Piper End of Year Recap--1st Grade

First grade was a great experience for Piper.  Piper loves school.  She likes learning, tries her best, and enjoys the social nature of school.  She is well behaved in the classroom, focusing, staying on task, and helping others around her.  She collected her "Peace Bear" tickets daily, gluing them into the little "Peace Bear" book she made.  I love how she happily shares the work in her take-home folder with me when we get home in the afternoons.

Piper enjoys and thrives with friendly competition.  She would get excited about racing against her classmates to finish levels of the ST Math program, and she was among the top 3 in her class to finish it to 100%.  Piper also tries to beat her older sister when we are drilling math problems at home.  She likes the challenge.  1st grade MATH included 2-digit numbers, addition and subtraction, measurement, shapes, money/coins, and clocks.  Piper "met" or "exceeded" grade level expectations in math with 3's and 4's on her final report card.

Piper is able to READ books at or above grade level.  She has good fluency and comprehension.  When we read together, she sounds out words and repeats them after me when learning a new word, and she can remember details when I ask about something in the story.  I think some of the books she reads are too advanced for her as far as understanding content (probably looking up to her older sister's choices), but we have lots of book options and she is choosing the ones that interest her.  Some of the titles she likes include The Rainbow Fairies series and the more advanced Dr. Seuss books.

Whether it's personal or non-fiction, getting words on paper is a concrete way for Piper to share about herself or show what she knows.  She is good with including details and sequencing appropriately while WRITING. And while she wants to spell things correctly, she is not afraid to sound words out phonetically and move on with the content of her paper.  She can spell most of her sight words correctly on the first try.

Her writing has really developed this year--
Beginning of the year samples:

Mid-year writing samples:

End of year writing sample:

One subject she seems to love this year was astronomy.  She liked watching the moon and thinking about the planets.  Before open house, students got to pick a topic related to our solar system and create a project they would present to their class and display at parent night.  She had fun creating her project and learning about rockets.

Mrs. Semik is a good 1st grade teacher.  She keeps her classroom very organized, having trained her students in routines and how to rotate in groups through work stations so that she can provide extra help in small groups.  I volunteered in the classroom on Monday mornings and enjoyed seeing her classroom management, keeping control and order all while making each child feel able and important.  And when I was outside room 20 volunteering at traffic circle, I could seek Mrs. Semik's love for her children as she hugged every student entering her classroom door.

SOCIALLY, Piper gets along with many boys and girls.  She goes out of her way to be friendly with others.  She made good friends with Adanya, Gianna, Carter, and Connor among many others.   She works with others in her work groups.  She sits/plays with friends at lunch and recess.  She will run with or in competition with her peers at running club before school.  And she earned 7 "feet" charms on a chain for each 5 mile accomplishment throughout the year.

To finish off the school year, the class got pet ants (an ant farm) in the spirit of "Getting Antzy" for summer vacation.  This was a great year and Piper is excited for 2nd grade!

Beginning of First Grade

Last Day of First Grade