2023-24 Kindergarten Orientation

• Students enter on Lakeside St.
  • Car arrivals will begin along the playground, staff will help open doors, and parents will remain in cars
  • Bus arrivals get dropped off in front of the building
  • Walkers drop off to designated door
• Students can get a breakfast from school or bring from home 
• Students can choose to have breakfast and/or socialize with friends
• All school doors are locked due to security measures; any parents entering the school must go through Door #1 on Lakeside St. and sign in in the office 

Building Independence 

• Have a goodbye plan
• Do not elongate goodbyes, even if your child is sad. It is okay to have a challenging goodbye
• Ensure your child knows their breakfast plan - this helps teachers from needing to know all kids plans
• Practice efficient eating and cleaning up 

• Students bring a small snack each day - teachers will have extras in the room

• We have hand-washing routines and snack time built into our schedules 

• Think about a snack that is simple for your child to transport to school, open, and eat in about 5-10 minutes. 

• You will get more information from your classroom teacher about snack routines for your child’s class. 

• We always have extra snack at school!

We may have allergy restrictions. Your child’s teacher will let you know in the fall.

• Load money onto your child’s account using School Café www.schoolcafe.com You will need their 6 digit school ID

• Children choose lunch right away in the morning, and are reminded of their decision at lunch time

• School lunches include milk

• If a child brings a lunch from home, they can buy a milk from school

• There are allergy-friendly options! Make sure to register your child’s allergy in infinite campus

• Here is the MMSD website with all the information

Building Independence

• Ensure your child knows their lunch plan
• Practice opening, eating, and cleaning up
• While we encourage eating, it is ultimately your child’s responsibility to eat the food they need. 

• Early dismissal Monday

• Classroom teachers will work with families to know end of day plans
• 5K students who ride the bus can be dropped off without an adult present
• It is crucial you speak to a person at Franklin if end of day plans change for the same day (do not email/leave voicemail please)
• Walker Pickup is in front of Franklin School
• Cars will park and walk to meet their kids on the playground.

Building Independence

• Go over bus-riding expectations with your child - similar to when they sit in any vehicle (bottoms on seat, facing forward, inside voice)
• Tell your child their dismissal plan each morning. DO NOT tell your child of a change of plans too far in advance as this often confuses kids

• Learning through lessons, cooperative games, and exploration 
   
  • *Practice winning and losing with your child*
• Numeral writing and recognition to 20
• Shape recognition and reasoning
• Counting forwards, backwards, and on from a given number
• Addition and subtraction problems

• Science is integrated in our literacy!

• Topics:

  • Plants and Animals

  • Forces and Pulls

  • Weather

• Each week students will have...
  • P.E. 90 minutes
  • Art 60 minutes
  • Library/Reach 60 minutes
  • Music 60 minutes 

In Kindergarten we have two recess periods per day! This will be a great opportunity for you to volunteer at Franklin. More info coming this Fall.

Building Independence

• Help your child decide what they should wear outside

• If you hear about recess problems, encourage them to go to an adult in an orange vest in the future to help resolve problems. Often classroom teachers are not supervising on the playground.

This is a time for us to build trust, get to know one another, and develop a sense of belonging and significance in the classroom. Every day we begin our day by greeting each other, sharing about a topic, engaging in an activity or a game and reading our daily message. During this time we practice how to be a friend, listen to others and take turns so that everyone feels included and safe. Most importantly, we have fun!

Students engage in a variety of work during skills block

• Decodable books

• Writing

• Language development through exploration

• Foundational games

• Teacher-led groups

We are working on expanding our outdoor learning spaces! We continue to look for wavs to learn through exploration and observation.