Kinder tips # 2

Transportation

If your child has a change in transportation, please send a note to school with him or her.  Without a note, students will have to follow their regular way of transportation.  Also,please make sure to keep transportation as consistent as possible.

Lunch

You may visit www.schoolpaymentsolutions.com to add money to your child's lunch account. It may be helpful to review the cafeteria menu with your child before they come to school each day so they know what to choose if they are buying their food. You are welcome to eat lunch at school with your child at our scheduled lunch time after September 10.

Medication

If you your child needs medication at school,you must deliver it in person to the school nurse. Contact the school nurse for any questions regarding the type of medications she can dispense. No medications are allowed on the bus or backpacks.

Folders

Your child will have one Parent communication folder or "Kinder Keeper"  that will go home every day and one weekly folder that will go home on Fridays with Birnham Woods information and other important notes. Please check your child's backpack every day to ensure you receive everything that we send you and please empty out folders before returning them.Lunch money, transportation changes, and other important notes should be sent to school in your child's Kinder Keeper.

Ready to read?

Reading Strategies

Some kindergarten students come to school already reading or come ready to learn how to read.  The following are great strategies that will help your child become a good reader.

Students begin learning reading strategies early in kindergarten to help them attack unknown words and to help them understand that everything they read needs to make sense. They review these same 6-7 beginning strategies again in first grade.

The strategies include:

• Look at the pictures. Often looking at the pictures gives a child an idea of what the words are about and will give him the context to make a good guess at an unknown word.
• Get your mouth ready. If a child is reading and he comes to an unknown word, he should begin by saying the sound of the first letter and sometimes, the word will just pop right out!
• Does it make sense? Students always want to make sure that what they read makes sense.If it doesn't, they need to try another strategy.
• Does it sound right? As the child reads, the words should sound right in the sentence. If not the child should try another strategy. For instance, "I is good" doesn't sound right so it must be "I am good," because that sounds right.
• Do the letters look right? If a child makes a guess at an unknown word, he needs to go back and make sure that the letters in the word match the guess.
• Reread. Any time the words don't make sense, the child needs to reread to clarify so that he understands what the words say.

Kinder tips #1

Throughout the year I will be posting important tips on how kinder at BWE works. Here are the first tips:

• Please keep an extra set of clothes (undies and socks included) in your child's backpack at all times.  This is not just for bathroom accidents, but if they spill something on them at lunch, slip in the mud, someone else spills something on them - they will feel comfortable in their own clothes.  Please also make sure that the extra clothes fit and that they are weather appropriate (pants and long sleeves in winter).

• Label backpack, lunchbox, sweater or jacket tags clearly with first name and last name's initial.Please do not send valuable items  that you do not want lost to school.Kindergartners will be learning responsibility and accountability so they can keep track of their belongings, but it takes some practice and time.

•  Read to your child every night!  Help your child build his or her confidence by having them find words on the pages that he/she knows (sight words), by reading to you by looking at the pictures, and eventually by reading entire books to you! (Try to resist the urge to correct them at the beginning of the year...all I want is for them to try!!!)

• Work on sight words in some way each day.  Here are some ideas:  make flashcards, make a bingo or memory game with sight words, write sight words with chalk on driveway, find words in books or in a newspaper/magazine, find words while in the car or at the store, make words out of play dough, use magnetic letters on the fridge,etc.Change it up so that learning stays fun and interesting!!!
  

• Snacks-I will have a sign up sheet on our Meet and Greet where you can sign up for our snack rotation. Please send snack the Friday before your chosen snack week.

Meet your teacher!

Before we meet in person, I want to introduce myself to my students and parents.
My name is Johanna Cox and I am a kindergarten teacher at Birnham Woods Elementary. My classroom has a special name and I have named it "The Shining Stars" because all of my students will shine and excel to the best of their abilities in my class.
I have been teaching for almost ten years in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, and this will be my third year teaching in Conroe ISD.  I am married to a wonderful husband and have three beautiful daughters.We enjoy traveling around the world, serving others in our church and community, and spending time as a family.

Honduras

I was born in Honduras, a small country in Central America, where I went to a private American school.
I studied Early Childhood Education in the University of Anchorage, in Alaska, where my first daughter was born. I was also a preschool teacher and an Assistant Director at a private school in Anchorage. Although the people were friendly and unique, Alaska's climate was not what I was used to in tropical Honduras!

Anchorage, Alaska

I moved to Texas and graduated from Sam Houston State University.I have been a preschool and kinder teacher in Texas and am enjoying every minute of it.
Oh and another thing, I love Texas!

 

We get to meet!

Birnham Woods Elementary Meet and Greet

Friday, August 24th will be our Meet and Greet from 4:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon.

I am looking forward to meeting my new students and parents.  If possible please bring your child's supplies at that time. Please label just the bag as we share supplies in kindergarten. Most importantly, bring a smile so you can make our kinder classroom start shining!