From the January 2006 PTO meeting
On January 17th, 2006, the Cape St. Claire PTO presented a guest speaker in conjunction with its monthly meeting. Ms. Barbara Griffith, Coordinator of Early Childhood Education for Anne Arundel County Public Schools spoke on the topic of full day kindergarten. Parents in attendance voiced the following concerns/questions (underlined throughout.) What follows is a transcript of responses by Ms. Griffith addressing those questions as well as her discussion of full day kindergarten in general. All responses are from Ms. Griffith unless otherwise noted. Mr. Zacharko, Principal of Cape St. Claire Elementary School provided answers to questions that were school specific and his responses are also noted.
How should we prepare our children for full day kindergarten? What things would you like for them to know prior to starting school?
Maryland law says that the only criterion for children entering kindergarten is age. Children have to be five years old by September 1st. That is the ONLY criteria. Now; what is it that the state and the school system would LIKE for children to be able to do when they come?
Those are the kinds of things that it’s nice for children to know. But we can’t tell someone that you can’t come to kindergarten if you do not know any of those things. Because it is your right, by law, to be in kindergarten. In fact, by law you MUST be in kindergarten if you are 5 by September 1st. Unless you ask for a waiver.
What will they be expected to know for 1st grade?
By the end of kindergarten, we hope the children know the following:
To find more details go to the Maryland State Department of Education website www.marylandpublicschools.org and pull up the voluntary state curriculum. It shows Pre-K through all grade levels and it will take you by content area what is expected of children by the end of every grade level
The schedule for full day kindergarten was shown up on the screen. Someone talked about play, and if you notice that as we go through the day, we have the arrival at school, group literacy time when we do lessons, and then we have some special area time and some - what we call workshop. This is a time when children are doing things independently with direction. Of course, before we ask a 5 year old to do anything, you have to explain it well. The children will have cultural arts, lunch and playtime sometime during the day. We’ll go on and walk through this with pictures.... because, I think it’s a little easier.
Opening in most classrooms looks like this, there’s a set of material called "Every Day Counts." and every day counts is a wonderful routine of every day things, like days of the week, patterns in the calendar, lots of mathematical concepts that are reviewed and taught daily in repetition. It helps them to very easily assimilate to mathematical concepts. "Odd, Even" is a part of materials that will be provided to every kindergarten in your building. After we do calendar we usually do something called kindergarten news. This is when teachers do what we call "modeled writing. Modeled writing is when I as the teacher talk about what I am doing. You are going to write the sentence. Children need to hear the separation between words. When we speak they tend to run together. When we write, we really work on hearing the separation between words. This is an essential building block to reading. Then we ask the children to share something and we write that. If we have a high frequency word, we use that.
In that first group time we also do the "green band" of the open court reading curriculum. Open court reading is used in the half day and full day kindergarten programs; however, it is a lot easier to deliver in a full day setting. Lots of activities will be done on the floor, so children are not sitting in chairs all the time. From chairs, to the floor, to tables, and around the room because we know 5 year old bodies can’t sit for long periods.
In "red band," or literacy in language, we do a lot of reading of literature and guiding comprehension. This is a very high level part of the open court curriculum.
We begin writing very early in kindergarten. What we do is help children to put their ideas down in writing. Developmental writing is a very important part of kindergarten, as well as first grade. We have time in a full day program for lots more homogeneous group work. We have large group time when we introduce material to children. After the large group time, there is time in the full day program for a long workshop time, where we pull small groups of children (4-6 at a time) for like-ability lessons. For instance, one group might need to redo the letter worked on that day. Another group might be working on a writing activity following a reading they’ve done independently. So we will do a variety of group lessons based on what children are ready to do. The goal is to expand everyone’s optimal growth. Not to hold anyone back and not to frustrate. A pretty high level goal – but that is what we are trying to do.
During workshop children will do some workbook pages that are part of the program, they’ll do lots of independent activities; they’ll meet with the teacher. The teacher will be doing some leveled reading with the children using books that are part of the open court material called "pre-decodables" and "decodables" that work on letters and sounds and high frequency words. They will also be using leveled readers, which allow us to take children that are moving faster and challenge them and give them some material that will keep them moving.
Also, during that time there will be lots of other activities, art projects etc.... for them. That’s the time when children think it is play-time, but it’s really very instructional practice of skills that are previously taught or group lessons to extend skills.
Full day kindergarten will have Art and P.E., the same as other grade levels in the building. You are staffed for the additional Art and P.E. classes. That means a little challenge in a school the size of CSC - That means more than one full time teacher.
Cultural arts follow whenever in the day it can be scheduled. It’s a real juggling act to schedule cultural arts. They will also have computer and media, Lunch and snack. Depending upon your day and when you arrive, have lunch and dismiss, teachers may plan a morning snack or an afternoon snack, or no snack. It will depend on how your day works out and how the lunch schedule is arranged for your kindergarten. We will be providing lots of staff development in June for teachers going into full day kindergarten. These meetings will address every issue about moving to full day kindergarten. We are now in our 4th year of a 5 year implementation plan and we have a pretty good process in place to help teachers make that transition from half day to full day and train our new teachers for full day.
Then we usually have math time. Lots of hands on. We do lots of things with number problem solving, geometry, measurement, etc... and it’s hand on. We have lots of time in the full day to once again do group lessons and then do small groups for likeability, review and extend.
We have literacy centers during workshop time. To build reading and writing skills.
We have developmental centers. We are purchasing furniture and equipment for the additional classrooms; we are purchasing the same things that are in the classrooms now. We’re purchasing blocks, housekeeping, sand tables — we are purchasing all the things that have always been in kindergarten as developmental centers. And in a full day schedule, there is time for developmental centers. Again, while the teacher may be pulling small groups for lessons, children have been taught how to play in those areas. Language development is going on as well as lots of cooperative group work. While it looks like play to just about any adult, it is children’s work and they are working very hard at developing skills. So those developmental centers are very important.
We have a social studies curriculum that the teachers follow. It talks about family, school, rules in school and becoming a community of learners in school.
Then there is a set of materials called second step. If you’ve been in the kindergartner or Pre-k classes in our county you’ve seen "Slow Down Snail" and "Impulsive Puppy". They are characters that we use to help children deal with empathy. Most 5 year olds are pretty self-centered. Problem solving. Steps of problem solving with a friend. Anger management. What to do if you’re angry. Simple things like count to 10. We practice this to try to help. And again, this has been a very successful program for us
class=Section5>What about tired children? Any nap time?
After lunch an outside playtime (recess) may occur, or it may occur at a different time of the day. Again, this will be a staff decision. There is something called independent learning time. Someone had asked about rest. The philosophy in our county has been that we do not, we are not day care, and this is full day kindergarten. We do not buy cots, to put all children "down," turn down the lights, put on quiet music and say you must sleep. However, we are not foolish, if a 5 year old is fatigued and we don’t allow them a rest or to go to sleep if they need to, we’re punishing everyone. And then what do we have? Grouchy children that we can’t keep in classroom anyway that will go home even worse.
So, here is what we have been doing and it has been very successful despite the press and their "no nap time." When we work with the teachers we talk about the children bringing a towel or having a carpeted area in the room that is the "quiet" area. Now if I notice that you are really showing me that you are fatigued before lunch, after lunch I’m going to say, "wouldn’t you like to take your towel and go take a rest and if you fall asleep and sleep for an hour – we let you sleep. It would be really silly to wake you up. But, someone else might not need a rest. After lunch we have this independent learning time in which we do quiet things so children get a chance to recharge, rest a little, refresh, then we get going again. The kindergarten day is a series of quiet, active, quiet, active. In order to keep those little bodies moving with us.
When I think of tired I think more of "wound up"
The teachers recognize that too, so fatigue can be that I notice you nodding off, and fatigue can also be that I see you getting frenzied because you’re fighting it. Either one, the teacher would invite the child to rest. Or if the child said, "I want to rest"
Are the children really responding to that?
Absolutely. Our experience the last couple of years is that in September we talk with parents about how 5 years olds need between 10 and 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night. So we ask you to adjust sleep schedules. That is something that you can do now, if they are not getting that amount of sleep in an uninterrupted night. The purpose for full day K is academics. We want children to be rested.
What we are finding is that in September we have some sleepers but by Thanksgiving almost none at all. Because, the children have acclimated themselves to the sleep patterns and activity patterns of the day. So it’s really not been the problem that many thought it would be four years ago.
Will the children have outside play?
Yes, there will be outside play in the schedule. It might be in the form of recess. It might be in the form of the class going out to use equipment or play organized games. There will be lots of music and movement. Children have to move a lot, so we might be doing an alphabet song and we are going to get up and move while we do it in some organized fashion. We have to build in some kind of movement or you can’t stay in a class with 5 year olds all day.
Time for read aloud. We need to do lots of reading TO children and full day kindergarten gives us lots more time to read to children and have them select things that are perhaps not part of the reading curriculum but may be extending the science and/or social studies curriculum.
Those are the kinds of things that will be happening in the course of the kindergarten day.
What will class sizes be? Will there be just a teacher or an assistant as well?
The staffing request is that the class size be 18 per class with a teacher and that their be a teaching assistant per each school, however in a large school such as CSC, we are requesting 2 teaching assistants to be shared amongst the 6 classrooms.
What is the likelihood of funding? Is this really going to happen?
I would be extremely surprised if full day kindergarten was not funded. We have been funded each year for all of the requests in the last 3 years. The legislation says we have to have full day kindergarten county wide by 2007. If we don’t open this set of 15 schools in 2006 then we are behind the eight ball because we have 17 more to open in 2007. So, to answer your question; I am confident that we will be funded for full day kindergarten. I cannot guarantee you that until the county executive sends the budget back in May and the Board does the final alignment of funding in June. Everyone had recognized that full day kindergarten is a priority and we have a history of funding it. I can’t guarantee it but, I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen.
How many kindergarten classes are there?
Six.
Are parent volunteers still going to be encouraged and welcomed?
I would assume yes, and I look at your principal because I don’t know of a school that doesn’t welcome parent volunteers. We need all the hands that we can get.
We’re only at 5 classes now – how do we go to six?
Here’s what happens when we open full day kindergarten: Some of your friends who have been using private setting full day kindergarten, or child care as full day, come back to the public school because of the tuition. So in many schools we look at the projections. The way we’re doing projections for full day kindergarten is to look at your first grade 3 year averages. Assuming that parents are going to use the first grade program here and they have the option of full day kindergarten they will come to full day kindergarten. So that’s what we are using.
Right now, kindergarten is in a separate building - how will that work?
(Mr. Zacharko responds) - We’ll get to those.
Do they have homework?
They probably do now. Kindergarten has simple homework a couple times a week. So, homework could be putting the knife and the fork and the spoon on the table and that’s a pattern and repeating the pattern around the table. It could be counting the number of people at the table. It should be simple homework.
I’m just curious, what is the rationale, and what are the reasons for going from half day to full day?
All the research for the last 20 years has said that full day kindergarten benefits children academically. So, the reason the state has passed the legislation is for academic achievement reasons. Now we all know working parents, it’s also a child care issue. And so working parents particularly like full day kindergarten because it decreases their child care costs and it puts children in a safe place for the day. So the research on it is very strong.
Will the children be accepted into the before and after care program?
They have been, in other schools Parks & Rec is very aware of which schools are moving to full day and looking at their staffing and their numbers. Unfortunately the hitch sometimes is the number of students that they are licensed to keep and you probably are maxed.
(Mr. Zacharko responds)
Not quite.
Is there and option to opt out of full day kindergarten?
Here is your option. The law says we have to offer full day kindergarten by 2007. There are a few schools that will not be at full day kindergarten next year. So at those other 17 schools you could apply to one of those for a half day program. I will tell you that the likelihood of getting in is not great, because those are pretty congested areas which is why they’re last on the list now. But, that’s an option. Using a private kindergarten that’s half day is an option. But, you cannot go to a full day kindergarten program for half a day because as you can see from the schedule you would miss math, science and social studies everyday. Code of Maryland Law says we must provide your child with a full curriculum and we can’t do that because we are putting the curriculum across the entire day.
So, the private kindergartens aren’t required to be full day?
No.
But, it doesn’t sound like they’re going to be - if you bring them back here, up to speed with the rest of the 1st grade.
That would be a personal decision.
It sounds a lot like you’re doing much of the same thing [that is currently done] except that you’re having more time to do it and provide individual levels.
That is exactly right.
Are you going to be doing some kind of grading system?
The progress report that we have been using in pre-K and Kindergarten has been pretty successful and there is no plan to change that at this point.
What is it?
They use a coding system of not yet demonstrating, developing, or consistently demonstrating on about 40 items.
Has the curriculum for 1st grade changed at all?
What will happen is that the teachers in 1st grade will again look at the children entering 1st grade and they will have a variety of skill levels, so their will be grouping there.
Is there some sort of syllabus that they will give to the parents that we will get each month?
The kindergarten puts out a monthly newsletter about the topics they will be covering. Plus you can always access the Maryland state curriculum which we are basically following because of MSA and that tells you what’s going to be covered in terms of kindergarten curriculum.
So we can access that through the web?
www.msda.org The voluntary state curriculum.
I know that kindergarten teachers now are really pushed to fit everything in and that the full day is going to allow them to do that but, in the end, are they going to be pushed to do even more? Is more stuff going to be put on them?
No. The goal is to help children learn more, not make it harder for teachers to teach more. So again our goal, as a system, is to take every child and move them optimally without frustration. What the full day is allowing us to do is to do a lot more small group instruction after we’ve done the large groups so we can move each of those groups more optimally. So, the experienced teachers that are moving to full day are relieved. While it’s a difficult transition for them because their schedule is being set off, they are relieved because they feel like they are doing a better job of teaching.
I have a kindergartner now and I’m "blown away" in what my child is getting in half a day
Amazing, isn’t it? I hope that’s a good "blown away?"
Yes, I can not believe what she’s done in four months. I’m excited; I wish it was happening this year.
And so you can see with more time how wonderful that is going to be. And how much less pressure.
(Parent in attendance)
I just have a comment, I have taught 1st grade in Kentucky for a while where they did have full day kindergarten, and now teach 1st grade here in Maryland with 1st graders coming to me from having ½ day kindergarten. Wow, what a difference it was for me going kind of "backwards." How much more adjusted they are after they have been in full day kindergarten. So to offset some peoples fears going in, it’s really wonderful coming from a 1st grade teacher just seeing, how used to it they are, how ready they are to learn and it really accelerated their learning. We have a kindergarten teacher in our building that has gone from full day to half day until we go to full day next year also and she is feeling very stressed trying to cover the amount of things. So, she can’t wait to go to full day.
(Mr. Zacharko responds)
Yes, we have to hire three new teachers because we are being increased to six. The reason for that, and Barbara touched on it, is that on average, our first grade population is generally plus twenty of what our kindergarten population was the year before. I think that’s probably more indicative of the fact that people don’t have to go with the day care and can move right in. So, one of the reasons we are moving from 5 to 6 is for just that reason: we’re looking for at least 20 more for next year. And thank you Barbara because our people downtown when they did our projections didn’t quite look at it that way and Barbara stepped in and we will be getting six classes.
Where are you going to put them?
(Mr. Zacharko responds)
Now, the questions are where do they go? Well, that’s one of the questions, because no matter what you do when you’re adding classes in a school, it has a domino affect. It’s not just put "two more in," we are pressed for space now. What’s going to happen is basically this. . .and anything I tell you today is subject to change…. But, there is a plan and I’ve been sweating it since last year. We are going to have four kindergarten classes in the annex building. And then we are going to move two kindergarten classes to where two of the 1st grade classes are because they have bathrooms in those classes that can be accessed. It may be the first two where Ms. Herzig (1st grade teacher) and Ms. Martin (1st grade teacher) are now, or it may be the two on the same side where Mr. Herzig (1st grade teacher) and Ms. Franco (1st grade teacher) are now. But, it will be over there. And this in turn will have a domino effect and I’m going to run out of room. So, what the Board of Education has graciously given us is two portables. We are going to have two portables, one is going to be located out in the front of the building, right where the primary wing is and one is going to be located just outside of the fifth grade area where the kids line up over there. We’ll be looking at moving one of our part time music classes out there to facilitate extra classroom space. I’m also going to be moving the reading teachers into one of the portables as the plan is now to facilitate use of "pull-outs" and all the "interventions" to have another room to do those in. I also might be moving one of our self-contained special education classes, which is a small group of kids (right now only about 6 kids,) to another area and we are going to be knocking out a wall to create a larger space. So we have some options here that we’ve already talked about and are already planning. So we ARE going to have room for them. The only thing is that some of the children will be right here in the primary wing of the building and some will be over in the annex. But, they will have access to everything.
Speaking of budget, I’m not sure you’re aware of this, but Barbara (Ms. Griffith, Coordinator of Early Childhood Education for Anne Arundel County Public Schools) is spending between $8,000 and $9,000 dollars per classroom for materials of instruction. (Ms. Griffith interjects) Closer to $17,000 per classroom for the 3 new classrooms. So they all are going to be outfitted with new furniture, all of the things a kindergarten class, books, puzzles. And on top of that you’re talking about roughly $200,000 for the portables apiece. So that’s a huge expenditure that they are putting in for the 15 schools.
Right now the kindergarten teachers all share the workshop. Will they be getting their own materials?
(Mr. Zacharko responds)
Yes. We’ll be looking at giving them their own sets, because they are going to be in their own classrooms and we won’t have that "community" area to share.
(Ms. Griffith responds)
We are providing materials for the additional positions.
(Mr. Zacharko continues)
I don’t want to mislead anyone. Barbara has demonstrated the "model" of the day. I’m not quite sure how that is going to play out. I’m going to tell you what we have planned now. And that may change, given the cultural arts resources that we receive. What we are looking at for next year is matching up our 5th graders with our kindergartners for lunch.
(Ms. Griffith) "Good Idea"
(Mr. Zacharko continues)
We’ll have our 5th graders going in at roughly 10:20am. And possibly our kindergartners coming in there at 10:35am. That will give our 5th graders an opportunity to go through the line and we can match them up with our kindergarten kids to help them go through the service line until they become independent. Likewise, I’m going to be matching up my 4th graders with my 1st graders because this year’s kindergarten group has not had that experience either, so we’re going to get them some helpers as well. So, our lunches are going to be "tweaked" on either end. Starting at about 10:20am in order to finish up about 12:35. We’re adding another 100 to 120 kids into that "mix" in the cafeteria. It will be an adjustment period for the first month. We watch it every year with our first graders, but, once you get them in, it’s fine.
Parents, I am going to ask this of you. I have been discouraging parents from coming in for the lunches simply because of a space factor. If I have 30 parents in there, I’m not going to have room for the kids. I ‘m going to be looking at possibly getting some tables in that room to see if we can encourage some parents who would like to come in and help out at the beginning of next year and you’ll be getting more of that information as we develop it.
Well we seem to have covered just about every aspect of it. Barbara has at least two years of implementing this in the other schools and this will be our first foray into it.
Is there any chance that the gym and art will be cut for the other students?
No. Now, when you say IS there a chance, remember that those things are budgetary issues, but, again, just like Barbara said I’d be really surprised if anything happened to prevent this from coming into place, but, it’s still a question mark until the budget is finalized.
Is the plan to hire two aides to share in kindergarten?
(Ms. Griffith responds)
The plan is to hire two teaching assistants to share between the six classes.
(Mr. Zacharko continues)
Now, what may happen is when we say we are hiring them, I may be hiring, or, I may get a transfer in because some places may excess and move people on. But, yes, we will be bringing people in.
Are there any other questions?
If something happens and this doesn’t [happen], will we still have the a.m./p.m. kindergarten classes?
Let me tell you, if we go through all the trouble to prepare for this and it doesn’t happen, you’re going to read about me in the Capitol! (laughter by the audience) By the way, did you all see the story about Cape St. Claire and the Katrina Hurricane efforts in the Monday Capitol. It’s hanging in the volunteer room if you’d like to see it. They really did a nice job and showed our kids in a very good light.
Thank you very much, Ms. Woods I turn it back to you.
(Katherine Woods, PTO President)
Thanks everyone for coming out. It was great to see so many new faces. I’m sure most of the new faces we’re going to see again next year. If no one has anything else for the PTO then I would like a motion to adjourn. [Motion to adjourn made and seconded. Unanimously passed.]
Meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m.
