Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
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Anonymous
Does the country your parents come from not know anything about child development? At the kindergarten stage playing is the best way to learn. Not with textbooks, not with sitting and doing homework, not drilling a kid over and over. |
Anonymous
 The assessments didn't mean anything, is entire the point. Testing a kid on concepts that the class has not covered doesn't tell you anything about the kid's ability to learn or retain, and the teacher could. not. answer. questions about that because she did not know how to parse out scores for the material that was covered in class, and there was no testing that wasn't on the tablet. It's not like she had pop quizzes to look at to counterbalance the tablet reports. She wasn't reading fluently and was still writing some letters and numbers backwards and the teacher's feedback was "she's on track, this is all perfectly normal at this point." I needed the teacher to tell me, because, like I've already said, another teacher at the same school told me not to do any enrichment at home because it would interfere with the way the school teaches reading - except the next year I got stuck with a teacher who was evidently incapable of implementing the school's method successfully.
And your belief in report cards for a Kindergartener is kind of cute. She exceeded expectations in every class, does that mean anything to you? Because the expectations are "sits on the carpet at carpet time." |
Anonymous
I wanted to add after reading the above replies, my daughter made a lot of progress with reading. She came in reading CVC words but was progressed to maybe mid to late first grade level by year end. It helped that the class was small and a higher SES school so she had a peer group also at the same point. |
Anonymous
| This was a few years ago. At some point after the new year, we had a conference, I can't recall who initiated it, but the teacher loaned us books and reading aids. My DS had great progress reports at that point but we all knew he wasn't naturally picking up reading like other kids and he wasn't going to hit the K standard at the end of the year. I don't think any other kids were singled out in his class for help. I think if you don't hear anything, your child is on track or exceeding expectations. |
Anonymous
Kindergarten phonics will go slow for you and him. They focus on letter sounds and formation in the first third/half. Then will go into blending CVC and CV and sight words. Late in the year they will touch briefly on blends (CCVC, CVCC and magic/siletn e) Get phonics leveled books and follow up at home if you want to. If you care about handwriting work on that. Here is how: Sound out CVC words and have your kid write them. Sound out words with blends and diagraphs sh, ch, th, ck (crab, bush, pick) and have your kid write them while you are paying attention to handwriting. Give him time to play when he gets home and then just read one book or work for 10 minutes on handwriting (Do 1 sight words and 3 CVC, then increase to a sentence). You may want to think about starting this in October when the school routine is down and he is less tired. Or do nothing and that would be fine too, since he is already reading! |
Anonymous
I wouldn’t worry about any of that. I wouldn’t overdue it but 30-60 minutes of enrichment following K is not a lot. Best to make it routine early on anyways. If he wants a day off or just doesn’t seem into it then skip a day or two or end early. The amount of “work” they do in K is minimal. You really need to be the main teacher from about K-3 and make sure he can read, spell, write, tell time, and do basic math fluently. Around 4th he should start getting homework, if not then focus on vocabulary and writing for a few years until middle school. I would treat school like social time until middle school as there’s not much consistency or teaching in elementary. |
Anonymous
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Public kindergarten? There shouldn’t be homework at this age except reading.
Our teacher sent updates I think monthly with that topics they were learning (as a whole class generally, not student specific updates). These would be things like writing their names correctly, getting used to classroom routines, counting in number corner). She also sent leveled readers home which were switched out weekly and parents had to record minutes read and whether child struggled. |
Anonymous
I could have written this! I thought it was just a bad teacher and she was, but this was appeared to be district-wide issue (and maybe other nearby districts?), so we feared it wouldn’t be getting better anytime soon. In any case, after teaching DD to read at home and spending another year waiting for school to begin teaching kids to write proper sentences and spell simple words, we switched to Catholic school. I’m shocked - Her handwriting is SO much better and it’s only been a week. |
Anonymous
I noticed this too. One sons teacher had them do absolutely everything on tablets including the morning song, story time and even recess when it rained. My son left her class a worse reader than when he started. The other son had a lovely teacher who sang, read stories and let them play with legos and Lincoln logs. I praised that one to the principal but she left, probably because she was getting paid the same or less than lazy teacher. |
Anonymous
Our Montessori K sent a folder home on Fridays that was child’s written work done that week, to be returned empty on Monday am. The class had workbooks for a few subjects, like math. No classroom app. There was a weekly 2 page email from teacher with a few photos. No iPads or Chromebooks or other screens. For 1st grade, they added spelling practice as homework 5x nights/week with a weekly spelling test. Math workbook was daily during school hours. They still had a folder going home on Friday pm with all written work DC accomplished during the week. No screens in class, but had typing on a computer for 30-40 minutes once each week. We had no issues understanding what DC had done each week, mainly because of the folder (combined with all work being hand written). |
Anonymous
| Accept that you will rarely ever know anything about what your kid is doing their entire elementary career. Even during conferences or with progress reports. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
A lot of people here claim that their children learn nothing in elementary school, no basics. I’ve only seen that at poorly performing schools that are overcrowded and underfunded. Your typical school is not like that and schools with large budgets in wealthy towns are doing fine. I’m don’t understand how your kid only had some sight words if you have been reading to her all along. Or maybe something clicked this summer and it came together for her. It can’t be that every kindergarten is failing. If you think your child isn’t where he should be then ask questions. |
Anonymous
| This must be your first. There is no homework or textbooks at all, period. Maybe if your kid takes an AP class they will get homework and a textbook. Better start supplementing now- or move to private. |
Anonymous
Schools with “large budgets” in weathy districts aren’t doing any better at teaching. It’s the same. The only difference and why the kids are all doing well is because of their parents at home and what they are exposing them to |