Closing a School Year

Transitional Kindergarten: Tiffany Sims

Closing for the students:
The students get the opportunity to prepare for their future as
kindergarteners (and first graders because they join the
kindergarten classes in doing this) by:
o Practicing walking to the cafeteria to eat lunch since that is
where they will be eating in their new grade.
o They take an end of the year field trip to practice riding on
a bus and following teacher directions off of the school
campus.
o Participating in a promotion party to celebrate their
successes in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten
and to prepare for their next grade.
On the last week of school all of the transitional kindergarteners
and kindergarteners get together to do big centers. Each
classroom has a center set up, and all the kids are divided up
into the different classrooms so that they have the chance to get
to know the other students that might be their future classmates.
This gives them the opportunity to practice their social skills with
new peers and make new friends.
Closing for the teachers:
Students are given a final assessment to see if they are ready for
kindergarten. Students who will need instructional assistance are
red flagged and will receive services to aid them in their
kindergarten classroom the next fall.
The teachers make profile cards that have all of the students
standings academically, behaviorally, socially, and emotionally.
All the teachers lay the cards out and place each student in a
classroom so that all of the kindergarten and first grade
classrooms are balanced out with students ranging over all
levels.