#Kinderchat, glue, glitter, gogurt, bringing daily joy to twitter. Find us Mondays, 9 pm EST and 8:30PM London time when we talk all things Early Years!
#kinderchat Faige from Los Angeles. Spent a wonderful week with grandkids and now heading out to hear @micheleborba speak on “empathy” Will listen for a bit
A1: Our district has K Prep. It varies from each school but ours is usually two weeks before school starts. They are there for 4 hours each day and get to ride the bus to school, meet the teachers, and have lunch. #kinderchat
A1 we have an orientation morning in early June. We invite the children and their parents to the school and give them the 411 on what they can expect for the upcoming year. #kinderchat
A1, also: We do a classroom open house the week before school starts, when all our ECE students get to see their own classrooms & meet teachers. #Kinderchat
A1 - We 'welcome' them in May; small group reading and drawing - some skill assessment...and opportunity to play; parents meet with admin and nurse #kinderchat
A1: We do a K visiting day in the spring (listen to a story, draw a self portrait, play together) and then a shorter day/smaller group for the first two days in the fall. #kinderchat
We also have the opportunity to visit the pre-kindergarten classes and tell them about kindergarten and the kindergarteners visit first grade. #kinderchat
A1: We have Welcome to Kindergarten, which is for parents and children. Then the incoming Ks have an early years assessment put on by the Dep’t of Ed/School board. And finally, they come to visit for a half day. It’s nice to see them in the different contexts #kinderchat
@KeeneeLou My 7yr old sister didn't have school today b/c of weather. So my dad brought her over so I could watch her. Played outside, inside, and did activity involving building boats and using candy 2 see how many pieces it took to sink. Even fell on black ice :/ #KinderChat
A lot of US schools have school nurses. I found it odd when we moved to Canada that there aren’t really nurses in the schools like they are in the States #kinderchat
A1. In the past K visit in May. Many of our kinders come from out EC classrooms. Each K class has 8 new students. They come from a pool of applicants who spent a day in the K program in December and January #kinderchat
Agree when it comes to assessing social skills! The little souls I’ve met in June are often very different when I meet them again in September. #kinderchat
A2: We use a standardized assessment that looks at literacy, numeracy, fine motor, gross motor, etc. This is one, very small part of the picture #kinderchat
A2 tough one; we see most end the year 'well-rounded' if they had preschool experience; any social, exposure to early phonological work, mark making, listening to stories before K is a big plus; being 5 years old is usually a big factor too - there are outliers though #kinderchat
A2: All I hope for is a child who is excited to be there and wants to learn, and is somewhat self-sufficient in their self-help skills. I can deal with ABC’s etc. later. #kinderchat
The district I used to work for looked at those things. Since I now work with a district that has a large ELL population, students aren't assessed on those things. #Kinderchat
A2: academically, I would love for them to know some letters and numbers but I would rather they be kind and respectful and inquisitive. The social emotional piece is much more important (and difficult) than the academics #kinderchat
A2 Good question! I work in an area where children are well prepared for school. When someone who isn’t as prepared joins the class, it’s hard on them. I don’t think there can be one solid answer for this question. It could be a matter of perspective. #kinderchat
Q2: We are looking for typical development, familiarity with school tools, ability to follow instructions, expressive & receptive lang appropriate for 2nd lang immersion. #Kinderchat
I’m noticing fine motor skills are not as developed as they used to be as well. We spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year working on strengthening these muscles #kinderchat
One thing that I do for fine motor is I give them golf pencils to use rather than regular pencils. The shortness of the golf pencil forces them to not use all four fingers and thumb. #kinderchat
In reply to
@CarrieMarshall1, @coleGilbertson, @St006C
It was a hold-over from when each community managed their own schools (I think). I think the province wanted everything to be more streamlined, so they dropped it. I’m not 100% on that #kinderchat
Yes. We use the EYE as well. It’s administered by the board instead of us now, and we don’t do the follow-up one in the fall. It’s nice for a quick snapshot of the student #kinderchat
As an aspiring T... Would it be a good idea to do something like a practicum or something on the preschool level before before moving into elementary? Thanks. I've had this idea for awhile and just never....asked. Figure this would be a great time to do so. #KinderChat
A3: We have kids who come from home, some come from day cares, more and more are EAL and have just come from the country of their birth! 10% of our school is Chinese, but more and more we have kids from all over #kinderchat
As an aspiring T... Would it be a good idea to do something like a practicum or something on the preschool level before before moving into elementary? Thanks. I've had this idea for awhile and just never....asked. Figure this would be a great time to do so. #KinderChat
A3: Dropping in real late bc, well, Olympics
Most of our Ss do not come from a previous preschool setting. Additionally, they come with lower vocabulary skills and the like #kinderchat
I come from Early Childhood to begin with, so of course I think it’s a good idea to have done some work in a preschool environment. No better training for early childhood development than that! #kinderchat
Spend a day with 2 and 3 year olds and you’ll learn the best arguments begin with “My Mommy!” Actually, that’s an argument in and of itself, lol! #kinderchat
Hey #kinderchat Kim-kinder in Iowa! (Sorry I’m late!!) A1 we have a “ Step-Up Day that lasts a couple hours. Kids meet teacher, teacher meets kids so everyone knows who is who before they enter in the Fall. This happens at the end of the year!
A4: At the beginning of the year it’s ABC, numeracy, and the PAST which is a phonological awareness assessment. The PAST is probably the most imp. one we do at that time of year #kinderchat
A4: I just give a very basic assessment that a colleague found on TPT. It asks uppercase and lowercase ABC rec, ABC sounds, counting, name writing, colors, shapes. #kinderchat
@KeeneeLou And I asked that because I think it would help me better understand or give a general idea where Ss should be when they come up or in the area like this chat topic tonight. #kinderchat
A3 factors that i see as most impactful are if students are ready to take on skills, can they problem-solve, and how supportive/involved are families-almost all of our kiddos have PK due to free preschool grant in Iowa! #kinderchat
They do the EYE in March/April. We don’t see the total results, only where they land (red, yellow, green). So this gives us a better picture of who they are. We have around 150 Ks that come to our school each fall #kinderchat
A4 - I have a canned assessment that I found 5 years ago. I want to know what letter sounds and numbers they know. Are they able to hold a pencil and pair of scissors, identify their name, or write their name. #kinderchat
A4 - we have a district assessment; early phonological skills, letters, sounds,; baseline drawing and storytelling; number ID, counting sets and shape ID #kinderchat
We do the EYE TA in the fall and that becomes part of our first report card to parents. But I have my own assessments and check ins that I do in the fall #kinderchat
Both are adaptive tests, starting out w/ letter name & sounds. If Ss demonstrates proficiency, it will move into phonics/blending... There is MAP for math also. Math begins with number recognition, one to one correspondence, and goes from there #kinderchat
Yes! The PAST is great for that. And it helps to tailor the lessons to what each group might need. Lately I’ve noticed lots of kids coming in to K without an understanding of rhyme. #kinderchat
A4 - I want to add that I don’t find knowing If they know letter names very useful at the beginning. I test it, but phoneme identification is much higher on my list of things to assess. #kinderchat
I think we need to get back to nursery rhymes, etc in the preschool years. And I say that as a former preschool teacher- not knocking the job they do! #kinderchat
All that curriculum content that has found its way into lower and lower grades. . . let's get back to singing, rhyming, dancing, and playing! #kinderchat
A5 our school bought the building @Seesaw license this year to push communication to the very device families have in their hands at all times. It has helped us be more transparent of sharing great things and encouraging that home-school connection #kinderchat
A5: First meeting in February is for parents as we explain the program. Our June meeting has parents fully engaged in playing with their children. And I have daily parent volunteers in the classroom from week 2. #kinderchat
A5: I encourage parents to volunteer for various activities throughout the year. I also invite them to field trips as well as after school events. #kinderchat
Q5 - from the first time that I meet them I am working on my relationship with the parents. On the first day of school I send parents a picture of their kid with a “first day of school” picture. I want them with me!!! #kinderchat
Very easy to use, easy for families, easy for kids (even kinders) to post. Even better is you can track their skills/priority standards and align them with your proficiency scales for a digital grade book #kinderchat
Parent volunteers? Like a helper!? I loved the assistant we had in K. I had issues with numbers and she taught me how to use the touch point method. THIS WAS A GAME CHANGER!!! I still used it in late E, MS & HS, even today when doing simple math. #KinderChat
I'm family engagement action team chair for schl & rep w/in district. I love learning ways to engage! I constantly reach out Ps thru face, phone, & tech. I invite them in MANY times thu-out year & send pics of S wrk home. I take time to listen to Ps & learn frm them! #kinderchat
We have a grade-level website and individual pages; our parents want pictures, first and foremost - a little window into their child's world #kinderchat
Class blog, e-mails, notes home, the rare phone call (because I hate talking on the phone lol!). I try to make my blog more than a weekly update. Nothing really exciting and I know I could do more lol! #kinderchat
A5.3 this year our district went to narrative report cards that took away the tradition grade and just gave families a narrative individualized to their student with strengths/needs/next steps in the areas of literacy/writing/math/and social emotional they were great! #kinderchat
A6: What I tell parents when they ask about K readiness: play with them, and let them play alone. Let them play outside without anyone dictating what they play. Read to them, tell them stories and let them tell you stories. Sing and be silly. #kinderchat
its important to keep a positive environment and encourage parent involvement. Keep inviting them to parent conferences and having parents engage in their hopes and concerns for their little ones! #kinderchat
A6 - Like the article that was shared earlier; not all students are ready for our outcomes; we need to create a culture where that is ok; K is such a unique grade/age #kinderchat
A6 - In kindergarten I feel like it is important to preplan your year, but be willing to go with the needs of the kids. Typically, we don’t really know what the kids will be like until school starts. Unlike most every other grade beyond. #kinderchat
Our school struggles with attendance. We've done some parent workshops in addition to open houses, which demonstrate the skills Ss will learn and their need to be in school, but still attendance is low #kinderchat
A6 I think kinder readiness really needs to include the families getting a picture of who I am, what I believe in, where my passions lie, and start gaining their trust that I will love and support their kinder while I push them to grow to amazing learners and friends #kinderchat
