So more on kindergarten.

[Deleted]

What expectations have your child's teachers outlined to you?

For D in my conference with his teacher, she told me that by the end of November he needs to recognize the numbers from zero to thirty.  Recognize the following sight words: me, my, is, the, like, I, and, can, see, am, Mom, Dad.  And recognize the letters in the alphabet.  

Have you been given expectations and, if so, what are they?

[HiC]

I don't recall being given expectations for November/December at our first conference. We were handed word rings and their reading group books after the holiday break and were asked to work with them at home (Wait! Homework that I forgot to mention in the previous post.). We were told they'll be reading by the end of the year. They were.

[Deleted]

At Back to School night, the teacher said we should try to be reading at home with them every day, pointing out environmental print and encouraging their natural curiosity. That's about it. We haven't had conferences yet, though. They're coming at the end of this week.

[angelaa73]

I have an idea where he is expected to be. I took a lot of notes last year when we toured kindergartens on the 100th day of school. It's pretty eye opening where they start, and how far they progress in 3ish months

[speckledfrog]

Oct 28, 2013 22:30:07 GMT -5 angelaa73 said:

I have an idea where he is expected to be. I took a lot of notes last year when we toured kindergartens on the 100th day of school. It's pretty eye opening where they start, and how far they progress in 3ish months

Kindergarten is hard core nowadays. 

[vanillacourage]

We practice reading words at home (in course of everyday life, not as a sit-down thing). They get tested quarterly and the list of sight words they're expected to know by the end of the year is sort of daunting, but his teacher assures us he's on-track to get there. They're teaching them to read via a phonics system (Jolly Phonics) and we've been amazed at how quickly he's picking it up.

ETA - his teacher said at back to school night that kindergarten is the new first grade, and so far that seems really true.

[wannabe]

I'm pretty sure the teacher covered expectations at back to school night, but nothing stands out in my head as particularly bad or memorable.

[Deleted]

Oct 28, 2013 22:33:41 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

We practice reading words at home (in course of everyday life, not as a sit-down thing). They get tested quarterly and the list of sight words they're expected to know by the end of the year is sort of daunting, but his teacher assures us he's on-track to get there. They're teaching them to read via a phonics system (Jolly Phonics) and we've been amazed at how quickly he's picking it up.

ETA - his teacher said at back to school night that kindergarten is the new first grade, and so far that seems really true.

My son's teacher and I discussed this during conference last week and I defined it as a generational shift and she agreed.

[angelaa73]

I vaguely remember kindergarten and it was all recess, playing house, listening to Star Wars records while fingerpainting and graham crackers / milk ( remember when the district fed kids?)

[KKD]

Oct 28, 2013 22:30:07 GMT -5 angelaa73 said:

I have an idea where he is expected to be. I took a lot of notes last year when we toured kindergartens on the 100th day of school. It's pretty eye opening where they start, and how far they progress in 3ish months

Seriously.

At back to school night, our teacher broke down what they'd be targeting, something like: X by November, Y by January, Z by the end of the year. I remember thinking there was no way Emmy would hit the November reading target, but sure enough she's getting there.

Each week the teacher sends home a newsletter listing what they worked on that week, including letter sounds, sight words, vocabulary words, and math skills. She asks parents to see if the kids recognize the sight words while reading books together. 

A mom friend said she made flash cards with the sight words for her older daughter, so that's what I've been doing with each new list of words. I also try to work the new vocabulary words into our conversations. I am hesitant to work on letter sounds and math because I don't want to interfere with the teacher's method. 

Our conferences are in four weeks, and I'm interested to see what the teacher has to say. It's a big change for me from preschool when I regularly talked to her teachers. Now I send her on the bus, so aside from the newsletters, I can only go on what Em tells me.

[sonrisa]

My first day of kindergarten (well, the british equivalent at age 4.5) the teacher wrote a paragraph on the board and asked us to read it and copy it down. It was such a scary moment for me. I knew how to read and write some words but I'd never written a whole sentence in my life.

[Deleted]

Oct 28, 2013 23:10:59 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

My first day of kindergarten (well, the british equivalent at age 4.5) the teacher wrote a paragraph on the board and asked us to read it and copy it down. It was such a scary moment for me. I knew how to read and write some words but I'd never written a whole sentence in my life.

That sounds slightly traumatizing. 

[sonrisa]

Oct 28, 2013 23:12:50 GMT -5 @imback said:

Oct 28, 2013 23:10:59 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

My first day of kindergarten (well, the british equivalent at age 4.5) the teacher wrote a paragraph on the board and asked us to read it and copy it down. It was such a scary moment for me. I knew how to read and write some words but I'd never written a whole sentence in my life.

That sounds slightly traumatizing. 

More than 30 years later I remember the sinking feeling. That kindergarten teacher was insane. We had weekly spelling lists of ten words to memorize. I still remember the first list and the first three words: "a" "an" and "and." 

[Deleted]

Oct 28, 2013 23:25:07 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

Oct 28, 2013 23:12:50 GMT -5 @imback said:

That sounds slightly traumatizing. 

More than 30 years later I remember the sinking feeling. That kindergarten teacher was insane. We had weekly spelling lists of ten words to memorize. I still remember the first list and the first three words: "a" "an" and "and." 

Sounds like it.  Sorry you had a bad experience.  Those expectations sound really unreasonable. 


I still remember crying in French class when I had to go up in front of the class and do question and answer and she said my tears were only crocodile tears.  

[Captain Serious]

We talked about where J was, and how he compared to the other kids, generally. We talked about where they hoped he'd be by the end of the year, so we knew what we were working towards, but no, we did not get a short-term set of expectations.

[KKD]

Oct 28, 2013 23:38:49 GMT -5 Loco Coco said:

Oct 28, 2013 22:42:25 GMT -5 angelaa73 said:

I vaguely remember kindergarten and it was all recess, playing house, listening to Star Wars records while fingerpainting and graham crackers / milk ( remember when the district fed kids?)

I remember it being AWESOME. I hope it's still fun! We went to "Hawaii" with one room decorated like a plane and the other like a whale watching boat, they squirted water at us like they were whale spouts. And they decorated one room like a space shuttle and the next like the moon.

And we did have to fight over who got to play house. We had stations at free time and very one fought over that!

Emmy gets just 10 minutes of free time, and that includes snack time. It's so sad to me. It was an adjustment for her, and it's part of the reason our teacher supports our district switching to full day kindergarten.

I have friends with kids in kindergarten in the school district next to ours, and their kids get a full recess. I don't know how they can fit it in when we can't.

[jaylea]

I didn't find k to be too rigorous. Yes, not a lot of down time, but te style of teaching and learning these days is more like play - they move between centers an are actively learning, not sitting in rows at desks like I was. L did fine with it. There was a list of words she had to know by the end of the year and she finished them and started on first grade words by December. She also was supposed to be at reading level 3 (whatever that means, I don't know the system) by end of year and was at a level 8.

My only complaint about first grade is they get only 20 minutes to eat, which I think is way too short. And it doesn't seem very challenging given the homework she is bringing home. But I'm not an educator so I may be way off on that.

[HiC]

when I was student teaching (20-ish years ago), my K classroom had a paint area, block area, book area, dress up and kitchen play area....that was accessible for most of the day. DD's K class had a dusty kitchen set that wasn't used....made me sad. We are fast tracking our kids....I don't like it.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Oct 29, 2013 9:04:44 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

This all makes me sad. I was thinking about it this morning. There was this brief period in my life when we didn't have to be to be preparing for the next educational or professional level, and now it's taken away. And we're also moving towards year-round schooling, so summers are going to be gone too. That abc's thread from the other day really got to me. And then the homework thread from last night.

I do remember learning stuff in Kindergarten, of course, but Kindergarten is supposed to prepare you for first grade, not BE first grade. And we didn't have to already know a bunch of things when we started Kindergarten. All I did before I started Kindergarten was run around my grandma's house and be a kid. I mean, my mom did have some pre-K workbooks and that Sweet Pickles bus for me, and we read, but it was all very casual. I hate feeling like J is going to HAVE to be in a pre-K program to be ready for Kindergarten.

eta: I know we have to keep up with the rest of the world, but that just means this is a global issue, not a national one. It doesn't make me any happier about it.

It's really insane to me that kinder is the new first grade, and so on and so forth, but college? Is still 13th grade. This academic preschool thing? It ain't working. Early literacy is just that- they can read early. Still now, no one can write. I should not have to tell college students what a thesis is and that every thing they write should have a point. What the fuck.

[eddy]

Man reading all of these K posts I am realizing I am breezy 4 lyfe lol. And so is our school system. We have one of the best in the state so I know we aren't slacking. I just appreciate that they take into consideration childhood development.

The advice given to us was the same as weeble. Read, look for sight words, count stuff etc etc.

We have conferences next week.

I will say our K is still traditional K. It is not 1st grade level. I am so grateful for that. Jack LOVES school. I think it is because it is not high pressure right now. We are all breezy up in huuuur.

[papie]

None. I like it that way, lol. I mean, I think the first half of the year is spent on social skills and they move to words/numbers after Christmas.

[ijack]

Oct 29, 2013 9:31:36 GMT -5 ProfessorArtNerd said:

Oct 29, 2013 9:04:44 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

This all makes me sad. I was thinking about it this morning. There was this brief period in my life when we didn't have to be to be preparing for the next educational or professional level, and now it's taken away. And we're also moving towards year-round schooling, so summers are going to be gone too. That abc's thread from the other day really got to me. And then the homework thread from last night.

I do remember learning stuff in Kindergarten, of course, but Kindergarten is supposed to prepare you for first grade, not BE first grade. And we didn't have to already know a bunch of things when we started Kindergarten. All I did before I started Kindergarten was run around my grandma's house and be a kid. I mean, my mom did have some pre-K workbooks and that Sweet Pickles bus for me, and we read, but it was all very casual. I hate feeling like J is going to HAVE to be in a pre-K program to be ready for Kindergarten.

eta: I know we have to keep up with the rest of the world, but that just means this is a global issue, not a national one. It doesn't make me any happier about it.

It's really insane to me that kinder is the new first grade, and so on and so forth, but college? Is still 13th grade. This academic preschool thing? It ain't working. Early literacy is just that- they can read early. Still now, no one can write. I should not have to tell college students what a thesis is and that every thing they write should have a point. What the fuck.

I agree with this. It seems that now it's just about cramming as many facts into their heads as possible and getting them to read and write earlier each year. They really just need to learn how to learn, not learn how to memorize things.
Our conferences are this week, so I'm not sure what we'll talk about, but we moved DD to an exploratory learning school a month after school started and I've seen an amazing transformation in how she feels about reading and writing now. She wants to learn new things ans share them with us. It's been such a great change for her.

[balletofangels]

Just try not to blame the teachers or even your district's administration. What we teach and expect is dictated by Common Core and state standards. It doesn't mean we think it is developmentally appropriate, but if we want to get a paycheck and feed our family we have to work towards those goals. If our kids don't meet the goals we are "bad." I try and make it all as fun as possible. In Connecticut we have the youngest Kindergarteners (do not have to turn five until Dec. 31) and some of the highest expectations. It is what it is I guess. I can only control the environment in my classroom.

[cinco]

DS is working on numbers, letter sounds, and word wall words. His teacher says he needs to practice his penmanship which is no big surprise to us. He likes it, and it seems pretty chill, esp. compared to the expectations for my 2nd grader. They do all the normal stuff, PE, art, music, computers, and Spanish, which is the only thing he complains about. He doesn't like that he can't understand what the teacher is saying.

[eb777888]

These posts are crazy. I remember just having to recognize my own name the first day of kindergarten.

Thanks to pre-k, David can write his name, his friend's names and is sounding out letters and small words. Thank god for preschool otherwise he'd be so far behind. I also think I underestimate what he's capable of. Just this year alone, he's come soooooo far with reading and he's only been in school for a couple of months. I just said in a post a few months ago that there's no way he'll be reading at 5, I was wrong. I'm all for a little push but all kids go at their own pace. At David preschool, they have individual goals, not the same goals for all of the kids. Some kids in David's class are already reading, some are struggling to write their own name. David's goals are more socially oriented since he's on track academically but struggles with some of the social aspects (sharing, personal space, etc.)