Category: Uncategorized (Page 13 of 42)

From Teachers Betsy, Norma (Spanish teacher), and Peter (PE):

It was a Friday so there were just eight kids sitting around the snack table. Dashiell, who loves to add funny rhymes like “tricky mickey” to our daily routines started a rhyming game. He would call out two words, such as “book and nook”. Then another child would call out “ look and cook.” The rhymes would go back and forth until they couldn’t come up with another set of words and then the students would start over. The game was completely child initiated and lead. There were smiles and laughter all around the table. Each child was kind and respectful even if another child was still trying to learn rhyming.

This is a wonderful example of how Dashiell can be a leader amongst his peers and bring his sense of fun, humor and knowledge to our classroom on a daily basis. Dashiell is enthusiastic about all aspects of school. He enjoys learning, exploring and wondering. He easily follows class routines and loves being outside and moving.

Dashiell loves being with his peers and can play and work cooperatively with anyone in the classroom.

Dashiell has made tremendous progress throughout the entire year in all areas.

Dashiell can easily identify all of his uppercase and lowercase letters. He can confidently identify all letter sounds and several initial blends such as “sh” and “th.”

Dashiell loves books and reading. He is always ready to listen to a story as well as share about stories he has read. It is exciting to see him start to read on his own. He has a strong understanding that letters work together to create words. When reading with Dashiell he can easily decode most constant-vowel-consonant words and recall them the next time he encounters them in the story. He has begun to remember several sight words, such as “the”, “and”, “a” and “on.”

Dashiell has worked very hard over the past year to strengthen his fine motor skills. In the beginning of the year Dashiell was working on letter formation and a fluid stroke of his first name. By the end of the year he was writing his first, middle and last name with increased uniformity of size and great control of letter formation. Dashiell is still working on increasing stamina, strength and slowing down. Fun fine motor activities, such as drawing in modeling clay with a golf tee, would be great to help maintain and continue develop the progress he has made over the year.

Dashiell enjoys counting and exploring his awareness of early numeracy in the world around him. Dashiell loves to count. He can easily count objects up to 100 using correct one to one correspondence. One to one correspondence is the ability to accurately touch and count objects simultaneously.

In addition, Dashiell can easily create and extend simple AB patterns as well as more complex patterns such as ABB. (pictured)

Spanish

I am overjoyed at the fact that the students have become so comfortable using Spanish throughout the school day. From the moment they arrive, the students now are confident in their Spanish abilities and have grown accustomed to integrating it into their own life by choice. For example, during snack time I used to point out certain foods and have the class repeat it. Now, they shout out the food they have brought and raise it high into the air as their faces light up because they have correctly identified their snack in Spanish. With this second language becoming more familiar, it was exciting to integrate “La Oruga Hambrienta” since the students were catching on so quickly. Using words and pictures, the students were able to visualize this foreign concept that at first they might have not been able to grasp. It was thrilling as well as impressive to see the enjoyment and full participation of every single student during this play. It has been a pleasure working with these students, as a class and one on one. Thank you for an amazing year!

P.E.
Dashiell is agile, speedy, and has strong stamina. He is eager to play and loves to chase and run. He sometimes shys away from taking risks but when he is comfortable he will engage 100%. I look forward to working with him next year.

Mom\’s note: Betsy doesn\’t mention here that D is also counting in 2s, 5s and 10s, up to 100!

At the end of the school year, Teacher Betsy burned photos she\’d taken throughout the year of each child, on donated DVDs (thank you Ginger Lader for the DVDs and also for the photos from the pumpkin farm!)

Betsy is quite a talented photographer (have you ever tried to get a good photo of a busy preschooler?) and she captured some truly special moments. Like her classroom, with supplies organized by color, character, shape and size (and all neatly arranged in ways that tempt even adults to sit down and play), her photographs are beautifully composed and inviting.

Many thanks to Teacher Betsy and Teacher Norma for a year we will always treasure.

Dashiell\’s class (Mazama) studied the lifecycle this year; over the last quarter they focused on birds. Wingspans were measured, birds were spotted and identified on campus (and in our back yard–\”Hey there\’s that scrub jay again!\”), eggshells discovered, stored and categorized. The children made their own bird books, complete with checklists to note the birds they\’d seen.

Dashiell was particularly interested in an art project that he attempted to keep secret from us for this thematic. However, not able to contain his excitement, he would give me sneak-peaks after hours, escorting me into the empty classroom and proudly showing off his labors. He doesn\’t usually get very excited about anything he makes at school; something about his this project really resonated with him, and took up residence in his soul.

This week we made a trip to Fred Meyer to buy a special Lego toy (for a sick boy, croup filled, bleary eyed). While there we picked up some plants on sale, purple Salvia, noted for attracting hummingbirds and butterflies. D helped me plant them in a good spot, where we could be sure to see any visitors from the house. Later that same evening, while D was upstairs getting bathed and jammied, I saw a hummingbird visit the newly planted salvia as I did the washing up from the kitchen window. In his darkened room, after story time, I told him about the hummingbird, and he threw his arms around me in happiness.

To reveal the surprise project, click the \”play\” icon in the video control below:

Guess who portrayed The Caterpillar in the class play of The Hungry Caterpillar (in Espanol)?

Here it is, heavily excerpted and in two parts!

Dashiell noticed the flag was flying when we went to the grocery store today, on Memorial Day. We talked about the meaning of the holiday, that it\’s a time to remember people who have \”turned into trees,\” either from \”doing battle\” or from just getting old.

We made a special dessert today that happens to look patriotic!

(gluten free, vegan, and delicious!)

The much-awaited Poland kit…thank you Daddy!

Dear Grandma Beverly,

Thanks for coming to town to help out Dad when Mom went to North Carolina for 9 days. I loved having you here! We had fun, didn\’t we? I love the soccer clothes you got me! My favorite is the USA kit (see me in this outfit below). I also really like the cozy Kansas City soccer team sweatshirt that arrived in the mail after you left. I also appreciate how you thought to include matching socks. You know, the sock are very important to me and often find I have to make sure Mom has the correct socks washed and ready to go, otherwise I might not be able to wear the kit…

Thank you also for the surprise college fund money! Mom and I brought it to the bank and put it in my special Washington state college account. I liked watching the way the ATM sucked up the bills.

But mostly I enjoyed having you here! Thank you, I love you.

andel\’s Hotel, Krakow

Dear Dashiell,
Let me tell you about my day. After I woke up and took a shower, I went to breakfast downstairs. I had a buttery croissant with local blueberry jam and a yogurty muesli, along with two strong cups of coffee. I need the coffee to help me wake up because my morning over here is the middle of the night for you!

After my breakfast, I came back to my room to get my computer and then took it downstairs to the lobby to work on the lesson I\’m going to teach. I watched lots of interesting people go by speaking many different languages: Polish, German, English, Russian. I walked into the town square for lunch.

After lunch, I rushed back so that I could take the train to the salt mine. The salt mine is huge! We walked for 2.5 hours and we only covered 1%.  The mine had some rooms that were big enough to fit about 6 of our houses right next to each other. There used to be a giant forest on the ground above the salt mine, but they cut it all down to help make tunnels in the salt mine. Here are a couple pictures of the salt mine.One is a of a gnome with a soccer ball!

          I then took the train back to the hotel and talked to you and Mommy while you were in the car.

          After that, I went on a quest to try to find your Poland kit. I tried 7 different stores and none of them had it! I did find out where the store is for the local team, Wisla Kraków, and when their hours are.

          I went to dinner with some new friends tonight. One of them said his friend said we should go to this restaurant run by an old Polish grandma, and so we did. The food was really good, and I tried lots of new things.

          Tomorrow is going to be a big day because it is the first day of the conference.

I love you and will send you another report tomorrow. Do good listening for Mommy!

Love, Dad xxooxxoo