Kindergarten

1. Kindergarten Mrs. Pickens Class

2. Housekeeping • Please initial your child’s folder and return to school each day. • Please return homework on Friday. • Transportation changes must be made on the orange transportation form in your child’s folder.

3. BPS Text Alerts • School Closings • Inclement Weather (Early Dismissal) • Upcoming Events • Reminders

4. Money • Please send all money in a envelope or zip top bag labeled with your child’s name, explanation of payment, and amount. Put this money in the pencil pouch that is in your child’s folder. • Please do not combine payments.

5. Attendance • It is very important that your child is at school everyday. • If your child is sick, please send an excuse note with your child the next day. • If you do not send a note your child’s absence will be unexcused.

6. Tardies and Dismissals • The tardy bell rings at 8:00 • School dismisses at 2:30 • Please keep tardies and early dismissals to a minimum.

7. Homework • Students will have homework each night. It should last around 5 minutes. • Sight words need to be practiced each night. • Please have your child try to complete the homework independently.

8. Assessments • G-KIDS • DIBELS NEXT

9. G-KIDS • Standards based • Will be used for report cards • See example

10. DIBELS NEXT • Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills • Given 3 times a year • Letter Naming Fluency, First Sound Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation, and Nonsense Word Fluency

11. Letter Naming Fluency • Students have 60 seconds to read as many letters as they can. • The student must track the print themselves moving left to right. • Indicator of future reading fluency

12. First Sound Fluency • Students are given 60 seconds to give as many beginning sounds as they can. • Students will be given a word and they must tell the first sound they hear in the word. • September score at or above 10 • January score at or above 30

13. Phoneme Segmentation • Students are given 60 seconds to segment as many words as possible. • Jan. score at or above 20 • May score at or above 40

14. Nonsense Word Fluency • Students are given 60 seconds to read or sound out as many nonsense words as they can. • Jan. score at or above 17 • May score at or above 28

15. Word Use • Students are given a word and asked to use it in a sentence. • Students have 60 seconds to complete this portion of the test.

16. BEE ATTITUDES • BEE Respectful • BEE Responsible • BEE Safe • BEE a Problem Solver

17. Beehive and Bee Bucks • School-wide discipline plan • Each student starts on Good Green each morning. • Students move up or down on the beehive depending on their behavior. • Students making good choices can move their bee up the hive. • Students making bad choices move their bee down the hive. • Students can also earn Bee Bucks to following the BEE Attitudes. Students can redeem these bucks for rewards.

18. Behavior Steps • Classroom System (Bee Chart) • Chill Zone (reflection spot in room) • Buddy Zone (reflect in another room) • Reflection Zone (reflection room) • Continue disruptive behavior-Reflection Zone for entire day

19. Reading and Writing Standards • Read high fluency words (sight words) • Sound out words in order to read • Know the sounds letters make • Write about what they know • Use sight words when writing stories

20. Word Wall Words • Kindergarteners learn 78 sight words. • These words usually cannot be sounded out. • Please practice reading these words every night.

21. Math Standards • Count to 100 by 1’s and 10’s • Identify greater than, less than, equal to • Decompose numbers to 10 (5= 2 + 3) • Solve addition and subtraction story problems • Identify 2-D and 3-D shapes

22. Class Schedule

23. Morning Work and Announcements • Each morning there will be a worksheet or activity at your child’s table for them to complete. • Students have until after the announcements to complete the activity.

24. Community Circle • Helps build community within our classroom. • Students get the opportunity to share every morning.

25. TRIBES • Attentive Listening • Appreciations/No Put Downs • Mutual Respect • Right to Pass

26. Literacy Workshop • 16 groups • Students do literacy based activities in each group. • I will work with small groups of students. (Guided Reading, Sight words, phonemic awareness, etc.)

27. Lucy Calkins Writing • Mini-lesson • Writing Workshop • Sharing Time

28. Mini-Lesson • Each lesson focuses on a specific writing skill. • Stretching out words, adding detail, punctuation, capitalization

29. Writing Workshop • Students spend 30-45 minutes writing a true story. • We conference with the students on how to make their story better. • Students draw a picture and sound out words during writing workshop.

30. Sharing Time • Two students share their story each day. • The class tells the author one thing they like about their story and one thing that could make their story better.

31. Writing Rubric • Writing is graded based on our writing rubric. • This rubric changes throughout the year.

32. Snack • We have a small snack each day. • Send a snack each month for our class to share. • Goldfish crackers, cereal, vanilla wafers, and pretzels are some examples.

33. P.E. and Music • Students must wear tennis shoes to participate in P.E. • Our class goes to Music on Monday and Wednesday. • We go to P.E. on Tuesdayand Friday.

34. StoryTown • Phonemic Awareness and Phonics • Letters • Letter sounds • Rhyming • Blending/Decoding

35. Shared Reading • I work with students on listening and reading comprehension. • Retelling, summarizing, sequencing, “wh”questions • Identify story elements

36. Calendar • During calendar time we learn: months of the year, days of the week, seasons, counting, place value, and money. • Multiple Representations

37. Handwriting • It is very important that each child knows how to make the letters correctly. • We teach students to start their letters at the top of the line. • Examples are in your packet.

38. Math Workshop • Mini-lesson • 4 groups • Students do math games and activities in each group.