Your child’s regular and on-time attendance at school is crucial to his/her success.  I can’t emphasize this point enough!!!   Most kindergarten learning activities are group oriented and involve interaction with classmates. Therefore, it is next to impossible to make up work at home. Please view school as a priority, and see to it that your child attends everyday except in cases of illness or emergency.

School Hours: 7:45-2:45

Morning Arrival

Kindergarten students meet their teachers every morning in the gym at 7:45. Please do not bring your child to school before that time, as there is no one to supervise your child before 7:45. If you need to drop your child off earlier, please see the section titled "Before and After School Care".

Afternoon Dismissal

School is dismissed at 2:45. Walkers will be dismissed out of the back doors. Car riders may be picked up on either the East Wing or the West Wing playground. Please be sure that I know which lot your car rider will be picked up from.

Children that ride the bus will walk with a teacher or teacher assistant to their bus.

If you need to pick up your child early, you must sign him or her out at the office. The office will call the classroom and ask for your child to be sent down. If a parent comes directly to the classroom, he or she will be sent to the office to check out their child.

Before and After School Care

If you need to drop off your child before 7:45 or you need to pick up your child after 2:45, the school offers before and after school care. For more information on before and after school care, please go to the front  office.

Transportation

Make sure that I know exactly how your child will get home from school. You can do this through a note or a phone call.  

If you call, please call before the child’s first day. I will not be able to check messages on the first day during class hours.

I will follow the transportation written on the enrollment sheet. If transportation changes, I must have a note or a phone call from the parent. Please do not have your child tell us. Sometimes children get confused and I do not want to send your child on the wrong bus or not put him or her on one at all!

If your child changes buses, please include the bus that your child will ride. I do not have bus route information available.

Thank you for helping us with this!  I want to make sure that every child gets home safely every day!

Generous citizen groups donate most of our  supplies.

There are still some items that I need for your child to bring to school. Please send these on the first day or as soon as possible.

At the beginning of the year, I will also be sending home a list of items that I am requesting to be donated to our classroom.  If you can provide one or more of these items, I appreciate it!

Throughout the year, I will send home a list of items that we need for the class. These are often things that you would normally throw away. Sometimes, these are things for cooking activities and special art projects. Please watch for these notices.

Daily Schedule

I will send home a copy of the daily schedule during the first week of school. This is a flexible schedule so times are subject to change depending on the activity that we are participating in.

Activities on our schedule will include learning centers, small group work, shared reading, math workshop, journal writing, and a variety of language, math, science, and social activities!

Discipline

Establishing good classroom discipline is essential to each child’s success, confidence, and well-being. Every child should feel that the classroom environment is safe and secure; free from all threats of physical or emotional harm. In addition, it is important that each child learn to develop self-discipline and good work habits, to resolve conflicts peacefully, and to think independently.

There are three basic parts to the discipline plan: Kindergarten agreements, Classroom community, and Logical consequences.

1. Kindergarten Agreements

There are three basic agreements that we have in Kindergarten:

        Work hard

        Play fair

        Respect one another.

As a class we spend time discussing what these agreements mean and how they affect us in our classroom.

2. Classroom Community

The children will learn the purpose of classroom rules and develop ideas that our classroom is a community. Community meetings and discussions are ways to establish that our classroom is a community with the common purpose of learning, growing and becoming friends. There is a time set aside for daily community meetings.

3. Logical Consequences

The idea is for the consequence to be related to the misbehavior and act as a solution or restitution for the problem. For example, if a child spills something, he or she must clean it up. By having the consequence directly related to the act, the child will begin to understand cause and effect relationships.   If classroom rules are severely or persistently broken, parents will be contacted by note (to be signed and returned) or by telephone.  I may also set your child up on an individual behavior plan. A visit to the principal’s office is a rarely used last resort.

Family-Teacher Communication and Thursday Folders

I believe that school is a partnership between school, home, and child. As a member of this partnership, I will communicate with your family regarding classroom events, your child’s progress, etc.

Please check your child’s backpack every day for newsletters, notes, and home activities. Your child’s backpack is the best way that we can transport school-related information to you! There might be important days and deadlines in your child’s backpack. It is important that it is checked and cleaned out daily. I will purchase a folder for each child at the beginning of the year. If your child loses or destroys the folder, you will need to buy another for your child to use at school.

Kindergarten Homework

The basic homework for Kindergarten is reading to and with your child for at least 15 minutes a night. This is important way to help your child be successful in school. In order for your child to read high quality children's literature, each Monday through Thursday, your child will have the opportunity to bring home a classroom library book. You will need to sign a permission slip before your child can check out books.

At our first Brown Bear Book Club literacy night, I will discuss the homework book bags. These book bags include a book with simple follow-up activities. These reading and homework assignments are an important way to strengthen the school, home, and child partnership.

 Volunteer Opportunities

Parents and families are a great source of volunteers in the classroom! Throughout the year, I will need volunteers to help with a variety of projects and activities.

If you or an adult member of your family is interested in volunteering in our classroom, please be sure to fill out the "Volunteers are Valuable" form. This will give me an idea of times that you might be available and things that you might be interested in doing.

Field Trips

Field Trips are a great way to extend learning. Our class will go on several field trips throughout the year. Some of these trips will be "walking field trips". Be sure that you have signed a permission form for these "walking field trips". Your child will not be able to go with us unless a permission form is on file.

For the field trips that we take the bus or other transportation, we will send home an individual form. Please sign and return as soon as possible. This must be on file or your child will not be able to go. I can not accept a hand written note or telephone call.  It must be a signed permission slip!

Occasionally, I will ask for family volunteers for our field trip. If you volunteer, you will be supervising a small group of students. We encourage a parent, grandparent, or other adult family member to volunteer. For safety reasons, siblings can not attend field trips with us.

Clothing

Kindergartners are involved in activities that require jumping, running, climbing and the like. Tennis shoes with laces or Velcro closures are important for days children go to p.e.

Girls should keep a pair of shorts at school to wear under skirts or dresses for greater freedom of movement.

In kindergarten, students will be cooking, painting, using markers, using glue, working with play dough, and other "messy" stuff. Please select clothing that is both comfortable and appropriate for these activities.

Outdoor Recess

The children will be going out for recess every day unless it is raining or extremely hot or cold (heat advisory or below freezing). Please keep this is in mind when helping your child to select clothing for the day.

For the most part, if your child is well enough to be at school, he/she is well enough to participate in outdoor recess, if properly dressed. In fact, the germs that cause colds thrive more readily in the heated indoor air and it is beneficial to go outside and get some fresh air.

Money

On occasion it will be necessary for your child to bring money to school.

Always send money in a sealed envelope with the following information written on it:
 

1 Your child’s first and last name
2 The amount of money
3 The purpose for the money (book money, party money, etc)
4 My name and grade

With over 20 children to keep track of and several reasons to collect money, this helps us out tremendously and reduces the likelihood of errors. Also, if the envelope is left on the bus or dropped in the hallway, this information will help get the money to the right place.

Book Orders

Every month, I will send home book order forms. Please take the time to look over these forms. They offer great books for as little as 95 cents! All books purchased will earn bonus points. These bonus points are used to buy books and materials for the classroom.

If you decide to order books, please send order form and money in a marked envelope. You may send cash or a check made to the book company.

Although we encourage parents to look at the book orders, you are under no obligation to buy.

Birthday Policy

Birthdays are a special day in many children’s lives. However, not all families can afford elaborate celebrations, nor do all families celebrate birthdays. These are some of the reasons that we do not have birthday celebrations in our kindergarten class.

If you would like to send a special treat, we would be happy to send them home in each classmate’s backpack. According to school policy, all treats must be store bought (not homemade). Please send enough for every child in the class.

If your child is having a party at home, we can only distribute invitations if all children in the class are invited. If you can not invite all of the children, please do not send them to school. Many children get their feelings hurt if they are not invited.

Show and Tell Policy

Our class does not have a specific day for show and tell. If your child has a special item (photo, drawing, painting, item found in nature, etc.) that he or she would like to bring, please contact me to set up a date for your child to bring the item to school.

Toy Policy

In the past, there have been problems with children bringing toys to school. Students bring them out during inappropriate times (breakfast, group time, etc.). Sometimes, the students will only share their toys with certain groups of friends. For these reasons, there is a "no toys from home" policy in our class.

Your child should not bring toys to school. The exception is if I request your child bring one for an educational activity. An example of this is during Transportation Play Day which students bring a transportation toy to use in a graphing activity. You will be notified in writing when your child will need to bring a specific toy from home.