KindergartenWorks: collecting student information before the school year

DAY ONE... I don't even want to think about it. And you can't make me. {And scene.} Let's try this again with a little less drama...

Every year at this time, my mind is forced to think of kindergarten... day one. Right, so we don't yet know what a line is, where the kleenex is, and no you can't use the bathroom yet, because I haven't taught you how to use it in our room... oh my. Well, this is the time of year when we are hosting our round up of all the kindergarten students in our area and my mind is gently reminded of how far we have come in 120+ days of school.

And I am reminded that I need to take time to enjoy that we successfully line up, use kleenex and use the restroom with little to no distraction to class instruction time. In addition, we've learned to read, write and do lots of math. {Yes!} Now, let's put a little finesse into what we do before heading off to first grade, shall we?

In preparation for day one, our building allows us to tweak the documents that we can include in the registration packet. They've graciously allowed us to add our cute form to the 15 others that parents fill out upon registration. And this is the one that matters. The others tell me nothing about the child, the most important piece of all. Here is the updated form that we will be using to gather some insight into the kinders that will be coming our way. With some inspiration from other forms that we've seen like Farley's, we have pulled together our favorite questions to become equipped to start a new year.

We have really consolidated our info to parents that comes from our building. Parents get two brochures: one from the office with the basic lunch, times, dismissal info., and one from us teachers with our essentials. We figure that if we can beautify the information and make it as concise as possible, then perhaps, just maybe, it'll be read with the vigor we'd love to see from our new families.

{Click to Access}

The download above is titled:

But, if I could have it my way, I'd like to ask two more questions that would help me with classroom management and connecting with my kinders immediately. It would be a stretch, but have you ever read Personality Plus or the Five Love Languages? These two books have made such a huge impact on how I interact with people, including the 24 little people in my room and I'd like to know truly: how are they wired and how do they best receive love? So, I'd like to title the download this instead:

If you've never read those books, they will be the best professional development books you could ever dive into considering that all we do is work with people. Okay, so back to thinking of day one... here's a tip I have learned. So many brand new kinders don't understand the concept of getting in a line. But, they all understand the concept of a drive-thru. Anytime I want to explain how we are going to get somewhere (even getting materials in class along a shelf for example) I use that as part of the language, and it runs as smooth as butter. We may have to work on the speed to match that of the mighty double arches, but I'll take "smooth" any way I can that first week of school!

What do you really want to know about your kinders on day one?

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- Leslie