Kindergarten Reading Help

Archive for February, 2010

I have a 5 year old son and a 15 year old son both attending public school. I’ve been volunteering for the school board for 12 years and never had an issue re: screening. But, while attending my 5 year old’s information night, the teachers were pleading for people to volunteer for their reading program. On a daily basis they wanted to have volunteers come into the school for one-on-one reading sessions with the students in isolated rooms. They even announced that no screening was required and that they were desperate for volunteers to make their reading program a success. My red flags immediately went up. I asked that my son be excluded from the program, though the school insisted that there shouldn’t be an issue.
Last week my son’s teacher sent home a note requesting that parents volunteer to drive senior kindergarten students to field trips as a cost cutting measure. They indicated that all students would be required to bring their booster seats to school on field trip days. When I phoned the school the principle assured me that there should be no issue with this as there would be a minimum of 4 students per parent volunteer driver, “so what could possibly happen.” Again, no screening required. Furthermore, the volunteers would have to sign waivers so that the school would not be liable for their actions.
Am I off my rocker or does this cross the line?

Thanks in advance, please read fully.
Friend problems.
Lexi:
My friend Lexi and I, have been super close from kindergarten. We’ve been through many things together, and that includes many fights. But this year we are in grade 9 and I don’t know if our friendship will hold. From grade 7 and a bit of grade 6, she’s been really close to my other friend Meghan. Lexi never really talks to me that much anymore, though we hang out with the same group of people. Lexi and Meghan leave during lunch and hang out with the popular people rather than us. I find that Lexi has changed drastically, and I don’t mean in a good way.
Amber:
Me and Amber were super close in grade 7. We were inseperable. Although, she was really popular and I was average. She promised me that even though all her popular friends drank and got drunk, that she would never do that. We spent all our time together. She called me every five minutes, and I did the same. Now, she’s been hanging out with Lexi and Meghan at lunch and she doesn’t even talk to me anymore. We don’t call each other. She says a whole bunch of crap behind my back.
**Story 1:
For Christmas, our school has a Christmas show. My idea was to do a dance on stage. Lexi and Amber agreed! We couldn’t wait! Then I was sick for two days and when I came back, Meghan came over to me and said, I can’t wait till we dance! I was kind of shocked that Lexi and amber hadn’t told me that they invited Meghan into the dance, but I didn’t mind. Then I found out that they had practices without telling me and they said that they didn’t want me in the dance becuase I didn’t know it. I also have irratible bowel syndrome and they never cared before. But just before the dance they said that they didn’t want my stomach to hurt. I thought that this was BS becuase they never cared before. They apoligized and I forgave because I’m not a person to hold a grudge.
** Story 2:
My new friend Kristen came to our school this year. Meghan and Lexi don’t like her and we don’t really know why. So me, Kristen, the twins, Chloe and Kate went to the mall without inviting Amber, Meghan or Lexi becuase they didn’t like Kristen. They followed us to the mall and then came up to us and started spazzing at us and how they felt left out becuase we were always with Kristen. We came back with how they are always with Amber and never with us.
Kate:
Kate and I were close since grade 8 (last year). She’s super smart and whenever I get a better mark than her she get’s mad at me. I feel like she used me because last year, she didn’t really have any friends and she was always with me. This year, people from her soccer team came to our school and it’s like bye Sharon, I’m going to go hang out with them now. So I started to hang out with Kristen more and she got mad becuase she felt like I left her for Kristen.
Shannon:
Shannon has been my best friend since I was in grade 4. We were super close but then her parents seperated and she moved with her mom. We still keep in contact, in fact, we send letters to eachother all the time, even though she lives like 10 minutes away!
The problem with this, is that I miss her so much! I hate never seeing her becuase we are always busy!
So all in all,
Meghan, Amber and Lexi are causing big issues for us. We have no idea what to do. They hate us hanging out with Kristen, but they are never there during lunch. Oh! Also, whenever I’m sick I heard that Lexi always says, “Oh Sharon is sick again… What a surprise.”
I find it funny how she cared before the dance when obvs. she didn’t want me in it. She doesn’t usually care. And she never calls me when ever I’m sick, but she gets mad when I don’t call her.
I have NO IDEA what to do.
Please help, and thanks for reading all this!
Best answer to the answer which gives advice for all these problems! thanks!
PS: I can’t get mad at Kate because everyone else loves her and right when I want to start crying she comes to me and acts like we’re best friends again!
Thanks SOOOOO MUCH!
-Sharon <3

My 5 yr old is a very smart kid, he is starting kindergarten this year but never went tp preschool or daycare, he learned many things at a very young age, he knows his letters and numbers shapes and colors in 2 languages, I taught him how to write, he is even into spelling and reading -i read a book for him once or twice, he memorizes it and then reads to me hundreds of times.
He is very active and never sits still, he loves playing with his 2 yr old sister…
where is the problem??? starting this year we ran into personal family issues involving a move from one home to another, a death in the family, a wedding, 2 close ppl being hospitalized, so basically me and my husband were extremely busy running from one place to another to the point I stopped teaching my son and we relied mostly on tv to keep him occupied, bear in mind he was never left alone, he always had an adult with him. Now he imagines himself as tv characters, and refused to leave the tv, how can unstuck him off the tv?

My daughter is two and a half years old. I have been trying to potty train her, but I haven’t been having much success. She seems very interested in potty training books and videos. When I put on a potty training video, she is memorized by it and sings along to all the songs. She also wants to read a potty training book at bedtime almost every night. Despite her interest, she hates actually potty training. We have three different toddler potties in our house, and whenever I put her on any of them, she starts to cry. She doesn’t become hysterical, but her cry is definitely more than a little whine. She’ll just sit there and continue to cry until I take her off. I have tried reading to her on the potty too. When I read to her, she doesn’t cry, but she gets off the potty and doesn’t go to the bathroom. I have also tried potty training first thing in the morning, but she is usually to cranky to have any part of it. At this rate,I’m afraid my daughter is going to start kindergarten in diapers. I don’t understand… she is very smart and a good toddler overall. Any advice?

My 5 year old son is attending kindergarten. Today his teacher called me and told me that he has not been paying attention in class, and worst of all he is calling other kids stupid !
I teach my son to read at home and he is able to read books by Roald Dahl before the age of 5. He is also creative and full of imagination. I wonder if it is because what the teacher teaches in class is too simple and boring for him. They are reading simple books with only one sentence on each page.
It is very wrong for him to call other kids stupid. We never use this word at home and his teacher also disallows all kids to use this word.
Any ideas about what I can do to help him pay attention in class and get along with his friends ?

Hello there. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read a small bit of my story. I’m currently 13 and in 7th grade. At the moment, I’m writing a story about my 7th grade experience, because I moved here in the beginning of the school year. It’s supposed to be a very casual type of writing. I’ve changed the names just for this to keep people’s identities safe.
Here it is:
Dear Diary,
Cedar Hill Middle School: Through our doors pass the greatest kids! Well, we’ll find out. As I probably know, or as my sister Alexa, who’s probably the one reading this, (STOP SNOOPING!) I’m Brianna. Brianna Kim. I just moved to Clover, New York. Home of the Cougars. I lived a town over, Dentown. So, in here, you’ll be reading about how my school life turns out to be.
It’s the first day. I stood alone as we wait to go inside. I spied what I already figured out to be the “popular” people. They’re all staring at me. Great. Then, I finally realize why. After one person whispers this:
“That girl’s wearing the same shirt as you, Mika!”
Oh, how wonderful. I start off the day thought as a copier within the Poptards’ eyes. Oh, but what’s this? A big one, dark skinned, was strolling towards me.
“Hey, what grade are you in?”
Shoot, what if they weren’t in my grade? I began to panic inside, but I took a deep breath. Stay calm Brianna! Come on, it’s not that hard to talk.
“Umm, I’m in 7th grade.”
“Oh, okay! Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
Yes. You have this in the bag. I leisurely walked over behind the large girl. I wasn’t expecting the greeting I got. They were all shouting their names at once, it sounded like this:
“Hieyllo I’m Briyaralyhaleydgetdenssatinasamantha!”
Or something like that. But you get the picture. Ends up the big girl’s name was Hannah Young. We never really hit it off after that. I spent the next 3 or so minutes just standing there, listening to their conversations. Like how they went to the Bahamas and that’s how they got sunburned, and how they visited their grandparents in Barcelona. Not really, but you can tell I didn’t care at all what they were saying.
Then, a lot of teacher-like figures came out of the front doors. They held up signs with their names on it. Wright, Wright. That was what my advisor’s name was. Mrs. Wright, the music teacher. Anyways, why do they call it an advisor? Back in Dentown, my old town, they called them home room teachers. THAT makes more sense to me. Just saying. But on with the story.
I found the woman holding a sign saying Wright. She was a short woman. Dark brown hair, and quite a bit of makeup. She was very slender. I couldn’t tell what her heritage was. I never really bothered. Decent looking people were also lined up. It was like kindergarten all over again! Who’s the caboose? Haha, but I’m getting off track, again.
We parade to our death, advisory. We spend the whole morning talking about locker combos, locker locations, getting our books in our lockers, and all that boring stuff that could make a good lullaby.
Lunch came, finally. I opened my locker with a bit of struggle. After the second or third try, it opened. It was a miracle! I grabbed my bagged lunch. It was probably a turkey sandwich. Like the only thing I ate this whole year. But, where was the cafeteria?
“Hey, do you know where the cafeteria is?” said a mysterious voice next to me. It was a guy, Asian, quite round, and short, but taller than me. “Name’s Ken Lim. You’re Brianna, right? I’m in your advisory.”
“Oh, hey. Yeah, that’s my name. And no, I don’t know where it is, can you tell me?”
“Yeah, just keep walking that way,” he said as he pointed down the hall.
“Okay, thanks.”
I ate lunch peacefully. Nothing much. Recess! I decided to go over to another group. A bunch of Asians. I hung out with them. For like 3 days. But, they did warn me that Ken was a weirdo.
The rest of the day went on uneventfully though.
Thanks for snooping,
Brianna Kim

MY SON WAS HELD BACK IN KINDERGARTEN BECAUSE HE WAS TOO YOUNG FOR FIRST GRADE IN COLORADO. FYI- WE MOVED FROM CALIFORNIA TO COLORADO. HE HAS TROUBLE IN MATH AND READING COMPREHENSION, FOR INSTANCE, HE STILL DOES NOT KNOW WHAT 2-2 IS…I’VE TRIED COUNTING ON, NUMBER LINES, AND EVEN USING COINS TO COUNT. IT SEEMS LIKE HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT HIS WORK. WHEN HE READS, HE STRUGGLES AND DOESN’T REMEMBER WHAT HE HAD JUST READ. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

I moved to a different area a few years ago and have been trying since I got here to get a job in the public school system. I finally succeeded and have been given a third grade classroom. My background is in PreK and Kindergarten (I taught these grades for 8 years in another state). I have worked with inner city, affluent, and rural schools. I feel I have strengths in classroom management, writing, science, social studies, organization, and dealing with parents (both the easy and the difficult). I was so excited to get a job, but now that school will be starting in a week, I am looking for some help with the following issues.
My main concern is about reading. I am not used to teaching reading to this age level and do not really know how to start. I plan to follow textbooks, manuals, and lesson plans from the last year left in the classroom. Someone told me that you can’t teach reading to this age group in small groups. I wonder, why not? So how to begin?
I know I have 19 students, 4 will be ESE (Special Education students) though I do not know in what areas, I will have an aide for 5 hours a day to help work with mainly the ESE students. My question here is what would you do with an aide for 5 hours if you had one or if you have had a similar experience? I want to use him or her to maximize learning among the students.
Lastly, I am wondering about 3rd grade students in general. They seem so old to me after working with the very young. Do they like to be treated like grownups? Do they like stickers? Are they still eager to please? I know these are silly things to worry about but I do not want to baby them and make them feel silly.
Thanks for the input and please feel free to give advice about anything 3rd grade related.

I am not a teacher, but rather a parent. My son is 5 and started kindergarten in September. So far everything that has happened has occurred in the classroom, not on the playground. He has been hit, called names, shoved, and other forms of bullying by the same student. My son tested at the top of his class on the initial assessment (he is no genius but does read 2nd grade books, working on 1st grade math, and loves science). He is very bored in class and has begun getting in trouble for talking with his friends during “circle time”, not “sitting on his pockets” during circle time (he has a twist in his legs that makes it a little painful to sit indian style for long periods of time), and for twirling the hair of the girl next to him (who just happens to be another friend that throws her hair at him in line in the morning).
Now my son is very talkative by nature and I support that. He is inquisitive and loves learning. I just can’t get the teacher to see that he is bored in her class. She transferred from 2nd grade this year and I think that may be some of the problem. When we first met and she learned that my son was an only child she said “Oh, you are used to getting all the attention. I will have to remember that. There are other students in the class.”
I don’t want to pull him out of school, that would devastate him. He has grown attached to a pair of twins and the girl with the curly hair, but I want the bullying to stop and him to start learning.
This week they are listening to and doing activities about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Last week was the Three Little Pigs. They listen to nursery rhymes being read by the teacher, do a coloring page or sack puppet, one page of workbook (alternating math and pre-reading skills), and watch a video. He is bored out of his mind.
The initial assessment only tested his letter recognition, ability to count to 30, knowledge of shapes and colors, as well as days of the week and months of the year.
The preschool classes are doing more learning than my son. I want to approach the teacher in a way that will be supportive for both her and my son, but I feel like she nit picks his behavior when she should be asking herself why does all the bullying occur IN the classroom, not out. The bully does it to other children as well but few will tell the teacher what he is doing.
How can I get her to challenge my son and get off his back?

So last night, I was helping my nephew with his first grade reading assignment. He was to read a five sentence short story called “Iggy the Iguana”, and then, cut out each line and re paste it on a piece of construction paper in order. Okay, fair enough, Here’s the kicker. As I was reading this story, I see what should have been the word “because” was replaced TWICE with “cuz”. Yes, the teacher typed the story out this way, so he thought that was how you spelled because, and was trying to teach his kindergarten age sister. We corrected them of course, then crossed the word out on his homework replacing it with the correct word. Isn’t this ridiculous. I didn’t realize we were teaching our kids netspeak in first grade. Anyone run into anything similar? Just curious.