Welcome to

1. Welcome to Kindergarten

2. General Information We have 4 kindergarten teachers at this time. • Mrs. Scott • Mrs. Burgan • Mrs. Sheffield • Ms. Johnson

3. Attendance • Attendance is very important. • You must send a note for your child’s absence to be excused. A phone call is nice to let us know….but the school must have a written excuse on file. • School begins at 7:50. • If your child arrives at school after 8:00, please go with them to the office to get a tardy slip. • If your child has excessive absences or tardies, a child-study team may be started.

4. Transportation It is important that we know how your child gets home. Your child has a tag on the back of their bookbag indicating how they get home. Please don’t remove. • If your child is going home a different way, please send a note telling us or call the office before noon. We cannot let a child go home a different way without written permission or a phone call from the office.

5. Clothing • Please make sure your child’s name is on their lunchboxes, snack boxes, backpacks, jackets, or anything that they may put down and forget. Every year we have coats we can’t match children with. • Please make sure your child can fasten their own clothes. • Please send an extra set of clothes (that are labeled) for emergencies.

6. Conferences • We are required to have a minimum of 2 conferences each year. One is in October and the other around March. We may ask for other conferences with you during the year. If you would like to call a conference, just let us know.

7. PE • Children must wear tennis shoes in order to participate. You may send shoes to have them change into if your wish.

8. Lunch Lunch money can be paid a variety of ways. • Prepay for the week on Mondays. ($9.00 for full price and $2.00 for reduced) • Pay daily ($1.80 for full price and 40 cents for reduced) • Pay online at www.jcsb.org and go to the food service tab then choose the food service home page. • Applications for free and reduced lunch are now also on the web site. • Money put into their account follows them until they are seniors as long as they are in the county.

9. Newsletters • Your child will get a newsletter every Monday. These newsletters let you know what we have learned and will be learning the next week. This also gives you important dates to put on your calendar.

10. Folders • Your child will bring home an orange folder each day with papers they have worked on as well as any informational papers you may need. • If your child is absent, work they missed will be placed in this folder. Notice there is a Keep section and a Send Back section to the folder. Please be sure to send folders back daily.

11. Planner Each child in school has a planner. This planner will go home every day. It needs to be initialed and returned the next day. • Kindergarten is using this as a behavior plan so that you can know how your child’s day went. Upcoming events and reminders may be written in the planner as Well.

12. Birthdays • We know that birthdays are important. If you would like to send cupcakes or another special treat for your child’s birthday please let us know a few days before the event so that we can give you a time to bring them. We all will recognize your child’s birthday during the morning calendar time.

13. Breakfast We take kindergarten to breakfast the first 9 weeks of school to get them used to the procedure. They may eat at home if they wish. They will start getting in line with the other children when they arrive at school at the beginning of the 2nd 9 weeks. We will send out reminders.

14. Discipline • We use the “KNOW” rules in our school. • K—Keep your hands, feet and other objects to yourself. • N—Nice language only. • O—On sidewalks and in hallways always walk. • W—When directions are given, follow them.

15. Passing Requirements Kindergarten has become the new 1st grade.

16. Report Cards • Every 9 weeks your child will bring home a report card. • Report cards are marked with either “S” or “N”. • Letters, sounds and numbers that are known will be circled. • Items left blank haven’t been tested yet.

17. Other Report Card Items • Kindergarten basic requirements • Dolch Word Identification

18. Basic Requirements • Knowledge of all letters (upper and lower case). • Identification of numbers to 20 • Counting to 100 • Rhyming Words • Beginning, middle and Ending Sounds • Spatial relations (up, down, etc.)

19. Other Basics • Knowledge of basic Shapes and Colors. • Knowledge of 3-D shapes. • Basic Subtraction and Addition. • Sorting • Writing first and last name. • Printing letters of the alphabet. • Knowing the parts of a book. • Other ite

20. Dolch Words • Your child is required by the county to be able to identify 75% of the 80 dolch words in order to go to first grade. We send several of these words home each week. Please review these words with your child. • The entire list of words will be sent home. We will also be sending them in groups each week in the newsletter.

21. Dibels Your child will be assessed by several different assessments throughout the year. These include: • FAIR (3 times during the year.) • JCMA (math assessment, twice a year.) • JCPA (reading assessment, end of the year.)

22. We are excited to have your child this year. We want to keep you a part of your child’s school year. Please feel free to get in touch with us by phone or note at any time. We will be glad to set up conference times for you. If you would like to visit your child’s classroom during instruction time, please go by the office for a visitor’s pass. If you would like to volunteer, check with the office for information on how to do this.