Mrs. Dawn's Kindergarten Parent Guide
WELCOME!
Welcome to Kindergarten at Coles Ferry Elementary! My name is Dawn and I am so excited to be a part of the CFE Kindergarten Team. More importantly, I am THRILLED to be your teacher! It’s going to be a fun year full of learning and new adventures in a safe environment. I want to know all about you and your five year old, but first let me tell you a little about myself.
All About Me
My name is Dawn Willis. I grew up here in Lebanon and attended MTSU. I graduated in the fall of 1995 and completed my Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction (Early Childhood) at MTSU in August of 2001. I just finished my twenty-eighth year of teaching. I taught second grade for six years. This is my twenty-fourth year to teach kindergarten which was always my dream. I was so excited when I finally had the opportunity! I married my high school sweetheart in 1996. My husband, Andy, has many occupations. His primary job is farming and cutting timber. He also has his own lawncare business. We have a son named Rhett who graduated from Tennessee Tech whose wife is Lauren, a daughter named Laurel Grace who is a senior at MTSU, a daughter named Caroline who is a sophomore at Tennessee Tech, and a daughter named Molly who is a junior at LHS. We also have a precious black lab named Lucy and a goldendoodle puppy named Bear. Our children are the love of our lives. Now let’s talk about school and your child.
My Thoughts on Education
Kindergarten has changed so much in the past few years. The expectations are high, but I believe that all children can accomplish them. I believe that children learn best when their learning relates to their real-life experiences and is relevant to them. I believe that it is important to use a variety of teaching methods to try to meet the needs of every child because every child learns differently. I believe that children need a positive learning environment in which they feel cared for, loved, and accepted. I want your child to know how much they are loved, and I will work to help your child grow academically, socially, and emotionally.
Parent Letters
This booklet will be the first of many letters that you will receive. I will be sending a letter home each Monday in this blue Very Important Papers folder. In the back of the folder, there is a place for papers that need to be signed or filled out and returned to school. In the front of the folder, there is a place for papers that can be kept at home. You will notice that the right pocket of the folder says “Bring RIGHT Back” and the left pocket of the folder says “LEFT at Home.” I hope this makes it easier for you to remember what to do with the papers. Please keep the parent letters at home so you will have them to refer back to if you need them. The VIP folder should always be placed in your child’s backpack and returned to school the following day. This will help encourage responsibility in your child and keep the folder from being misplaced.
We will be using the Seesaw app to communicate messages as well as using it as an academic tool. Please check your child’s VIP folder for a letter today about how to join our class. Once you join our group, you will receive class announcements and private messages, and your reply will come straight back to me instead of in a typical group text format.
Privacy
Because we will be using our school’s website as part of communication between home and school, please let me know in writing if you do not want your child’s picture to be posted on Seesaw or on our website. These photos capture groups of children learning together. Your child’s name will not be used on our website. If I do not hear from you in writing, I will be sharing lots of pictures of our class working and learning together.
Our Curriculum
We will be using several methods and programs to help guide our learning in kindergarten. We follow Tennessee State Standards (not Common Core) that may be found at the www.lssd.org website. Our curriculum is an individualized program that strives to meet each child’s educational needs. Children will often work in “Study Buddy” pairs and engage in learning games before attempting to perform these skills in a written task. They will also participate in many types of literacy experiences including Interactive Read Alouds and Interactive Writing, Shared Reading, Guided Reading, CKLA phonics, and independent writing. They will learn to set goals for their own learning and will have conferences with me to discuss their learning. I hope you will see learning experiences that require curiosity, foster creativity, and teach problem solving. We have a brand new Math curriculum and will be using manipulatives, games, technology, journals, and Math pages to help us learn kindergarten standards. Science and Social Studies that focus on our State Standards and the interests of the children will be integrated into our day. These studies will involve many hands-on experiences. Some of our themes are: fairy tales, five senses, farms, fire safety, holidays, seasons, weather, famous Americans, historical events, kings and queens, plants, animals, and more. Our parent newsletter will inform you of the week’s learning focus.
Special Classes
P.E. and Recess: We will have a specified amount of time for both structured and unstructured physical education activities each day. Some of the activities will take place in our gym, and some will take place outside on grassy areas or on our playground. If you need for your child to stay in from outside play on a given day, please send me a note with your request. In our P.E. program, your child will have the opportunity to participate in planned stations and activities using movement, music, and fun. Tennis shoes are required on these days to keep the children safe in the gym. Our P.E. day is Thursday. Mr. Cushing will not allow children wearing unsafe shoes to do any running, hopping, skipping, climbing, etc. He and our administration want to keep our children safe from harm’s way.
In addition to P.E., we will also attend other special classes. The students will attend Art, Music, Computer, Guidance and Library. Library and Guidance classes will alternate weeks. After a few weeks, your child will be able to check out a Library book to bring home. Please be sure to return the book before the next scheduled Library day to ensure that your child may check out another one. The headphones you purchased will be used with our iPads in the classroom and in the Computer lab. Our special class schedule is as follows…
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Computer
Wednesday - Stream and Music
Thursday - P.E.
Friday - Library or Guidance
Work at Home
In the beginning of the year, the majority of our kindergarten work that will be completed at home will be reading with your child, practicing sight words, playing academic or skills games, and other paper/pencil skills that your child may be practicing at school or is ready to learn next. It may be that lots of children are working on different skills based on their individual needs. Once children have learned about iPads, we will be using technology to reinforce learning at school as well. I firmly believe that technology will never replace holding a book and working to decode words or the concrete learning that occurs as children hold Math manipulatives in their hands. It also will never replace so many of the valuable social skills we gain from being in class daily and the interactions that come as we communicate with teachers and our friends.
Assessments
Your child will participate in a variety of assessments in his or her kindergarten year. A general kindergarten readiness skills screening and Phonological Awareness Test that measures letters and sound knowledge has already been conducted during your child’s phase-in week.
DIBELS is an assessment to measure early literacy skills. We will have this assessment three times a year. It will be done early in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. This will determine if your child is functioning on grade level (reached the Benchmark) in Language Arts throughout the school year. The Fall assessment will help teachers determine which children need additional help or intervention. The components of the test include Letter Naming, Initial Sounds, Phoneme Segmentation, and Nonsense Word Reading and Word Reading. This is a timed test.
We will have Fall, Winter, and Spring Writing Assessments. Children will write about a topic given by the teacher. There will be a rubric (detailed score sheet) to determine your child's growth.
We will be using an assessment program called Mastery Connect every six weeks to gauge progress on our Math and Reading/Language Arts curriculum standards. This will help teachers know quickly how to best meet the needs of each child and to guide our instruction.
The children are tested each nine weeks to determine mastery in all subject areas that have been taught during that grading period. This will be found on your child’s Report Card.
Discipline
In order to achieve the best learning environment for all of our children, we will have the following rules and expectations in our class:
Our Class Expectations
- Use kind words and actions. (Be kind.)
- Listen when others are speaking. (Be respectful.)
- Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself. (Be safe.)
- Follow directions quickly. (Be responsible.)
These rules correlate with our school-wide positive behavior plan that pertains to other areas of our building. Those expectations are to Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Responsible, and Be Respectful to ourselves and each other. Children are given paw prints for demonstrating positive behavior. Those paw prints can be exchanged for prizes from the treasure chest and help us reach schoolwide positive behavior goals. Each nine weeks, our school will have a Cougar Celebration for those who consistently follow classroom and school rules. Children who have difficulty following these rules will be asked to visit the Calm Down Corner until they are ready to change their behavior and then can return to the group. If a child does not make the necessary changes to continue learning, he or she will have Think Time with another teacher or staff member to reflect on their choices and have a brief conference about their behavior. If a child goes to Think Time, you will receive a phone call from the classroom teacher. In some cases, children will miss playtime, have some logical consequences, or visit the principal for repeated or extreme misbehavior. If a child has seen another teacher for Think Time three times in a nine week period or visits the principal, he or she will not attend the special Cougar Celebration.
Breakfast and Lunch
Our cafeteria serves breakfast and lunch daily. Breakfast is served daily from 7:30-7:50a.m. Our school has been awarded a grant, and every child can eat breakfast at school for FREE. A menu will be provided to your family at the beginning of each month. This menu is also available on the school system’s website at www.lssd.org. Your child will be able to choose which foods he or she eats each day. It is important to put the menu somewhere it can be seen often such as the refrigerator door. Talking with your child about what he or she will eat before school begins each day will help make our morning lunch count easier.
Our lunchtime is 11:02-11:27a.m. Lunch will cost $2.50 per day. Your child is also welcome to bring his or her own lunch. Weekly lunch money will be taken up on Monday mornings. Please place your child’s money inside an envelope or ziplock bag with your child’s name written on it and turn it in to me. You may also add money to your child’s lunch account online at the www.lssd.org website under the Child Nutrition Services tab.
As your child goes through the lunch line, he or she will have a barcode to scan that is linked to an individual account holding the money that has been sent to school each week. I will help your child scan their barcode for several weeks to make sure that he or she is comfortable with our lunch routine. I will eat in the cafeteria for the first few days with our class. After that time, Mrs. Nicky, Mrs. Tracey, and Ms. Joyce, who work during kindergarten lunch each day, will monitor the children as they eat.
Rest Time
At the beginning of the year, we may have a few minutes of down time. Children are often very tired on Mondays and especially during the fair. Please send a small towel or blanket for your child to keep in his or her locker to lie on during rest time. Your child will not need any additional pillows or stuffed animals. After several weeks, we will discontinue our down time or use it for free choice centers. The time frame of when this transition occurs differs from year to year depending on the class and their needs.
Field Trips
We hope to have a half-day field trip to a pumpkin patch in October. We plan to have one full day field trip (zoo in the spring) and a trip to the Capitol Theater (before Christmas) this year. Parents may attend if they have met the background check requirements. The number of chaperones will be limited based on the event. If you intend to attend a field trip with your child, please go to our front office ASAP and get the required background check process started. You will find specific instructions bound in the center of this folder. The background check does cost money, but it will last for five years.
Lost and Found
Our school's Lost and Found is located in the cafeteria. Can you believe how many backpacks and jackets look the same? Please write your child’s name on their backpack in case it gets lost. Writing names inside clothing, lunchboxes, and on water bottles is a good idea as well.
Change of Clothes
It is helpful to keep a change of clothes in the backpack or locker at all times because we tend to get messy in kindergarten. Our school nurse, Nurse Robin, always welcomes clothing donations (various size shirts, pants, shorts, underwear or socks) for any accidents where children have no change of clothes. If you would like to donate, she would be delighted and appreciative. Please send a full change of clothes to leave in your child’s locker in case of an accident or mess.
Dismissal
Kindergarten dismisses each day at 2:50p.m. All kindergarten children who are car riders will dismiss out the door at the end of the kindergarten hallway. Please use the card on your rearview mirror or the dash of your car so that the teachers will know which child you are picking up. Here are some important things to remember. Please stay in your car. We will bring your child to you. If your child needs assistance in buckling their seatbelt, please pull all the way to the end of the sidewalk to buckle your child. Also, please form two lines of traffic and pull all the way down to the line where the teacher or principal is standing in front. Please do not move your vehicle until the person at the front lets you know that it is safe to do so. This will help keep the traffic flowing more smoothly. Day care and bus riders will walk down to their dismissal areas with another teacher or educational assistant. SACC will come to the kindergarten hall to pick up any children who will be attending SACC. Children who are walkers do not get to leave our building until 3:05p.m. If you park your car and walk up to our dismissal area to get your child, he or she will not be released to you until 3:00p.m. for everyone’s safety. Anyone who yells at teachers will result in Officer Hamblen or an administrator being called to the dismissal area to handle the situation. If your child's dismissal routine changes, please call the front office and also send me a message explaining the change and whether it is temporary or permanent.
Attendance and School Hours
In order to meet our goals, each day is structured and our class time is completely filled. Instructional time begins at 7:50a.m. and ends at 2:50p.m. Students can arrive at school as early as 7:00a.m. if needed and may sit in the gym with a staff member until 7:30a.m. Teachers arrive at school by 7:30a.m. which is when our classroom opens for the day. Children who arrive after 7:50a.m. must have a late slip signed by the parent and the front office before going to class. Good attendance is important for children to make progress in school. If your child misses school, a note stating the reason for an absence needs to be submitted to school.
Parties
Birthdays are very special to kindergartners. We will celebrate birthdays! If you would like to send in treats for the entire class on your child’s birthday during our lunchtime, please let me know. We will celebrate summer birthdays toward the end of the school year. We will also be having class parties for special holidays. You will receive more information regarding each party when it gets closer to the holiday. I like to use a website such as Sign Up Genius or My Lucky Potluck to request foods or items for parties.
Conferences
Parent-Teacher Conferences are held in the Fall. If you would like to schedule an additional conference, please send me an e-mail or message in Seesaw. We will then schedule a date and time to have a conference. I will also contact you if I have any situations or information that I feel we need to discuss.
If you have questions, please feel free to ask them. Please remember that questions and phone calls during the school day take time away from your child and the rest of our class. If you need to talk to me, I am available before 7:50a.m. or after 3:00p.m. You may also reach me through Seesaw or e-mail me at [email protected].
Thank you in advance for your support throughout the school year, and thank you for allowing me to share a part in your child’s life!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Dawn
