I attended a county meeting today regarding the transition of preschoolers to kindergarten. The main focus of the meeting was to revise the transition sheet that preschool teachers fill out (voluntarily) about their students that then come to us, the kindergarten teachers, to give us a little background on our new students.
I LOVE these sheets! It is nice to have a little bit of background on students as they enter in the fall. The transition sheet not only tells us whether students receive any special services, have food allergies and their overall attendance, but it also share academic, social and motor skills information. In recent years, many preschools that feed into our district have begun attaching photos of the students to these forms, which I find very helpful in the sea of 100+ kindergarteners in our hallway alone (this doesn't count the ones that got lost from the second floor!) on the first day of school.
Some of the transition activities we do throughout the year are: invite local preschools to our building to see a play (put on by a play company); staff members visit local preschools to share transition and registration information with staff (and parents as requested); preschoolers visit our kindergarten classrooms in the May; students receive a summer packet at registration to practice kindergarten skills; prior to the start of school, we meet with each parent to discuss procedures and expectations.
I'm working on my welcome letter and a little "welcome to kindergarten" pack for my incoming class. Do you have any suggestions? Is this something you do? What do you include?
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