The next school year won't start for months, but right about now pre-kindergarten teachers everywhere are talking to their little charges about what will be expected of them when they step up to kindergarten.
But what can those children expect in return?
Some of the best counsel comes from those who have made the transition.
Here's some advice to the little guys from big kids -- kindergartners at Pulaski Heights Elementary, Roberts Elementary, Forest Heights STEM Academy, Williams Traditional Magnet Elementary and Fulbright Elementary, all in Little Rock.
How did you find your way around when you first started kindergarten?
"You won't get lost because your mom will show you where your class is, or you can just ask your teacher." -- Carly Santifer
"Well, like, I saw a door and right beside it said 'Restroom,' and that's where I went, and there you go." -- Jones McKelvey
"I just have to follow whoever holds my hand and takes me there." -- Kemdi Ekeanyanwu
"They showed me and my friend Emery around together before we started. I'm with my class usually." -- Chloe Torrence
"You walk inside the front door and then you can find your classroom after you open the door and walk straight in. You open the door and you see all your friends, all your new friends." -- Aniya Scott
How do you make new friends?
"I just ask them and be really nice and say, 'Do you want to be my friend?' They mostly say yes." -- Carly
"You might know someone from your pre-K or your after-care." -- Caroline Kolb
"I just started playing with them sometimes and then figured out their names." -- Chloe
"I said, 'What's your name?' And then they said, 'What's your name?' And I said, 'Aniya,' and they said, 'That's a pretty name.' I was a little bit shy in my old school, but I just felt a little bit brave ... when I came to kindergarten, and I felt like making friends." -- Aniya
What does it take to do well in school?
"I'm good at math problems. Usually I'm using my fingers or thinking in my head." -- Carly
"Be good. Do not get any sticks." -- Jones
"You have to do your homework good, and you have to do tests. You cannot look at other people's tests." -- Chloe
"You do the right thing." -- Anthony Brown
"Well, I'm pretty smart. My mom teaches me a lot of things." -- Kemdi
What kinds of things will get you in trouble?
"Don't listen to your teacher and do what she says the first time and you will probably get in trouble." -- Carly
"Just be good. Do not get any sticks." -- Jones
"If you're talking loud in centers you'll have to pull a spot on your ladybug. If you pull off his spots, you get a document, and if you get a document you have to go to the principal's office. I don't know what happens in the principal's office because I've never been there." -- Caroline
"Don't hit people." -- Chloe
How is the playground different at your new school?
"I think the playground at my new school is better. It has tire swings and it's more fun. We get to go after lunch, or if it's too cold or if it's raining we have inside recess. Sometimes that's in the auditorium and we watch a movie or play GoNoodle or something like that." -- Carly
"You're not allowed to pick up wood chips or rocks on the playground. You're only allowed to pick up the toys on the playground." -- Caroline
What about the cafeteria -- anything new in there?
"We have these little cups, and if it's on green you can just talk quietly, and if it's on red then you can't talk at all. If it's on yellow, you just talk a little bit quieter." -- Carly
"It's not the same teachers. But the rules are the same, kind of. I don't actually know the rules." -- Jones
"You have to get your own tray at kindergarten. You have to stand in line and there's a little space on your tray and they put a little napkin and spoon and a knife put together. You stand in line a little bit, and you can look at the people making lunch. And then there's a little opening, and you get your tray. At the beginning of the school they give you a number, and you have to remember it to get your tray. It wasn't hard for me because I can say it fast." -- Caroline
"Some of the lunch ladies asked the kids if they wanted something or not, but in kindergarten you have to get what you get. If you don't want to eat it, just don't eat it." -- Chloe
"The colors of the trays are different." -- Kemdi
Do you miss taking naps?
"In kindergarten you don't have naptime. I don't miss it. Not really." -- Jones
"When we come in from recess, the lights are off and we put our heads down on the table, but we keep our eyes open. They call names so we can get a drink of water. I kind of liked naptime at Fair Park. I get a little bit tired." -- Caroline
"You don't take naps. I take naps, actually. I go to sleep while we're watching a movie at after-care. I'm just so tired." -- Chloe
What's the favorite thing about kindergarten?
"We can play outside. And our centers are different. There are five centers: 1) read to self, 2) word work, 3) listen to reading, 4) work on writing and 5) well, it's ... I can't remember what that one is. The third one is not a learning center. It's just listen to reading." -- Jones
"You will have homework every day except Friday. I don't know why we don't have homework that day. But you get to read 100 sight words and I read all of them and I liked that." -- Caroline
"I get to learn a whole lot and be very smart. I learned about motion and something that starts with a 'p.' I learned a lot about science." -- Kemdi
"You get to carry a backpack. I know what number I am in the classroom and I hang my backpack up on there." -- Anthony
"Computer lab, P.E. and art. They're really fun." -- CaRahn Rome
What do you miss most about pre-K?
"We got to eat some frozen grapes. We don't do that at kindergarten. I don't know why." -- Chloe
"We could wear whatever we wanted but now we have to wear the same thing every day. But everything we have to wear you can wear together so you can just choose which things you want to wear." -- Lois Hookstra
"I miss my friends. I still have my friends, but they don't go to the same school." -- James Hart
"I miss my old teacher. But I like my new teacher, too. She's pretty funny." -- Kemdi
WORDS TO THE WISE
Parents looking for help with getting their children ready for kindergarten can find several sources.
Under Act 825 of 2003, the Arkansas Department of Education established a kindergarten readiness checklist, which specifies that children starting kindergarten should, for example, recognize and name at least 10 letters of the alphabet, rhyming words and letters in the child's first name. The list also stipulates that a child should be able to match letters with the beginning sounds of words and express ideas through pictures he draws.
The Arkansas Department of Human Services publishes a calendar with monthly kindergarten readiness tips for parents. That calendar and other resources can be found at humanservices.arkansas.gov/dccece under "Resources." It is also handed out each year by licensed child care facilities to parents of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children.
Kindergarten teachers are a wealth of wisdom on the topic.
Tamica Fletcher, a kindergarten teacher at Forest Heights STEM Academy, says parents of preschoolers can make the pre-K-to-kindergarten transition easier by introducing a couple of Dolch sight words every week or so and talking about things like how to hold books and which way to turn the pages and where the cover and back are. (Dolch sight words are commonly used "service words" children need to recognize by sight in order to achieve reading fluency. The list is used in the Dolch method of teaching reading.)
Talking to children, as simple as that sounds, is vital to their success, Fletcher says, so strike up a conversation about what they can look forward to next year -- or about anything else under the sun.
"It builds background knowledge and helps them make connections from different subjects and different topics," she says. "The more background knowledge a child has when he comes in, the more they're able to make those connections between different topics and between different subject areas."
Terri Cross, a kindergarten teacher at Williams Traditional Magnet School in Little Rock, welcomes children to her class each year who are less than thrilled to be left there by their parents. And most children moving from preschool to kindergarten are shocked to learn that their lunch, often eaten midmorning, will have to sustain them all day -- snacks are often a thing of the past by kindergarten.
"Two things have to adjust at the beginning of kindergarten, our tummies and our hearts," Cross says. "They both will; you just don't know which will happen first. I tell this to my parents at the beginning of the year a lot."
Back to the child experts.
Give me your best advice about kindergarten, please.
"If the teacher tells you to do something you have to do it the first time. If you do it on the second or third or any other number you can more than likely get in trouble." -- Carly
"I was a little nervous that my teacher wouldn't be nice. She's very nice. If they were in Mrs. Cross' room, I think they would really like her. I think they would have a really good, good time." -- Lois
"Do your best. Know your letters and numbers and eat healthy." -- Kemdi
Family on 02/25/2015