1. Kindergarten Orientation Shadycrest Elementary 2016-2017 Mrs. Ainsworth, Mrs. Hogue, Mrs. Patterson, Mrs. Vernon, Mrs. Soders, Ms. Northcutt

2. Arrival Your child should arrive at school no earlier than 7:15 a.m. Students will either go to the cafeteria for breakfast or go to the library and listen to songs and stories until 7:50. Each kindergarten class has an assigned fourth grader that will escort the children daily to their classrooms at 7:50.

3. Morning Drop-Off Front doors, by the flag pole (please pull up) Bus circle (after the buses drop off their students at 7:30am) All students will wait in the library unless eating breakfast first

4. Breakfast/Lunch Breakfast is served beginning at 7:20 A.M. each morning. The cost of breakfast is $1.40 -- reduced breakfast is $0.30. The cost of lunch is $2.50 – reduced lunch is $0.40. Parents are encouraged to pre-pay their meals by sending a check or money to the cafeteria. Payments and restrictions to your child’s account can also be made using Parent Online. Students who qualify for free or reduced meals will need to send money for the full price of each meal until the application is approved.

5. Breakfast/Lunch Students who carry a cafeteria balance of $5.00 will be served a peanut butter sandwich. You may join your child for lunch and sit on the stage or choose to take them outside to enjoy a lunch on the picnic tables (you will have to check them out and back in). When lunch is over, we ask that you refrain from walking down the hall with the class. Kindergarten lunch will have early lunch this year. Therefore, we will incorporate a time daily that they may eat a quick snack in the afternoon if they are hungry. Feel free to send a snack with your child.

6. Those First Few Days We invite you to escort your child to their classroom during the first week of school to help with the transition. We ask that after the first week of school you allow your child to wait in the library, so that they can begin to learn the school’s daily routine.

7. School Supplies At the beginning of the year, teachers will collect the school supplies and utilize a community supply system. For this reason, there is no need to label all of their supplies.

8. Dress Code…. Students should be dressed in accordance to the P.I.S.D. dress code. Girls should wear shorts under their dresses. Please label your child’s jackets and sweaters! Encourage your child to wear comfortable shoes everyday, especially on days when they go to PE!

9. Dress Code…. Shadycrest Spirit shirts can be worn any day of the week. This year we will be offering three different spirit shirts. We ask that the first shirt you purchase for your child be the themed grade level shirt (Kindergarten’s color is orange). The themed spirit shirt may then be purchased in additional colors (black and brown). You may also purchase the Shadycrest spirit shirt in additional colors (charcoal, pink, lime green, and navy blue) and/or a GRIT spirit shirt in black. District spirit shirts from our feeder schools (Alexander, East, Pearland High School, and Turner) may be worn any day of the week. College shirts may be worn on Fridays only.

10. Dress Code Details Pants, shorts, and skirts: Can be any solid color except white. Pants must be hemmed and can’t have slicing, ragging, or holes in them. Shorts must be no more than 3 inches above the knee. Cargo (expendable) pockets are not allowed on pants or shorts. Shirts and Jackets: Can be any solid color (no multicolor) shirt or appropriate campus/district spirit shirt. College shirts may be worn on Fridays only. A single logo is allowed on shirts/blouses. Striped shirts are allowed as long as they have a standard collar. Shoes: Students must wear shoes appropriate for school (no house slippers, thongs or flip flops). All shoes must include a back strap over the heel, no wheels, noise-makers, or lights please.

11. Dismissal The school day ends at 3:05 p.m. and dismissal procedures begin at 2:55 p.m. Your child will be dismissed by their teachers, and will go to the designated pick up locations with a kindergarten teacher. Name tag necklaces will be sent home with students the first three weeks. Please send back daily. We will have the students wear these for the first 3 weeks of school to ensure all adults in the building know how they go home. It is very important that we know how your child will be going home those first few days of school, because it tends to change by the first full week. If there is ever a change in your child’s regular way of going home, please call or send a note before 2:30. Without a call or a note students will be sent home in their usual way. Permanent changes in how a student goes home need to be made with the teacher. The receptionist can only make a change for that day.

12. Cafeteria Walk -up Students will be led to the cafeteria and asked to sit down in an assigned Kinder section. Parents are asked to wait near the back of the cafeteria. Students will tell the teacher when they see their parent or caregiver and point to them. The teacher sends the child once eye contact or a wave with the adult has been made. IDs are not checked for adults picking up students designated as cafeteria walk-up. If you prefer the enhanced security you will want to designate your child as a car rider. Please do not block the driveways of neighborhood homes in order to park and walk in. Please do not park in the school parking lot and walk up to pick up a student designated as cafeteria walk-up. This is a safety concern as the parking lot is extremely busy at dismissal time.

13. Car Riders You will need a dashboard placard posted in your windshield with your child’s name and grade on it. Please make it large enough so that the caller will be able to read it. Without a placard, you will be asked to move to the front and an ID will be checked. For flow of traffic and safety reasons, we can not allow parents to park and walk up to pick up their child. Children need to load cars on the right side for safety reasons. If your child needs help buckling their seatbelt, please pull out of the line and into a parking spot to buckle them in. Dismissal will begin at 3:05 p.m.

14. Car Riders **Bare with us for the first week or so. We will be teaching the students the correct procedures. It will improve. To help us speed up the car rider line, please… Have your car rider place card visible and pull all the way forward in the line. Your child will be waiting for you at one of the numbered poles. Please do not stop and look for your child because this will slow down the dismissal process.

15. Bus Riders For all Kindergarten students, there must be an “approved” adult waiting at the bus stop to receive each student with a driver’s license or state ID. If not, the student will be returned to the school. It usually takes about three days for the transportation office to process new paperwork. Please make other arrangements for the pick-up of your kindergartener on those first three days of school. You can call the bus barn to check to see if your child is on the list. Transfinder ( the district bus route scheduling program) can also be found online www.pearlandisd.org

16. Walkers Kindergarten students are not allowed to walk home from school without an adult. If you want your kindergartener to walk home, you can designate them as cafeteria walk-up and then an adult can walk home with them.

17. Additional Bus Rider Info: Be sure to list all persons who will be able to receive your child on your transportation registration form. A Kinder student with a sibling 1 st grade or older can be let off without an adult. In the event the sibling is absent, please have an approved adult at the stop. Students are not allowed to ride the bus home with other students at any time. Contact transportation directly for anything regarding the bus. PISD Transportation/Bus Barn: 281-485-3562

18. YMCA The YMCA has an after school care program that is housed in the Shadycrest cafeteria. To enroll your child, you would need to contact the YMCA at 281-485-6805. The hours are 3:05-6:30 p.m. Please do not park in the bus circle before 3:30 p.m. to pick up your child. If you arrive before that time, we ask that you park in the front parking lot.

19. Illness Please do not send your child to school if he/she has a fever. Students must be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. If your child becomes ill at school, you will be called to pick your child up. Due to the large number of clinic visits you may not always receive a call to let you know that your child was in the clinic that day. We will always call if they have a fever, vomit, hit their head or get something in their eye. If your child has any allergies or needs to take medication, please let our HCA know. Please also take some time to review the district medication guidelines.

20. Accidents/Change of Clothing We will call you if your child becomes soiled during the day and does not have a change of clothes, or if they are so soiled we determine they need to go home. We cannot keep clothes for everyone in the clinic so it is important for you to keep a change in your child’s backpack (ex. spilt milk, dirt from recess).

21. Absences Texas has a compulsory attendance law which requires students to be in attendance the full instructional time class is offered unless a valid excuse is presented. If your child has a doctor/dentist appointment and returns to school the same day, he/she will be counted present as long as an excuse from the doctor/dentist is provided. If your child is absent, you need to send a note to the school within three days of when he/she returns. Please include your child’s name, teacher’s name, date of absence, and the reason for the absence. Excessive absences/tardiness means that your child will be missing out on important instructional time. 3 or more tardies or early checkouts will also prevent perfect attendance awards.

22. Birthdays and Cupcakes If you want to send cookies/cupcakes for your child’s birthday, they will need to be store bought. These will need to be labeled with child/teacher name and dropped off at the front reception. They will be served to the class during the last 15 minutes of the school day. No balloons or party goods please. We ask that birthday party invitations not be sent to school to be distributed unless invitations are available for all the children in the class or all girls/all boys. PTA will pass out a treat coupon for all birthdays and half birthdays.

23. Odds and Ends If you are sending money to school with your child, please make sure that it is in an envelope labeled with teacher name, student name, grade level, and what the money is for (ex. Lunch, pictures, yearbook, etc). Checks will need your Driver’s License and phone number on them. For the first couple of weeks please send containers that are easy for them to open for their lunches. Please keep an extra change of dress code clothes for your child in his/her backpack.

24. Please check your child’s take-home folder each day. This is the easiest way to exchange notes and stay updated on behavior, homework, and school events. No rolling backpacks please. If you are interested in volunteering, an online criminal background check must be completed. DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment)—Beginning of the Year testing Odds and Ends

25. Conference Time Kindergarten teacher conference time is 11:45-12:30 p.m. Please call if you would like to arrange a conference. Phone number: 281-412-1404

26. PTA Volunteer Opportunities Room mom or dad PTA Board Positions PTA Watch Dog (Dads) Volunteers-to-go In-school volunteer Spring Carnival Yearbook committee School Supplies Fundraising Field Trip/Field Day

27. A Typical Day in Kinder Morning routines and calendar Read Aloud Writer’s Workshop Literacy Stations and Guided Reading Shared Reading Lunch Recess Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Specials (Library, Music, or P.E.) Math and Math Stations Science and Social Studies Dismissal

28. Kindergarten is… Hands-on learning Based on individual needs About the whole child (social, emotional, and intellectual) Whole group, small group, and individual Parents and teacher working together Hard work FUN!

29. This year we will continue our bully prevention/character education development program called Bucket Filling. The concept is easy to understand. Everyone carries an invisible bucket that holds our good thoughts and feelings. When our buckets are full, we feel happy and when our buckets are empty, we feel sad. Children quickly learn they can fill buckets when they do and say things that are kind, considerate, caring and respectful. They also understand that when they are mean, inconsiderate, uncaring or disrespectful, they dip into buckets and remove those good feelings. We are encouraging, reminding and recognizing our students’ efforts to be bucket fillers at home, at school and everywhere they go. If you would like to learn more, feel free to visit www.bucketfillers101.com.

30. Each year we incorporate a student motivational theme. This year we are “Saddlin’ Up for Success” with a western theme. Themes allow us to put a fresh spin on general procedures, student recognition, and make each year distinct for our students.

31. Teacher Assignment Stations: --Wednesday, August 17 th 3-7 p.m. A-L --Thursday, August 18 th 3-7 p.m. M-Z **Bring with you a copy of a current utility bill, cash/check if desired, etc. Campus Handbook/forms on Shadycrest website. Friday, August 19 th 8:30-9:30 a.m. Meet & Greet/Supply Drop Off Monday, August 22 nd First Day of School Thursday, September 1 st 6:30-8:00 pm (Open House) Meet the Teacher Night Monday, September 5 th Labor Day – No School Dates to Remember

32. Thank you for attending this orientation. We are thrilled to have your child as a Shadycrest kindergarten student! This Powerpoint will be posted to each Kindergarten teacher’s website for future reference.