Sending your child to and from school on the bus can make even the most confident parent feel a little apprehensive at first. We understand your feelings and will make every attempt to ease your worries.
During the first few weeks of school, we walk all kindergarten students to their buses five minutes before the rest of the school is dismissed. This allows us to check and make sure each child is on the correct bus. Please do not ask your older children to meet your kindergartener- this will only add more confusion. Siblings will be able to find their brother or sister once they board the bus.
We provide each student with a bus tag. This bus tag will have the teacher's name, child's bus number and bus stop written on it. It will help both the teachers and bus drivers ensure that your child arrives home safely.
If your child will be riding a different bus, please send a note. Unless we have a note or you phone the office, your child cannot ride a different bus than the one you have originally designated. If you are planning to pick your child up from school, you can write a note and someone will walk your child to the carpool lane or office. Please send this note on a separate piece of paper or call the office before 9:00 a.m. Please also specify on your note whether you will pick your child up in the carpool lane or in the office.
If you plan to take your child out of school early, please do not come to the classroom. Instead, go directly to the office and sign your child out. The office will then let your child's teacher know that you have come to pick your child up early.
Thank you for your cooperation. With your help, we can ensure that all our Kindergarten students make it home happy and safe.
Snacks
Healthy snacks are great "brain food"!
Your child will have an opportunity to eat snack during his/her school day. You may send snacks with your child each day. Please send one snack size portion. We will not provide snack if your child forgets to bring one. Your child will keep the snack in his/her backpack until it is snack time. The school office offers a choice of healthy snacks for students to purchase for 50 cents each (not to exceed two per day). In addition, please send your child with a plastic cup or small water bottle that s/he may keep to use throughout the day.
Suggested Snack Items
- Crackers
- Pretzels
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- String Cheese
Candy, cookies, and other sweet snacks are not allowed. Please do not send juice boxes or other drinks. Your child will have an opportunity to drink water throughout the day. Thank you for your cooperation.
We are enrolling more children with severe allergies. Please be aware that peanut allergies are some of the most life threatening. We would appreciate it if your would check with your child's teacher about any allergies that may exist with your child's classmates.
Social Skills
Play, social skills, rules, and self-help skills are all very important things to teach a new kindergarten student.
Play is a very integral part of our day. Many important social and academic skills are gained from being involved in meaningful play experiences. Children are given an opportunity throughout the day to construct, design, compare, build, transport, classify, add, subtract, order, measure, balance, restructure, sort, divide, arrange, coordinate, experiment, conceptualize, test, question, discuss, organize, observe, validate, enjoy, participate, express, communicate, respond, recall, dance, move, listen, create, accomplish, achieve, experience, discover, socialize, cooperate, initiate, imitate, fantasize, verbalize, pretend, recreate, direct, encourage, and share!
Children are encouraged to work together cooperatively. They will be encouraged, whenever possible, to solve their problems without adult intervention. We emphasize sharing, listening, and responsibility. During interactions with their peers, we remind them to use their words to express their feelings, and will offer help and support in verbalizing their needs. We expect children to be kind to one another and to treat the materials in the room with care. Through activities like shared reading and writing, the children develop speaking and listening skills. Our main goal is to have students leave Kindergarten feeling good about themselves as people and confident about themselves as learners.
Classroom #1 Rule:
Never hurt anyone on the inside or on the outside.
If a child continues to have difficulty following rules, is disruptive in class, or physically abusive to other children, the school discipline policy will be followed. This policy will come home within the first few weeks of school. Please read it over with your child and sign the appropriate form.
Self Help Skills
Please help your child by dressing him/her in clothing s/he can manage by him/herself. Your child needs to know how to zip his/her coat, tie shoes, snap, button, etc. If you are packing a snack/lunch, please be sure your child can open it by him/herself. Your child is also expected to use the restroom independently.
Supplies
From scissors to watercolors-supplies are a very important piece of your child's education.
Please put names on the supplies and send to school with your child's pencil box. We will help students put appropriate supplies into their pencil boxes.
Pencil box
- 1 Small pair FISKARS Scissors
- 1 box (24-count) crayons
- 2 boxes Kleenex
- 20 glue sticks (ELMER'S Brand)
2 bottles white liquid glue
- 2 boxes fat washable markers-basic colors-not bold, neon, or pastel)
- 12, #2 wooden pencils
- 4 containers of baby wipes
2 bottom pocket folders
1 set watercolors
- If your child's last name begins with an:
- A - L 1 box of quart size sandwich bags
- M - Z gallon size zipper seal sandwich bags
Please put your child's name on the inside of the folders only. Supplies may need replenishing throughout the year. Please label your child's supplies with his/her first and last name or first name and last initial.
A backpack is quite a useful item. Many things are sent home and a backpack proves to be very handy. It would be best if your child's backpack is large enough to fit 3-ring binder or even a large picture book- as these things often come home.
Optional Items
Paper towels, Purell, lunch sacks, clear plastic cups, paper plates (large and small), paper towels, antibacterial soap, and stickers.
Lunch
There are are options when it comes to lunch. You may send a lunch to school with your child, or you may send money with your child to buy a lunch from the school cafeteria. You may also purchase a milk for your child to drink with his or her lunch from home.
If you choose to have your child purchase lunch from the school cafeteria, the cost is $2.00. You can do it one of two ways: have your child purchase lunch on a daily basis or buy a lunch ticket for your child to use instead of money. For example, if you wanted to buy a lunch ticket that would last for 20 days, you would send a check for the amount of $40.00. You can purchase milk the same way. Milk is 50 cents a day or if you choose, you may purchase a milk ticket. For example, if you wanted to buy a milk ticket that would last 20 days, you would send a check for the amount of $10.00.
When you send money to school with your child, please put it in an envelope and on the front of the envelope, write your child's name, teacher's name, and what the money is for.
If your child brings a lunch from home, please send it to school in a paper sack or lunch box with his/her name and teacher's name written on it.
Thank you for your cooperation. With your help, it makes lunch time so much easier! Please keep in mind that only the fullday kindergarten class has the lunch option.
Parent Volunteers
We love having parent help in our classrooms; however, it is very difficult for many children to adjust to having parents in our rooms right away.
To give us time to get to know your child and to give your child time to adjust to the new schedule, we ask that parents not visit or volunteer in our classrooms until October. In September, we will send home a note in the Friday Folders to inform you of when to sign up and contact your child's teacher. We will limit our parent helpers to one parent per classroom. Our rooms are small, and it is very difficult to find space to work. The number of volunteers will dictate how many times per month each parent may sign up.
When helping in the classrooms, each parent must sign in at the office upon arrival. The parent will then receive a volunteer name badge to wear while at school.
Communication Between Home and School
The purpose of the Kindergarten/Friday Folder is to make communication between home and school as efficient as possible. By having all correspondence go home in the folder, you are less likely to miss something important. When your child's folder comes home, please sign, date, and return the folder with your child the next school day. Your child's teacher may write comments in the folder on an as-needed basis.
