Parent Information Evening

Kindergarten 2014

Welcome to Kindergarten 2014

This year we have 120 children enrolled at Manly Village. The six classes are as follows:

KA Miss Courouzos KM Mrs Aberline KC Miss Camphin KD Mrs Docker KF Miss Franko KG Miss Grant

We are all looking forward to a rewarding and fulfilling year.

We welcome new families to our school and hope that the transition into a new school is a happy one. We also welcome back those families who have had previous ties with our school and know that they will assist our new families to settle in.

Children need to be

happy, settled and feel successful in a safe

and caring environment in order to learn effectively. OUR AIM is to create an environment where this occurs and where learning is enjoyable and children are motivated and willing to have a go. To foster this, we will participate in many activities together as a Kindergarten group.

Routines
To follow are some general procedures that will help everyone:
Morning routine Children line up in 1 line in the courtyard behind the canteen. Please encourage your child to walk to the lines on their own whilst you wait on the back of the assembly area. Please stand at the back of the students so we can walk the children off quickly. Please keep away from the doors to make it easier for the children to follow their teacher inside. If your child is struggling with separation, the best strategy is to drop and go quickly.

Routines
The school bell rings at 9:10 am. Please try to be here on time as it can be upsetting for your child to arrive late and it is quite disruptive for the class. Late arrivals must go to the office and obtain a Late Arrivals slip and the same applies for early leavers. Please place the slips in the class notes tray. Children must not be on the bars before or after school. Bars may only be used at morning tea and lunch.

Routines
No one should be in the classroom before school. The children should put their bags on their lines. When they enter the classroom they are encouraged to hang their own bags on their hook, deliver notes and later in the term, home readers. This is to foster independence and a sense of responsibility in the children. In the event of wet weather the children are to hang up their bags on the hooks and follow the same routine. Please do not arrive before 8:45am as there is no teacher on duty. Teachers will be in their classroom by 8:45am for wet weather arrangements.

School Procedures
Ask your child or check their bags everyday for school notes. If you send a note to school please tell your child that they have a note for their teacher and remind them to put it in the class note box.
The school Newsletter is sent out every Tuesday.

Please label all items- clothing, shoes, socks, jackets, hats- as well as any stationery needs, lunch boxes and drink bottles. Any lost items can be found in lost property.
We encourage all children to have a go. Please be positive about school and praise all efforts. We tell the children that mistakes are learning opportunities. If we dont try, then we will never get things correct or improve.

Circle Time
Circle Time is an invaluable social skills program. The Kindergarten team values the education of the whole child. We aim to help build friendships as we equip each child with positive strategies for dealing with all social situations. Circle time has the deliberate aim of teaching empathy and tolerance. As pupils take part in the circle games, rounds and discussions, they learn the skills of empathy and understanding. Increased empathy increases tolerance of difference, whether social, cultural or racial. This has an enormous potential to encourage a society that celebrates the wide diversity in Australia today.

Circle Time...continued
The overall aims of Circle Time are to: Understand the experiences of others Experience connection to a wider society Make personal decisions based on these understandings Bring these understandings to bear on academic subjects being studied

In circle time Children will learn to:

Participate in democratic structures Feel positive about themselves Feel their opinions are valued Consider social and oral dilemmas Build friendships Develop empathy Promote personal responsibility Appreciate and value diversity Communicate assertively Value their community.

TOYS

Toys should only be brought to school for news. As a rule, children do not take toys onto the playground as a lost or broken toy is a disappointment and quite distressing.

ALLERGIES

We are a nut and egg free school. Please do not send any food made with nuts or whole egg products. This includes peanut butter, Nutella, whole boiled eggs, some snack bars plus much more. Please read the labels when you are buying snacks. Nut and egg allergies can be life threatening for some of our valued students at Manly Village.

Money
The rule at school is that children should not share money nor should children buy items at the canteen for others. We are not always aware of what children can or cannot eat so it is safest not to share. Please only send small amounts of money for personal use. Money sent to school for excursions, etc is to be sent straight to the office in the morning. Please do not hand it to the class teacher outside. The children will receive their text books soon. The cost of these is included in the Semester 1 fee. Details of fees are emailed to you within the first weeks of terms 1 and 3.

Workbooks
The workbooks this term are a Handwriting Text and two Sound Scrapbooks. We do not have a Mathematics textbook this year as we will use a more hands-on practical approach to learning, which is more appropriate for the kindergarten level.

BIRTHDAYS Little cup cakes, cookies, ice blocks, crackles etc, to be shared among the class are very teacher and children friendly. Birthdays are also celebrated at our K-2 Assemblies.

ABSENCE NOTES Absence notes are a legal requirement. Please supply a note of explanation as soon as your child returns to school for any absence, even if you ring the school in advance.

HOME TIME
The teacher will bring the students outside and dismiss them. Each child is to stay with their class teacher until they see their mum or dad. Please encourage your child to say goodbye to their teacher and point to where mum or dad is.

Children are not allowed to play on the equipment whilst waiting to be collected.
If you are late, we will take your child to the office to wait for you. The office closes at 3:30pm.

Merit System
At each assembly 3 students from all K-2 classes will be awarded a merit certificate which will reflect their individual achievements. The names of children receiving an award will appear in the Seasider before the assembly. Please keep this a surprise.

Excursions
Were in the process of organising our excursions for 2014. We require parent helpers for each excursion and we take these on a first come first serve basis. We will ask for helpers closer to the time.

For all excursions, children must be: at school on time wearing a hat and sunscreen able to carry their own backpack throughout the whole length of the excursion. ** Please pack morning tea and lunch on these days.

RFF
Each teacher gets three 40 minute sessions of RFF which is Release from Face to Face teaching. We use this session for the planning and preparation of class resources. One of the sessions is used for the library lesson with Mrs Neill. Miss Annand or Miss Naquase are the Kindergarten RFF teachers. They will take the different Kindergarten classes and use this time to teach a range of drama and music activities.

Gymnastics
The children will be taking part in weekly gymnastic lessons during Terms One and Two. Specialist gym teachers will take the session and will work on the development of early gymnastic movements and skills.

Each teacher remains present at these sessions to assist and encourage the children.

Class Parent Representative

We are now recruiting CPRs for 2014. We need two representatives from each class. The role is mainly about communicating between the school and class parents. It is an important role that is highly valued by the school and community. Each class will have a sign up sheet in their room if anyone wants to put their name forward tonight.

Sight Words
Every language has a group of common words which are in constant use. They make up the frame work of the languagean essential structure which helps you to read other words. These words are called BASIC SIGHT WORDS and they must be known by sight- instantly. They provide the framework from which other words in a sentence can be worked out, using context clues (Andrews, 1997) M100W Program (Magic 100 Words). There are eight levels with the first 100 words and another five levels with the second hundred words. The sight word program will start in Week 4.

Sight Words...continued
Students are tested before progressing to the next level - by sight, not sounding out. Each teacher carries out their testing of sight words a little differently. This will be discussed following this presentation in your child's classroom. Please keep all sight words as the students move up the levels. They must revise them regularly.

PM Benchmark Reading Assessment

Accurately determines instructional and independent reading levels.

The PM collection has been carefully crafted to meet the needs of students. Levels of the texts have been achieved by careful consideration of the following factors.
Concepts Prior knowledge is an important factor in making meaning from texts. Concepts chosen for the texts are relevant to the age and maturity of students and their likely experiences with the world. High-frequency words (HFW) For assessment purposes, the most essential HFW have been selected and embedded within the natural flow of the language. These words correlate to the M100W Program. Sentence constructions Sentences in the early levels are short and simple and become increasingly more challenging as children progress through the levels.

HOME READERS
As part of Kindergarten homework, students need to read their home reader aloud each night. The level students take home will be their independent level. This is supposed to be easier than the level they are working on at school and will provide them with an opportunity to practise the skills and strategies they have been learning to process text. It will also provide them with an opportunity to read with fluency. It should be relatively easy for children to read at their independent level, enabling them to experience the joy of reading and demonstrate how clever they are! If your child progresses rapidly through the reading levels, they will still be required to work through previous levels to ensure they do not miss any valuable vocabulary. Please do not instruct your child to take a level other than the one provided by the teacher, in accordance with the PM Benchmark Reading Assessment Resource.

Topics
HSIE: Me, Healthy Choices Science: Weather, Under the Sea ** You will also be notified of topics in the term newsletters. These are subject to change

A day in the life of a kindergarten student

Morning Session The main focus of the morning session is literacy. Each week, we have reading groups. On the days reading groups are not held, shared reading and writing sessions are implemented.

Throughout the week, the children study different letters, begin simple spelling patterns and practice handwriting, focusing on posture and pencil grip. Every day we also have a 20 minute phonics session where we focus on the sounds of letters, as well as breaking up and blending sounds to make words.

A day in the life...continued

Middle Session Mathematics generally follows literacy. We always start the session with a variety of interactive and manipulative games and activities. We then focus on a particular maths topic. At the end we come together to reflect on what was learned. Afternoon Session During this session we may do art activities, Circle Time, science or HSIE.

Please make your way to your childs classroom for more information from the class teacher.