Welcome!

Welcome to Kindergarten.  My name is Mrs. Yourd and I have the wonderful privilege of being your child's teacher this year. This will be my 18th year teaching Kindergarten in the Moon Area School District.  I also have experience teaching First, Fourth, and Middle School in other school districts, but feel very much at home at Bon Meade.  I am a resident of Moon and my own children, Danny and Matthew, attended Bon Meade and graduated from Moon.  My husband, Dan, is a Sixth grade teacher at Moon Area Middle School.

Kindergarten is such a fun and exciting place and I am looking forward to getting to know you and your child.  We will experience many things together this year and you will see your child grow socially, academically and emotionally. I want to provide a positive environment that lays the foundation for your child's future in school. You will have many questions throughout the school year, many of which will be answered in the booklet you received at orientation or on this site.  If you have other questions, please feel free to contact me as indicated on my Contact Information link.

My philosophies include:

I will provide an environment where the students feel safe and cared for when they are at school. They will know that I will always do my best to take care of their needs. The children will be expected to respect me and each other and will be respected in return.

Children are individuals and learn at different rates and in a variety ways so I will present skills using many methods and with lots of repetition.  Each child has special gifts and talents which will be valued and built upon. 

It is important that we work as a team, with your child's success as our common goal.  I am always available to you and will contact you if there are issues we need to address as well as with positive news.  It is my hope that you will keep me informed of important events in your child's life that might impact his or her learning.

We have a very busy schedule each day.  We begin with work in our journals or seat work and a question of the day or counting activity.  From there we move to our Opening Activities which include the Pledge of Allegiance, calendar, weather and sharing.  We have a group lesson which usually involves a story, a letter and an activity.  We often have music, library or computer and we have a break mid-day for our snack.  We then have our math lesson and other activities and playtime on the days that we don't have a special class. 

We have a snack each day.  I will send a snack calendar home and each child will have a day to provide the snack for the class. If your child's name is not on the calendar for a particular month, they will be at the beginning of the next month.  Please send in individually wrapped, healthy snacks. We will get drinks from the water fountain.  If you misplace your snack calendar, you can check on Edline.  If your child is absent or you should forget your child's snack day, please send a replacement for the cupboard.

Birthdays are celebrated on or near the child's special day.  It will appear as the snack day during the month.  You may send in a special snack for a birthday treat, like cookies, donuts or cupcakes. You may also send drink boxes. Please do not send birthday party invitations to school unless you are inviting the whole class.  If your child has a summer birthday, we will celebrate all of those during the last month of school in the spring.

We do have homework in Kindergarten.  If a paper comes home in your child's folder that is not completed, you can assume it is homework.  I will mark them with a stamp at the beginning of the year but then will expect the students to remember.  Along with written homework, it is important that as we learn letters and sounds, numbers and words you follow up and practice at home.  The children often need more repetition than what they get at school.
  In January, we will begin a homework journal, which will be explained in detail at that time.  You will receive a copy of the homework for each month and will also be able to access the calendar through a link on my homepage.  As I mentioned, I expect a level of responsibility from the children and this is one opportunity to help them develop this important skill.