School Days: PK4 First Nine Weeks {Riley}

I am starting to regret my decision to wait to post the first School Days update until the end of the first nine weeks. As I said before, Riley is doing SO MUCH in PK4 with Ms. Amelie. But the best thing about this year is the Shutterfly Share Site that Ms. Amelie created. It gives the parents a glimpse into what they’re doing in the classroom. I LOVE that she did that, especially since Riley refuses to tell me anything about his days except that he played. Stinker.

With so much to get to, let’s get started!

 

They learned about the letters “Aa” through “Ee,” uppercase and lowercase. They did lots of activities with alligators, astronauts, and apples; bears, butterflies, and bugs; cats, caterpillars, and carrots; dogs, ducks, doctors; and elephants.

 

Riley is making progress with writing his name, although he still has a long way to go. He has no interest in practicing at home, but I may need to encourage incentivize him to do so.

He is also getting much better with using scissors. He says he likes cutting things out.

 

In reading, they read the story of Little Red Riding Hood and completed many activities associated with it. They also read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and even acted out the story in their classroom. Riley played one of the three bears. And they started a new story, the Mexican folk tale La Tortuga, just last week.

In math, they studied the numbers one through five. They learned about circles, dots, and lines. They discussed attributes such as size, color, and shape. They talked about the colors red, blue, and yellow. They leaned how to sort objects by one or two attributes and how things are alike or different.

In religion, they talked about the Trinity, how to behave in mass, Creation, the Ten Commandments, and how to show God’s love to others.

All students in PK4 are assigned a 7th grade Big Buddy, with whom they get to do special activities throughout the year. Riley met his buddy Eleonore early in September.

As a special part of “Aa” week, they tasted different kinds of apples, applesauce, apple pie, and apple juice. Riley’s favorite was the yellow apple, although he did tell me he tried a bite of everything.

 

They had a special “Teddy Bear Week” when they were studying the letter “Bb.” Riley got to bring in a bear to school for the whole week. Like last year, he chose Macaroni. And the three PK4 classes also had a special Teddy Bear picnic that week with their Big Buddies. They spread out beach towels in the hallways outside of their classrooms and ate a picnic lunch with their buddies and their bears. Cute.

They also had a special “Dinosaur Week” when they were studying the letter “Dd.” They did lots of dinosaur-related activities and were even allowed to bring in a dinosaur toy from home. Riley brought in his green T-Rex.

Riley often comes home wearing fun little hats they make according to what they’re learning about that week (ant antennae, bear ears, crazy curly). He even came home wearing a special hat when they celebrated his birthday at school. I sent donut holes as a treat that day for his class, with a big pink sprinkle one for the birthday boy. I think they were a hit!

  

 

Ms. Amelie assigns the students different classroom jobs every week. So far, Riley has been Trash Patrol, Center Inspector, and Weather Watcher.

They took school pictures last month but we have not gotten them back yet. Who knows which of these faces Riley decided to show when it was his turn!

  

He hardly ever finishes his lunch. They eat in the cafeteria at 11am each day. I can’t really blame him since that’s an early lunchtime, and especially since they also have a morning snack, but he could make a better effort. I think he’s too busy talking to his friends to bother with eating.

I’m not sure Riley is napping all that well so far this year because he comes home whiny a lot of days. He also told me that one day he and Grant were laying under one of the tables and putting Playdoh into cups during naptime because they thought it seemed like a good idea. Nice.

He has gotten a number of timeouts, including three (THREE) in one day. One for going to the water fountain when he wasn’t supposed to and one for throwing trucks at his friends and swinging a chair around outside to try and knock a tree down (almost hitting a classmate in the head). And the other? The other timeout was for locking another student in the bathroom. Yes, you read that right. Unbelievable. He hasn’t had any more timeouts since that day, and let’s hope the better behavior continues.

He has two common recess times with the other two PK4 classes, so he is able to play with Jack and Claire every day. His favorite game is still playing bad guys with Jack, during which they “chase the creepy girls.” Awesome. But he is making new friends with some of the other kids in his class (he has mentioned Cece a lot). They even made friendship bracelets at the beginning of the year.

Whew. I think that’s everything. And I also think this just might be my longest post ever.

Let’s see if the second nine weeks can top it!

They did some really cool things last week (pumpkin painting with their buddies and a visit from a fire truck), but I don’t have pics yet. I will post an update when I get those.