Please sign on the sheet provided on the table.

1. Please sign on the sheet provided on the table. We will begin in a few minutes…

2. Welcome to Kindergarten Parent Night 2013

3. Kindergarten Odds and Ends Presented by: Kaitlin Gallamore

4. Odds and Ends • 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.

5. Odds and Ends • 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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)

9. Curriculum and Grading Presented by: Amber Stallings, Staci Welch, Kelly Willis

10. Common Core Standards • All grades have implemented National Common Core learning standards in English/Language Arts and Math.

11. 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.

12. Foundational Skills cont. • We focus on 2-3 letters each weekand 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.

13. 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.

14. Penmanship • We use the ZanerBloserstyle 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 practiceand homework. • Penmanship progress will be listed under Language Arts.

15. 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.

16. 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).

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Grading Scale • 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.

20. 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.

21. The Team Approach Presented by: Kris Cason

22. 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.

23. 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 DannonDanimals 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….

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. Developmental Appropriateness Presented by: Jan Pearce

27. Developmental Appropriateness What is it? In Kindergarten this means… • Our teaching is individual – children are not compared to each other by their development and abilities. • Our teaching spans up to 6 years in development. • Our teaching is age appropriate. • Our teaching takes into consideration not just academics but physical, emotional, social and adaptive learning domains.

28. 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!!

29. 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.