• Dear Parents,

    Welcome to Jim Thorpe Fundamental! My name is Brenda Henry. This is my eleventh year teaching Kindergarten at Thorpe. I taught Kindergarten the last seven years, second grade for five years before that and Kindergarten for the four years before that.  I have a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Fullerton and a Masters in Education from Grand Canyon University.    I know that starting kindergarten is an exciting time for you and your child. I hope that these ideas will help you to provide the best possible start to your child’s kindergarten year.

    It would be helpful for your children to know these basic skills upon entering kindergarten:

     * Counting from 1 to 10.
     * Recognizing and naming numerals 1 to 10.
     *     Recognizing and naming the basic colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, black, purple, brown, pink, gray and white.
     *     Recognizing name in print.
         * Writing first name. Capitalize the first letter only and all the remaining letters lowercase.

    Kindergarten is a very important time for your children to develop literacy skills and strategies. The early literacy experiences that you provide for your children at home are extremely important to the success they will enjoy as readers. Following are some valuable ways in which you can provide these literacy experiences at home. The time you spend at home will help so much in preparing your children to be ready to read and write in kindergarten.

    READING
     * Read to your child everyday.
          *     Encourage your child to look at books on his/her own.
          *     Encourage your child to tell or pretend to read a familiar book to you.
          *     When reading to your child, encourage talk about the story by asking questions.
          * When reading to your child, occasionally point out particular letters to help your child recognize alphabet letters.
          *     When reading to your child, occasionally demonstrate out loud how you sound out words as you read the story.

     WRITING
     * Children should be encouraged to experiment with writing before coming to school.
     * Make sure that your child has access to pencil, paper, crayons, markers etc.
     *     Encourage his/her writing attempts by proudly displaying writing.
          * Display alphabet letters in your house.
          * Compliment writing attempts rather than correcting them.
          * Model that writing is valuable by using it in ordinary situations in which your child might help (for example: making grocery lists, writing notes or letters etc.).
          * Set up an “office” or work area for your child.
    MATH
          * Help your child learn to count in practical ways. (For example: “That’s one shoe, this is two shoes, we have three books to read today.”)
      *     Use the words more than, less than, and same in ordinary situations. (For example: “We have the same amount of milk in our glasses.”)
          * Point out shapes to your child.
          * Encourage your child to make attempts to count small numbers of objects, even though he/she may do so incorrectly at first.
          * Show your child how to count small numbers of objects correctly.
          * Talk aloud as you use measurement around the house. (For example: “I’ll give you half of the cookie now and you can have the other half later.”)
          *     Show that counting is something that you value.

            * Finally, parents can also help by doing the following

    * Please put first and last names on ALL articles of clothing that might be left at school such as sweaters, coats etc.
    *  Most of all, please don’t worry about your children. I will take excellent care of them!
Last Modified on July 1, 2023