So - Liam got his first report card not too long ago. It was a bit surreal for me - it's totally different when you're not in the middle of actually doing the teaching! Anyway, it's a good 3 pages long (mostly in narrative format) so I can't put the whole thing up. Suffice to say, he's doing quite well. He meets all standards in all of his subjects...except...handwriting. "Writes legibly" has a big NW (Needs Work) next to it. But really - are any of us surprised? His writing is atrocious, and he absolutely detests practicing. As of last week, however, they have moved into cursive - and his cursive is terrific! Go figure...Maybe he can just stay in cursive? Forever?
I thought I'd put down some of the comments for you all to read - a few will be about what they are studying, and some will be comments from Liam's teacher(s). So, here we go:
Projects This Trimester (1st - and I'm not listing them all):
Soil Study - Students learned about the three main components of soil - sand, clay, and silt. On daily walks we collected samples and studied them under microscopes while writing down observations.
Ants - We learned about ants and incorporated the study into reading, writing and math story problems.
Quilt - Children sewed a quilt together with the theme of Fall. They designed and stitched leaves, a tree, and earth-dwelling creatures.
Ceramics - Students traced leaves and then glazed ceramic tiles. Clay has also been popular on a weekly basis for the children to use in their Expert Teaching Classes. They have taught each other how to make clay horses, Pikachus (Pokemon), ATAT's (Star Wars) and more.
Weekly Newsletter - A chance for students to pass important knowledge and happenings on to others! Students are responsible for conveying information on classroom activities to parents. It's also an opportunity to practice editing, revising, adding more detail and sticking to the facts.
Play - Last Child in the Woods, an excellent book, has inspired me to allot time for imaginative play in nature. At the beach students are building forts, collecting treasures, making sand cities and finding ways to nurture their imaginations.
For PE, they have taken Yoga, done Teambuilding exercises, and are now in the process of learning Kung-Fu.
For math, we have been working with Liam at home on his story problems...he has a hard time with them. But he is at grade-level and his goal for this trimester is to begin multiplication.
As for Language Arts, his teacher says "Liam has a high motivation to read"...can you hear me shouting from the rooftops? I am *
stoked* about this one, almost more than any other.
"He has been reading books such as Peter Pan, Pokemon, and Deltora."
He also has been taking books from home into school - he read
My Father's Dragon and
The Boxcar Children.
With his writing, his teacher says
"Liam is doing well in writing. Areas he has shown improvement in are adding more details in his writing and more sentences per page."
...rather than just 1. Or 2.
"A goal for him is to begin working on a solid beginning, middle and end. Another goal will be to use his best handwriting and practice writing his letters.".
Hm. Good luck with that.
"He is highly motivated and has a great attitude toward writing which can be seen by the sheer amount of books he's made."
Phil and I about collapsed with laughter after reading that. When we went in for our parent/teacher conference, there was this HUGE stack of books on the desk...all from Liam. He writes almost a book a day! Poor Mike (teacher), having to try and read them all!
Liam also has Spanish twice a week - one of the parents is a native Spanish-speaker, so she works with the kids. They have been learning to count to 100, answer basic questions ("What is today's date?"). They are learning colors, parts of the body, family members and basic letter sounds. They have also spent some time learning about various festivals and holidays, such as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
Oh, yeah - and their class pet is a tarantula. Goes by the name of Macaroni. Big class debate not too long ago was whether to keep feeding Macaroni grasshoppers (eats more often) or pinkies (baby mice - ups the gross/too cute factor). Pinkies won.
The last comment is this:
"Liam is a cheerful, fun guy who likes to laugh. He enjoys school and playing with the friends he's made. He has good relationships with his peers. Liam works hard and is proud of himself. He's a pleasure to have in school!".
And thankfully, he continues to absolutely adore school. Phil and I comment fairly frequently on how extremely lucky we are that we found this school and that Liam was able to get in. He spends significant time outdoors, reads quite a bit, and may be a published author by the age of 10 ;)
So, there you have it. He's doing quite well and we are so very proud of him! And for any of you who would like to read the weekly newsletters from the students (they can be quite amusing), they are online on their new class website:
http://www.mikemartinclassroom.com/ Click under the picture to enter the website, then off to the right is a link to "Newsletters".
Enjoy!
