Hello and Welcome to a new school year!
I am so excited to be teaching your student this year!
As we get started - I wanted to make sure to let you in on a few things.
You are welcome to email me at: lkilgore@warsawschools.org or call me at: (574) 267-7474 ext. 3248
I will also be using Classtag for communicating with parents, sending out newsletters, etc. - please send me the email address and phone number that I can reach you at. Once you have set up your account on classtag, you will be able to contact me through there as well.
Every year, our school district requires parents/guardians to fill out a background check paper, (which you can grab a copy from the main Lincoln office), if parents/guardians would like to visit with their student(s) during the school day (examples: spend time in the classroom helping, going on field trips, and eating and playing outside at recess with your student). I HIGHLY recommend getting the paperwork filled out early in the year because it takes a while to get the results back, which the school has to have before you can visit with our class!
We love celebrating birthdays in the classroom! Due to classroom/school food allergies, we are asking that no food treats are sent in - instead we recommend little gift bags or something similar. Thank you for your help with this!
In our Kindergarten class, we use the "clip up, clip down" behavior chart. This simply means that all students start their day in the middle of the behavior chart in the safe zone, or green color, and have the ability to move up the chart with positive behavior or move down for negative behavior. In our classroom - our clip up, clip down chart - is made up of fish that are different color levels. These range from the top being "Star"fish, then down to the Shipshape, Fin-tastic, everyone starts on the this one in the morning - Smooth Sailing, In Rough Waters, High and Dry, and finally Shipwrecked is at the bottom. The students each have their own bubble with their name on in that they can move up or down. If students end up all the way at the top at the end of the day - they will receive a "Lion Buck" that they can cash in for various rewards in the classroom. If students end on shipwrecked, then there will be a note sent home and/or a visit to the principal's office. We talk about following our class rules and we read the book, "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" to talk about filling each other's imaginary buckets with kindness and nice things rather than being "bucket dippers" and dipping into each other's buckets by being mean or hurting others. When the positive behaviors - helping others, being kind, following rules consistently, etc. are being observed, students are able to move up one bubble on the behavior chart. If students are seen hurting others, being mean, not following classroom or school rules, students are asked to move their bubbles down one fish (from whatever fish they are presently on).