Kindergarten Survival Guide For Parents

General Information:

•  Students can arrive at school between 7:15-7:35.  They will come in their classroom and begin their morning routine. Students are tardy as of 7:35.  

• The first day of school, parents may walk their students to class to get them acclimated to their new classroom. 

• It is expected that your child complete the morning routine independently (hang up backpack, put folder away, make their lunch choice, and begin morning work). 

• Students will bring his/her backpack each school day.  It is the student’s responsibility to get his/her belongings in the appropriate place.  All correspondence and money from home should be placed in your child’s blue behavior folder. 

• All jackets, sweaters, lunch boxes,water bottles and backpacks should be labeled with the child’s name.

• For SAFETY reasons, please ensure that you or any visitor sign in at the front office.  

Going Home Information:

• School is dismissed at 2:55.  Students are escorted by teachers to their dismissal areas.  For the sake of confusion and safety, parents are not allowed to meet their child at the classroom at dismissal time.

• We are providing a tag indicating how your child is going home.  The dismissal tag will be placed on your child’s backpack, please do not remove! Please notify us of any changes. 

• Send an email and call the office by 12:00 if you decide to change the way your child goes home.  Otherwise, no matter what the student tells us, we are required to send them home the way you established previously.

Volunteering:

• We encourage parents to volunteer in the classroom. We always welcome an extra pair of hands and another smiling face when we are working with the children. However, we would like to give the class time to bond before volunteers start.  

• We will discuss volunteer opportunities at our Kindergarten Virtual Parent Info Night on Thursday,  August 22nd @ 6:00-6:30.  

Homework:

• Reading Logs (R.E.D. Folder): In the fall, your child will begin guided reading groups. At this time, students will participate in small group reading instruction. At home, you can help your child grow as a reader by reading to them and with them. Leveled books will be provided, but feel free to read books from home as well.  For each book you read to them or your child reads to you, be sure to fill in your reading log.  The expectation is that your child is reading a minimum of 3 times per week.  

• Math Flashback: Each Friday (starting Sept. 6th) your child will receive weekly math homework.  This homework consists of math skills that have been previously taught in the classroom. Math Flashbacks will be due the following Friday.

• Fun Friday: Students that have a minimum of 3 parent signatures in their R.E.D. folder and completed Math Flashback for the week will get to participate in "extra" recess on Fridays.  This will help keep our students accountable for their homework each week. 

Meals/Snacks & Treats

Breakfast: 7:15-7:35

Breakfast will be served at CRE.  Breakfast begins at 7:15. Student cost: $1.50

Kindergarten Lunch Time:  10:15-10:45 a.m.

Student Cost: 

• Lunch-$3.00

• Breakfast $1.50

• To help with the transition of lunchtime, we are asking that all kindergartners bring a lunch from home for the first two weeks of school. Beginning the third week (August 26th), your child may purchase a lunch from the cafeteria.

• One of the most important things your child will gain from their Kindergarten year is independence. We work every day in class on the tools and skills that foster this. Therefore, we do ask that you limit your lunchtime visits to no more than once a week. This not only makes your visit a special time for your child but it gives them that crucial socializing time with their peers and builds their confidence in what they are capable of doing independently. Also, remember, when you do visit, let your child feed themselves. Their ability to feed themselves gives them even greater confidence which spills over to what they can do academically in the classroom. We hope you will join us in this effort to help your child experience the most success possible their Kindergarten year. 

*If you need more information on free/reduced lunch or food services, please visit  RRISD Food Services. Funds can be added to your student's meal either by sending cash/check to the cafeteria or online at MySchoolBucks.com  

Snack:

• Your child may bring a healthy snack each day.  You are responsible for sending snacks for your own child. Snacks are strongly encouraged because we eat lunch very early. 

• Your child needs to bring a “sports” water bottle to drink throughout the day. Have your child practice opening and closing their water bottle independently. Water only in the classroom, no juices or any other type of drink will be permitted in the classroom.

• Please remember that snack is a brief time in our classroom. Your child should bring 1 item. Appropriate snacks would be: crackers, fruit roll-up, fruit or granola bar. Please do not send cookies, fruit cups, yogurt, pudding, juice boxes or candy. 

Birthday Treats:

• To maximize classroom instructional time, parents may drop off birthday treats in the front office for the classroom teacher to distribute at a time that works best for the class.  Parents are encouraged to bring treats that are individually wrapped, or easy for the classroom teacher to distribute such as donuts, cookies or individual goodie bags. All birthday treats must be the same flavor/color. 

Correspondence:

• Please put notes inside your child’s blue behavior folder. We will check it each day. Please remember we will not be checking backpacks. A weekly school-wide folder will be sent home on Tuesdays (Tuesday folder) with general school information and flyers. Please remove all papers from this folder. Anything that needs to be returned needs to be placed in the blue behavior folder. Please do not return anything in Tuesday Folders!

• We check e-mail on a regular basis, and it is one of the quickest ways to share information. Please feel free to e-mail your child’s teacher at anytime. Contact info can be found on our home page.

• We will have a fall parent/teacher conferences in October. This virtual conference will be to set your child’s goals for the year and to discuss any questions you may have.  More info will be coming soon. 

• Kindergarten conference period is from 12:45-1:35 p.m. each day. 

• If you choose to call and you are unable to get through, please send an email requesting a phone conference. If the call is regarding a dismissal change, please call the front office. 

• Please keep your child’s teacher up to date on all changes in your address (home or e-mail) and phone numbers.

• You will receive regular emails from your child’s teacher. This should be a great way to promote communication at home about his/her day. 

-The Kindergarten Team