When do the JKs start? When do the SK's start?

Just to clarify to everyone, the Simcoe County District School Board does a Staggered Entry schedule for Kindergartens the first week of school.  The SKs (Senior Kindergartens) will start at the beginning of the week, while the JKs (Junior Kindergartens) do not start until the Thursday.

Here's how the first week will look:

Tuesday, September 3rd - Senior Kindergartens start school. 
                                             NO school for JKs.

Wednesday, September 4th - Senior Kindergartens Attend. 
                                                  No school for JKs.

Thursday, September 5th - JK's start school and join the SKs.

Friday, September 6th - JK and SK students attend.

Then the following week:

Monday, September 9th and onward - normal school schedule with both JK and SKs attending EVERY DAY.

The Countdown Begins

9 more sleeps for SK's and 11 more sleeps for JK's before school begins.  Is your little one excited and ready?

Tips for Helping Your Child Build Their Reading Confidence:

Tips for Helping Your Child Build Their Reading Confidence:

• Let them see YOU reading.  Parents are the “first teachers” of children.  By seeing you read, they realize that the skill is important and they will want to learn too.
• Set aside time to read.  All you need is 10 – 15 minutes daily to read to and with your child.  This can become part of your daily routine (e.g., Bed time stories, read to you while you make dinner, after supper book time, etc.).  Reading daily is the key to helping a child become successful with reading and building their confidence.
• Read books on topics that are of interest to your child.  If you child likes comics, then comic books or graphic novels will peak their interest.  If they like dinosaurs, Barbies, My Little Ponies, Aliens, etc., find story books from the library or your own personal library that focus on these.  Your child will WANT to read or listen to a story that ties into their interests.
• Praise their efforts, don’t stress on their difficulties.  When they recognize a letter or a word, praise them for it.  If they make a mistake, don’t stress it (never say “That’s wrong.”), as this will prevent them from taking risks and trying.  Instead, read the word, or say “that’s a tough one.  I know I struggled with that one until I learned.  Let’s sound it out together.”).  Your child needs to know that YOU struggled too.  YOU had to learn, and now you can do it.  This helps them see that EVERYONE has to learn.
• Become familiar with Reading Strategies used in the classroom. The classroom teacher will send home a chart that outline the strategies used in the classroom and this will help you when you’re reading with and to your child.  You can model some of these strategies as you read.  This will help your child master the strategies and learn along with your child.
• Play rhyming games.  “I’m thinking of something that rhymes with CAT.”  See how many words you and your child can come up with.  It’s fun, and it’s teaching them about “WORD FAMILIES.”  E.g., AT is found in cat, hat, fat, mat, that, rat, sat, etc.  This will help them figure out an “at” family word because they all rhyme.  Other word families that are commonly explored in kindergarten are:  an, ank, ap, at,  ack, ock, op, ot, ill, ing, ink, in, ip, uck, ump, ug, ell, est, ake, ine, ice, ide, ail, ay, eep.
• Letter Flash Cards.  Pick only 5 at a time to review and practice the name and sound of the letters.  Once they’ve mastered those five, move on to five new ones. Periodically go back to the previously mastered ones and review.  Try spelling some small words using the letters they know.  (e.g. C-A-T).
• Reading Rainbow Word Program.  Start with the Kindergarten RED Level Words.  Once they've mastered these (recognize and read them in the list, in isolation, and in books/texts shared), then move on to the next colour level. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Indigo, Red Bird, Yellow Bird, Blue Bird, Purple Bird, Brown Bird, Black Bird, Cloud and then Sun).

Hope these tips help.  Happy Reading!

Getting into School Routines.

Summer is great for relaxing, sleeping in and lazy days.  It's hard for students to get back into a routine and ready for school to start.  So here are some suggestions to help.
TIP of the Day - HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILD GET BACK INTO ROUTINE FOR SCHOOL:

• Have your child, begin going to bed at a set time that your child would be going to sleep at during the school year.  (e.g., 8:00 or 8:30 PM).  This will help their body adjust to the change and be ready to get up in the morning well-rested for school
• Set the alarm for your "get up time" for the school year the next few weeks before school begins.  Practice getting up and ready for the day at this time.  You can continue to have a relaxing day afterwards, but your child starts to get used to waking up at this time.
• Practice having "lunch" and snacks at the scheduled times that school has their nutrition breaks (10:55-11:15 and 1:20 - 1:40 PM).  This helps their body adjust to the change in schedule
• Have your child practice printing their name so they can print it independently on their work at school.
• Talk about how much fun they're going to have when school starts and all the new friends they'll make.  This helps ease their "anxiety" (and yours) of starting school.  By you being excited, it helps them be excited and less anxious.

How are you getting ready for the first day of school?

Well...there are only a few weeks left until school begins again. I hope everyone is enjoying the break. I know the parents are excited to see school approaching; the kids, not so much.

What are you doing to get ready for school? Here are some suggestions:

• Let your child help you pick out a backpack (make sure it's big enough to carry everything (agenda, large library books, their lunch box/bag, emergency clothing)
• Have your child help pick out the clothes for their emergency clothing kit (underwear, pants, T-shirt, socks)
• Let your child have fun decorating their emergency clothes kit container (shoe-box sized plastic tub that is latch-locked and easy to open). They can help put stickers on it, their name, decals, jewels, etc.)
• Let your child chose what to wear on their first day of school. Hang it up in their closet (the complete outfit and underwear) so that it's ready to go for the first day
• Have your child practice printing their name (Upper case for the first letter, and lower case for the rest of the letters in their name)
• Have your child make a list of all the lunch foods he/she likes. Make a plan for what they would like for the first day of school.
• Make a plan for how you'd like to celebrate their first week back at school (e.g., go to the park on the Friday night or weekend after the school week, have a movie night by putting on a DVD favourite with snacks or to go out, have a family game night, etc.)
• Make sure to have those INDOOR shoes to be left at the school. Your child can help pick them out.

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO LABEL everything when bringing items to school.

How are you getting ready for the first day of school?

Well...there are only a few weeks left until school begins again. I hope everyone is enjoying the break. I know the parents are excited to see school approaching; the kids, not so much.

What are you doing to get ready for school? Here are some suggestions:

• Let your child help you pick out a backpack (make sure it's big enough to carry everything (agenda, large library books, their lunch box/bag, emergency clothing)
• Have your child help pick out the clothes for their emergency clothing kit (underwear, pants, T-shirt, socks)
• Let your child have fun decorating their emergency clothes kit container (shoe-box sized plastic tub that is latch-locked and easy to open). They can help put stickers on it, their name, decals, jewels, etc.)
• Let your child chose what to wear on their first day of school. Hang it up in their closet (the complete outfit and underwear) so that it's ready to go for the first day
• Have your child practice printing their name (Upper case for the first letter, and lower case for the rest of the letters in their name)
• Have your child make a list of all the lunch foods he/she likes. Make a plan for what they would like for the first day of school.
• Make a plan for how you'd like to celebrate their first week back at school (e.g., go to the park on the Friday night or weekend after the school week, have a movie night by putting on a DVD favourite with snacks or to go out, have a family game night, etc.)
• Make sure to have those INDOOR shoes to be left at the school. Your child can help pick them out.

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO LABEL everything when bringing items to school.

What does my Kindergarten Child need for the first week of school?

I've had a number of parents ask this question.  They don't need much.  But this is what they will need:

• a back back large enough to carry items (agenda, lunch, emergency clothes, newsletters, large library books)
• Emergency Clothes Kit (a plastic latching tub with their name on it that contains a pair of underwear or two, a pair of pants or two, a T-shirt and 2 pairs of socks.
• a pair of INDOOR shoes (running shoes that will be left at the school for the year. Please NO sandals, dress shoes, crocs or flip-flops. These need to be velcro running shoes so we can enjoy a safe run in the gym)
• a lunch bag or lunch box and re-usable water bottle and containers (we're trying to be a "GREEN" school and have litterless lunches). Please label your lunch box/bag and all reusable containers. 
• an enthusiasm and curiousity to meet new friends and learn new things.

Fine Motor - Tip of the Day

Tip of the Day for Fine Motor Skills:

Use a pair of tweezers to pick up cotton balls, buttons, pebbles, small beads and Lego Pieces. Kids can pretend to be a crane to pick them up from one pile or another. This is great in building muscles in the finger and pincer hold. This helps prepare them for using pencils, crayons, pencil-crayons and markers using the proper pincer and tripod hold (pincer with thumb and pointer finger, rest on the middle finger).

If you have the fuse bead art, you can us the tweezers to pick up the fuze beads and place them on the design plate.