Back To School Night Info
Post date: May 22, 2017 5:41:42 PM
Back to School Night Talking Points
· Introduction
· A Day in the Life of your Kindergartner (see handout)
· Common Core Standards – Increased rigor and academic focus in kindergarten
· IRLA Reading program – How you can help your little one Your child will benefit from both having books read to them each night and also from practicing reading to you each night. When they read to you, have them point to each word as they read it and have them point out the heart words that we have learned in class.
· Heart words – Heart words are words that your kiddos will be taught in class that they will commit to memory. (They will know them “by heart”. These are the High Frequency words from the Dolch list. I will put our weekly heart words in my newsletter each Friday. Ways to reinforce those words is to have your child go for “Heart word searches” looking for them on signs, billboards, posters, newspapers, and books. Have them practice writing them in shaving cream, finger paints, with playdough, etc.
· Friday Folders – The Friday Folder will come home each Friday. Please be sure to empty its contents and have your child bring it back to school on Monday. This helps teach them responsibility.
· Show and Tell – Mondays and Fridays
· Habits of Mind – See attached
· Falcon Feathers – This is a schoolwide recognition system. Students earn falcon feathers (it’s a really big deal) for demonstrating our Habits of Mind and by being a good student, friend, community member, etc.
· Drop off in the morning –Our goal is to have you say your goodbyes at the door so your little ones can come in independently and learn self-reliance. We want to foster autonomy and independence. Research shows that children who develop self-reliance at a younger age have higher self-esteem and more self-confidence. The feeling of success and accomplishment they experience when they are responsible for their own belongings and complete their jobs on their own is very beneficial to their healthy growth and development.
· Third Grade Buddies – We meet with our 3rd grade buddies in Ms. Evan’s class every Friday to do activities, read and grow relationships.
· Field Trips
o Lee’s Farm (Pumpkin Patch) in conjunction with our Pumpkin life cycle unit
o Willamette River to release the salmon in conjunction with our Salmon Life cycle unit
o The Zoo with our Junior penpal Big Buddies from the Riverdale High School Biology class
o Lake Oswego Fire station in conjunction with our Community Helpers unit
· End of Day Pick up: If you pick your child up from the classroom, the reasoning behind the early 3:10 pick up for kinders is to relieve congestion in the hallways and outside. It is for this reason that we ask that you wait for your child outside of the classroom until they are dismissed and then head directly outside to reduce traffic in the hallways and foyer when the older kids are dismissed.