Welcome to Kindergarten

Welcome to kindergarten at Austin Parkway Elementary. We are looking forward to having your child in our school. Our goal is for each child to successfully accomplish what he is capable of performing. These beginning educational experiences are important to you and your child. We hope to cooperatively make this an exciting and successful year in kindergarten. This year your child will experience a balanced literacy program that includes: phonemic awareness, oral language development, print concepts, read-alouds, shared and guided reading, and shared and interactive writing. In math, your child will use a vast number of manipulatives to learn basic math concepts including: geometric shapes, patterning, measurement, graphing, addition, subtraction, as well as problem solving. Our hands-on curriculum also incorporates science, health, social studies, physical education, music, art, and computer. We look forward to a great school year.
 
THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF KINDERGARTEN PREREQUISITES, EXPECTATIONS, AND PARENTAL SUPPORT ACTIVITIES FOR ENGLISH AND LANGUAGE ARTS.
 
KINDERGARTEN STRANDS
 
PREREQUISITES: Before entering kindergarten, students should be able to:
 
 Use self-help skills (examples: bathroom independently, zip, button, buckle, snap, etc.).
 Speak and share ideas in complete sentences.
 Listen to and talk about stories that were read to them.
 Play with rhyme, rhythm, and repetition in poems, songs, and stories (examples: Dr. Seuss books, Mother Goose Rhymes, etc.).
 Use materials, tools, and toys to develop muscles in fingers and hands (examples: Legos, Play-Doh, scissors, crayons, etc.).
 Think about their experiences with letters and recognize some letters of the alphabet (examples: letters in names, street signs, store names, singing the alphabet, etc.).
 Recognize their first names in print.
 Relate printed words to spoken language.
 Make marks and pictures that look like writing.
 
EXPECTATIONS: During kindergarten, students will:
 
 Listen and respond to stories, rhymes, conversations, discussions, and one and two-step instructions.
 Recognize that letters stand for speech sounds and convey meaning (example: students’ own names).
 Know that print is read and written left to right and top to bottom.
 Understand that written words are a sequence of letters separated by spaces.
 Know the order of the alphabet and the difference between capital and lowercase letters.
 Recognize that different parts of a book offer information (examples: cover, title page, and table of contents).
 Understand that written words are made of letters that stand for sounds.
 Begin to read and write by learning to match letters with sounds for consonants and short vowels.
 Identify, separate, and combine syllables within spoken words by clapping syllables or by moving objects to represent syllables.
 Make rhyming words and tell rhyming words from non-rhyming words.
 Break down one-syllable words into separate sounds, clearly saying beginning, middle, and final sounds.
 Talk about meanings of words, and learn new words through classroom experiences.
 Show their understanding of a story by retelling the order of important events in the story or by acting out the story.
 Read basic high-frequency words and read aloud from familiar, predictable texts.
 Use correct pencil grip, paper position, and beginning stroke to develop printing skills.
 Use sounds of letters to write their first and last names and to write messages.
 Think of ideas before writing, and write to record ideas and thoughts.
 Use computers to write their own stories.
 
SUPPORT AT HOME : As parents, provide opportunities for your kindergartner to:
 Listen to you read daily.
 Answer questions you ask.
 Sing songs and recite rhymes.
 Talk with you about letters and words around them (examples: menu at McDonald’s, food packaging at Kroger, displays at K-Mart, etc.).
 Draw and create with pencils, crayons, paper, and scissors.
 Practice writing his or her name with uppercase and lowercase letters.
 Watch you write (examples: grocery list, phone message).
 Play letter games (examples: magnetic letters on the refrigerator, find letter ‘C’ on a can of corn, etc.).