Welcome to Kindergarten

Newsletter week #1

September 1st, 2021

Dear Families,

Our classroom is set up and ready for a great year of learning. I have so many fun activities planned for the first week of school. We will be learning about our classroom. Our first lessons will be about how to use our learning tools like pencils, crayons, glue, and scissors.

I will be reading Pete the Cat books by James Dean. My favorite one is “Rocking in My School Shoes!”

The first day of school your child will receive a Pleasant Prairie T-Shirt to keep. We have school spirit days every Monday. Students and staff are encouraged to wear jeans and their Pleasant Prairie T-Shirt.

Pleasant Prairie is very intentional about teaching character traits! Each grade level focuses on one trait throughout the year. The kindergarten trait is HOPE. We want to be students of hope. We can do hard things, especially when we help each other be successful. We are encouraged to dream big and learn about our personal strengths. Though we focus on Hope, we learn all the traits. You may hear your child talk about Respect the first week of school.

Your child will come home very tired and hungry! (They may not eat all of their lunch even though they had time to eat.) I think many students are a bit overwhelmed the first few days of school and aren’t hungry. Students in all grades are encouraged to bring a snack to eat at 2:00pm. Please keep your child’s snack in their backpack and separate from their lunch. Some ideas for snacks are: granola bar, fruit, crackers and cheese, animal crackers, things that aren't messy and can be eaten in about 10 minutes. Students are encouraged to bring a water bottle to school each day and we have filtered water centers that they can refill from.

Lunch will be at 12:00 and hot lunch is served free of charge. Many students prefer to bring lunch from home. It is entirely up to you and your child. Please be aware that we cannot heat anything up at school. Your child can eat breakfast free of charge upon request. This would take place first thing in the morning. (Scroll down to page two.)

Students will come home tired. We work and play hard. You may notice the first few weeks they are really tired when they come home. Hopefully they will adjust quickly. Professionals recommend that 5 and 6 year old children get between 9-11 hours of sleep a night. You will find they really need it!

Your child may not remember all of what they did during the day. I will try to keep you up to date on what we are working on throughout the week so you can ask specific questions and get more information out of your child. One thing that helps is a daily folder. This folder goes home each night and must come back the next day. I will put student work inside as well as notes and projects. I do check them daily. Every Thursday notes go home from the office. Make sure to check your child’s folder EVERY Thursday for important information!

The first week of kindergarten they will not have any homework. Just getting used to the routine will be plenty and your child will be tired. If you need to get in touch with me please don’t hesitate to send a note in their folder or shoot me an email. afleming@kusd.edu However, I only check email during my lunch break and at the end of the day. If you have a change in how your child will be going home at the end of the day PLEASE contact the office no later than 2:00pm so we can make sure that the message is received. Making sure your child has a smooth transition home is important. Sudden changes can be overwhelming, however sometimes it cannot be helped, so giving us a “heads up” is really important and appreciated.

I am excited to get started!

Have a great first week!

Mrs. Fleming