1. Welcome to Brandywine Wallace

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

3. 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

4. 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

5.  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.

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

7.  Daily circle time with mathematical activities.

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

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

10.  Physical Education  Art  Library  Music

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

12.  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.

13.  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

14.  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

15.  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

16. 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.

18. 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

19.  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.

20. 

21.  What was your biggest surprise about Kindergarten?