How much play is there in kindergarten in FCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not enough.

Too much. My kid can play at home. He goes to school to learn.

+1 My second child was so bored in Kinder. I just watched a video from our camcorder and I had taped him after the first day of school. I was asking him questions about whether he liked it and whether he was excited to go back tomorrow... and he said "I want to go to first grade."

I remember him saying that all year in K. In first grade he said he wanted to go to 2nd grade (all year). By 2nd grade he just said he didn't like school. 3rd grade -- he's in AAP at a different school... now he says he's "finally learning something." I also remember him telling me during Kinder. that during rest time (which was like 20-30 min.) he would count to see how far he could get. He got up to 2000 one day. Too much fluffy time in K. I have a hard time believing children are overwhelmed by the FCPS curriculum.

Do you feel like this was related to the amount of play in his K? I find it hard to believe an intelligent, curious, and creative kid would be bored by having too much time to play freely in K with a wide assortment of good, mind-stretching toys, art supplies, and books to read on his own (although I remember being bored by naps, too, 25 years ago!).

I do think that the problem for most people who complain about "not enough play" is that there in an overemphasis on repetitive skills that come quickly to many kids who are raised in mentally stimulating environments when they are 5 or 6 or 7. And so the problem isn't "boring play" vs. "scintillating schoolwork" but "open-ending, potentially enriching play" vs. "dull learning of rote skills that I'm not concerned about my own child picking up."

[Anonymous]

Do you feel like this was related to the amount of play in his K? I find it hard to believe an intelligent, curious, and creative kid would be bored by having too much time to play freely in K with a wide assortment of good, mind-stretching toys, art supplies, and books to read on his own (although I remember being bored by naps, too, 25 years ago!).

I do think that the problem for most people who complain about "not enough play" is that there in an overemphasis on repetitive skills that come quickly to many kids who are raised in mentally stimulating environments when they are 5 or 6 or 7. And so the problem isn't "boring play" vs. "scintillating schoolwork" but "open-ending, potentially enriching play" vs. "dull learning of rote skills that I'm not concerned about my own child picking up."

And, then there are the parents who are disappointed if their child is not being praised by K teacher for reading on third grade level.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Do you feel like this was related to the amount of play in his K? I find it hard to believe an intelligent, curious, and creative kid would be bored by having too much time to play freely in K with a wide assortment of good, mind-stretching toys, art supplies, and books to read on his own (although I remember being bored by naps, too, 25 years ago!).

I do think that the problem for most people who complain about "not enough play" is that there in an overemphasis on repetitive skills that come quickly to many kids who are raised in mentally stimulating environments when they are 5 or 6 or 7. And so the problem isn't "boring play" vs. "scintillating schoolwork" but "open-ending, potentially enriching play" vs. "dull learning of rote skills that I'm not concerned about my own child picking up."

And, then there are the parents who are disappointed if their child is not being praised by K teacher for reading on third grade level.....

Shouldn't a child be praised for that??? My kid's kindergarten class IS boring. Dreadfully so. They sit and do worksheets all day. There is nothing stimulating or interesting about it. Filling out worksheets is NOT learning, and it is not good teaching practice. Play or no play, learning should be stimulating and active, at least pat of the time.

[Anonymous]

Shouldn't a child be praised for that??? My kid's kindergarten class IS boring. Dreadfully so. They sit and do worksheets all day. There is nothing stimulating or interesting about it. Filling out worksheets is NOT learning, and it is not good teaching practice. Play or no play, learning should be stimulating and active, at least pat of the time.

agree. Worksheets should be at a minimum in K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child's kindergarten has recess once a day for 35 minutes, nap time for the first half of school, gym 3 times a week, music 2 or 3 times, art for an hour a week, and I never felt it was too academic... all they were learning were the sight words, which they did in many creative ways, and then counting to 100, and colors, but it was definitely not sitting in their desks all day. One of my sons, like to stand and sing while he worked, and that didn't bother the teacher at all. My kids LOVED K. And they were late summer birthdays.

Our experience in K last year was nearly identical. Play-based stations in the morning, recess, PE/music three times a week, art for one hour, STEM lab for one hour, computer lab (all games)... I felt like they had a good balance of play and work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child's kindergarten has recess once a day for 35 minutes, nap time for the first half of school, gym 3 times a week, music 2 or 3 times, art for an hour a week, and I never felt it was too academic... all they were learning were the sight words, which they did in many creative ways, and then counting to 100, and colors, but it was definitely not sitting in their desks all day. One of my sons, like to stand and sing while he worked, and that didn't bother the teacher at all. My kids LOVED K. And they were late summer birthdays.

Our experience in K last year was nearly identical. Play-based stations in the morning, recess, PE/music three times a week, art for one hour, STEM lab for one hour, computer lab (all games)... I felt like they had a good balance of play and work.

Can you share the schools?

[Anonymous]

Yes, please tell us the names of both the good and the bad schools!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child's kindergarten has recess once a day for 35 minutes, nap time for the first half of school, gym 3 times a week, music 2 or 3 times, art for an hour a week, and I never felt it was too academic... all they were learning were the sight words, which they did in many creative ways, and then counting to 100, and colors, but it was definitely not sitting in their desks all day. One of my sons, like to stand and sing while he worked, and that didn't bother the teacher at all. My kids LOVED K. And they were late summer birthdays.

Our experience in K last year was nearly identical. Play-based stations in the morning, recess, PE/music three times a week, art for one hour, STEM lab for one hour, computer lab (all games)... I felt like they had a good balance of play and work.

I really want to know what school this is. This is fcps? If so, how can our experiences be so different? My kid has PE, music, art, and computer lab once a week each. There are no play based stations and never were. Recess is 20 minutes, and nap time ended in week 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child's kindergarten has recess once a day for 35 minutes, nap time for the first half of school, gym 3 times a week, music 2 or 3 times, art for an hour a week, and I never felt it was too academic... all they were learning were the sight words, which they did in many creative ways, and then counting to 100, and colors, but it was definitely not sitting in their desks all day. One of my sons, like to stand and sing while he worked, and that didn't bother the teacher at all. My kids LOVED K. And they were late summer birthdays.

Our experience in K last year was nearly identical. Play-based stations in the morning, recess, PE/music three times a week, art for one hour, STEM lab for one hour, computer lab (all games)... I felt like they had a good balance of play and work.

I really want to know what school this is. This is fcps? If so, how can our experiences be so different? My kid has PE, music, art, and computer lab once a week each. There are no play based stations and never were. Recess is 20 minutes, and nap time ended in week 2.

Are you sure? I'm pretty sure all FCPS schools have PE and music twice a week. Also, I thought all kindergartens had recess for 20 minutes twice a day. From 1st grade one, it was only once. FCPS has a video on their kindergarten and our experience was very similar to the video. http://www.ebmcdn.net/fcps/fcps_video_viewer.php?viewnode=1b0220837fc20

[Anonymous]

The "play based stations" in our K is called free choice. It does not happen every day(some other events might take place during that time) but occurs majority of time. Kids can chose from areas around room. Reading area, dress up area, board games/toys, drawing at desk....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child's kindergarten has recess once a day for 35 minutes, nap time for the first half of school, gym 3 times a week, music 2 or 3 times, art for an hour a week, and I never felt it was too academic... all they were learning were the sight words, which they did in many creative ways, and then counting to 100, and colors, but it was definitely not sitting in their desks all day. One of my sons, like to stand and sing while he worked, and that didn't bother the teacher at all. My kids LOVED K. And they were late summer birthdays.

Our experience in K last year was nearly identical. Play-based stations in the morning, recess, PE/music three times a week, art for one hour, STEM lab for one hour, computer lab (all games)... I felt like they had a good balance of play and work.

I really want to know what school this is. This is fcps? If so, how can our experiences be so different? My kid has PE, music, art, and computer lab once a week each. There are no play based stations and never were. Recess is 20 minutes, and nap time ended in week 2.

Sadly, I have worked in Title I school (not in this area) where play was limited due to the pressure to remediate language deficiencies (against research IMO)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child's kindergarten has recess once a day for 35 minutes, nap time for the first half of school, gym 3 times a week, music 2 or 3 times, art for an hour a week, and I never felt it was too academic... all they were learning were the sight words, which they did in many creative ways, and then counting to 100, and colors, but it was definitely not sitting in their desks all day. One of my sons, like to stand and sing while he worked, and that didn't bother the teacher at all. My kids LOVED K. And they were late summer birthdays.

Our experience in K last year was nearly identical. Play-based stations in the morning, recess, PE/music three times a week, art for one hour, STEM lab for one hour, computer lab (all games)... I felt like they had a good balance of play and work.

I really want to know what school this is. This is fcps? If so, how can our experiences be so different? My kid has PE, music, art, and computer lab once a week each. There are no play based stations and never were. Recess is 20 minutes, and nap time ended in week 2.

Sadly, I have worked in Title I school (not in this area) where play was limited due to the pressure to remediate language deficiencies (against research IMO)

But we are not in a Title 1 school. If we were, we wouldn't have 26 kids in the class. Our kinder experience looks nothing like that cute video on the website.

[Anonymous]

RE: The video. Observations: 1) the classroom itself was very large and had a pizza play area and a full-size refrigerator.
2) this seemed like a VERY small class.

Anyone recognize the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:RE: The video. Observations: 1) the classroom itself was very large and had a pizza play area and a full-size refrigerator.
2) this seemed like a VERY small class.

Anyone recognize the school?

Fantasy Elementary School, in Not in My Neighborhood, VA. Ten years ago. (That's the last time I saw a kitchen in a Kindergarten classroom).

[Anonymous]

Do the title 1 schools have bigger classrooms and nicer stuff? The featured classes were very diverse.