Mrs. Gaines' Kindergarten Class!

1999-2000

Welcome!!!

I would like to take this time to introduce myself. My name is Mrs. Addie Gaines. I am beginning my 11th year as a kindergarten teacher at Seneca Elementary. I graduated from Missouri Southern State College with a degree in elementary and early childhood education. I received a master’s degree from Southwest Missouri State University in May of 1996.

I am looking forward to a working with your child this year and helping him/her to achieve his/her full potential. Through the remainder of this letter, I will share some of my beliefs and classroom policies.

Parent/Teacher Relationship

I believe that a good parent-teacher relationship is necessary for maximum school success. Throughout the year I will communicate with you through notes, telephone calls, almost- weekly newsletters, quarterly reports and parent-teacher conferences. I encourage you to contact me if you have any questions or concerns at any time. You can call me at school (776-2785), send me a note or e-mail me at againes@es.seneca.k12.mo.us . I am available for conferences regarding your child’s progress from 7:30 a.m. to 7:50 a.m., 12:20 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. by appointment on school days.

Parent Participation

Throughout the school year there will be a variety of special classroom activities and celebrations. I encourage you to attend these functions when possible and to support them by sending needed supplies or treats. Your support of school activities makes your child feel important and sends the message that you value school.

School Attendance

Your child’s regular and prompt attendance at school is crucial to his/her success. I can’t emphasize this point enough!!! Most kindergarten learning activities are group oriented and involve interaction with classmates. Therefore, it is next to impossible to make up work at home. Please view school as a priority, and see to it that your child attends everyday except in cases of illness or emergency.

School Hours

Kindergarten students attend school from 8:20 a.m. to 3:09 p.m. Please do not bring your child to school any earlier than 7:55 a.m. as they are not permitted in the classrooms before this time. Please use the north parking lot (outside the kindergarten rooms) if you have a kindergarten student. Please use the east parking lot (by the new gym) if you are picking up/dropping off students from more than one grade. You may meet your kindergarten student at the classroom door. Children who walk home are to wait in the classroom until the buses have left. Then they will be dismissed. If you need to pick up your child during the school day, you must sign him/her out in the office. One of the secretaries will call your child to come to the office over the intercom.

Changes in Transportation

If you plan to pick up a child that normally rides the bus or you wish for your child to ride a different bus than usual, you must send a written note. Do not rely on your child to tell me this information, because children often become confused and relay messages incorrectly. If no written note is received, your child will be sent home by his/her usual method of transportation.

Outdoor Recess

The children will be going out for recess everyday unless it is raining or extremely cold. Please keep this is in mind when helping your child to select clothing for the day. Also, we are fortunate to have a variety of playground equipment, including several pieces for climbing. Please keep this in mind when selecting shoes. Cowboy boots and little girl’s dress shoes are less than ideal if your child chooses to play on this equipment. Also, these shoes can tend to be slippery on days when the blacktop is wet. For the most part, if your child is well enough to be at school, he/she is well enough to participate in outdoor recess, if properly dressed. In fact, the germs that cause colds thrive more readily in the heated indoor air and it is beneficial to go outside and get some fresh air. However, on those occasions when you feel it is best for your child to stay indoors, please send a written note and I will make arrangements for your child to do so.

Money

On occasion it will be necessary for your child to bring money to school. (Special envelopes are available for lunch money. When you need more of these, let me know.) Always send money in a sealed envelope with the following information written on it:
1 Your child’s first and last name.
2 The amount of money.
3 The purpose for the money (book money, party money, etc).
4 My name.
With over 20 kids to keep track of and several reasons to collect money, this helps me out tremendously and reduces the likelihood of errors. Also, if the envelope is left on the bus or dropped in the hallway, this information will help the money to be returned to my classroom.

Book Orders

Your child will be bringing home a form to order books about once a month. If you wish to order, simply fill out the form and send the correct amount of money or a check made out to the book company in an envelope. These orders are provided as a convenient way for parents to buy quality books for their child at a low price. As an added bonus, for every dollar that is spent on books, I earn bonus points which are used to purchase books for classroom use. This is a win-win situation because you get quality literature at a low price and you are helping to provide quality literature for the classroom. Of course, you are never under any obligation to order.

Birthdays

Birthdays are special occasions for young children. If your child wishes, he/she may bring treats for the class on the Friday nearest his/her birthday. Please send a note a day or two in advance, so I can give you an exact number of children in the class and set aside some classtime for the party. Please do not send birthday party invitations to school unless the entire class has been invited. Although it may seem convenient to distribute invitations this way, it can result in hurt feelings for those not invited.

Discipline

Establishing good classroom discipline is essential to each child’s success, confidence and well-being. Every child should feel that the classroom environment is safe and secure; free from all threats of physical or emotional harm. In addition, it is important that each child learn to develop self-discipline and good work habits, to resolve conflicts peacefully, and to think independently. For these reasons, the discipline plan I have chosen has several components.

First, the children will learn the purpose of classroom rules and develop the idea that our classroom is a community with the common purpose of learning, growing and becoming friends. Through class discussion and rule making, the children and I will compose a list of classroom rules that protect each student’s right to safety and respect, as well as, outlining the responsibilities that each child has in maintaining class order. A list of these rules will be sent home to parents when they are completed. New rules will be added if the need arises.

The second facet of the discipline plan includes the logical consequences that will occur when class rules are broken. Examples of logical consequences include time-out away from class for class disruptions or bothering other children, spending recess time walking in the hall or classroom for running in either place, cleaning or repairing damaged property, or written and/or verbal apologies for aggressive behavior, namecalling or ridicule towards other children. This list is not inclusive since it is impossible to predict all incidents of misbehavior that will occur during the year. The idea is for the consequence to be related to the misbehavior and act as a solution or restitution for the problem. If classroom rules are severely or persistently broken, parents will be contacted by note (to be signed and returned) or by telephone. A visit to the principal’s office is a rarely used last resort.

Finally, (since we all like treats) each child who successfully completes a day without breaking rules will receive a small stamp on his/her hand for his/her efforts. You can reinforce positive behavior at school by complimenting your child on days he/she receives a stamp. On those occasions when your child doesn’t receive a stamp, discuss with him/ her the reason why and help your child think of ways to prevent the problem from reoccurring.

Learning Mathematics “Their Way”

This year your child will have the opportunity to build mathematical concepts by manipulating objects and through real life experiences. Mathematics are incorporated into many everyday classroom routines. Concepts that your child will be learning include counting, patterning, organizational skills such as sorting, classifying, and graphing, making comparisons, number concepts and beginning addition and subtraction. Also, your child will learn to write and recognize the numerals 1 to 10 and beyond. Concepts will be introduced in whole group and small group lessons. Students will apply and extend what has been introduced through independent and cooperative work at a variety of math stations. After students have had ample opportunity to build a concept through manipulating objects, they will be encouraged to record their work by writing and drawing.

Music is also used to enhance the development of logical/mathematical thinking. Students will notice patterns in musical activities, count the beats in different types of music and sort instruments and sounds by a variety of attributes. Music makes math memorable and enjoyable. A 1997 grant from the Missouri State Department of Education for $4,700 provided the funding for this project.

This approach to mathematics stresses understanding and concept development, rather than rote memorization and repetitive arithmetic drills. For this reason, your child will not be bringing home a lot of math worksheets or completing a math workbook. Most of the learning occurs as your child works in the stations making personal discoveries and building mathematical concepts at his/her own rate.

“Loving Literature - Learning Literacy”

I am pleased to begin the eighth year of the Loving Literature - Learning Literacy project, which is designed to help kindergarten children grow at the own paces towards conventional literacy and develop self-confidence with respect to reading and writing. This project was funded by a grant from the Missouri Department of Education in 1992. The grant provided $3,800 which was used to purchase big books and matching sets of student-sized books, tape recorders and headphones and cassette tapes.

This program has several components designed to foster reading skills, develop an understanding of concepts of print, enhance the enjoyment of stories and other literature and nurture self-confidence. One activity, shared reading takes place daily. Using big books, which are books with an enlarged format and containing text that is rhyming, repetitive or predictable, the children read and reread familiar stories. Because of the rhyming, repetitive, or predictable text, the student quickly remember the stories and are easily able to join in reading with the group. In this case, strength is certainly found in numbers! As children read together, they support each other and individual mistakes are not noticed. This is a great confidence builder for the children.

“Learning Centers” are another part of the program. The children will have the opportunity to choose from 15 different activities daily that enhance or provide practice in literacy development. The children will record their choices on weekly “contracts” that will provide organization for the children, so that they can keep track of what activities have been completed. Each week four activities will be “star” activities, or required activities. These will vary from week to week to include different centers. The learning centers will be explained in more detail in upcoming class newsletters, or visit http:// www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/2221/centers.html

“Writer’s Workshop” is an important component to the program. The children are provided the opportunity to express original ideas through drawing and writing, The children will be encouraged to do their own writing from the beginning and will progress through various stages of writing throughout the year from scribbles to random letters to eventually writing the letters that stand for the sounds they hear. The more they write, the better their writing and spelling becomes.

Finally, the children will complete a multitude of other activities that relate to the literature and cross over to other curriculum areas such as math, science, social studies, art, music and more!!! Our literature studies are complemented by a variety of multicultural activities and books that enable the children to learn about others all over the world. These materials were also funded by a state department grant in 1996.

More Reading Activities

In addition to all of the reading activities I have mentioned, the children will also be completing a “picture- word” each day and an “alphabet paper”. During the picture-word chart the member of the class work cooperatively to label the parts of a picture. As the child-chosen words are placed on the chart, they are spelled orally by the class, thereby reinforcing the visual recognition of each symbol and as each child is read, the sound- symbol relationship. In addition, your child will be increasing his/her vocabulary, exercising his/her language skills and absorbing reading skills such as left to right progression, spacing between words, punctuation, capitalization, main idea, and identifying details. Your child will be instructed in the various letters and letter combinations that are used in written language while doing our alphabet papers. Each day a new letter or group of letters is introduced and written on the overhead projector. The children discuss and expand upon the ideas presented. Following this discussion, each child has the opportunity to practice writing letters and words and drawing pictures that are related to the day’s lesson. These alphabet papers are dated and collected in a notebook.. Most of the papers are sent home quarterly so that parents can see their child’s progress.

The children and I will be building a word wall this year. We will begin with the students’ names and progress to words that are related to our literature and themes. Several times weekly we will work with our words using game-like activities designed to reinforce letter/sound recognition, word recognition, sorting and classifying, identifying word patterns and more. The word wall will also serve as a resource for student writing as the year progresses.

Rainbow Reading Readiness Lab

More reinforcement in letter and sound recognition will be provided through the use of the Rainbow Reading Readiness Lab, which is a project I created while working on my Master’s degree. Each child will complete the sequenced hands-on activities independently at their own pace beginning with visual matching of pictures and letters, progressing through various letter and sound recognition activities and finally into sounding our phonetically regular words. Each level must be mastered with 100% accuracy before the child progresses to another level. The activities are teacher monitored and records are kept regarding each child’s progress. The program has six levels, with 60 activities in each level.

The End

In closing, I would just like to say that I am looking forward to a great year working with your child! I would also like to suggest that you save this letter for future reference. This letter can also be viewed on line if you have internet access. The address is: http://geocities.datacellar.net/Athens/Aegean/2221/parentletter.html Thank-you in advance for your concern and support throughout the year!!!

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