Welcome to Kindergarten

Email: jacksons@medinabees.org
Website: medinabees.org
Phone: 330-636-3078
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MedinaCitySchools/?scrlybrkr=1cbf2ce7

Welcome to Medina City Schools-home of the Battling Bees. We are excited to have you and your student as part of the Hive.

The transition to kindergarten is an important milestone. The staff at Medina City Schools looks forward to joining you as you begin on this journey. As you prepare your student to enter the halls of their school building, our elementary principals and kindergarten teachers will be a great resource. They will provide you with information that you can incorporate into your everyday routines to support your child as they prepare to start kindergarten. Regularly, they will share Getting Ready for Kindergarten tips and an accompanying video. This will continue to strengthen the skills for school readiness that you have supported your child in developing since they were born.

We look forward to welcoming your child to the District and helping them grow as they begin their time with Medina City Schools.

Aaron Sable

Superintendent

Medina City Schools

Kindergarten screening sessions will be held for incoming students in May. Families will receive an email with a link to sign up for a screening session once the registration process for kindergarten is complete. During this time, staff from Medina City Schools will have an opportunity to meet with your child to learn more about their strengths, interests, and how we can be prepared to meet their needs as a learner when they join us next fall. The sessions will last no longer than 30 minutes and caregivers are required to remain at the screening location during the session.

In Medina City Schools, we are committed to creating a learning environment that prepares our students to develop the skills they need to be a successful learner. Our Portrait of a Bee outlines the competencies that our community identified as critical life skills. The competencies will be a focus of the school experience that your child will engage in as a kindergartener until they graduate from high school. We see every child in our school community not just as students, but life long learners. We strive to create opportunities where students see how what they are learning in the classroom relates to real world experiences beyond the walls of our school.

Our students are amazing! Learn more about some of the incredible projects our kindergarten students have been engaged in this school year.

Kindergartens learn about community helpers and American symbols and practices as part of our social studies curriculum. Through conversations about this topic, students learned about military families in the school community and the sacrifices they make for our country.

As part of the lesson, the executive director, Mrs. Tara Camera, of the Fisher House in Cleveland, did a virtual field trip with students to talk about the Fisher House and how they support local military families. As a class, students brainstormed things they could do to help. They decided on a donation drive for items needed to keep the Fisher House stocked. Students utilized their number sense skills to categorize items and count how many of each item will be donated to report back to the Fisher House.

"Students used many of the Portrait of a Bee competencies, including being respectful citizens, collaborators, and resilient lifelong learners, as they have shown that even 'small' kindergarteners can make a BIG difference," said kindergarten teacher Nicki Peppeard.

As part of the science curriculum, kindergarten students learn about seasonal changes. To bring this understanding to life for our kindergarteners, teachers in one building partnered with a local arborist to study trees in our community. Student generated essential questions of what they wanted to explore while studying seasonal changes. Students documented their research by studying trees at their school, reading about the parts of a tree, and created videos to share with they learned with other students in the building. The project ended with a field trip to Spring Grove Arboretum where the local arborist meet with students to hear more about what students learned through their research.

Kindergarten students in one building have been working on understanding wants and needs in a real life way as part of the social studies curriculum! Students worked with Ohio State University Extension educators to understand wants and needs and how resources in every household are determined. Students worked to analyze the concept to develop an understanding that needs must be met before wants when considering available resources. Food is an important need that can be scarce for some people in our community. Students wanted to help fill this need for others. SPARK Medina was able to help the students understand food scarcity and develop a student organized drive to fill Free Little Food Pantries in Medina. Kindergarten students collaborated with SPARK Medina, their classmates and school community to make a big change in our city!

Click on the link above for a Welcome to Kindergarten book from our elementary principals and kindergarten staff. You will find a copy for each of the elementary buildings in our district.

School readiness is so much more than knowing your ABCs and 123s. In fact, you have been preparing your child for kindergarten since the moment they were born! The time you spend reading, talking, and playing with your child is building skills he/she needs to be successful learner! For more information, click on the Getting Ready for School Success link above.

Make sure to visit the main branch of the Medina County Public Library for a copy of the Kindergarten Kit! The library has put together resources and activities for caregivers to share with their children. The activities will continue to prompt the development of skills students will rely on when they start kindergarten.