Kindergarten Orientation Presented by: Keri Ramsay K-12 Reading Supervisor

1. Kindergarten OrientationPresented by:Keri RamsayK-12 Reading Supervisor

2. What Will Your Child Experience at School? • Core reading program – Houghton Mifflin • Kid Writing • Centers • Targeted instruction • Small group reading • Homework

3. What will my child need to do by the end of Kindergarten??? • Listening and Speaking Skills • Reading Skills • Writing Skills

4. Listening and Speaking Skills • Listen attentively • Stay on topic and participate in class discussions • Wait his or her turn to speak in a group

5. What Can I Do to Help My Child with Speaking and Listening? • Dinner conversation – practice taking turns sharing about the day • Ask your child to look at you when you are speaking to them • Play board games • Ask your child his or her opinion about various topics at home (ex: what to have for dinner, how should we make lunch, tell me about the TV show you were watching, why do you like this game or show, etc.)

6. Reading Skills • Book handling skills • When hearing a word, can identify beginning, ending, and middle sounds • Segment a spoken word into 4 sounds • Identify all letter sounds • Identify capital and lowercase letters • Recognize about 33 high frequency words • Decode simple words with short vowels • Talk about the beginning, middle, and end of a story in order

7. What Can I Do to Help My Child with Reading Skills? • Read to him or her at home every day • Take your child to the library • Play games (at home, in the car, waiting on line at the grocery store, etc.) to practice phonemic awareness • Practice reading high frequency words every day and look for them in books you read • After reading, ask your child to retell the story to you. Ask what happened at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. • Whenever possible, MAKE IT FUN!!!

8. When Reading To Your Child, Ask Him or Her… • What do you think this story will be about? • What do you think is going to happen next? • Do you think this story is real or make-believe? • Does this sound like another story you know? • Who are the characters? • How are the characters alike/different? • Where is this story happening? • Why do you think that happened? • What was this mostly about?

9. Writing Skills • Print first and last name correctly • Draw a picture and write about it • Spell high frequency words

10. What Can I Do to Help My Child with Writing Skills? • Have writing materials available for your child (a basket, drawer, desk, etc.) • Practice phonemic awareness skills at home • Encourage your child to draw pictures and tell you about them • Watch as your child writes to avoid incorrect letter formation habits (Remember: Top to Bottom!) • Ask your child to spell words every day

11. Think Central • Surveys will come home • www.thinkcentral.com • Directions and further information will come home with your child

12. How Will the Teacher Know What My Child Needs? • Regular informal assessments – letters, high frequency words, sounds, journal writing • DIBELS Next screener • First Sound Fluency (FSF): The assessor says words, and the student says the first sound for each word. • Letter Naming Fluency (LNF): The student is presented with a sheet of letters and asked to name the letters. • Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF): The assessor says words, and the student says the individual sounds for each word. • Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF): The student is presented with a list of VC and CVC nonsense words (e.g., sig, rav, ov) and asked to read the words.

13. We Are in This Together!!! • Don’t panic! • Every child develops at his or her own pace • Let’s work together as a team!

14. Have a Wonderful School Year! • Questions??? • Contact Information: Keri Ramsay K-12 Reading Supervisor Ramsay.keri@pvbears.org (570)402-1000 ext. 1313