Kindergarten

Welcome to the wonderful world of Kindergarten!



@Mrs. Mahan Mrs. Bosarge @Mrs. Mclean Mrs. Krause Welcome to Castlen and the wonderful world of kindergarten! I look forward to working together with you. I know that your child’s success will come from our teamwork. There is so much to tell about our kindergarten class. I hope this letter covers most of your questions. If there is anything that I do not cover in this letter please ask. I would like to inform you that I do not send home a lot of papers; many of our activities will not involve paperwork. In our class we will play a lot of games and use a lot of manipulatives. Also, we display our work in the room. So please do not be alarmed when you do not see evidence of our work coming home on a daily basis. Instead, talk with your child about what we have done during the day and encourage them to talk to you. In the past, I sent a newsletter home every Monday outlining all the activities that we would be doing that week at school. I am trying something new this year – I am going to place my newsletter on a wiki page (on the internet). Here’s what you will need to do: 1) Go to castlencubscorner.wikispaces.com 2) Go to Mrs. Krause’s class and view my newsletter. You will need to get on my wiki page every Monday to read my newsletter. I will no longer be sending home a weekly newsletter in your child’s take home folder. If you do not have access to the internet just let me know.

Important Paperwork I know that your have filled out form after form after form. I thank you for your time and patience. Believe me; I don’t enjoy the paperwork anymore than you do. So, if I approach you with still another form, please take the time to fill it out and return it to me the next day. I need to have all forms by Sept.1st. Our school will be audited soon and all information will be checked.

Rest Time Please make sure that your child gets enough rest at night. Kindergarten children work very hard. They no longer take naps during the school day. Sleepy children do not make successful learners. If your child is tired and cranky in the afternoon, an earlier bedtime is probably needed.

Breakfast Please make sure your child either has breakfast at school or at home. Our schedule is very busy. We will not stop for snack in the morning. Our lunch time is not till 10:45 in the morning. That is a long time for your child to go without breakfast.

Daily Take Home Folders Your child will be bringing home a “take home folder” on the first day of school. If you have any notes, money, etc. that I need to see, please place these items in the take home folder. I will be checking these folders every morning when students enter the classroom. When your child goes home at the end of the day I will place any information from school that you need to see in this folder. It is important that you check these folders each night, empty it out, and initial the date (which shows the behavior for the day). Please remember to send the “take home folder” back to school every day. Be on Time The school doors open at 7:05 each morning. We have work for the children to do until announcements. Children are late at 7:20. Please make sure that your child is on time.

Label Everything Please make sure your child’s name is on everything you send to school. All of the uniform sweaters, sweatshirts, and jackets look alike when they wind up in the lost and found. Label lunch boxes and money. You would be surprise how many times children have had money and could not tell the teacher what it is for. Money Please send all money in an envelope and put your child’s name, my name, and the purpose for the money on the envelope. This will help me know your intentions since young children quite often forget the reason for their money. Also, if your child should lose money, it will be able and will (hopefully) find its way to our room. If your child will be buying lunch, we prefer that you send the entire weeks money on Monday.

Snack We will have snack each day at 1:15. You may send a snack from home or buy a snack from school. Remember to label your snack money. Please do not send more than one snack as our snack time will be limited and please do not send candy or any kind of soda for snack. If you decide to purchase a snack for your child at school, please send in the correct amount each day your child wants a snack. I am not allowed to hold money for the week and I also can not make change. Snacks are .50 for chips and .50 for bottled water.

Lunch Numbers Your child will be assigned a lunch number ASAP. I will send this number home. Please help your child memorize the lunch number. The children are asked to repeat this number every time they purchase a meal in the cafeteria. We will review this number every day before going to lunch.

Dismissal I will walk the students out to the front of the school for dismissal. Bus riders are put on their buses first. The car riders will sit at a designated bench and wait for their ride. If there is any change in transportation I must have a written note. I am not allowed to let a child inform me of a change in transportation.

Absence Notes Please send a note explaining your child’s absence. Since your child is enrolled at Castlen, the attendance laws do apply. If an absence does not accompany your child’s return to school, I must code the absence as unexcused. I don’t like to deal with the attendance officer; I know you don’t want that either. Just remember, each time your child is absent, he/she must bring a note of explanation to school within three days of return. Your child will be allowed 10 parent excused days each year, the 11th absence and beyond must be excused by a doctor.

Behavior Management This is a major lesson for all Kindergarten students. We talk about the rules all the time. I tell them that if they break a rule, I must take something away. I try to make the punishment appropriate for the misbehavior. I expect the students to obey all of our class rules. Each month I will place a new behavior calendar in your child’s take home folder. I will mark this daily so that you can know about your child’s behavior in the classroom.

Volunteers Parents are encouraged to volunteer in the classroom (as long as it doesn’t cause a disturbance with the class). There will be many times that I can use your help. Please make sure to bring your ID anytime you come up to the school. Even if we know you by site you will still have to show your ID to come to the class room. School Fee Please remember that there is a fee of $20.00 for every family. This helps to cover first aid needs, grounds upkeep and postage for parent bulletins and report cards. If you haven’t taken care of this fee, please know that we appreciate and count on your help.

100 Book Club This will be explained in detail at our Parent Kindergarten Meeting TBA. Each child will be given a sheet to record the books that they read at home (this will include all books you read to your child as well). Once the child has read (or listened to) 100 books, they will become a member of the 100 book club. Members of the 100 book club will have their picture put on the kindergarten board and will receive a certificate at the end of the year.

Handwriting We will be using the D’Nealian Style handwriting. Many of the letters have what I call monkey tails. The monkey tails make it very easy to connect letters at a later time for cursive writing

Testing I am sure that you have heard and read much about testing in the public schools. This testing includes kindergarten children. Because of the nature of kindergarten children, these tests must be given one-on-one. There are 2 major types of testing for kindergarten right now. (Of course, these are in addition to my own assessments for report cards.)

DIBELS is administered by our resource teachers at the beginning and the end of the school year. Kindergarten teachers will be administering Progress Monitoring throughout the year.
 * DIBELS Testing

These are administered by the classroom teacher at the end of each quarter. These tests are given to kindergarten students in reading and math. It is very important that your child be present during EQT’s because these scores will be a part of the report card grade.
 * EQT”s (End of Quarter Test)