C&K Rand Family: Addisyn's End of 1st Grade

Addisyn's last day of 1st grade was Thursday June 19, 2014.

First grade is a busy year of learning to read and write. Luckily we had a teacher who knows how to give writing purpose, make reading fun, and tune into individual personalities when children get frustrated.

Mrs. Lindgren encouraged READING through song and poetry. They wrote a lot of poems following templates to go with their artwork. One poem was part of a gift from Mrs. Lindgren and our child to parents which was a black and white photograph with a poem typed at the bottom, and wrapped and presented at the end of the year. For writing they would brainstorm words they could use as a class, writing some on the board, and then the children would write their own poem/story using the those ideas and words. They had spelling lists and tests weekly, and worked their way through "Fry's 100 words to know" adding 5+ new words each week (Fry's list is made of frequently used words in the English language that they should be able to know by sight, rather than phonetic sounding out). Addisyn gets frustrated with writing, so anytime she was willing to write a list or a birthday card for someone, I encouraged it. We tried story writing, but was only successful if she was dictating to me typing, and wouldn't write a page (5 sentence) story herself. We worked on her pencil grip which was tense early in the year, and she has to work through her desire for perfection and difficulty making decisions (she has trouble deciding what to write, and wants it to be perfect right away, so she doesn't have to edit or erase and re-write).

Their class had two additional opportunities to PERFORM in the auditorium aside from the school-wide annual patriotic performance, which were great fun for parents and grandparents to have a good seat for the show. Mrs. Lindgren played guitar while they sang for the winter holidays and at the end of the year about spring time and insects. They even had little costumes they pinned to their shirts (Addisyn is wearing her white silk moth costume in the picture above). Addisyn has no fear of standing in front of a group which is very impressive. We are thankful for Mrs. Lindgren preparing them with so many opportunities to stand in front of their class so they don't think that being nervous would even be a possibility. The "Flat Self" project being one of them. Reading was also more fun when reading song lyrics.

Addisyn was pretty good at MATH concepts. Her understanding of number logic is a strength for her. Her biggest hold-up on doing her weekly homework worksheets was reading the words for the instructions and word problems, and writing the answers neatly. It got better towards the end of the year, but homework time was frustrating for me because I expected her to be able to do it more independently, but it wouldn't get done unless I was by her side helping her through the instructions and motivating her to do the figuring. By the end of the year, she could read better and was actually willing and happy to do a couple pages in her math workbook totally independently.

Addisyn's personality of wanting things to be "just right" (I'll try not to call it perfectionism), makes learning new and difficult things emotionally challenging. A few times, Mrs. Lindgren reported to me that Addisyn had a rough moment during a test and Mrs. Lindgren would hold my hands to show me how she would talk to Addisyn and soothe her when she got frustrated. (That was a little awkward having another adult standing very close and holding both my hands, but I'm sure it's what works with 6 and 7 year olds.) I think Addisyn is pretty average academically, not at the top of her class, but not at the bottom either. She wants to do her best which is a good thing. She also has a September birthday, putting her at the younger end of the age spectrum compared with her classmates, so that I'm sure that contributes a maturity challenge as well. Overall, despite morning complaining, Addisyn enjoys school and learning and is doing well academically. Addisyn's REPORT CARD reflects her skills well, with many 3s in reading and writing, and more 4s in math. 4 is the highest score of "advanced", 3 is "proficient", 2 is "basic", and 1 is "below basic".

I was able to VOLUNTEER in Addisyn's classroom periodically, and made a point to be there for Mrs. Lindgren's annual Harvest Festival and Chinese New Year EVENTS. At the end of the unit of study, she had a 2-3 hour event with stations inside and outside where kids were able to experience (simulated) cultural customs of indians and Chinese. In the fall, they foraged for wood, read hyrogliphics, and ate corn products. In February, they made Chinese lanterns, wrote their name in Chinese letters, made real won-tons, and walked a paper made dragon around campus and through the school office.

I also volunteered in the "EAR" Everyone A Reader program with 4 different 1st graders from various classes reading to me once a week, so it was nice to feel connected to the campus, be known by Addisyn's classmates, and have a better feel for what a first grader is able to do/read.

Addisyn also brought home a giant book of work samplings from each unit this year. Each child had a space on the wall for a 12x18 construction paper mounted with art and writing that her teacher kept layering up throughout the year, and then took down and put in a big paper folder for us to take home at the end of the year. They include some of the poetry she wrote this year.

This spring, Mrs. Lindgren announced that she is RETIRING. This was an emotional event from a woman who clearly loves children and pours her heart and soul into teaching. After lunch in the last hour of the last day of school, Mrs. Lindgren was reading a couple story books to the class and it was clear she was trying to "hold it together" when a little voice asked "Are you crying again Mrs. Lindgren?". It was so cute. Mrs. Lindgren acknowledged and kept on reading, focusing on the words in front of her, hoping the kids learn the morals of the stories, about lifelong learning, being proud of who you are, and standing up for yourself and not bullying. When the school bell\rang, parents, students, and past students all came to see and hug her. I was there that day to offer help cleaning the room, but it was too much for her to face so I just enjoyed watching the kids enjoy reading time. She later reported that it took her nearly a week to move out of her classroom.

First and last days of 1st grade-