You have made it through the school year and the only thing left to do is the final Kindergarten graduation ceremony.  Take heart, there are some great ways to celebrate this special occasion and keep chaos at bay.  Use the timetable below as a guideline for getting everything accomplished before that big day.

  For the youngest test-takers, anxiety about the unknown can be overwhelming. In fact, test anxiety can start as early as Kindergarten! Thankfully, some Really Good Teachers are filled with ideas to ease the minds of the youngest students.

Sure the Dolch sight words are an impressive list, but with a little bit of practice your students can master them in no time.  If you are searching for some ways to get some hands on practice, check out these seven really good ways to help your children learn.  Whether you are a preschool teacher,
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by Marissa Kiepert Truong, Guest Blogger With the new school year approaching fast, anxiety is sure to be running high. Teachers are busy planning every detail of the first few months that lie ahead, while parents and young children are nervously awaiting an important transition in their lives to preschool or kindergarten. For many children
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Idea by Farrah, Kindergarten Teacher, Nanuet, NY Each year, before the first day of school, we hold a “Back-to-School Kindergarten Social.” At that time, parents and students can come in to meet me, greet classmates, and explore the classroom while I help soothe any jitters. It’s also a great time for parents to meet other
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by Krissy Miner, Guest Blogger As kindergarten changes so rapidly with rising expectations and standards, from half day to full day, so do the traditions.  It used to be a given that at the end of every child’s kindergarten year, a graduation ceremony (some that even included caps and gowns!) would take place.  As the
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by Wendy Cushing, Monthly Columnist Last week I broke my 3rd graders into cooperative groups to do research for a social studies project.  Their enthusiasm was infectious as they clamored over resources and made excited declarations over new discoveries. At one point, while they were all actively engaged, I was actually able to walk to
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One of the evolutions of education is that students are now expected to know more than ever when they are in Kindergarten.  As Dorothy Hall, author and educator, pointed out at the 2011 International Reading Association (IRA) Conference, just because they are expected to know more does not mean that they are developing any faster.
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by Sara Dillow, Guest Blogger Some have likened teaching kindergarten to herding cats, but I’ve come to the recent conclusion that chocolate is by far the best analogy. Thanks to the 5 year old’s curiosity, unpredictable behavior,  and encounters with math manipulatives; over the years all of those pattern blocks, rubber dinosaurs, and double sided
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Learning letters and sounds is fun with this idea by Marilynne, a 1st Grade Teacher in Bemidji, MN. At the beginning of the school year, we review all the names and sounds of the alphabet letters. To help emphasize this letter exploration, I have my class eat their way through the alphabet. For the first
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