At the beginning of the school year, each kindergarten student receives a personal journal and book bag. On Monday, students will choose a book from the MSOSV kindergarten library, they bring the book home with their journal in the book bag.
Parents are asked to work with their kindergarten student each night, reading the book together and helping the student to write in the journal.
At the beginning of the year, based on the ability of the kindergarten student, the parent is instructed to assist the student with writing in the journal. It might start out with the parent reading the book to the student, asking the student about their favorite page, and having the student draw a picture representing the favorite page. The page in the journal is dated by the parent.
By the middle of the school year, the student will likely read the book to the parent, then write a short paragraph about the book or favorite page.
As the kindergarten year progresses, parents will see the improvement in penmanship, sentence structure and creativity.
By the end of the school year, the kindergarten student will have created, narrated, and illustrated their very own book. Another keepsake family treasure from the MSOSV kindergarten year.
Book bags with journal and book are brought back to school on Friday. The kindergarten guide will review the journal before it goes back home the following Monday.
Rather than sending home workbooks or a series of worksheets, MSOSV believes that parents should include their children in the everyday running of the household. Maybe the children help to set the table. During this time, a discussion about counting, classifying, or helping to stay organized is considered a valuable homework activity. Other ways to work with children at home are to count money to understand what something costs and how to pay for it. These are all teachable moments with math, practical life and life skills necessary to enter into adulthood.
If you missed any of the previous Kindergarten posts, you can find them all on our blog page.