C&K Rand Family: Addisyn finished her year of kindergarten

Friday, June 21, 2013

Addisyn finished her year of kindergarten

ADDISYN is PROUD on the LAST DAY of KINDERGARTEN!

Room 15 on the LAST DAY of KINDERGARTEN!

Mrs. Fine with Addisyn and Piper

Wow, Addisyn kept busy this year!

I am in awe and so amazed at how much Addisyn has grown and changed as a kindergartener. She started school, not knowing anyone in her class, shy, and quietly excited. She has physically grown taller and matured in her face. She is now good friends with almost all of her classmates and less shy. She outwardly shows her excitement, but also knows when to be quiet at school.

Then and Now: First and last days of Kindergarten

At the beginning of the year, she was just barely writing her name, and now she is writing 2-3 page stories (granted those pages are on kindergarten-sized lines). Below are pictures representing some of the work she has done this year. Her report card shows she was assessed at a proficient or advanced level in most areas. (On a 1-4 scale, 1-below basic, 2-basic, 3-proficient, 4-advanced.) She does especially well in her social skills, phonics, listening and speaking, measurement and patterns. She needs to work on neat and careful work and writing detailed stories.

I asked her about her favorite day and activities this year:
"The day of school that I like--that I love--is...field day." She also liked the field trips, and remembers riding on the long bus.

Her favorite thing was "art with Mrs. Bradley, every time." Mrs. Bradley is Colin's mom and she would come in with an art project each month. Addisyn's favorite was the "self portrait, and my cat."

Addisyn earned lots and lots of blue Awesome cards for excellent behavior at school. Mrs. Fine uses name clips on behavior cards throughout the day (awesome/good/warning/bad), and kids get a little paper card to take home with them each day showing how they behaved. We turned those into a mini math lesson by making her count by tens and rewarding her with a dime for each blue awesome (and a nickel for green good cards), earning several dollars throughout the year.

Mrs. Fine had lots of routines and procedures that she trained her little students in the first weeks of school, and refined with them all year. She has an important job teaching these little people how to "do" school and be good students; she did an EXCELLENT job!

One routine that is special is "Star of the Day." Each day, a child is selected (by popsicle stick drawing) to be the star, wear a giant yellow star sticker, and feel special for the day. He or she gets to sit in Mrs. Fine's chair, dismiss rows from carpet time, be a line leader, run errands to the office, and get special attention from the rest of the class when the class would write and draw for/about the star of the day.

Birthdays were another time to feel special when she would let him/her sit in front and the rest of the class gets to play a version of 20 questions with them.

The last really neat thing Mrs. Fine did was make a custom memory book for each child with work samples and photos from each month. Another long-term keepsake for sure!

I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer in her classroom every other Thursday after Marissa was born. I would spend an hour and a half with 1-3 kids at a time at the back table reading or playing learning games, and even taught one or two how to tie their shoes. I loved that time of insight into Addisyn's day.

After Marissa was born, we also started walking to or from school daily. Addisyn and Piper watch the crossing guards and can't wait for 5th grade so they can do it. Meanwhile, Addisyn and Piper enjoy playing "crossing guard" in our driveway with their stop signs made with red construction paper taped to a broom stick, and pretend whistling for mom or dad, or Piper's imaginary friend Leo.