Friday, June 19, 2015

Prep and Pictures

I finally got around tonight to organizing Raccoon's portfolio of work and evaluations from Kindergarten. It was really nice to add the unfinished things to our first grade pile. Now we have a concrete place to start in July and I don't feel bad about what was left undone at the end of the school year. We'll just pick up where we left off. It must be hard for classroom teachers to say good-bye, knowing that there were things they still wanted to do with the kids but didn't get to, for whatever reason.

So what are our big plans for first grade? A schoolroom, desks, and more Tot activities for Kitty. She'll be approaching 3 in the fall but she already loves to paint and cut and write. I'm wondering about doing subject blocks, like Reading and Writing on Monday, Math and Science on Tuesday, Art and Social Studies on Wednesday, etc. But also incorporating each area into the others, reading during science, writing during math, etc. Or maybe bettet to do a little each day...

I've said this before, but I need more planning time. This is first grade. We're in the big leagues now. :-) But I do need to be more intentional about meeting our goals. I am starting out this year with the end in mind, especially for his reading.

Worst case scenario is that he ends up repeating first grade when we go to the States, which his age would allow, but I feel like he really is going to fly this year. If I can just figure out how to harness all that energy.

First Grade Goal #1
Post a weekly picture update. I did a few last year and love looking at these.

Raccoon's frog trap, a 6 liter bottle with it's top cut off and inverted. We left it in a swampy arra for a week and caught 3 spiders, which are now sitting on my dryer.

Our new reading corner in the living room. It's amazing how moving the bookcase out of my bedroom has made teading together so much easier. The kids and I love it.