Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Our ES K (rockville cluster) did have some unstructured play time. The classroom my child was in had a small kitchen area, a rice table, and an area with magnatiles and other blocks. It was part of a rotation that included a literacy center. Not sure how long they got or if it was daily, but I loved that they had some play time besides recess.

This has been our experience too, also in the Rockville cluster. 30 minutes recess plus “play” built into rotations throughout the day. When I volunteered in the classroom, kids moved through activities like copying words, doing puzzles, cutting and pasting, house keeping corner, and teacher-led bingo (learning letter names and sounds). Most of the day was certainly focused on more academic centers, but some centers were open-ended and there was a “choice” time built into the schedule.

This year in first grade, there’s still some time for legos and Lincoln logs (and writing about the things they create).

They’ve also been moving away from homework other than encouraging nightly reading.

I’m definitely in the play-is-good camp, but both of my young-for-grade boys handled K in MCPS we’ll.

Which elem school in Rockville is this? Sounds great.

Anonymous wrote:My DC is a rising senior, so maybe our experience has no bearing on today, but she came home after a couple days of kindergarten and said, "it's chair, rug, chair, rug, all day. Why are there toys in the classroom?"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Our ES K (rockville cluster) did have some unstructured play time. The classroom my child was in had a small kitchen area, a rice table, and an area with magnatiles and other blocks. It was part of a rotation that included a literacy center. Not sure how long they got or if it was daily, but I loved that they had some play time besides recess.

This has been our experience too, also in the Rockville cluster. 30 minutes recess plus “play” built into rotations throughout the day. When I volunteered in the classroom, kids moved through activities like copying words, doing puzzles, cutting and pasting, house keeping corner, and teacher-led bingo (learning letter names and sounds). Most of the day was certainly focused on more academic centers, but some centers were open-ended and there was a “choice” time built into the schedule.

This year in first grade, there’s still some time for legos and Lincoln logs (and writing about the things they create).

They’ve also been moving away from homework other than encouraging nightly reading.

I’m definitely in the play-is-good camp, but both of my young-for-grade boys handled K in MCPS we’ll.

Which elem school in Rockville is this? Sounds great.

This was the experience that my son had in an MCPS Kindergarten as well. Math center could mean playing with dominoes or blocks. While this is not totally unstructured, it's just the right amount of structure in my opinion. Not everyone can play with the blocks at the same time. Centers allow all children to rotate through. Children develop a sense of waiting their turn and playing with someone who may not be their best friend already. There was a lot more play than I anticipated based upon MCPS' reputation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is a rising senior, so maybe our experience has no bearing on today, but she came home after a couple days of kindergarten and said, "it's chair, rug, chair, rug, all day. Why are there toys in the classroom?"

Yeah, it has no bearing on today.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say unstructured time, but it isn't like they are sitting there doing worksheets.

So, for instance, part of the their "reading" time might be a project to draw pictures of things that start with the letter B and, if they want to and are able to, try to write the word underneath. The kids might work on that project while the teacher works with a small group on reading.

And their math time might involve splitting up crayons evenly between their tablemates or something like that. Or building something with blocks.

My kids' teachers also had singing time, classroom dance parties, they painted murals, sat in the circle and talked aobut their weekends, etc.

I found that 1st grade was the much harder transition where there was an expectation that kids were going to be sitting and working most of the day. Kindergarten was really lovely, with a strong focus on making friends and making the kids feel comfortable in school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say unstructured time, but it isn't like they are sitting there doing worksheets.

So, for instance, part of the their "reading" time might be a project to draw pictures of things that start with the letter B and, if they want to and are able to, try to write the word underneath. The kids might work on that project while the teacher works with a small group on reading.

And their math time might involve splitting up crayons evenly between their tablemates or something like that. Or building something with blocks.

My kids' teachers also had singing time, classroom dance parties, they painted murals, sat in the circle and talked aobut their weekends, etc.

I found that 1st grade was the much harder transition where there was an expectation that kids were going to be sitting and working most of the day. Kindergarten was really lovely, with a strong focus on making friends and making the kids feel comfortable in school.

In our MCPS, kindergarteners do a ton of worksheets. I just looked over everything that came home in K last year in an attempt to organize, and there were at least five worksheets per week, sometimes more. In what MCPS K did they not do worksheets?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is a rising senior, so maybe our experience has no bearing on today, but she came home after a couple days of kindergarten and said, "it's chair, rug, chair, rug, all day. Why are there toys in the classroom?"

Yeah, it has no bearing on today.

I would say that the routine now is rug(Promethean Board), center, rug(Promethean Board), center, rug(Promethean Board), center, rug(Promethean Board). Most centers do involve chairs. Like I said earlier, many of the centers are fun and contain items kids would regard as toys, at least at my son'e elementary school. It's interesting to see that this can vary by school. I'm really surprised by the poster who said that her child's kindergarten did not have centers at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say unstructured time, but it isn't like they are sitting there doing worksheets.

So, for instance, part of the their "reading" time might be a project to draw pictures of things that start with the letter B and, if they want to and are able to, try to write the word underneath. The kids might work on that project while the teacher works with a small group on reading.

And their math time might involve splitting up crayons evenly between their tablemates or something like that. Or building something with blocks.

My kids' teachers also had singing time, classroom dance parties, they painted murals, sat in the circle and talked aobut their weekends, etc.

I found that 1st grade was the much harder transition where there was an expectation that kids were going to be sitting and working most of the day. Kindergarten was really lovely, with a strong focus on making friends and making the kids feel comfortable in school.

In our MCPS, kindergarteners do a ton of worksheets. I just looked over everything that came home in K last year in an attempt to organize, and there were at least five worksheets per week, sometimes more. In what MCPS K did they not do worksheets?