2025 Kansas MTSS & Alignment Symposium

In this session, we will cover the fundamentals of Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge (EAK). Participants will develop a deeper understanding of how to effectively implement EAK in the classroom, including strategies for organizing, planning, and teaching key alphabet knowledge skills.

Classroom conversations are important for strengthening young children’s language comprehension, leading to later reading success. This session introduces the Strive-for-Five framework that can help early childhood teachers orchestrate conversations that are responsive to students and challenge their thinking. Focusing on the strands of Scarborough’s Rope, the session will illustrate how teachers can have back-and-forth conversations to grow children’s language comprehension by asking open-ended questions, modeling academic language, and providing differentiated scaffolds. (Target audience: preschool through grade 2)

Content-rich literacy programs are gaining in popularity, and research shows that they can powerfully support students' language comprehension. Integrated content and literacy instruction offers teachers an opportunity to engage students in strategic back-and-forth conversations in a meaningful context that can simultaneously improve vocabulary, verbal reasoning, and content knowledge. This session highlights how teachers in the early grades can make small but important shifts in their practice using the Strive-for-Five conversational framework. The presenter will share examples of responsive conversations during content-rich literacy instruction that model vocabulary, build on what students say, and push students toward more abstract thinking.

Join Renwick preschool teachers as they share their journey of implementing a MTSS system in their preschool program. The preschool staff in Renwick have worked hard to establish a system of looking at data, thinking about improvments that could be made based on data and creating embedded learning opportunities for students that need extra support. Through their actions ALL of the students have seen tremendous growth!  

Counting may seem simple, but for young children, it's a surprisingly complex and critical milestone in building number sense. In this interactive session, participants will step into the shoes of early learners through a playful counting simulation, then dive into the five foundational principles of counting. Using real classroom examples and student thinking, we’ll explore how to recognize different developmental phases, uncover common misconceptions, and identify rich opportunities to deepen children’s conceptual understanding. Walk away with practical strategies and routines to support every young counter in your classroom.

Encouraging young children to write can help them to unlock the code of reading. Writing can serve as a springboard for growing children’s knowledge of print and sound. Early writing becomes more sophisticated over time, from scribbles to letter-like forms to writing with letters and words. This session will focus why early writing is important, how it develops, and how teachers can support young children’s written efforts to help them grow in their literacy skills in preschool and kindergarten classrooms.

Have you ever wondered how to engage students in learning through preferred activities while giving them opportunities to explore, expand their knowledge and build relationships?  During this session preschool teachers will walk you through their planning and share ideas of building intentional centers for the classroom to meet every student’s needs.

Geometry and patterns help young children recognize structure and meaning in the world around them. In this session, we’ll explore how early geometric thinking develops through playful interactions with shapes, movement, and space, grounded in the Van Hiele model of geometric understanding. We’ll also dive into the role of repeating patterns—how they support attention, prediction, and reasoning—and why they deserve a central place in early learning. Through activities like Same But Different, which helps children compare and contrast shapes and objects, we’ll see how geometry and patterns work together to build spatial awareness and critical thinking. Using real-world examples, story-based tasks, and everyday materials, participants will engage in activities that nurture children’s ability to see math in the structure, rhythm, and beauty of their environment.

What does it mean to mathematize a preschool classroom? It means helping children see math everywhere—through talk, play, observation, and joyful exploration. In this session, we’ll explore powerful routines that spark mathematical thinking, problem-solving, and conversation, including Same But Different, Goldilocks Math, and Fancy Counts. You’ll see how 4-year-olds can engage with complex problems, reason through solutions, and express their thinking. We’ll also look at other classroom structures that invite curiosity, comparison, and meaningful dialogue. Participants will leave with flexible routines and practical tips for embedding problem-solving and mathematical exploration into the daily rhythm of preschool life—so that every child can experience math as a natural and joyful part of their world.