Kindergarten Screening, what do they do? UPDATE post #24

[WeLoveLilo05]

DD is my first (and only right now) child. I registered her for K and she has to go for screening on thursday. What is usually done during the screening? It seems it should only take 20 minutes. Registration and setting the date was all done the comp (so didn't speak with a person). DD did not go to preschool b/c she has a severe peanut allergy and we just didn't have the extra cash to pay for it, so I am a little nervous for her. Tips are appreciated!
TIA!

 

[MnMomtoboys]

Its been awhile from what I remember it was just basic question. Name, address, counting, colors. I think he also walked and ran but I'm not sure. I couldn't hear everything they did, around here they take the kids off in the corner.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

Our address is difficult, I don't think she'll get it
Everything else she should do well with, I hope she doesn't spazz out and goes into the room w/o me and her dad and answers the questions. I can't wait til this week is over lol.

 

[donnajon]

Make sure she knows how to skip. My sister told me when my DS was registering that they check to see if a kid knows how to skip. I had never thought about this and asked DS to skip for me. He galloped. So I taught him how to skip. When he went for his screening, I asked him if they asked him if he knew how to skip and he said they did. My other sister is a LD teacher and she said not being able to skip is a sign of a learning disability. Who knew?

 

[Katy Belle]

It varies A LOT from place to place. When I was teaching in Oklahoma, they did a lot of physical tests....skipping, balance beam etc., plus the typical letters, numbers, etc. They brought the kids to a gym and the went through stations.

When DS15 was starting Kindergarten we were in Louisiana. A teacher took him away for a while....maybe 30 min... and came back with him and said he knew most of what they would be teaching the next year. He was a reader, big time, She said he was even reading what she wrote about him on the form. She said she finally started writing in cursive and he couldn't read that They had him do simple math, letter recognition, etc.

DS12 started Kindergarten in Texas. I don't think there was any screening! I don't recall anything at all.

DS10 started Kindergarten here, in Doha Qatar. So it was a private American School. They mostly were looking for them to seperate easily from the parent, follow directions, and speak English. They also had him count teddy bears (one-to-one correspondence), identify colors, letter recognition, etc. but not much.

I think you need to speak to someone in your school district and find out what it will be. Then you and she will be prepared!
Katy

 

[bunkkinsmom]

I too think it varies with the school. I DID NOT have a good experience.

My son is in K at a charter school in my town that is highly sought after. It was a lottery system and out of over 300 kids there were only about 30 seats, and his name was drawn! We were so excited, because this meant that my other two, (one older one younger) would be in automatically for sibling preference.

On the day of his screening we were sent to the gym. Some random woman came over and asked my son his name. He told her. She took him by the hand and took him to another room. 20 minutes later she comes back and tells us all of the things he didn't know. He was 4 (July Birthday). I was furious! I mean, she never even told us her name, but she was very clear on her "concerns" about my child.

I called the school to take him off of their list. My DH and I thought that at 4 he was already behind what their expectations of him were, and that was not a good way to start. My kids never went to preschool either, and we did a lot of fun kid things. I believe that parents are the main component of a child's education, and he has done VERY well this year and is totally on track for first grade, but I do not believe that a child should be expected to know how to read and write before they go to K.

At any rate, when I called the receptionist to take him off the list, she was mortified! I had been trying to get my oldest in for 3 years, so she knew me and knew how badly I wanted them to go there. A K teacher called my home at 7pm on a Friday night to explain to me what they expected and that this woman was out of line. I also found out that she was not even a school employee! She was just helping out because they were short staffed.

UGH! It was a horrible day, but the school has proven to be a great school and my boy has really grown this year! He and his daddy just finished his first 2 week project last week on hippos and had a great time!

 

[dispor]

They also asked my kids some parts of their body (including their "jaw" - which they did not know - LOL!) They asked my son his middle name - he didn't know that! LOL!!!

They also did a vision and hearing screening.

Remember with the address, you don't know how'll they'll ask it, so practice it several ways...


What is your address?

What street do you live on?

What is the name of your street?


Good luck!!

 

[MiniGirl]

It varies by school. Around here, the screenings were done the first 3 days of school, so yes, K students actually started later than the other students. When you went to the Open House to meet your child's teacher, you'd sign up for a 20 minute (maybe it was 30) slot during those first 3 days. On that day, you brought your child to his classroom. The teacher would say hello and ask just a couple of questions and then ask you to step outside. After 10 minutes or so, you'd be asked back into the room, and the teacher would mention any concerns and observations. I liked the way it was done here because it gave the teacher that 1 on 1 time with each student to get to know him and his strengths and weaknesses. It also gave the parent some 1 on 1 time to mention any concerns she may have, and it gave the student a chance to get to feel comfortable with the teacher. It also meant a shortened first week for the incoming K students since the first 3 days were screenings, so they were able to ease into it much easier than starting out at a full week or full days.

 

[aprilgail2]

There was no physical type test, no skipping or aything at ours.... they had the kid say their full name, address, phone number. Identify colors, letters and numbers. They had them write their names (some couldn't do this yet) and then this whole series of weird pictures.... they would have a picture of a woman holding a baby showing it to a little girl, then she would be holding a little girl showing it to a little girl, then holing a boy shoing it to a girl then holding a baby showing it to a boy and they would ask them to point to the picutre of a woman showing a baby to a girl. Then they had a group of 4 shapes trapazoid, triangle, circle and square and would ask them to point to the triangle etc....just things like that. There was no pass or fail- it just showed them where your child was and they used it for classroom placement to see which class they would be going into.

 

[Magpie]

Your child should know their letters, colours and numbers and their own name and address as well as the proper names of his or her parents.

But honestly, it's not really a "test", except in those circumstances where there's limited enrollment. The teacher just wants to get a baseline, so she knows what she needs to teach. She also wants to get a heads up on which kids might need more help.

And, you know, being ahead academically won't necessarily get a warm reception from the teacher. My daughter was a ridiculously early reader, and was very enthusiastic about starting junior kindergarten. She went galloping into the room clutching an Easy Reader version of the Swiss Family Robinson, and started chattering to the teacher. The teacher didn't respond to her. Instead she looked at us and said, "Well, I can tell right now this one's going to be trouble!"

Yeah, it was not a good year. This teacher was so disturbed by my daughter's "excessive" reading that she banned books from the playground (a prohibition that only affected my daughter). And unfortunately, she had the same teacher for half of the next year, too.

(This is the same teacher who tried to "cure" my son of being left-handed!)

But, this was years and years ago. Both kids are teenagers now, and no harm done. They barely remember kindergarten.

 

[luvmy3]

They will want to know if your chikd can speak a foreign language fluently and if the know quantum mechanics. Obviously I'm joking OP, don't be nervous at all, they just want to see what of the basics your child knows, ABCs, counting, address, letter sounds, skipping etc. Do not worry if your child has difficulty with the address, mine had no idea what it was and it had absolutely no bearing on anything. By the time October rolled around he knew exactly where he lived
They also went to see the nurse during the screening for their hearing test.

When is your screening? I'm helping out with ours and its the first week in June. If yours is after I can pm you with a list of everything they did.

 

[Cindy B]

In PA- Public School screening

read, write name, address (with zip code!), color recognition, stack of blocks to 20, counting as far as they can go --they were looking up to 50 IIRC. They also did some simple math, letter recognition. They also asked about family members


In NJ--Public school screen

my daughter had to read her name, write her name, color recognition, number recital, simple math, letter recognition,

In both they gave them a book and just said something like "Show me how you would read". They are looking for how they hold the book, left to right skills, and even prereading attributes.
HTH

 

[MichelleinMaine]

Honestly, I can't remember what all they did, lol. But it most surely wasn't a "test" to pass or fail. (My DD was near the deadline and I wanted a "test" to know if she was ready to go that year or wait- the screening wasn't it, lol.)

As someone else said- it's more a baseline to have an idea where to start teaching. They don't expect the kids will know all the stuff they are asking but because kids will have a wide variety of backgrounds, they ask a wide variety of questions. Honestly, I was not in the least worried about prepping my child to rattle off his address or learn how to skip, etc. They're not going to ban your child from kindergarten for not skipping! (If they did, wouldn't be a school I'd want them at, personally!)

I suspect the screenings help balance classrooms as well. If you have a group of students where they all have separation issues (lordie, mine did!) or where none went to preschool/are familiar with classroom routines, that would be tough.

 

[golfgal]

Our schools did things like watching them cut with a scissors, matching items on cards, copying patterns with blocks, balancing on one leg, naming body parts, catching a ball, some memory tests, reciting the alphabet, counting to 20, eye charts, hearing tests, height, weight and they took the kids to another room to give them a snack but what they were really testing was to see how well the children separated from their parents. In short, they were checking for kindergarten rediness, not how much did mom and dad teach you at home before kindergarten (which is important too). They were looking for developmental delays that they can catch early. They do kindergarten screening her at age 3 so they can catch those things and have a couple years to work on them to get kids ready for school.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

I actually student taught with K this past year and I am overly nervous b/c my co-op teacher made me feel awful for not putting DD is a pre-school type of program. She kept telling me "she needs to go" and I really felt like saying "would you like to pay for it, b/c right now we are living off of 1 income so I could be here student teaching." She was VERY academic, full day K, kids had really no down time, it was just awful. We also had a lil one who was allergic to peanuts and milk and naturally since my DD also suffers from FA, my heart went out to her. She wanted to do a lesson with M&Ms which obviously a child with both milk and peanut allergies cannot have she simply said "Well the world is not going to adapt for her!" I was furious, I brought in skittles for her, she still gave her the M&Ms but told her couldn't eat them, the girl freaked out when M&Ms were put on her table, she knew she couldn't have them. Seriously, not sure WHY food needs to be in a lesson (especially junk food) but that was how she did it.
So, I am hoping my DD's experience is much better than mine as a student teacher, it seems if kids don't know certain things they are so quick to call child study team in to evaluate.
Her screening is Thursday!

 

[lillygator]

my eldest is in first grade and my youngest is heading to K this fall. They do about a 30 min screening here to really see about placement. Counting, colors, abc's, cutting, glueing, motor skills, computer skills, etc. It helps them see where/what needs to be taught as well as figure out who needs more help and what classrooms they should be placed in.

Do you know how your DD's school handles the peanut allergy?

 

[Wonders10]

Our district, and many in the area, also do a speech and language screening in addition to vision and hearing - sometimes the vision and hearing may be down after the school year has started, sometime in the fall.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

my eldest is in first grade and my youngest is heading to K this fall. They do about a 30 min screening here to really see about placement. Counting, colors, abc's, cutting, glueing, motor skills, computer skills, etc. It helps them see where/what needs to be taught as well as figure out who needs more help and what classrooms they should be placed in.

Do you know how your DD's school handles the peanut allergy?

No, I am hoping I get to meet with the nurse at the screening. If I request a peanut free room do you think they will provide it, or will I have to get a 504 plan?

 

[design_mom]

I agree that it varies by school.

At our school, they had some "stations" for hearing and eye tests. Then the child was taken from the room for the individual assessments. (I was talking to the principal at the time my son was taken and just saw him disappearing down the hallway. I wish they'd given more "warning" that would happen. I wasn't expecting him to leave the room.)

Anyway, they made it very clear to us that they were looking to find out the baseline knowledge that incoming kindergarteners have. It was not an admissions test of any sort. No child will "fail" the screening.

They were pretty picky though -- my child got "marked down" for not knowing his address because he knew the street but not the house number. He also got marked down because he called the ellipse an "oval" and the rhombus a "diamond." They had to give the proper mathematical names. The teacher did go over the things he missed with me, but assured me that many children miss the same things (and sure enough, DD had trouble with the same things, even though I knew what to expect!)

Good luck. It's not as nerve-wracking the second time around, but I still remember the first time!

 

[Wonders10]

No, I am hoping I get to meet with the nurse at the screening. If I request a peanut free room do you think they will provide it, or will I have to get a 504 plan?

I'm sure it varies by school, but I would expect she will have a 504 even if she is placed in a peanut free room. Certainly at some point during the day, she will be leaving that room and it's best to have a school wide plan for dealing with students with severe allergies, etc.