Kindergarten Supporting Transition
Overview
The goal of the Office of Early Childhood Programs is to ensure that all students are physically, socially, emotionally, and intellectually ready to thrive in kindergarten. As such, kindergarten teachers are encouraged to collaborate and communicate with families and early care & educator providers in order to provide a range of experiences and opportunities to familiarize students with the school environment and their community while developing a readiness for school.
The transition to kindergarten Links to an external site. begins before children walk through the doors on the first day of school. Sending and receiving school teams can plan for successful transitions through Supportive Transition Practices Links to an external site.. Families learn about readiness through various community events and workshops. Once families register for kindergarten Links to an external site., they can begin to attend transition events at their assigned school.
When teams plan transition events to welcome children and families, they should consider the following questions:
- What practices promote - or hinder - a positive transition to school?
- Who do our practices serve?
A recent commentary in EdWeek.org notes, "an interactive concept of readiness suggests that as much attention should be given to schools' readiness for children as to children's readiness for school. We do need to ensure productive learning opportunities for children before they enter school. Whatever awaits them in kindergarten, we know that children benefit from having a strong foundation to build on. But we also need to make sure schools are ready to address children's learning needs, whatever their skills when they walk in the door. For example, we need to help teachers provide instruction that is tailored to the needs of individual students and to offer the extra assistance children need if they enter kindergarten far behind their peers. To date, the focus has been on readying children. We need to pay more attention to readying schools." (Should Children Be Ready for Kindergarten—Or Should Kindergarten Be Ready for Children?, retrieved on 4/29/19 from www.edweek.org Links to an external site.
The Office of Early Childhood Program supports the transition to kindergarten in several ways, including:
- Chairs the Howard County Early Childhood Advisory Council's Transition to Kindergarten Workgroup. The workgroup is comprised of a wide variety of early childhood stakeholders from across the community with a focus on supporting a positive school transition for children and families.
- Presents the annual Road to Kindergarten Parent Workshops to approximately 1,500 attendees.
- Hosts the annual Transition to Kindergarten Retreat for HCPSS early childhood teachers and licensed childcare providers.
- For more information about county readiness initiatives at Launch into Learning Links to an external site..
Transition Activities
Transition Resources for Working with Private Prekindergarten Programs
The Howard County Public School System's Office of Early Childhood Programs has an educational partnership with the Howard County Office of Children and Families and Howard County Licensed Child Care Centers. The vision of this partnership is to ensure that all students are physically, socially, emotionally, and intellectually ready to thrive in kindergarten. This partnership agreement has been reviewed and all activities have been approved by HCPSS Offices of Risk Management, Elementary Curricular Programs, and School Administration.
In addition to these partnership activities; Adapted Transition Options Links to an external site. from 2020 and 2021 are available for school teams to consider.Summer Kindergarten Readiness Events
Summer kindergarten readiness events and activities are intended to engage incoming kindergarteners and families in experiences to help become familiar with the school environment while developing readiness skills. Events should align to the areas of Language & Literacy, Mathematics, Physical Well-Being & Motor Development, and/or Social Foundations. Please see the Ready for Kindergarten: Common Language Standards Links to an external site. for more information about these domain areas.
Homeroom Formation
Homerooms should be formed by the start of school and reflect the diversity of the school community. Children should begin the first day of school in their assigned homerooms to the greatest extent possible. Slight adjustments can be made, as needed. Teachers also have the following articulation resources available:
- Learning Progress Forms: HCPSS Pre-K and Howard County early care and education providers complete Learning Progress Forms for the students they are sending to kindergarten. Aligned to Maryland's Early Learning Standards, these forms provide kindergarten teachers with valuable information about the students they will be welcoming to their class. LPFs will be shared via GAFE with kindergarten team leaders.
- All About Me Kindergarten Interview Form: All About Me surveys have two formats: fillable PDFs or Google Form. These may be used to gather information about incoming students.
Teachers will be administering content-based assessments once they have established community in their homerooms and will provide differentiated, responsive instruction based on these and other ongoing, formative assessments.
Teams should make the best decisions they can using the information that is available, while maintaining a flexible approach to supporting students and families.
All About Me Forms
All About Me forms may be distributed as paper copies, writable PDFs, or via Google Form. Copies in English, Korean, and Spanish can be accessed below.
Making and Linking Your Own All About Me Kindergarten Interview Form
Below are directions for teachers to create their survey:
- Make a copy of the All About Me Kindergarten Interview Form using this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12Cub8PbKAkD9UrGxYMdsJmdWQ4vd3P8-wDur6U2lfBI/copy Links to an external site. Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)
- Select “Make a copy.”
- Rename the file to include your name in the title and heading.
- Select the “eye” (preview) icon in the top right corner to view the live form. This is the URL/web address you share with families.
Prior Care Forms
Prior Care is a required component of kindergarten registration*. Please confirm families have completed Prior Care to include either one full day option or two half day options. Every child must have a full day of Prior Care accounted for. In Synergy, this is a value of exactly 2. Any value less than or more than 2 is incorrect and must be updated. Completed forms need not remain in student files; hold onto Prior Care Forms until spring of the kindergarten year, then shred.
Prior Care (ENG) Download Prior Care (ENG)
Prior Care (KOR) Download Prior Care (KOR)
Prior Care (SPN) Download Prior Care (SPN)
*The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) requires the Howard County School System to collect information about the early care experiences of all newly enrolling kindergarten students.
First Six Weeks
To help promote a positive transition to school, teachers should ensure plans consider the following expectations:
- First Two Weeks
- Teachers should spend the first few weeks of school developing routines and procedures (small group, whole group, stack & pack, how to gather materials, etc.), engaging in community building lessons (Caring School Community, Being a Writer, Being a Reader, etc.), and getting to know students as learners (intentionally plan observational tasks to gather information about learning behaviors, not content knowledge).
- Teachers may begin to collect some KRA observational data, if desired. Interview assessments, performance tasks, or paper-pencil assessments are not recommended during this time, as all students are getting acclimated to the elementary school environment.
- Weeks Three to Six
- Teachers should continue to refine and reinforce routines and procedures, and continue to support the development of a learning community.
- Ask: who are they as students relative to their content knowledge, and how are we going to differentiate to better meet their needs?
- Teachers can begin to gather evidence to inform differentiated instruction (e.g., KRA performance tasks, etc.).
- Being a Reader Letter Recognition and Placement Assessments begin during the 5th-6th weeks of school.
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