Good evening parents and students, my name is Mrs.

Allyson Secrest and I am going to

be your kindergarten teacher this year. This is my first-year teaching and I am so excited to have
you all in my class. I attended College of Southern Nevada to then transfer to UNLV and
graduate with my bachelor’s degree. I have been married to my husband for 7 years and we have
two girls who are 11 and 7. I enjoy catching up on my favorite T.V. shows, traveling to visit our
family, going shopping with my girls, and baking. I am very passionate about teaching and look
forward to getting to know my students and their parents. I waited until later in my life to decide
to follow my passion to teach. I am so happy that I made that decision and here I stand in front of
everyone ready for a successful year.

My passion for teaching stems from wanting to be there for students and help them
accomplished great things. I believe that children have a great ability to learn new skills and
learn how to use those skills in their lives. I want to provide a safe and welcoming environment
for my students. I am going to be spending 180 days with your children and this will give me an
opportunity to make an impact on their education and set the stage for their future. I believe that
having open communication is what will help lead to a successful year for your children’s
education. I want to make sure that there is clarity of what your children are going to be learning
and what I am going to need from you as parents throughout the year. I know that every student
learns differently, and I am going to make sure that I am making the proper adjustments so every
student in my class is developing and feeling confident in their abilities.

This year students will be learning multiple subjects. One of the main subjects they will
be learning is math. Students will be learning how to count to 100 by ones, fives, and tens.
Students’ will be learning about numbers and learn to recognize and write them. As the students
start to recognize numbers we will start working on addition and subtraction skills. Additionally,
shapes and measurements are another area in math that the students will be learning. Reading
will be the second main subject that is focused on in Kindergarten. Students will be learning
about the alphabet and will develop the skill to recognize both upper case and lower-case letters,
in addition the letter sounds and how to count the syllables in words. Sight words are some of the
most common words that your student will learn to read, so memorization is key. There is an
emphasis around learning these words, and I ask for your assistance by helping the students get
additional practice at home learning these words. Make learning these words fun for your kids.
Some examples of activities you can do is play games, quiz them at dinner time, and even just
hanging them on the refrigerator to draw attention to them will help with memorization.

Now I will be discussing what our classroom schedule is going to look like. As the
students arrive, we will have our morning greeting. Reading and math will be taught daily and
there are additional subjects the students will do on a rotation schedule. Science, art, music, and
P.E. are the subjects included in that rotation schedule. I will be sending home a calendar at the
beginning of each month to communicate the rotation of those subjects. Students will have a
designated lunch period and their lunch will be the first lunch period at 11:10am. On P.E. days
please make sure that your student wears athletic shoes to school that day. There will also be
homework that will be sent home Monday through Thursday. I will make sure to clearly mark
due dates on all homework assignments. There will be no homework assignments on the
weekends.

I do enjoy giving the opportunity for the students to talk about their family and some of
their favorite things. I will be doing a student of the month every month that highlights a student.
I will send additional information home when your student is selected. Birthdays are another
great way to celebrate the students. If you want to send a snack or treat for your students’
birthday, please make sure you are following the school guidelines. I would love to also have
parent volunteers. If you can volunteer your time and help in the classroom or chaperon for field
trips, I would appreciate it. I have a sign-up sheet at the door, please list possible times and day
or days of the week you could volunteer. When it comes to discipline and rules in my class, I use
a color code system. Based on the student’s behavior (school guidelines) will depend on what
color they stay on for the day. Every day that the student stays on green they will receive a token.
Students will then be able to use the tokens to buy prizes at the end of the week (Fridays).

I want to thank you for taking the time to attend this open house. I really appreciate your
time and dedication to your student’s education. I also provided all my contact information on
the handout that was on your student’s desk. Please feel free to reach out with any concerns or
questions you may have.