Miss Qualls’ Kindergarten Welcome Packet



Mrs. Crabtree’s Kindergarten

Welcome Packet

Welcome to Kindergarten! This packet contains a lot of information about our classroom and school policies. Please keep it as a reference throughout the school year.

About Me

My name is Mrs. Crabtree. I am happily married to an amazing husband and we are expecting our first child. I will not be starting the school year due to the birth of our son. I am scheduled to be induced on the first day of school if he does not come before then. I will be taking off 8 weeks from the time he is born. Although I am very sad I will not be starting the school year with these amazing kiddos, I know they will be in great hands while I am gone. This is my sixth year of teaching Kindergarten at Cowan Elementary School. I absolutely love Kindergarten! It is such an amazing age and I enjoy working with the children and families of the Cowan Community! Being a Kindergarten teacher here at Cowan was my dream job. I am so blessed to be able to say I have my dream job and I could not be happier. I have lived in Muncie my entire life. I graduated from Ball State in 2010 with an elementary education degree and a concentration in Kindergarten. I completed my student teaching semester in Kindergarten at Cowan as well.

Full Day Kindergarten

Sometimes hearing that it is full day Kindergarten scares some families. They wonder how their child will make it an entire day at school so young. They can do it! This is because during the school day your child will have many opportunities to interact with peers through play and learning! Your child will be moving around the classroom, learning with hands on materials, having whole-group instruction, small-group instruction, and one-on-one instruction. With a variety of materials, instruction, a big classroom to move around in, and others to interact with, your child will love Kindergarten.

Literacy is a big part of our day and drives our Kindergarten curriculum. This year will be our fourth year having a 90 minute literacy block. I could not be more excited to have 90 minutes of uninterrupted time to focus on literacy! During this time of the day we will have read aloud stories, small groups, literacy centers, individual reading time, writing time, shared reading of poems and books, and whole group literacy lessons. I focus on having hands on and interactive lessons and centers to keep their attention and make learning fun!

We will spend another large chunk of our day on math instruction. During math, we will also be doing whole-group instruction, small- group instructions, and one-on-one instruction. I feel that it is important to have all varieties of instruction in my classroom. During math, we will be using manipulatives, playing games, and working together to learn and grow our math skills.

We also have PE, Art, Music, Library, and High Steppin’ as our Related Arts. We will also attend lunch as a class everyday as well as have two recesses.

The routine at the beginning of the year can definitely be exhausting for our little friends. We do make sure to take things slowly at first and provide a little longer rest time. Some students adjust quickly while others take a little longer. Throughout the year, the children will get use to our schedule and slowly not need rest time. We will begin transitioning them to no rest when they are ready to get them ready for first grade where there is no rest time.

Important Information and School Policies

Arrival 7:50 – 8:10

Bus Riders: Buses will drop off elementary students at 7:50. Kindergarten students will enter through the main doors.

Car Riders: Please park in the rear of the school and enter in Door #7. Please walk your child to our classroom the first few days until you feel your child is comfortable and able to find their own way to the classroom. Please note children should not arrive in the building before 7:50. I do encourage car riders to try to be here by 7:50, especially if they will be eating breakfast at school. Bus riders and Latchkey students arrive at that time and we are ready to start our day.

Latchkey: Latchkey will open at 6:55. Latchkey teachers will walk Kindergarten students to the room at 7:50 in the beginning of the year until they get comfortable with finding their classroom.

Attendance

Attendance will be taken at 8:10. If your child arrives after 8:10, we ask a parent/guardian sign them in at the office. Please note the attendance policy in the handbook.

What to Bring

Please send in supplies from your child’s list. Names should be written only on water bottles and rest towels that will be returned at the end of the year. We will share all other items as a class. Please do not send in any decorative erasers, pencils, or school boxes. Please keep these items at home for homework/projects.

Water Bottles

Water bottles are great to have throughout the day so your child can get a drink whenever they are thirsty. After recess, they all want really long drinks. With a water bottle, this makes this quicker and easier. The water bottles can be disposable; however they need to have a pop top. This prevents spills.

Rest Towels/Blankets

Bath or beach towels really work well for our rest time. We have limited storage and towels are the best solutions for us. Blankets are fine as long as they fit easily in their cubby. Rest towels are sent home on Fridays for washing. Please return them on Mondays.

Bee Binders

Our “BEE” Binders stand for Bring Everything Every day. This will be a binder that comes to school with your child every morning and will go home every evening. It will have everything important that your child and you need for this year. Below is a list of the things that will be in the binder, what they are for, and how we will use them.

Pencil Pouch – This will hold your child’s word sort. Each week your child will receive a new sort to work on for the week. They will work on it in class every day to practice different skills. This sort will be in the pencil pouch so your child can practice it at home, too. Please make sure if your child practices it at home that it makes it back into the pencil pouch for school the next day.

Front folder – This will be the folder that all notes and papers will be put in to pass back and forth from home and school. It will have two sides, a red side and green side. They will be labeled for you and your child. The red side will be important papers and papers that need to return to school. The green side will be papers that stay at home. If you are sending me a note, money for latchkey or lunch, or anything important you want me to see or have, please put it on the red side. I will check the red side of your child’s folder every morning when he/she gets to school. I would like you to check your child’s folder every night as well.

Back folder – This folder will be in the very back of the binder. This is to hold papers/work that your child hasn’t finished in class. This work needs to STAY in the folder. All work in this folder will be completed IN CLASS. Please do not take the work out and do it at home. If I need any work done at home, I will put it on the red side of the front folder. This back folder is to help keep our tables clean and organized and be able to pull work that needs completed fast and efficiently.

Newsletter page protector – I will have a page protector in your child’s BEE binder to put the weekly newsletter in. I will send a newsletter home every Friday. This newsletter will tell important dates coming up, important information, what your child did and learned during the week, and some things to expect for the next week. These always have very important information and are very important to read every week. I will put it in the page protector so it will not get lost with other papers. Feel free to take it out of the binder/page protector and leave it out for your reference at home.

Behavior Calendar – This calendar will track your child’s behavior for the month. Each day, they will color the square in with whichever color their clip ended at for that day. There are numbers that correlate with different misbehaviors listed on the bottom of the calendar. I will write the numbers under the day if your child clips down and does any of these misbehaviors. This is a great way to easily communicate to you how your child’s day was, what color they ended at, and what rules they might be struggling with for that day. If your child clips down to red, not only will you have this calendar with the numbers written on it, but you will receive a separate behavior note that will explain in more detail about your child’s day, need to be signed, and returned the next day to me.

Resources – I will keep resources in your child’s BEE Binder to go along with what we are learning about during the year. The resources will keep you updated on what we are learning, how they are learning the concepts, and give you clues and ideas on how to help your child at home if needed.

Behavior System – I will keep a copy of my behavior system and what each color means in the BEE Binder as a quick reference for you.

Breakfast/Lunch

Breakfast and lunch will be offered everyday. Students will use their pin number that we provide them. You may use mySchoolBucks to put money into your child’s account or monitor the account. You may register for an account at . You can also send in money to put money into your child’s account. Please send the money in an envelope with your child’s name and teacher’s name. The envelope should be labeled “Breakfast/Lunch Money.”

| |Daily Cost |Weekly Cost |

|Breakfast |$1.50 |$7.50 |

|Lunch |$2.10 |$10.50 |

|Extra Milk |$.35 |$1.75 |

|Adult Lunch |$2.50 | |

Breakfast also offers ala carte options. If you do not want your child buying ala carte items, please let the cafeteria know and they can indicate that on your child’s account. Please watch your child’s account carefully. If you have questions about the balance in your child’s account, please contact the cafeteria at 741-5959 Ext. 222 or email Ms. Edwards at dedwards@cowan.k12.in.us.

Students eating breakfast will be sent down to the cafeteria when they arrive at school. We will go together the first few days to get everyone comfortable, but after that only kids eating breakfast will be sent. There will be assistants in the cafeteria to help students.

We eat lunch as a class at 11:05. At least one Kindergarten teacher is always on duty. Please be sure to help your child practice the pin number given to you by the office.

Dismissal 2:50-2:54

Latchkey: Students will walk to the Latchkey room.

Buses: Buses will depart the elementary at 2:54 each day. A Kindergarten teacher will take students to the buses, but it will be helpful if your child knows his/her bus numbers and driver.

Car Riders: There are two options for car riders. Parents may drive in the pick-up line at door #7. You may wait in your vehicle and school personnel will walk your child to the car. Please drive away carefully and exit the west end of the parking lot.

The second option will be for parents to park at the playground steps and walk-up and escort their children to their cars. These cars should exit the east end of the parking lot.

You must pick one of the options to do for the whole year. Any students who are not picked up by 2:55 or the end of the pick-up line, will be sent to the office until we are able to contact a parent/guardian. You will need to pick up your child in the office by entering the main doors.

**You must send a note or call the office of any transportation changes. If we do not have notice from you, we have to follow the child’s usual routine.**

Behavior Plan

Learning how to behave in a school setting is a big part of the Kindergarten year. I use a classroom behavior plan to help students learn to follow school rules and reward positive behavior. I want students to value good behavior but also understand that we can learn from our mistakes! (

It is so important to praise and reward positive behavior. I have a couple ways that I do this in my classroom. One way is our class fish bowl. For this one, all of the students work together as a team. Our fish bowl is when students are “Caught doing great”. This could be an individual or the whole class. The fish bowl will be filled with different ocean themed toys. If the class walked really quiet in the hallway we might add a fish to the fishbowl. If a student helps another student we could also add a fish. This teaches them that they are a team and they have to work together to fill the fishbowl. When the fishbowl is completely filled, the whole class will get a surprise. When it is filled we will, as a class, come up with ideas for our surprise and take a vote to decide what we get/do.

Another way I praise great behavior is individual. Students can earn dots/stickers on their ten frames on their individual fish bowls. They will then get to earn prizes when they fill their ten frames up (20 dots/stickers). Please see below how they earn their dots/stickers.

For my behavior plan, I have a clip chart. This works for all types of behavior. Each student will start on Green everyday which is “Ready to Learn.” They will then get to move their clip up for positive behaviors and down for negative behaviors. Their clip is never stuck in one place. If they clip down for a behavior, they can always clip up later that day for a positive behavior. I love this idea because each child can always turn his/her day around and have a better day. Clipping up from green moves them to blue (Way to Go), then to pink (Outstanding), and finally to the top to purple (Superstar). Clipping down from green moves them to yellow (Think About It), then to Orange (Make Better Choices), and then to red (Parent Contact). Below is a list of the rewards/consequences based on the color your child ENDS the day on.

Purple – 4 stickers/dots for his/her individual fish bowl

Pink – 3 stickers/dots for his/her individual fish bowl

Blue – 2 stickers/dots for his/her individual fish bowl

Green - 1 sticker/dot for his/her individual fish bowl

Yellow – 1 minute of recess

Orange – 3 minutes of recess

Red – 5 minutes of recess and a note home to parent/guardian

If your child is clipped down to red and still having behavior problems, he/she will then go have a visit with Mr. Brown and miss all of his/her recess.

Our classroom behavior plan works very well for those everyday manners and rules we are learning. Children are going to make mistakes and that is how they learn. Please expect that your child will move his/her clip down on occasion or even bring a note or two home, especially in the beginning of the year. Unless your child gets a note home, his/her behavior was not a constant problem and I do not suggest punishment at home unless a note is received. I recommend setting up a consequence ahead of time, such as loss of television or a favorite toy for the evening so your child will know what to expect if they bring a behavior note home. If I am concerned about your child’s behavior at school or feel it is affecting his or her success in the classroom, I will call and discuss my concerns with you.

It is still normal at this age for children to act inappropriately when they are angry; however Cowan has a zero tolerance policy for any threats of harm or actual harm made to another student. There have been incidents when young students have used threatening language and have been suspended. So please be sure to talk about inappropriate words for school and to also see a teacher for help. If a student hits/hurts another student, he/she will automatically move his/her clip down to red and receive a note home. I take hurting another student very seriously as does the school. We do not accept this behavior.

Birthdays

Cowan has a new policy about birthdays. We will no longer have birthday parties where snacks are included. I will still celebrate birthdays in the classroom throughout the day with various activities; however we will not have a big party with treats. If your child has a summer birthday, we will celebrate their half-birthday so they have a special day, too! If your child has a June birthday, we will try to celebrate on the same date in December, July in January, and August in February.

The Sharing Bag

If you find a Cookie Monster/Elmo pillowcase in your child’s backpack then it is the Share Bag. Your child may select 1 item to put in the bag and bring to school the next day to share with the class. The Share Bag goes home every night with someone new, therefore your child will have many turns to share special belongings throughout the year! Please allow your child to bring toys and other items to school ONLY when he or she has the Share Bag.

Communication

There are several ways I share classroom information with you and several ways you can reach me.

Newsletter/School Notes

I send home a newsletter every Friday with a description of our activities from the week, any upcoming events, and other important notes. These newsletters are very important to look for and read each week! In addition, the office sends home a biweekly newsletter/lunch menu. Please look closely for both forms of communication for important notes and dates!

Voicemail

If you need to leave me a message, please call 741-5959 Ext215. I try to check messages on my prep and at the end of the day. I will not be able to answer a phone call throughout the day unless it is an emergency.

Email

You can email me at ccrabtre@cowan.k12.in.us. Make note that my email address only has one “e” in it, which is different from the spelling of my name. Please know that I normally will not have time to check and respond to email until after school when the students have left.

Call the Office

You may also call the office at anytime and leave a message for me with the secretary.

**We do ask you call the office to report if your child will be absent from school or if there is a change in the child’s transportation that day.**

Text

The most effective and convenient way to contact me is with a text message. I am rarely able to check email during the day or even my voicemail. However, I try to keep my phone on vibrate nearby and can usually read and respond to a text quickly during breaks and before or after school. So if you have a quick question about homework, a field trip, need me to contact you, etc just send me a quick text. It is also helpful for me to be able to text you any reminders or information about your child’s day.

**If you would like to text me and receive texts from me, please send me a text message with your name and your child’s name at 765-749-4174. I will ALWAYS respond to your text so you know I received it.**

Please keep in mind that I do have a family outside of school. Be mindful at the time of day you are sending my texts or calling my cell. If it is an emergency, then feel free to call or text in the evening. Otherwise, please try to keep it before 5 o’clock each day.

Homework

My daily homework assignment will be reading. Students will choose a picture book from our classroom library to take home for bedtime reading. They will return it the next day and trade for a new one. There will be a reading log to log the book you read. This log will also let you know what literacy skills we are working on so you can reinforce those skills during reading at home. The kids LOVE this kind of homework. It’s so exciting to hear them talking about books with their friends and they love sharing our favorite stories with their families, too. The other part of the reading homework is your child reading to you. They love showing off their wonderful reading skills they are learning! They will get a new book to read to you every day as well.

I am extremely excited to be working with your child this year! Please know that more information will be coming your way the first few weeks of school about our curriculum and classroom routines. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns anytime throughout the year. Again, please keep this packet handy for future reference throughout the year.

Thank you!

Mrs. Crabtree

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