Welcome! Some notes for our first day and beyond!
Kindergarten News
Sharon Miller and Rachel
Liptz
September 3, 2018
Shalom
Rashi Kindergarten Families,
It was so
wonderful meeting so many of you and your children on Thursday! We are
so excited for the school year to start and for your children to walk through
the door as Kindergartners in our classroom. To those of you who could not
attend the Open House, we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.
A few notes
for you:
**The
doors open to the classroom at 7:50am and the school day begins promptly at
8:00am. Before 7:50am, please wait on the benches outside the
classroom. If you are extra early, Jennifer Shaw (our Fitness &
Health teacher) is in the gym before school and the children are allowed in the
gym to run around and play until 7:50am. Children are not allowed on the
playground before school or in the library and should not be left without
supervision in the hallway outside the classroom.
**We ask that you say
goodbye to your child shortly after arrival. This will help him/her more
readily transition into the day's activities. While
separating can be hard for you and your child, if you show your child that you
are confident in his/her ability to separate and have a successful day, your
child will pick up on it. Understand that often, children who are upset
when parents leave are fine and settled in 5-10 minutes. When the
children arrive each morning, they will follow this arrival routine:
1) Greet
the teachers
2) Answer
the Question of the Day
3) Sign-in
on our Afterschool Board
4) Get
involved in morning work at their own table
Arrival
Procedure (for the first day of school)
The first
day of school, especially for Kindergartners, is an exciting and emotional time
for both students and parents. After you settle your child into the
classroom, you are invited to go outside to the front of the school for our
"Bagel Bash." Heidi Chapple will be going in and out of both
Kindergarten classrooms and can give you an update of how your child is
settling in after you say goodbye. She will also call during the day to
let you know how your child is doing.
**We have Fitness &
Health on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so please have your child wear appropriate sneakers and
clothing.
** We have Library on
Wednesdays. Library
books that are checked out should be returned before then so another one can be
checked out.
**Each day, we have a 20
minute rest time (Relax and Read) after lunch and recess. Your child may bring in a small
stuffed animal or small blanket to cuddle and keep in their outside cubby or
mini-cubby in the classroom. This is not a naptime, but rather a time to
quiet their bodies and minds after a long morning. No toys should
be brought into the classroom.
**If
your child is going to the afterschool program or is taking the bus, please
email us and let us know their afterschool schedule before Tuesday. A
kindergarten teacher will be escorting the children down to all afterschool
activities and to the bus.
**Please remember to bring in your supplies. Thank you!
** Please email us your child's Hebrew name if you have not already
done so.
**If your child has a
change in transportation after school, please let us and the front office know
via email before 1pm just to
make sure that we get the message before the end of the day. If the
change is after 1pm please ask the front office to alert us personally.
**We regularly check our
email throughout the day. This is the best way to contact us. Please cc both Sharon and Rachel whenever
possible, in case one of us is not able to see the email in a timely manner and
so that we can both be in the loop!
**Please remember to pack
your child's snack and lunch separately as this ensures that your child will
not eat their whole lunch at snack time. Often parents use the
green Rashi lunch sack that was given upon admission. The front section
easily holds snack, while the main section holds lunch. It is
helpful to pack all eating utensils that your child will need for the
day. Please review with your child where their snack is kept and
where their lunch is so they will not get confused. All K-5
classrooms are NUT SAFE, so please DO NOT SEND IN ANYTHING CONTAINING NUTS for
snack. Your child may have nut products with his/her lunch and can
sit at the nut table with a friend. Please label any nut products in
your child's lunch.
** Hot
lunches will start the week of September 17th. This includes lunch orders
for Mondays and Tuesdays, and Pizza on Thursdays.
** Especially during these
last few weeks of warm weather, it is especially important that your child have
a water bottle at school. The children can keep it in their outside cubby or on their
table. Please make sure it is labeled with your child's name.
Dismissal
Procedure:
We know
that at the end of the day you will be eager to see your Kindergartner. The
doors to the Kindergarten hallway will automatically open at 3:00pm as the bell
rings. We ask that you wait for the doors to open to
ensure that Kindergartners do not get anxious as they see other parents arrive
but possibly not their own.
After you
arrive outside our classroom door, we will dismiss the children from the
classroom. This can often be a chaotic time as the children are eager to see their
parent, babysitter, sibling. We ask that everyone wait outside in
the hallway (including siblings) and please try not to crowd the
classroom door so that we can dismiss each child one at a time to be
sure that all children get where and they need to go.
We look
forward to a wonderful school year! Please do not hesitate to contact us with
any questions!
Have a
wonderful weekend and we will see you tomorrow!
Sharon
and Rachel
