Dear Parents and Students,

Welcome to kindergarten. We are delighted to be working with you this year. Our theme for the beginning of school is Getting To Know You. We will practice routines and become familiar with each other and with our school. We will read stories and sing songs and work on numbers, letters, shapes, and colors. We need an empty paper towel roll for each child. Please save yours for us. Please look over the rules and behavior policy and if you have any questions please call me. Please sign and return behavior page each day and use the bottom or back to send messages. Students will need a snack next week, as well as a towel or blanket for rest time. Please label all belongings!

Mrs. Garvey and Mrs. Gibson’s Kindergarten Class Rules

Discipline policy:

Each student will have a stick with 3 colors

Green is for go - great behavior

Yellow is for caution – watch your behavior (warning)

Red is continued unacceptable behavior – 5 minutes time out

Lose the stick – call to parents

Violent behavior will result in a visit to the principal.

Rewards

Consistently keeping green will result in a choice from the prize box or an extra privilege.

Whole class rewards will be given for compliments from other teachers, good behavior in the library, gym, and music.

Phone Numbers

Cartoogechaye School 524-2845 ext. 307 Leave a message or if it is an emergency dial the secretary. Communications will be done through the daily sheet. Please initial and return each day.

Students do not come to the classroom until 7:45. Early arrivals go to the cafeteria. Our class will be going to breakfast as a group at 8:00. There is no charge for breakfast for the first 10 school days. School begins at 8:15. Please have your child here at 8:00 if they will eat breakfast.

Snacks

Since kindergarten eats lunch last at 12:15, we will have a small snack mid-morning at 10:30. Parents need to provide this snack. There is no place to purchase anything here at school. In past years the best snack solution is to have each parent send in a bag or box of cookies, crackers, cereal, apples, grapes, bananas, etc. If everyone contributes you will only need to send something every three months or so. One parent sent in a block of cheese and crackers and student’s thought that was great. We had hors d’oeuvres instead of snack that day! On Fridays we will usually have a cooking experience so there will be no need for a snack on that day.

Birthdays

All children will be honored on their birthdays by being the student leader for the day. We will recognize birthdays all month as we use them to learn about calendar concepts and count down the days until the birthday. You may send in a special snack for that day. Snacks can no longer be home made but must be purchased. We have snack at 10:30 and you are welcome to come and sing the song and light a candle to celebrate. We have a student that is allergic to peanut butter so keep that in mind if you send something in. Please let us know about any other food allergies.

Transportation

If it is necessary for your child’s normal way home to change we MUST have a note or a phone call from you to change it. We cannot send a child home by any other means than his or her normal mode without hearing from you.

Parties

We will celebrate Christmas and Valentines Day with class parties and an Easter Egg Hung at Easter. You will be asked to contribute to our celebrations.

Field Trips

The outrageous price of gas may limit our field trips but we have a few already scheduled for this fall. If you would like to accompany us, we can use the help. A field trip is a shared experience for the students outside of school, not a parent-child outing. We expect chaperones to stay with the group and help with all students. Parents will drive their vehicles while students ride the bus.

The following list is some of the concepts your child will be learning and be expected to know this year.

Language, Reading and Writing

v Know all 26 upper and lower case letters.

v Know the sounds of all 26 letters when they are at the beginning of simple words

v Be able to write both upper and lower case letters correctly

v Write first and last name correctly

v Be able to copy a sentence correctly with space between words, letters written properly, and left to right, top to bottom progression on a page.

v Be able to write some words on their own - name of people, simple words

v Identify rhyming words

v Be able to match voice and print (point to words as they read, moving word for word.)

v Be able to put pictures of events in order and tell a logical story to match them.

v Be able to retell a story in correct order with accurate and supporting details.

v Be able to communicate effectively telling a personal experience, drawing a picture and telling a story to match it, using many new words.

v Listen and follow directions.

Math

v Know numbers, count sets accurately, and show “how many” to at least 30

v Write numbers to at least 30 understanding the pattern of our numbers

v Compare sets as more, less, and equal

v Understand and make simple graphs

v Know shapes and colors

v Be able to sort by size, color, shape, thickness, texture, etc., and tell how items are grouped

v Work puzzles up to 24 or more pieces

v Identify and create patterns

v Understand the language of math

v Estimate, fairly accurately, sets to 10

v Begin to fill in calendar days and dates and say the date each day

v Order 5 objects from large to small or small to large

v Do simple measuring

v Record math activities including patterns, measure, estimate, etc., to be put in portfolio

v Understand time as it relates to a daily routine and time it takes to complete activities

v Understand ordinal numbers first to tenth

v Understand directional position words such as over, under, above, below, inside, etc.