The Merry Go Round of Kindergarten

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Home : 2003 : September : 30

The Merry Go Round of Kindergarten
By Joy

Kindergarten is fun, enthusiastic, emotional, full of "newness," exhausting, open, and whirling.

Here are some ups:

Kids are excited about everything and every school thing is new.

You create children's idea of
what school, a teacher, and acceptable behavior are so you can mold your ideal students.
Although there is a great deal of variation in background, you don't have the wide range like you do in 5th grade of readers at every grade level in one class.
No homework and few papers to grade.
A lot of flexibility in teaching units.
Some drawbacks:
Some kids come in with no idea of how

to write their name, name their colors, or read any letters.

Students can literally not line up, talk to the other students, or listen to a story for the first few weeks.

Students are very needy.

Although you can do a lot of fun themes, it is sometimes hard to plan activities when your students cannot read or write for the majority of the year.

Although I love Kindergarten, try to remember not to buy everything and plan everything in your mind for one grade area. You will have little control of where you are put once hired and I think the interviewers look for flexible people who are open to any grade level.