Home Hot Topics Articles Directors' Choice Awards About Us / Contact Us Activities & Curriculum Activities for Outcome-Based Learning Arts & Crafts Music for Learning Recommended Reading Sharing Boards: What Do YOU Think? NEWSlink Current National News Conference Calendar Topics In Early Childhood Education Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education Job Sharing Board State Licensing Requirements Stay Connected! Each month we'll send you an email filled with articles and ideas for your classroom. Subscribe Now Date: 9/10/2007 4:58:00 PM Author: thisisaninterestingsite Subject: Pre-k and kinder requirements Hi. I have had access to this site for a while but I never got into the sharing boards until today. I was contemplating responding and I just could not resist. I am a teacher. I teach a combination class of pre-k and kindergarten. I also teach in a private christian school. This is my first year teaching kindergarten. I do not believe that pre-k should be required but kindergarten is the perfect time to teach concepts needed to read and write but they must be taught in a fun and productive way. Three four and five year olds should not be required to sit in a desk all day ehat so ever. My kindergarten children do have what we call seat work but it usually consist of circling the correct amount of objects and coloring and no more than three sheets spread throughtout the day. The rest of the day is bible time, story time, out doors, music, dance, centers, lunch, nap, and snack. The children often request for more work but that is only because they want to be like the "big kids", my school goes up to fifth grade. It is shocking to find that my pre-k children ask for kindergarten work. the pre-k group does a lot of art and music and movement but having this combination of ages, 3 4 5, makes the children want to be "big". When i sing songs that teach letter sounds and blends the pre-k pick up on a lot if the information. I have 11 children and an assistant and it works out well. I must say however that I am a teacher that is highly concerned with my children and I am constantly revising my teaching styles. My parents are available for me whenever and they do a good job continuing the learning process at home. Can they do it on their own? of course they can. Do they NEED me? No but in this case all of the children are benefiting from my love of children and they all are developing good precedents and additudes about school! A good teacher can make pre-k a good experience but good teachers are sometimes hard to come by Name: Email: Subject

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