Kindergarten Orientation

East Sandy Elementary offered an afternoon open house to meet and greet your teacher and visit the school. We went to the gym first and they had it set up with about 10 tables, each with a different kindergarten "prep" activity. They had a table with color identification, numbers, shapes and all kinds of projects the kids could create and take home. Trace opted to cut out and make a puzzle game. Then it was time to go and meet his teacher, Mrs. Goodwater. She has been teaching school for years and seems to really love it. I at first thought she was going to be stringent and have a lot of rules, but as soon as I got to know her just a little bit, I discovered how wrong my first impression was. She said that she felt it is important for kids of this age to have fun in additional to learning. She doesn't like to send home a lot of homework because she hits the curriculum really hard for the time they are in her classroom, and she likes to have them play and have some down time when they aren't at school. When we were walking through the hall, Trace looked at me and said "I feel a little nervous Mom". I told him that he'd be okay and that some of his friends from daycare will be in Kindergarten with him. In the coming days when we would drive by East Sandy on our way to his daycare, I would point out the school and ask if he was excited, one day he said; "Oh yeah, I have secret friends there Mom". "What do you mean, 'secret friends', honey?" He said; "Well, I don't know what friends will be there, but I will have friends when I go to that school, and I don't know them now, so they are secret". What a cool way to look at a new and sometimes scary, experience!

Cutting out his project at the Kindergarten Open House

Mrs. Goodwater