
N! Learning is not always perfect. Please praise
your child’s successes no matter how BIG or small.
• Kindergarten does not participate in the
organized awards assemblies held each 9 weeks.
Report Cards and
Conferences
• Progress Reports
are issued mid
point during the
grading period.
• Reports Cards are
issued every 9
weeks.
• Conferences are highly
suggested.
• If your child is struggling
it is very important that
we conference with you.
• Please arrange
conferences in advance.
Teachers are unable to
conference during the day
while teaching.
• You can sign up for a
conference tonight.
The Team Approach
Presented by: Kris Cason
We Work As a Team
• Our daily Reading instruction is differentiated
based upon your child’s learning strengths and
needs. Students switch classes for Reading
Foundational Skills each day.
• By the end of the school year your child will get
to know all of us.
• You may see more than one of us at your child’s
parent conference.
• We plan together each week and we have the
same homework , webpage, and weekly newsletter
and special activities throughout the year.
PTA & School
Fundraisers
• Our school has a very active Parent Teacher
Association (PTA). They coordinate our Spring
Festival, Box Tops for Learning, Coke Caps and
the Dannon Danimals program.
Volunteering
• We love volunteers! If you are interested in
volunteering, please sign up through the District’s
website so that a background screening can be
done. Volunteers can work students in the
classroom, assist teachers with bulletin boards or
art projects, work in the library, etc….
Field Trips
• We take one to two field trips during the school
year as funds and time allow. Destinations in the
past include:
Tallahassee Museum of Natural Science
Florida Museum of History
The Florida Capitol
Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge
• If you are interested in serving as a chaperone,
you MUST be approved through the District’s
volunteer program.
Special Activities
• Special programs that we look forward to during
the school year are:
National Red Ribbon Week and Field Day
Holidays Around the World and Pajama Day
BINGO for Books
Spring Festival Rewards
Mother’s Day Tea
Water Day
• In addition, we enjoy goodies to celebrate Fall
Fun, Winter Holidays, Valentines Day, and
Summer Birthdays.
Developmental
Appropriateness
Presented by: Jan Pearce
Developmental
Appropriateness
What is it? In Kindergarten this means…
1. Our teaching is individual – children are not
compared to each other by their development
and abilities.
2. Our teaching spans up to 6 years in development.
3. Our teaching is age appropriate.
4. Our teaching takes into consideration not just
academics but physical, emotional, social and
adaptive learning domains.
Ages and Stages
• Kindergarten is designed for 5’s and emergent 6’s.
• They are essentially shy in nature.
• They put on a big show, but the world is still pretty
overwhelming.
• They are moving from concrete thinking to some abstract
thought.
• They begin to extend their oral language skills to reading
and writing.
• They can understand what is right and wrong are beginning
to understand what is fair and not fair.
• Often, if asked a vague question they will almost always
respond with “I don’t know….”
• They love to explore... anything and everything. They are
learning to make connections to prior knowledge and new
information. They want to know more about the world
around them. Vocabulary is expanding rapidly.
• They are almost never quiet!!
Kindergarten is
all about…
learning to
learn!!
Thank you for coming out tonight. We
appreciate your support of our Kindergarten
program and your child’s education at
Crawfordville Elementary School.