| California Kindergarten Conference |
| California Kindergarten Conference Brings Together Early Childhod Educators! – The 29th Annual California Kindergarten Conference will be held at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency on January 14, 15, and 16, 2011. The PreConference Institute on Friday, January 14th offers in-depth information and activities for early childhood educators. Grammy award winner Tom Chapin, keynote speaker on Saturday morning, will speak on “Planting Musical Seeds.”Six separate sessions include 48 workshops to increase teachers’ knowledge of education issues, foster creativity, increase children’s skills and knowledge, and celebrate diversity. Historically, teachers of many grade levels have attended CKC workshops. This year at least 21 sessions are especially appropriate for preschool teachers. Teachers of preschool, kindergarten and first grade have donated children’s art for the annual exhibit which features lesson explanations with references to State Standards and Preschool Foundations. |
Join your colleagues at an exhilarating and focused professional development offering that meets practicum requirements for SB472 and staff development requirements of Education Code 44579 for teachers. Units are available through the University of the Pacific. Commercial exhibitors have materials and teaching supplies specifically geared to early childhood education. Check out the program and register at https://californiakindergartenassociation.org/.
| Activity of the Month – Halloween! |
| One activity I’ve done before is to write the kids names with alternating white and orange chalk on black construction paper. Then I give the kids q-tips and white and orange paint. They use the q-tips to dot paint along the chalk letters in the matching color. This can also be done with sight words or letters. The kids are working on math standards (patterns and matching) as well as language arts standards (reading and writing simple words and letters). It looks great up on the wall, too! (This could work equally well for pretty much any theme since it can be done with different colors).ALGEBRA AND FUNCTIONS |
1.0 Students sort and classify objects:
1.1 Identify, sort, and classify objects by attribute and identify objects that do not belong to a particular group (e.g., all these balls are green, those are red).
STATISTICS, DATA ANALYSIS AND PROBABILITY
1.2 Identify, describe, and extend simple patterns (such as circles or triangles) by referring to their shapes, sizes, or colors.
READING
Decoding and Word Recognition
1.15 Read simple one-syllable and high-frequency words (i.e., sight words).
WRITING
1.1 Use letters and phonetically spelled words to write about experiences, stories, people, objects, or events.
1.4 Write uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet independently, attending to the form and proper spacing of the letters.
Another, more specific, Halloween activity I’ve done is to make cards with black bats on a purple background. On each bat I wrote a letter of the alphabet (I used one of those silver Sharpies, but you could use white crayon or chalk, too). Then I laminated them and I use them to sing the “Batman song”. Remember the old Batman theme song? Well, this one goes, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, Batman!, /w/,/w/,/w/,/w/,/w/,/w/,/w/,/w/ Watman!, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, Matman! (When it comes to the vowels I sing /i/tman, /o/tman, /u/tman, etc.) You could make this even easier to prepare by simply buying bat calendar cut outs and gluing them on a background. They’re smaller than the bats I used, but it would be a lot faster to make.
Phonemic Awareness
1.8 Track (move sequentially from sound to sound) and represent changes in simple syllables and words with two and three sounds as one sound is added, substituted, omitted, shifted, or repeated (e.g., vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel, or consonant-vowel-consonant).
1.9 Blend vowel-consonant sounds orally to make words or syllables.
Decoding and Word Recognition
1.14 Match all consonant and short-vowel sounds to appropriate letters.
Submitted by Wendy Sewell, Santa Rosa
| Calling All Artwork! |
| Submit art for a chance of a free conference registration! For each classroom art project you submit for CKA’s 2011 Young Children’s Art Exhibit, you will be entered in a drawing for FREE registration to the 29th Annual California Kindergarten Conference. If you are the winner and you’ve already paid for your registration, you may give the prize to a friend or use the free registration for a future conference.WHAT TO DO: |
• Include both the Information Sheet and Art Exhibit RaffleTicket with the creative art project you are sending for display at the January conference.
• If you are submitting multiple projects, reproduce the forms and attach them to each project you submit.
• Mail projects to: Pat Rees-Miller, 10 Bella Vista, Belvedere, CA 94920.
• The drawing for the free conference registration will be held on December 16th.
Remember, the children’s artwork is an expression of their individual creativity with a minimum of teacher involvement. No ditto or identical pattern projects are accepted.
| SB1381 – The Kindergarten Readiness Act |
| Change in the Kindergarten Entrance Age of Enrollment – For years California kindergarten teachers have been dismayed to see young children struggling to keep up in kindergarten, especially since we have implemented some of the most rigorous academic standards in the country. Many of these children have fall birthdates, making them among the youngest in their classes.The California Kindergarten Association worked closely in the past year with legislative staffers and early childhood education advocates, including Preschool California, for passage of SB 1381 by Senator Joe Simitian. Joining Senator Simitian to sponsor the legislation were Senators Steinberg, Pavley, and Runner and Assembly Members Brownley and Mendoza. The Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 changes the date for kindergarten enrollment, requiring children to be older to start school. |
The Act changes the required birthday for admission to kindergarten and first grade to November 1 for the 2012-13 school year, October 1 for the 2013-14 school year, and September 1 for the 2014-15 school year and each year thereafter. It also requires a child excluded from the traditional kindergarten admission dates to be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program. These children will be included in computing the average daily attendance of a school district; therefore, a credentialed teacher will teach the TKP classroom.
Historically, California’s children began kindergarten at a younger age than children in almost every other state, often before they were developmentally ready to meet the challenges of kindergarten standards. Due to the new law, California’s young children may be attending a TKP class where the curriculum will be suited to their educational, social, emotional, physical, and linguistic needs and which will enable these children be successful in their academic career.
CKA is convening a work group of kindergarten teachers, early childhood educators, and others to develop a curriculum guide that may be used with these TKP classes. We hope this guide will help teachers bridge the child’s movement from preschool to kindergarten and help them to be successful in their school years.
California educators will hear more about the TKP curriculum guide during the California Kindergarten Conference Lunchtime Forum in Santa Clara on January 15, 2011 and at the Southern California Kindergarten Conference Lunchtime Forum in Pasadena on February 26, 2011. For more information about these conferences, go to https://californiakindergartenassociation.org/ andhttp://www.socalkindergartenconference.com/.
| Upcoming Events… |
| Annual NAEYC Conference and Expo, November 3-6, 2010 – Sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Black Child Development Institute in Anaheim, California. For more information visit http://www.naeyc.org/.Second Annual Marion Cilker Conference for the Arts in Education, Saturday, November 20th –Arts education professional development workshops for teachers, arts educators, administrators, parents and community members interested in serving PreK-Grade 4 students. Sponsored by the California Kindergarten Association, Santa Clara County Office of Education, and San Jose State University. To register, http://santaclara.k12oms.org/1040-42311. |
| Grants and Awards… |
| Audrey Sanchez Teacher Enhancement Award (ASTEA) – This $500.00 award has been established to honor Audrey Sanchez’s spirit, talent, leadership and dedication to CKA and Kindergarten by recognizing individual educators for achievement and excellence in early childhood education. The nominee must believe in the philosophy of the CKA Mission Statement. Deadline for applications is November 1, 2010. For an application, click here.Judy Brown Administrator Recognition Award – Recognizes administrators who exemplify outstanding leadership and exemplary support of kindergarten educators. The administrator who is nominated recognizes and encourages professional development of kindergarten teachers and supports the unique needs of the kindergarten classroom. The nominator must be a current member of CKA. Deadline: November 1, 2010. The recipient will be given a Certificate of Recognition during the opening session of the annual California Kindergarten Conference as well as be highlighted by an article in the CKA newsletter, TAKE FIVE. For more infomation click here. |
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