Kindergarten Round-Up

April 14th

by Kay Vonderschmidt

Cedar Bluffs Schools

Kindergarten Round-up

April 14, 2008

Kindergarten is such an exciting place in Cedar Bluffs elementary. It is a center based program that uses a hands-on approach to learning. Children learn cooperative skills, time management, computers, and discovery to learning.

The reading program is phonics based with most children reading by the second semester.

Take advantage of our small classes for more individualized attention. Please look on the Cedar Bluffs site to see articles and activities of things that we have done this year.

Call now for an appointment on April 14th for you and your child.

This article was given to me by my mother who was a kindergarten teacher. It was written by Sharon Randall.

technology

"So you think you're ready for school? Try my list.....

What does a child really need for school? To find out, I asked a panel of experts- parents, teachers, grandparents, students and a few folks I met on the back-to-school aisle. Her, in no particular order, are 20 things kids really need for school.

word walls

1. A No. 2 pencil and a willingness to erase.

2. A healthy respect for themselves and for others, especially for their teachers.

3. An awareness that the world does not revolve around them and that they alone are responsible for their actions.

4. Parents(grandparents) who teach by example a love for reading, learning and life.

5. An assurance that school is good, safe place; their teachers will like them and their parents won't leave town without them.

6. An understanding that school is their job, and no one else can or will do it for them.

7. A system for exchanging communication between school and home, a backpack for notes that need to be signed: an emergency phone number that always answers: a quiet place and a consistent time to do homework: a daily chance to read aloud and to be read to.

8.A plan for getting to school on time every morning and back home every afternoon.

9. A pet to care for, clean up after and come home to.

10. A public library card and regular chances to use it.

11. Someone to welcome them when they come home from school: to laugh at their jokes, answer their questions and listen, really listen, to what they say and don't say.

12. The power of knowing how it feels to give anonymously and sacrificially to help someone less fortunate.

13. The encouragement to try new things: the freedom to fail; and the chance to try again.

14. The gifts of being well fed, well rested, well mannered and well covered for medical, dental, and after-school care.

15.The confidence to know how to deal with bullies ( stand up straight, look them in the eye and don't start a fight; how to ask questions ( raise your hand and wait to be called on);and to never, ever stop asking questions, especially why.

16. To feel they're the best (or almost best at something; and it's OK not to be good at everything.

17. To spend more time with humans and less with machines.

18. To have nothing to do once in a while but look at clouds or make up songs or daydream.

19.More than anything(almost everyone who responded to the question said this in one way or another) they need someone to love them unconditionally, no matter what, regardless of their grades; someone to beam at them, someone to light up when they walk into the room.

20. Finally, they need to know that school won't last forever (despite how it may seem) but learning is a lifelong process.