Banks Road YR Elementary

Welcome

To

Kindergarten!

Banks Road YR Elementary

2017-2018

Dear Parent(s),

We are so excited about the opportunity to know, care about, and teach your unique and special child! We view you as our partners in this wonderful experience we call Kindergarten. For this reason, we invite you to play an active role in your child’s education.

It is our goal for your child to achieve social and academic success while in an environment that is happy and safe. Please know that our expectations are high but realistic. We are committed to providing a successful start to your child’s school experience. We will acknowledge their talents as well as address their specific needs.

Since we are partners in your child’s education, open communication will be crucial to a successful relationship. In other words, please feel free to contact me with any concerns, needs, or questions and we promise to do the same with you! You can contact us by phone (School: 890-7333), by sending a note, or via email.

Thanks for taking the time to read this handout. We look forward to a terrific year with your child!

The Banks Road Elementary YR Kindergarten Team

Supplies Needed:

• A change of clothes: Socks, underwear, shorts, and shirt. Put in a Ziploc bag with your child’s name on it.

• Small pack of skinny Expo dry erase markers

• 2 Primary journals (one per child)

• 24 pack of crayons (two per child)

• Baby wipes

• Zip Lock Bags Girls Please Bring: Quart size

Boys Please Bring: Gallon Size

• Surface-Sanitizing Wipes
• 3 packs of glue sticks
• 2 boxes of Tissues
• $5.00 for Scholastic News subscription

**Please note these items may be shared with the class**

General Kindergarten Information

School Hours/Attendance: Students are allowed to enter the classroom at the 8:45 bell. We begin our instructional day at 9:15. If your child is eating breakfast at school, please be sure they arrive by 9:00. A successful school experience depends on the children, the parent, and the school. Your child’s progress is greatly influenced by daily participation. Regular attendance without tardiness is very important. Because the majority of our work in Kindergarten is hands-on, it is especially difficult to make up any work that was missed during absences. Please send a note regarding your child’s absence unless we have talked with you directly, you have spoken with an office staff member, or sent an email explaining the absence. Absences without any parental contact are documented as unexcused.

Transportation: For bus riders, a transportation tag will be placed around your child’s neck or attached to their book bag for the first 20 days of school. This tag is to be worn to and from school every day. Please make sure your child returns the tag each morning. After the first 20 days, students are expected to know proper bus procedures.

If your child is a car rider, they are assigned a carpool number that they are expected to learn. Please have the right back seat available for loading and teach your child how to buckle his/her seatbelt without assistance. This saves valuable time and helps the carpool line move at a faster pace. Carpool will dismiss from the multipurpose room at approximately 3:40pm. Staff members will escort carpool students for the first days of school to the multipurpose room.

Also, please send a note if yourchild’s transportation changes. Don’t rely on your child to tell us this information, because children often become confused and relay information incorrectly. If no written note or phone call is received, we are required to send your child home by his/her usual method of transportation.

If you have been bringing your child to school, and decide to begin sending them on the bus, you must notify the school office before sending a note to the teacher. After a period of time, names are deleted from the rosters and must be updated before you child will be allowed on the bus.

Homework: Students should read or be read to for at least 15 minutes nightly. Starting about a month after school starts, weekly homework will be sent home in your child’s Friday Communication Folder. This homework will be due the following week.

Conferences: We will have two scheduled conferences during the year (at the end of the first quarter and third quarter). Report cards will be at the end of each quarter. Additional conferences can be scheduled if needed.

Clothing: Please send your child in comfortable clothing and shoes that will be functional for the active kindergarten day. In order to foster independence, select clothing that your child can handle without assistance from adults. Avoid belts unless your child can buckle and unbuckle them on their own. Please put your child’s name on all articles of clothing so we may identify them if lost. We go outside daily, so please send your child with a jacket on chilly days.

Birthdays: Birthdays are a very special time for students and families. Please be mindful that the staff at Banks Road is not permitted to distribute birthday invitations or class rosters with phone numbers and/or addresses. Please do not send in balloons, treat bags or invitations. Please make party arrangements outside of school. If you would like to bring store bought treats for your child’s birthday, please make arrangements with your child’s teacher prior to the occasion for distribution during scheduled snack time.

Volunteers: Parents, grandparents, and other family members are encouraged to volunteer. An individual wishing to volunteer in theWake County Public School System must complete a background check. This includes chaperoning on field trips. Please contact the front office for more information.

Parent Communication: You will receive updates and information about classroom news via emails, blogs, and/or newsletters. It will contain a variety of information regarding upcoming events, curriculum notes, special announcements, as well as classroom needs. Please read this important bi-monthly communication carefully.

Money: Whenever you send money to school with your child, please place it in a sealed envelope with your child’s name, amount of money, and what the money is for written on the front. Please write your child’s lunch number on checks sent for lunch accounts.

Lunch: If your child will be purchasing lunch on a regular basis, we strongly encourage you to purchase prepaid lunches from the cafeteria. This alleviates the problem of lost lunch money. If you use MySchoolBucks to fund your child’s lunch account, it may take 24 hours for funds to be available. If your child brings his/her lunch, please label boxes or bags with your child’s name. Please allow at least two weeks before joining us for lunch in order for us to teach the students lunch routines and procedures. Thanks!

Snack: We will have a short snack time daily. Please send a small,healthy snack (popcorn, crackers, nuts, pretzels, fruit, etc.) thatcan be eaten without forks or spoons. You may also send a bottle of water. Please do not send any candy or soft drinks. Talk with your child about aboutwhat is for snack and what is for lunch. Please send your child’s snack in a separate container labeled with your child’s name. Please be reminded that during the summer months your child might be thirstier than usual. An additional water bottle might be necessary. Students will be permitted to drink water from the water fountains frequently during the day.

Immunizations: Students entering Kindergarten are required to have Immunizations completed within 30 days. A physical is also required. Please take care of these items right away. The office personnel will make copies of documents you bring in as verification that these requirements have been fulfilled.

Wake County Parent Handbook: Please read it carefully! It contains a great deal of important information not included in this packet. Please note the information regarding health issues, and about food being brought into the classroom.

Daily Folder: Banks Road will provide a Daily Folder that will come home each day with your child. It may contain notes from the teacher or school and needs to be checked each afternoon. Return to school daily. On Friday student work will be sent home in the folder.

Things you may want to include in the folder are excuse notes, permission slips, lunch money or other communication to the teacher.