Welcome to Brandywine Wallace

 You registered your child for kindergarten.  What can you expect out of kindergarten?

When we were young…Now  Majority of the day playing.  Nap time  Teacher directed  Lots of coloring and cutting  A long snack time  Play is integrated into learning.  Reading time  Math time  Student centered  Technology integration  Hands on learning

AM KindergartenPM Kindergarten  AM: Bussed to school  Circle Time Activities  Reading Activities  Math Activities  Writing Activities  Technology  Encore  Play time  Children are picked up by parents/ daycares  PM: Dropped off by parent/ daycare  Circle Time Activities  Reading Activities  Math Activities  Writing Activities  Technology  Encore  Play time  Children are bussed home

 Every child grows and matures at his/ her own rate.  Kindergarten teachers are aware of this and plan accordingly.  Activities take all of this in mind and are planned to expose students to a variety of needs.  Play is incorporated into  learning.  Daily time to explore  the environment hands on.

 Students use the Common Core State Standards  Our resource is Math in Focus  The students complete many hands on activities.  Focus on  mathematical  thinking.

 Daily circle time with mathematical activities.

 Hands on exploration  Use of FOSS kits to  explore trees  Experiments  Inquiry based  learning

 Technology integrated into classrooms.  Smartboards  Ipads  Desk top  computers

 Physical Education  Art  Library  Music

 Resource: Wonders: McGraw Hill  Alphabet  Phonemic Awareness: Letter sounds, rhyming, phoneme segmentation  Reading: Text on your child’s level  Writing

 Children read texts on their level.  Teachers access school book rooms to match texts to learners.  Big Books are used for purposeful read aloud.  Read aloud discussions happen daily.

 Benchmark assessments are given:  AIMS web (tests rapid letter naming, rapid sound fluency, phoneme segmentation, and nonsense word fluency)  Fountas and Pinell  benchmark reading  system

 Teachers have classroom based interventions for enriching students and remediating them.  RTII (Response to intervention and instruction): Teachers work with students on their individual needs.  IST teacher support

 3 things make a difference in your child’s ability to learn to read: 1. Speaking vocabulary 2. Understanding of books and how they work 3. Knowledge of letter names and sounds

1. Words matter. Talk, talk, talk a lot! 2. Read, read, read some more! 3. Begin to notice and name letters and the sounds they make. These 3 things (or lack of) can make the difference in your child being a reader – or struggling to learn to read, which impacts their entire life.

Kindergarten assessments are essential to gaining insight into how much students are growing and learning. Assessments help Kindergarten teachers determine:  what a child knows, or does not know  And to understand their approaches to learning

 The children are assessed in their classroom by their classroom teacher and or the instructional support teachers. This is done one on one, in small groups or as a class.  Every effort is made to make sure each child is as comfortable as possible.

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 What was your biggest surprise about Kindergarten?