Addie and I just finished up Day 6 of preschool. Since I’ve been terrible about scrapbooking since she was born, I’ve decided to use the blog to record our progress throughout the year. Periodically, I’ll post some “progress reports” of our studies. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to use the blog to go back and scrapbook all of these wonderful memories. (Plus, it gives me a chance to brag on my little smarty pants to the grandparents.) I also enjoy going back and reading old blog posts when I’m having one of those less than perfect “Mothering Days”. It is a good reminder that on days when I feel like I’m doing everything wrong, there are some wonderful memories made in the process.
After just six days of “preschool”, Addie can:
1. Successfully count to 20. She can probably count all the way to 100 if given the chance. She’s been able to count to her version of 20 for some time now, but for about the last year she would always get to 15 and skip around (usually to the effect of 15, 19, 18, 16, 20) and then continue on. We’ve also been counting to 100 by 10’s which she successfully did on her own this morning. Putting the two skills together, I think she could get to 100. We count to 100 every day using a song and dance number, but to just have her rote count to 100 would be a little torturous for both of us right now.
2. Fully understands the concept of silent e. We’ve talked about it since last year but today she was able to put the skill to use without prompts from me. We do a group of word families each day. I purposely did –at words yesterday (cat, hat, rat) and –ate words (Kate, gate, late) today. She read both sets of words like it was second nature.
3. Is using Spanish to count to 10 and name colors again. She’s known her numbers and colors since Dalton entered the dual language program in Kinder, but we had fallen out of the habit of using Spanish in the home over the summer months. We are getting back into it and she really seems to enjoy it.
4. Mastered using scissors to cut out just about any shape, without all the little jagged edges and 100’s of little scraps of paper on the floor. This was one of two pet peeves of mine when I taught kinder. So many kids come to school having never used a pair of scissors before. It’s a skill that really takes some one-on-one supervision and poor kinder teachers do not have the time to do it. I vowed that both of my children would go to school knowing how to properly use scissors. (My other pet peeve, in case you are wondering, is teaching children to write their name properly…..only the first letter should be capitalized unless they have a unique name. It is SO hard for teachers to reteach children to write their name properly.)
5. Can read the calendar to recite the full date. (Ex. Today is Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012.) She can also use the calendar to tell me what today is, yesterday was and what tomorrow will be. She is beginning to understand the concepts of 7 days in a week, 12 months in a year, 4 seasons in a year, different weather types go with each season, the season we are currently in, etc. I wouldn’t say she’s mastered any of those skills yet. The concept of measuring time is very hard for little ones. She is aware that they exist and can name the days, months and seasons along with our songs. We also use the calendar dates to display patterns. She can correctly identify and extend any AB, AABB, or ABC pattern I’ve given her thus far.
6. Is learning the names and values of coins. Blake has been working with her on this since her 4th birthday and she started having chores. She can name the 4 main coins and their values about 90% of the time. I saw a cute idea on pinterest to “Make the Date” with money. We’ve been doing that on a daily basis. I think it will help quite a bit, but I still have to offer her a lot of assistance figuring out what coins we need especially when we skip days from Friday’s lessons to Tuesday’s lessons.
7. Is able to understand the concept of even and odd numbers using our “Even Stephen/Odd Todd” chart. If given a number at random, she would probably stare blankly back at you though. We also do a place value chart each day. Since we are only on day 6 of school, we haven’t advanced past the ones place value yet so I’m pretty sure that concept is still lost on her.
8. Can make and read a simple bar graph. We graph the weather each day, where she adds a stamp to that row of the bar graph. We talk about which type of weather has more than others, less than others, the same as others and how many more than others. I still do a lot of guiding in this area, but she’s caught on quickly. She also understands that hotter temperatures cause the thermometer to rise and cooler temperatures cause the thermometer to drop.
9. She also loves to write. Her handwriting (in my opinion) is beautiful for a four year old. She understands sentences start with a capital and end with a period. I’ll introduce the concept of different types of punctuation later.
That’s about it for now. I’m looking forward to recording her progress throughout the year and then reminiscing over these times when she no longer fits into my lap.
No comments:
Post a Comment