What Is the Role of Physical Fitness in Kindergarten?

My kindergartener has joined the school running club.  Every Tuesday afternoon, my daughter, her teacher, a small army of parent volunteers, and kids from all grade levels across the school gather in the gymnasium, walk together to a nearby county park, run laps, cool down with water and snacks, and walk back together to the school playground.  After her first week, I asked her how she liked the running part of the running club, and she gave me a "thumbs up" and said, "It was great!"  After she returned from running, her exhilaration extended to an additional hour of playing, running, climbing, and jumping on the playground with her friends.  We returned home two hours after the final school bell, happy, tired, and ready to settle down the remainder of the evening's routine activities.

In our local school district, each elementary school is staffed with at least one full-time P.E. teacher.  With a full time P.E. teacher on staff, the students at my daughter's elementary school participate in P.E. class once a week as part of the weekly "specials" rotation.  P.E. is one of the highlights of the week at school for my daughter, and it ranks first in the order of favorites among the specials (which included media, music, and art).  Our school district states that the goal for all students is to "be physically fit and have a mindset that values physical activity and its benefits in sustaining healthy lifestyles."  According to the curriculum guide for Physical Education in our school district, P.E. class is designed to promote physical activity and physical skillfulness, along with cognitive and social growth for kindergartners.  


With these lofty goals for the students in our district, how has it come to be that only one 45 minute period a week is deemed sufficient to engender "a mindset that values physical activity" among the incoming class of kindergartners?  Perhaps my school district tacitly presumes that recess is a part of the physical education umbrella.  As such, along with one 45 minutes block a week my daughter and her classmates are released onto the playground, weather permitting, for 25- 30 minutes each day.  Yet, I am left wondering how 30 minutes a day, plus one 45 minute block a week, can constitute a meaningful physical fitness program?  I do appreciate how my daughter's school community is working conscientiously to nurture students' understanding of the importance of physical activity.  As such, it appears that the parents and teachers who are sponsoring the running club are supplementing the weekly P.E. and daily recess offerings in order to model for students what a commitment to physical fitness can look like, and to provide students with the opportunity to experience communal movement.    


I have large aspirations for my daughter's physical development in the years ahead.  I want her to continue to enjoy exploring the world through the movement and use of her body, along with the engagement of her brain and imagination.  I want her to play on an athletic team and to learn teamwork and discipline.  I want her to keep dancing as long as she experiences the joy of rhythm.  I want her to learn to swim the crawl stroke and to be able to carry herself in the water. I want her to spend a lot of time in the outdoors exploring with her five senses and developing her full motor capacities.  And I want her to build up her physical strength, stamina, and flexibility.    


Therefore, given the minimal opportunities for physical activity during the school  day at my daughter's school, it has become clear to me of the necessity that some significant time be dedicated to physical exploration outside of school.  As such, I have worked to organize our lives so that my Darling Daughter 1 (DD1) can stay after school several days a week to romp on the playground with her kindergarten buddies.  Perhaps more than recess or P.E., it is the time after school on the playground that has contributed most to my daughter's physical education and growth this year.  Seven months into kindergarten, my DD1 can now scale the playground wall, jump from a four foot platform, go across the parallel bars hanging by her hands, hang upside down by her knees on the monkey bars, and roll like a log down the hillside.  So my question to those of you who have come before me as parents is:  How do you maintain a commitment to physical fitness in the lives of your children, when the time in school dedicated to this enterprise is so minimal?

What is Bullying in Kindergarten, Take 3

Our family recently returned from a extended weekend in New York City to visit my husband's family.  We received several pieces of welcome news from the school at the end of last week just before we headed north to New York City.  First, we learned that the Guidance Counselor met with our Darling Daughter1 (DD1) and her over-zealous classmate (OZC) who led the haircutting incident last month.  In this meeting, the guidance counselor  facilitated a conversation between the two girls regarding how friends should treat each other.  And second, the assistant principal confirmed that she had been in contact with the father of our daughter's OZC to discuss the haircutting incident and the school's follow up.  In response to these updates, as my husband, my daughters, and I were driving to New York I remarked that we could, perhaps, celebrate the close of this challenging episode at school and look forward to a more carefree spring.  However, as my husband and I reflected more closely upon this seeming resolution over the weekend, we have not yet been able to put the incident behind us because we have realized that we do not yet perceive that the school has responded adequately to our concerns for our daughter's safety.  After spending this morning volunteering at school with my DD1 and observing closely the interaction between my daughter and her OZC, I remain disturbed by what appears to be the OZC's fixation on my DD1.  I believe that her OZC is not be trusted in terms of my daughter's emotional and physical safety at the school, for at every opportunity she was not being directly supervised in the two hours I was at school today, including lunch time, the line going to recess, and the playground, the OZC had her hands and arms perpetually flung around my DD1.

What constitutes inappropriate and/or aggressive behavior on the part of one student to another?  What constitutes harassment and what constitutes bullying?  Why do the personnel at my daughter's local elementary school seem intent on minimizing how serious the haircutting incident was, or how concerned they or we should be about the OZC's mode of interaction with our daughter throughout the year?  In the notes from our school conference several weeks ago, the assistant principal stated that the staff at the school have not witnessed any "aggressive behavior" nor any "physical contact" between the OZC and our daughter, and she reiterated in an email last week that the haircutting incident was not considered to be an event warranting a discipline referral or a recognized case of "inappropriate behavior," even though the incident was significant enough to result in a trip to the principal's office for the three kindergarteners who were directly involved.  Furthermore, in the most recent email from the assistant principal in which she communicated that she had made contact with the OZC's father, she indicated that they discussed the school-related "consequences" of the haircutting incident.  And yet when I look back upon the events of the last several weeks, it is not at all clear to me what meaningful consequences have been imposed on the OZC by the faculty or administrators at the school.  What on-going help is she receiving from the school in learning a modulated approach to befriending our daughter?  And what degree of "monitoring" can be expected from the lunchroom and recess aides, when the assistant principal reports that they have not previously noticed anything amiss between the two girls?

My husband and I are left with the task of deciding what we want to do and for what we need to advocate next.  At a minimum, we will be scheduling another meeting with the school principal soon to formally request that our daughter not be enrolled in the same first grade class as her OZC.  What we are not so clear on is whether or not we want to or should engage with the deputy superintendent to notify her of our concerns regarding the way the school personnel has responded to the haircutting incident and our lingering fears regarding our daughter's safety.  We also will be deliberating upon whether or not we want to request a school transfer to another nearby elementary school.  At the core of our deliberations is the central question of whether or not our daughter's over-zealous classmate poses a genuine threat to our daughter's safety, and if so, what needs to be done to contain the threat.  How do we know as parents and/or as educators when a child's safety is at risk?  How do we know if/when one child poses a threat to another child? How can we tell if our daughter is in danger, and if so, what should be done about the risk posed?

The Joy of Dr. Seuss in Kindergarten

Several weeks ago, a note was sent home from school informing us that the school would be celebrating "Dr. Seuss Week" in March.  My daughter was excited that she would have the opportunity to share some of our beloved books from home with her classmates, such as Don't Hop on Pop, and Cat in the Hat, and she was eager to expand her Dr. Seuss repertoire.  During Dr. Seuss Week, I had the chance to volunteer in the classroom during the literacy block, and I, too, got caught up in the magic of this beloved children's author.  During the Read Aloud circle, my Darling Daughter 1 (DD1)'s teacher led us through the story of the Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and as she turned the pages more and more oobleck fell from the sky, and more and more characters were immobilized.  My DD1 and her classmates were captivated, and they listened intently up to the last page wherein the King utters two simple and profound words:  "I'm sorry."  With the utterance of this phrase, the oobleck stops raining and the kingdom is restored.  Following the Read Aloud, students experimented with making their own oobleck from cornstarch, water, and food coloring.  My DD1 insisted on bringing her oobleck home to show her younger sister what she had made at school that day.

As our school district is one of the largest and most well-resourced  school districts in the country, the Board and the Superintendent of my local school district have set their sights on "The Seven Keys to College Readiness," which start with the goal of having all 2nd graders meet or exceed the target performance benchmarks in reading.  In the county curriculum framework, the standards for PreK-12 Reading/Language Arts delineate the four components of literacy: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  This framework characterizes good readers as those who can "use strategies before, during, and after reading or listening to construct and extend meaning according to the text and purpose. They access background knowledge, survey structure, predict, question, summarize, clarify, visualize, draw conclusions, validate perceptions, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate."  Moreover, skilled readers can "examine how authors use language, literary elements, and genres to provide their audiences with new insights and perspectives."   In my DD1's kindergarten class, for example, the primary level reading program appears to be focused on helping students to develop the skills of decoding, gaining fluency with sight words, and deciphering the context clues that are provided.  However, what is not so clear to me is whether or not all of this time and effort spent on ensuring that students acquire a foundational skill set as readers, may or may not ensure that they become "hooked" as readers.  After spending an hour in the company of Dr. Seuss, however, I was reminded of just how easy it may be to hook young readers with great literature.

I have been visiting my daughter's classroom regularly since October, and as a volunteer during the literacy block I have observed at least a dozen Read Aloud circles.  Yet only with Dr. Seuss' story of the oobleck have I witnessed the students being mesmerized by what the teacher was reading to them.  The story of the oobleck features a young protagonist, probably not much older than the students in my daughter's kindergarten class, the plot is well-paced and builds terrific suspense, and the language through which the story is conveyed is lyrical.  After all, what's not to love about this story as a kindergartener?


My recent reacquaintance with Dr. Seuss has left me wondering:  How much opportunity do kindergarteners have to fall 'in love' with books at school?  Does a heavy emphasis on ensuring that all students become skilled readers detract from enticing children to become engaged readers?

What is Bullying in Kindergarten, Take 2

Three weeks after the haircutting incident (Please see 2 previous entries: "Our First Call from the Principal's Office" and "What is Bullying in Kindergarten?"), my husband and I met with the principal and the assistant principal at my daughter's school on Thursday after school, as well as the guidance counselor and my Darling Daughter 1 (DD1)'s kindergarten teacher.  We initially called the meeting to discuss what had happened and to determine a shared, productive course of action in response to the incident.  The good news is that my DD1appears to be exhibiting new found confidence in her ability to be a friendly girl who can also effectively set boundaries with her school peers.  More specifically, my DD1 has recently expressed a desire to be friends with the classmate who cut off a lock of her hair.  When I asked her "What has changed?" my daughter replied that her classmate now listens to her when she says "stop" and "no," and consequently my DD1 perceives that it is now possible to choose to engage with this classmate because the terms of their interactions are no longer controlled solely by her classmate.  Given my daughter's change of heart over the past two weeks, my agenda for the meeting with the school administration shifted from exploring how the school could work with us to protect my DD1 from her harasser, to how we could work as a team to sustain this change in their peer dynamic.

I have been wondering what might account for the change in my DD1's classmate's mode of interaction from intrusive and at times intimidating to more responsive and respectful?  I have been wondering, too, what might account for my daughter's increased capacity to speak up for herself with a challenging classmate?  Is it coincidence that this over-zealous classmate (OZC) started listening better to my DD1 after their classroom teacher returned and met with OZC one on one to recount the incident?  Or the fact that the OZC was then approached by the assistant principal and told to leave our DD1 alone?  Has my daughter's new assertiveness been spurred on by the fact that the school guidance counselor has finally met with her twice in the last 2 1/2 weeks?  Or, perhaps, by the fact that at home my husband and I have given our DD1 explicit permission to say "no" to her OZC?   And how much of this stepped up effort on the part of the school personnel was triggered by our filing of a formal "Bullying and Harassment Reporting Form"?

What we learned in last Thursday's meeting is probably emblematic of both the promise as well as the limitations of public education.  For we learned that while the assistant principal did think it was important to call home to report the incident directly to me three weeks ago, the other girl's parents have not yet been called because it was the OZC's first referral to the principal's office.  And while our daughter has finally had the opportunity to meet individually with the school guidance counselor, my DD1's classmate has not yet been similarly engaged.  Furthermore, neither the teacher, the assistant principal, nor the guidance counselor has checked in with my DD1 to inquire as to whether or not the OZC has yet apologized, nor have any of them yet facilitated such an apology.  And finally, while the assistant principal has recently informed both girls that they are not to play with each other at recess, and she has communicated this expectation to the three lunchroom and recess aides, what has not yet been made clear to either girl is that this hiatus period is only until the time at which these two classmates can participate in a facilitated conversation about the haircutting incident.

What I have learned from my conversation with the principal is that it will likely be incumbent on us, my husband and me, to keep the school informed of any patterns that appear to be emerging, positive or negative, regarding our daughter.  We cannot assume that the school personnel will interpret the seriousness or magnitude of a particular incident as we do.  Second, I think it is probably best if we do not expect that our daughter's teachers will  reach out proactively to communicate individually with my husband and me regarding our daughter.  Instead, perhaps what is a more reasonable expectation is to hope for our daughters' teachers to be responsive to our on-going requests for communication, counsel, and/or assistance. And third,  if we do not conceive of kindergarten as a forum for the modeling and development of our daughters' social-emotional skills, but rather we understand it as a tightly academic enterprise, then we will have adjusted our expectations to better fit the current kindergarten priorities in our local school district.

I ask my readers in closing:   What can and should parents expect of the public schools, in terms of the degree of communication about their individual children's progress, challenges, and strengths?

The Importance of Diversity in Kindergarten

Over the weekend, I took my Darling Daughter 1 (DD1) shopping for some new clothes.  Due to the early onset of spring as well as the fact that she seems to have been growing like a weed, my DD1's wardrobe had lately begun to consist of a single pair of jeans, a tattered skirt, and several pairs of leggings that were functioning as capris.    As we embarked on our shopping expedition, my daughter commented; "Mommy, can we go shopping where Danielle* gets her clothes? She always looks so pretty at school."  Her comment echoed a series of remarks that have cropped up in the last few weeks about her favorite classmate, Danielle.  For example, as I was combing out my older daughter's hair recently, she mentioned that she wished her hair were a darker brown like Danielle's.  Additionally, in a another exchange my DD1 also noted that she hoped she would be able to get some earrings like Dannielle's when the waiting period for her new pierced ears was  over.  My readers may be wondering why I would dedicate a blog entry to sharing stories about my daughter's "crush" on one of her classmates?  Before I seemingly digress further, I will acknowledge what touched me about my daughter's characterizations of her classmate:  her classmate, Danielle, is African American, who is brown-skinned with brown, curly hair like my daughter.

What am I coming to appreciate more and more about my DD1's experiences in her local elementary school is the fact that my daughter's teacher looks like her this year, and that all of the other girls in her class are brown skinned, too.  Moreover, I appreciate the fact that the principal of the school is African American, as are the guidance counselor, the family coordinator, and my daughter's two favorite paraeducators who supervise lunch and recess.  No longer is my daughter  the only brown skinned girl in her school peer group; instead, she is now among a sea of children whose ancestors hail from parts of the Caribbean, Latin American, and Africa.  And thus I wonder: How does and will the racial makeup of my daughter's peer group influence her sense of herself?  Of what is "normal"?  Of what constitutes "pretty"? Given that what is notable about my DD1 in her current context is not her race or her skin color, will this environment provide her with greater freedom to discover how she is unique?


Psychologist and identity theorist Beverly Tatum suggests that our identities are shaped, at least in part, by those parts of us "that other people notice and reflect back to us . . often it is what sets us apart as exceptional or 'other' in their eyes" ("The Complexity of Identity"). In an earlier entry I asked about what the importance of diversity in kindergarten is, and now I wonder if my previous question missed the point.  As an educator, I can espouse that for all children the experience of attending public school with a mix of students from a range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds is important because it provides the rising generation with an opportunity to discover their common humanity and pluralist identity as Americans.  Yet as a parent, I wonder more about how the composition of my daughters' peer group will influence her identity development and her aspirations for her future.  And thus I wonder:  Is it, at least in part, because of her current peer group at school, that my daughter's conception of who is pretty revolves around the features of an African American classmate, and not around a blonde haired, blue-eyed, Caucasian ideal?  Do I have our local public elementary school to thank for this aspect of my daughter's healthy identity development?

My wondering continues:  if my daughter had white skin like me, would I be ready to embrace her place in a school and in a kindergarten classroom in which she were the only white child?  Or would I worry that this distinction would prove to be somehow undermining to her?  Conversely, if my daughter were the only or one of a very few brown skinned children in a class of predominantly white students, wouldn't I worry that she would be marginalized?  As an educator and as a parent, it is my deep hope for all children to feel a sense of belonging at school. And so I close with a revised line of inquiry:   How does diversity influence students' understanding of themselves and their sense of belonging in school?  


*Please note that the name Danielle is a pseudonym.

The Conundrum of School Lunch

In December 2010, President Obama signed the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" into law.  The law, which extended the "National School Lunch Program," (NSLP) authorizes the USDA to set nutritional standards for all food sold in the public schools, and it rewards districts with an increase in the federal reimbursement rate for all purchased school lunches that are in compliance with the new nutritional standards.   The first federal school lunch and milk program was enacted in 1943, and legislation to make the federal program permanent was passed in 1946.  According to the USDA, in 2010 the NSLP served over 31 million children each day.  School lunch guidelines dictate a cap in the percentage of calories that come from fat and from saturated fat, and require that daily lunches must include a minimum of three items, including an entree and either milk or a nutritionally equivalent non-dairy beverage.

I remember vividly watching my mother make my father's lunch each morning, which included a rotation of sandwiches, a piece of fruit, and an accompanying thermos.  I also remember how hungry my brother was at the end of the school day when he would barge into the kitchen and help himself to two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  What I do not remember so clearly is what I myself actually ate every day at school, or if I liked school lunch or not.  Six months into kindergarten, my daughter has declared herself a school lunch drop out -- she has defected to the ranks of those who carry a lunch from home.  The impact on me is that each morning along with hustling to read a new chapter of our current book series from the library, brush hair, eat breakfast, and brush teeth, I must also now pack a healthy, satisfying lunch for my Darling Daughter 1 (DD1.

Each week when I volunteer in my daughter's class during the morning literacy block, I stay for an additional forty-five minutes to join my daughter and her classmates for the ritual of school lunch. This week the menu consisted of milk, banana, and either cheese or pepperoni pizza OR hamburger au jus with a whole wheat bun.  Last week, the menu was chicken nuggets with sectioned oranges, and the week before that it was a chicken patty sandwich and canned peaches.  While my DD1 was at first compelled to take school lunch because it appeared to her, I think, that such was what "real" kindergarteners do.  What my DD1 does not know is that 60% of her classmates quality for free and reduced lunch, which may account in large part for why the clear majority of her peers go through the cafeteria lunch line each day.  However, after partaking in the district lunches for the first few months of the school year, my DD1 announced after Christmas that the food in our kitchen "smells and tastes better," and she asked if it would be okay to start bringing her lunch from home.  And thus my life as a daily "short order" lunch packer began.

I certainly did not expect my daughter's elementary cafeteria to be as zealous about fresh fruit (locally grown when possible), organic milk, eggs, and meat/chicken, and wild caught fish as I am.  And yet I am somewhat surprised that school lunch rotates through the most mainstream of American fare, rather than providing a sampling of foods from a healthier and broader spectrum.  For example, the district lunch menu does not appear to be at all in sync with the fact that at home such food as rice, lentils, beans, mango, avocado, fish, noodles, spinach, sweet potatoes, or cantaloupe are likely to be commonplace.  While I have reviewed the district's "nutrition action plan", and can plainly see in print the school board's commitment to using "whole grains" whenever possible, and to working towards "low sodium" and "low fat" food choices, the fact that most featured of the offerings are the equivalent  of fast food dining does concern me.

With all of the other transitional issues to kindergarten that have required our energy this year thus far, I wonder to my readers:  Given what the school lunch menu appears to offer as daily fare, is one of the accommodations I need to make to the public schools to accept that I will be packing my daughters' lunches for the next many years?  Or, is this another issue which warrants some individual, and perhaps collective, attention?   Is school lunch as described above good enough to meet our children's nutritional needs?