Annually each elementary school holds a program to orient parents of preschoolers to kindergarten in Niskayuna. (If your child is registered with the district, you will be notified. How to register your child.) Below is some information from that program.

Skip to a topic:
Our kindergarten philosophy
What a successful kindergarten means
How to prepare your child for kindergarten
Resources for parents

In Niskayuna, we believe
Parents are a child's first and and most important teacher.
When your child reaches kindergarten it is our goal to work with you to help your child grow and develop.
It is our belief that we as teachers are responsible for fostering growth of the whole child: physically, socially, emotionally, cognitively and aesthetically. All of these areas are intertwined and impact a child's learning.

Providing a successful kindergarten experience means:
1. Providing a happy, accepting, stimulating environment
2. Giving children the opportunity to develop social skills, which include: making friends, cooperating, helping, negotiating and problem-solving interpersonal issues.
3. Having opportunities to develop a sense of responsibility, ownership in one's own learning process, and making choices.
4. Encouraging children to become more aware of their surrounding environment, by encouraging curiosity and questioning.
5. Supporting in a positive manner the development of self-control.
6. Creating an environment where children learn through processes: meaningful experiences, not memorizing useless facts out of context.
7. Many opportunities to develop large and small motor control/coordination.
8. Providing a language and literacy rich environment. Seeing how listening, speaking, reading and writing are useful and part of daily life.
9. Aesthetic awareness through art, music and drama.
10. A rich math environment that models using math concepts in daily lives through problem solving and concrete experiences.

How can you help your child get ready for kindergarten?
READ! Your TV will always be there, but your children are only young now. There is a correlation between the number of books a child has been read in the first five years of life and success in learning to read.
Read loved stories many times.
Tell favorite stories and turn experiences into stories.
Talk and listen to your child; there is also a correlation between oral language development and reading success.
Try to have lots of language experiences with your child, such as with poems, songs, rhymes, word games, riddles and tongue twisters.
Give your child the opportunity to interact with peers and in groups, and help your child to learn words that label how he/she feels and observes in others.
Encourage independence and responsibility in your child.
Make your child's elementary school a comfortable place by coming in to visit, peeking in a room, or playing on the kindergarten. (Storyhours are another way to get involved)
Talk about school in a positive manner. As a parent you will be nervous, but don't communicate that to your child.

For more ideas, there are many great books on starting school, available at your public library or elementary school library.

Other Resources for parents of young children
Einstein Never Used Flashcards by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Diane Eyer

Eenie Meenie Miney Math!: Math play for You and Your Preschooler by Linda Allison and Martha Weston

Get Set for Kindergarten! How Many? How Much? by Rosemary Wells

Get Set for Kindergarten! Letters and Sounds by Rosemary Wells

Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to our Children will Change their Lives Forever by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek

The Read Aloud Handbook: Fifth Edition by Jim Trelease

Your Four-Year-Old: Wild and Wonderful by Louise Bates Ames

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