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Eligibility for kindergarten is on the basis of age only. Once a child has entered kindergarten, the district will administer tests to determine a child’s readiness for specific aspects of the curriculum.
A letter will be sent home in late August with the name of your child's kindergarten teacher. Your child's teacher will then call you to schedule a goal-setting conference (a time for your family to come in and meet the teacher and talk about the upcoming year) before school begins.
The specialist classes offered at EXPO are Humanities, Computer, Science, BK (Gym), and Music. Each specialist class is 50 minutes long. Although the schedule is adapted each year, generally your learner will attend each specialist class for a one or two week rotation. For example, for the first week of school, your child may have computer and then the 2nd week, they may have BK, and the third week, they may have music, etc.
Generally kindergarten children are the first to eat lunch so, snack becomes a very important part of our afternoon. Snack is sent in by kindergarten families. Families should send in at least one group snack (enough to share with the class of 20-24 learners) each month. Examples would be fruit snacks, cookies, cereal, pretzels, chips, carrots, apples, crackers, etc. We also appreciate donations of napkins, cups, and juice.
Many kindergartners enjoy the responsibility of riding the bus. They enjoy their new found independence and often times, they make new friends when they ride the bus to and/or from school. Teachers will make your child a bus tag that your child MUST wear for the first few weeks of school. The bus tag ensures that the bus driver knows your child's stop.
Each learner receives a pin number from the Schools at their Goal Setting Conference. Families pay into a lunch money account as needed. Each time your learner has a hot lunch from school, the cost of the lunch is deducted from their account. Children who bring their own lunches may want to keep a minimum balance in their account for field trip lunches and purchasing milk.
Yes, we try to have a rest, relax, and read time during our day, especially at the beginning of the year. We read stories together and independently and enjoy this quiet time in our busy days. Children do not have to sleep but some do especially at the beginning of the year as they adjust to an active all-day program.
We foster each child's natural desire to learn. All kindergartners have been immersed in literacy-rich environments and are provided endless opportunities to develop their literacy skills. We want each child to leave kindergarten with appropriate literacy foundations that will make them successful in the years to come. Yes, some children come into kindergarten ready to read or read already, while others are developing their skills. Literacy activities in kindergarten are always multi-level and our classrooms are set up with many open-ended activities to challenge each learner at their level. The beauty is that each and every child will grow tremendously no matter what skills they come into our program with.
