If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

Just curious what and how they are doing and if you're happy with the program? From what I've heard the curriculum changed this year which is why I'm only asking parents about current students.

I'm far from thrilled so looking to hear what others are experiencing. Dd rarely comes home with work and is constantly disappointed to get home, open her folder, and find it empty. At 4, I feel like they should be bringing stuff home frequently so we can see what they do and they can have pride in that work. The writing they do seems limited. Dd learned to write her name well last year in nursery school and has actually regressed. I get that they start from scratch. Not all the kids have expedience coming in, but shouldn't there at least be some differentiation for kids with different skills?

I know her teacher follows the program she was given closely and that St. Joe's runs their upk. Just wanted to see what other schools are doing and how it compares.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

I've been mostly happy with my daughters. From October-December she gets one page of homework on Monday and we return on Friday. It's mostly been letters. Each week they learned a different letter and how to properly write it. Now she's just started getting two pages of homework. They are learning their address, phone numbers along with writing their full names etc. she comes home everyday with something they did. A lot of painting. But every couple of weeks or so I get the projects home that went with each letter they learned about. Recently I've been asked to send in a stuffed animal that hibernates. They are teaching about hibernation and are going to have their animals hibernate and take them out in spring. I follow them on Facebook so i see pictures of everything they are doing. They brought snow in the classroom yesterday, they had the librarian visit, fire department etc. I also had a parent teacher conference and she showed me the stuff they do but are keeping in a binder to bring home at the end of the year so I can see progress from day 1-the last day. Such as self portraits and also letters.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

DS is in a UPK program in Queens. I'm not thrilled to be honest.
I agree with you, he comes home with ZERO work. Last year he was in a private preschool and came home with artwork and worksheets that he did in class almost daily. This year I was expecting tons of artwork during Christmas but he came home with a wreath and a candy cane he painted.

I do know there is a lot of imaginary play going on. This month's unit is on transportation and he comes home and tells me they are making a huge bridge out of boxes. I also get dittos home every week explaining what they are doing in terms of math. I go over it with my son and he knows about it so I'm confident his teacher is teaching that.

In terms of writing, I have no idea what he does. His teacher told me he needs work on his handwriting and on writing his name and she stressed to me that i have to work on this with him. What I don't understand is isn't the teacher supposed to also work on his writing??? I ask him if he practices his writing at school and he says no.

I understand PreK should be about learning through play, but K is so darn difficult now and I'm worried that he's going to struggle.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

DS 2 is in UPK this year and DS 1 was in UPK two years ago.

I mentioned to DH the other day that DS 1 was writing a lot more at this age than DS 2. I didn't realize it was related to a change in the program (DS 1 did half day pre-k at daycare and then UPK at a nursery school where DS 2 is doing UPK at daycare, which has changed their curriculum for Pre-K as well).

They do a letter a week and a different color and theme each month. This month the color is blue and the theme is fish. He has sight words that they go over each week as well.

I find DS 2 is learning more academically though than DS 1 learned. A lot of the things they went over with me at his recent evaluation were things DS 1's K teacher went over with us last year at parent/teacher conferences (letter identification and letter sounds). But, I'm not sure if this is part of the UPK curriculum or if it's part of daycare's new curriculum for Pre-K.

Neither kid had homework in UPK. My older DS didn't have homework in K either (since it was the first year of full day K in our district they felt the day was long enough).

Message edited 1/11/2017 11:37:19 AM.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

My kid has went backwards too. She doesn't do ANYTHING at school and NEVER comes home with anything from school either. Not even a drawing. Nothing. It's confusing.

She was READING before entering preschool. She has digressed too and now struggles more with reading than she did before.

Ugh. It's tough.

I'm a teacher and used to teach UPK (about 10 years ago now) and it was so different. I feel like although they played in centers alot, we did a lot more work and involved parents a lot more.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

We live in Nassau, but a friend of mine has her DD in UPK at a Catholic school in Queens. She complains constantly that they do NOTHING. She said she feels like it is just a glorified babysitting service, but private Pre-K is becoming very rare in NYC. So parents feel like they have no choice.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

I'm fine with my dds upk program. It could be better, but its free, and we woukdbt have been able to afford private preschool, so it's better than nothing. Some weeks my dd gets a few pages of hw, and some weeks she gets none. She usually brings home some type of class work or craft at least a couple times a week. She loooooovves going to school, and that whats most important to me - that she's building a foundation to enjoy school and learning, and she building her social skills and learning how-to follow directions from her teacher and behave properly in a classroom setting. I'm not going to be picky about how many worksheets she's bringing home each week. There's much more to school than just drilling skills. As long as your child Is safe and happy in the program, I think That's what is important at such a young age.

If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

My daughter isn't in upk, we got it, but I decided to keep here at her pre school for age 4. She comes home with a project most days. If she doesn't she'll come home with drawings or whatnot. Like yesterday she made me a card on her own and glued strips of paper and wrote her name. Here learning a letter a - not week - but maybe every other week. They've completed I and I guess are on J now. Each letter comes home in a "book", like H had a horse on the cover that she made and inside will have like 5 ditto sheets on H activities.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

Not in UPK, but my son is in kindy this year (we didn't do UPK last year either). I wouldn't worry too much because everything you're talking about they're going to do again in kindy. He started the year learning letters and the sounds they make and how to write them. My DS already knew all this and could read, but they go over everything again. And he gets a ton of boring worksheets to practice writing.

If you're concerned there's plenty of workbooks etc out there (even at the dollar store) that you could get to work on. But I just don't see the point in pushing too hard because they're going to have to do it all again next year.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

My twins are in upk

It's very play based and I love it. There is no "homework" and they are not tracing letters everyday etc

They do learn letters/numbers/shapes but in more of a play setting. With play doh/salt table/paint et.

We get a monthly newsletter. They recently learned about hibernation and the seasons. Oct they learned about bones on a skeleton

Nov parts of a apple

They have movement everyday where they dance to songs
They paint everyday. 3 out of 5 days there is something in the folder and its some art the they did

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

My kids' program isn't as good as their private nursery was but considering that's is free, full day, and basically the curriculum will be repeated in K, it's fine. It's also a larger teacher student ratio than private nursery which I think accounts for less artwork etc. In NYC they also serve breakfast and lunch and have strict curriculum guidelines. I have triplets and not having to pay for full day pre k is HUGE.

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

Jmo but I do t want them to have tons of "work"

Yes I want them to learn and they do but for me more important they are being social. Sharing. Having fun in school setting while listening to teachers

We practice our writing with dollar books from target for extra practice

When we had orientation they stressed so much how play based their learning is and I really love it

My daughter took her Apple Jacks the other day and made a pattern and then said to me look a AB pattern like we learned in school So even though there is no written work I know they are learning

Re: If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

I live in a great school district and the new thing is no homework/worksheets.
In K, we got no homework. Our teacher assigns it in 1st, but it's very little (mostly individual spelling words).
I'm sure they have a weekly summary of what they covered.
What's the point of all that busy work in prek? There will be a time for everything...

If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

Thanks for all the replies, it's definitely helpful to hear all these responses.

I don't think they should be doing busy working and flying through worksheets all day. I don't mind no homework. I do feel like a project should come home at least once or twice a week both to see first hand what they've done and bc they should be cutting gluing,painting etc frequently. I'm fine with lots of play based learning but there should be balance imo. Dd had great social skills, she's smart, well spoken, follows directions but her fine motor skills are lacking. The fact that she's really regressed in writing her name really bothers me. The fact that nothing even comes home with her name written in it bothers me. We just had a conference and her teachers seemed surprised at everything she could do and that bugs me a little

If your kid is in a upk program this year please come in

I didn't mention in my earlier post but, DS does a different art project each day. Sometimes the art projects are placed on display in the classroom.

He's also there full day though - he has the 2.5 hrs of UPK and then remains in the class for daycare.