Phoebe's January and February School Happenings

January and February were both good months for Phoebe.  She loves school and her friends that she has there.  She likes to color and create, and likes it when her class does projects.

The second 9 weeks finished up and report cards came home.  Phoebe continues to do very well academically.  She likes to complete her homework with me on the weeknights and enjoys learning.  On the Kindergarten report cards S = Satisfactory, E = Emerging, N = Needs Improvement, and NM = No Mark/Not Assessed at this time.

During Parent/Teacher conferences, your teacher told us you had started to take AR tests.  Tell me about what an AR test is.
Phoebe:  "You read books two times then you go take an AR test on the computer."  (reading comprehension test)

What do you like to do at recess time?  Who do you play with?
Phoebe:  "Play on the monkey bars and swings and slides and rock wall.  I play with Lydia and Lila and Jocelyn and Brylie and Emma and Gabe."

Tell me about the snack on the paper below.  Did you get to make and eat it?
Phoebe:  "We maked the snack.  We put lettuce in it and cheese and ham.  Then there were apples on the side.  I liked it."

Phoebe has been learning a lot about the five food groups and healthy food vs. junk food.  At dinnertime she likes to tell us about the food on her plate...which food group it is in, if she is missing a food from a certain group, and whether the food is healthy or not.

What are some of your favorite vegetables and fruits?
Phoebe:  "Carrots, broccoli, peas, bananas, grapes, apples"

What special activities did you get to do for the 100th day of school?

Phoebe:  "We got to stack cups.  We got to make a Fruit Loop necklace.  It had 100 Fruit Loops on it.  We made a 100's hat and I made it with K-State colors."

What do you enjoy most about computer/tech class?
Phoebe:  "Do free time.  I get to play computer games."

What did you learn about Kansas when you studied about Kansas Day in January?
Phoebe: "I made a Kansas drawing with Kansas things on it."

What do you like most about Music class/special?
Phoebe:  "Singing"

Phoebe's class participates in the Pizza Hut Book It program.  She colors the picture in the squares on the calendar on each day that she reads or is read to for 20 minutes.  She must have at least 4 days a week colored to earn her Pizza Hut Book It coupon each month.

Below is Phoebe's January calendar that she brought home every night from school in January.  A parent must initial it each night and send it back to school in the morning.  Each school day, at the end of the day, Phoebe gets to color the square with the color that her clip/clothespin has moved to and is still on at the end of the day.  9 green days, 7 blue days, and 1 purple day in January.

Phoebe got to go to purple on January 20th for good behavior.  She moved her clip to purple and got to go to the Principal's office with a Positive Office Referral.  The Principal helped Phoebe call Daddy from the office.  She and the Principal got to talk to Daddy about how great of a student and example she is to others at school.  She got to write her name on the "Good Behavior Board" and received a free kid's meal from Chick-Fil-A.  This is what her teacher had to say about her, "Phoebe is always "on" when she is in class.  She completes her work, responds immediately to any instructions and she is always respectful.  Phoebe is a great example for others to follow.  Thank you Phoebe!"  This is what the Principal had to say about her, "Phoebe demonstrates great leadership skills when she sets a positive example of good behavior and choices.  Keep up the great work!!"

We had our yearly IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting for Phoebe's speech IEP at the end of January.  Phoebe has almost reached all of her speech goals!  This was great news!  We were all in agreement that she has made tremendous improvements in her speech and communication.  Her speech time was decreased from 2 times a week to 1 time a week for the remainder of the year, and then as first grade starts next fall, we will re-evaluate her to see if we can close her IEP with all of her goals being met.

Midway through the 3rd 9 weeks we had parent/teacher conferences.  Phoebe's teacher had a lot of great things to say about Phoebe, her behavior, and her learning.

Phoebe's teacher also shared with us Phoebe's writing journal.  They had written in it at least once a week since the beginning of school.  The teacher would give a prompt or a starter, and then each child had to draw or write, with details, in their journals.  Toward the beginning of the school year the teacher would give more help on letter formation and how to spell words, and then had backed off so that the children would start to sound the words out on their own.  We loved reading what Phoebe had written and looking at the pictures she had drawn.  (There are many entries, I only photographed a few of them to share below.)

Below, right, says "I am going to wear my pajamas to school tomorrow."

Below, left, says "Reindeer are good swimmers and they are fast".  Below, right, says "I goed to Ayden and Kallin's house and I was scared of the dogs".

Below, left, says "Tornadoes are powerful".  Below, right... MY FAVORITE journal entry was from 2/8/2016.  This is also the entry that gave her teacher, Daddy, and I all a good laugh at conferences...  A GREAT picture of something that really does happen in our house when Eric gets home from work a lot of nights, and a FUNNY sentence, "I love my dad because he throws me on the bed".  (Note how high it looks like she is being thrown into the air in the picture that she drew below.  I pointed that out to Eric too as I was laughing and he smiled and said she MIGHT have gone that high a FEW times....)

For Phoebe's class Valentine party, I planned four different minute-to-win-it games.  The class divided into four groups and we rotated the groups through the game stations.  Station #1 was stacking plastic cups.  Station #2 was stacking large conversation hearts to see who could make the tallest tower of hearts without it falling over.  Station #3 was blowing a Q-Tip out of a straw, trying to get it into a bucket.  And Station #4 was carrying mini marshmallows on a spoon quickly to see how many you could get into a bowl in a minute.  The kids all seemed to enjoy these games and each group got to take a couple turns at each station.

What was your favorite minute-to-win-it game that you played at your class party?

Phoebe:  "Marshmallows on the spoons.  It was fun."

Silas got to join Phoebe's class again for the party.  He participated in the games and then ate snacks with Phoebe and her friends at her table.  The kids each got to enjoy a strawberry pop with vanilla ice cream float, a chocolate Hostess cake, Cutie Orange, juice boxes, and cheese and crackers.

You got a lot of Valentine's from your friends at school.  What was your favorite Valentine?
Phoebe:  "I liked them all."

You got to make and eat the snack shown below in your classroom.  Tell me about it.
Phoebe:  "I made it with yogurt, crunchy stuff, bananas, and strawberries.  Then we eated it.  It was yummy."

In February you started to try eating "hot lunch" a few times.  What choices have you picked to eat?
Phoebe:  "Popcorn chicken and Marco's Pizza"

Phoebe's class participates in the Pizza Hut Book It program.  She colors the picture in the squares on the calendar on each day that she reads or is read to for 20 minutes.  She must have at least 4 days a week colored to earn her Pizza Hut Book It coupon each month.

Below is Phoebe's February calendar that she brought home every night from school in February.  A parent must initial it each night and send it back to school in the morning.  Each school day, at the end of the day, Phoebe gets to color the square with the color that her clip/clothespin has moved to and is still on at the end of the day.  11 green days and 6 blue days in February.