Back to School Information

We will be having kindergarten parent orientation on Wednesday, August 1st, 2018.  Our first meeting will be held at 8:00 am and our second meeting will be held at 3:00 pm.  A parent/guardian only needs to attend one meeting.  During this meeting we will have important paperwork to be filled out and share information about our classroom.

Kindergarten screening will take place on Friday, August 10th, 2018.  Screening can be scheduled during parent orientation or by calling the office.  We will be testing from 8:00-4:00.

Our school district uses a staggered start schedule.  This means that half of the students come the 1st day (but not the 2nd) and the other half of the students come the 2nd day (but not the 1st).  Then all students come on the 3rd day.  Our first day of staggered start is Monday, August 13th.  On this day BOYS ONLY will come.  On Tuesday, August 14th GIRLS ONLY will come.  On Wednesday, August 15th all students will come.

This is our school supply list:

Supply	Quantity
Fat Pencils (Plain)	2
#2 Pencils (Plain)	1 pack
Highlighters (Yellow)	2
Black Composition Notebook	1
Black 1-inch Binder with Prongs	1
Blue Spiral 1-Subject Notebook	1
Black Dry Erase Markers	2
Glue Sticks	6
White Glue Bottle	1
8-10 Count Washable Markers	1 pack
12 Count Colored Pencils	1 pack
Watercolors	1 pack
Play-Dough (any color)	2 cans
Headphones (no earbuds) *sold at Dollar Tree	1
Tissues	3 boxes
Disinfecting Table Wipes	1 container
Hand Sanitizer (pump bottle)	1
Freezer Baggies	1 box
Sandwich Baggies	1 box

*Please label the outside package of all school supplies.  Students will need a bookbag to bring back and forth to school each day.  They will also be issued a folder that will need to be checked and signed nightly and brought back to school each day.

Each student will also need an extra set of clothes to keep at school.  It does not have to be a uniform but needs to include a shirt, pants, socks and underwear.

Our room gets chilly so you may want to send your child with a sweater.  The school uniform is a navy blue polo shirt and khaki pants.  The sweater can be navy, white or gray.  Please make sure your child's name is on the tag.

Breakfast begins at 7:10 each morning and the tardy bell is at 7:25.  School dismisses at 2:10.

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Hello everyone!  We are very excited to begin the upcoming school year with our new group of kindergarten students.  We wanted to give a little background information about us and tell you
about our very unique classroom.

We have worked together for 12 years.  We started co-teaching in the same classroom 5 years ago and we love it!  Our classroom has many students and when you come in it will look like a lot... but not to worry... it works out so nicely.  We chose to co-teach because we felt like we could meet the needs of our students better.  We find that we are really able to examine the data and group students based on their needs whether that is remediation or acceleration.  We both have a full group of students but together our students make one kindergarten community.  They work together as a team throughout the day.  We have been told that our classroom is like a "little kindergarten city".  There are times during the day where we are all together learning and both teachers are teaching and there are times when one teacher will work with a group of students while the other teacher works with another group.

These students are working our a project to show what they learned during our weather investigation.  This group of students researched about clouds so they were creating different types of clouds.

We work with our students from day one on building a peaceful classroom... one where everyone belongs.  We work on community building and growth mindset because in addition to our co-teaching classroom- your child will also be part of an inquiry based classroom!  An inquiry based classroom is one that follows the students' interest and allows time for exploration and natural discovery.  We are Reggio Emilia inspired which means we believe that the students are capable and have a voice in our classroom.  Our room will have many natural materials and look more calm than a more vibrant classroom.  Our students will be the ones to create our environment as we learn together.

This past school year our students were very interested in tree roots so we began learning about trees.  We studied the maple tree and built our own tree from the ground up.  We also learned about the animals that use the tree and what comes from a tree such as sap.  We then took a trip to Aullwood Farm to see how maple syrup was made!

Throughout our day we focus on core instruction such as Phonics, Writing, Reading and Math.  We also have an intervention block each day where students get Language Arts instruction in small groups based on their reading level.  We have one to one technology in our classroom so students will work on Chromebooks for at least 30 minutes per day.  We also always make time for our inquiry investigations.  During this part of the day we will be doing research and projects based on the students' interests.  Our students will also work cooperatively in exploration centers.  We believe in the power of play and have been amazed how many academic skills our students have picked up naturally during our exploration time of the day.

For our science fair project our students were doing an investigation on superheroes so they worked to build fortresses strong enough to withstand the wind of one of the evil villains!

We can't wait to start this school year and meet all of you and your children!  I hope this posts makes you feel a little bit more comfortable with your child's transition to kindergarten.  Welcome to our kindergarten community!