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| Miss Virginia - Eli - Ms. Kathy |
As Eli's first year of school is winding down, I wanted to
take some time to reflect back on his preschool experience and dedicate this
post to his teacher, Miss Virginia and her associate, Ms. Kathy. Eli truly enjoyed preschool throughout the
year. He looked forward to going every
day and was excited to tell me about his adventures and what he learned at the
end of each day. The summer prior to the
start of school he was enrolled in the Sacred Heart Childcare program which was
in the same building as his preschool. I
think this really helped him transition from the in-home daycare experience to
an even more structured school-like environment to help prepare him for
preschool last fall.
The 4-year-old preschool program exceeded my expectations as
far as Eli's growth both academically and socially. At the beginning of the year I remember Eli
wanted to stay at school longer when it was time to go and even voiced
disappointment that it was time to be picked up at the end of the day. Miss Virginia
provided a structured, disciplined yet fun and positive learning environment to
help facilitate a love of learning in her students. I also appreciated her organizational skills
which were evident at the open house where she created an engaging scavenger
hunt for the kids to become acquainted with their new classroom. She also maintained open lines of
communication throughout the year and kept the parents updated utilizing weekly
newsletters. It was a great tool to use
not only to foster conversations about what they were learning in school but
also to work on some of the same skills at home they were learning in
school. Even though Eli was only in
preschool for part of the day, a few hours each afternoon (which always flew by
in the blink of an eye), they were still able to incorporate classroom visits
from the guidance counselor on a weekly basis, PE twice a week, music once a
week, and a trip to the school library on Fridays.
Thematic units which changed on a weekly basis maintained
Eli's interest. His favorites seemed to
be the solar system and even a unit on laundry!
Eli also worked on mastering the basic skills of colors, shapes,
letters, and numbers. At the beginning
of the year his writing skills were limited to writing "Eli" as
compared to the end of the year now when he can write his full first and last
name along with the other letters of the alphabet, some a little more legible than
others. I have been very pleased with
the progress he has made in his writing skills and even more so his confidence
in accomplishing daily tasks independently without getting frustrated quite so
easily. At the beginning of the year the preschoolers were also introduced to sign language. Even his drawing and coloring
skills have become more purposeful as he has grown in his creativity throughout
the year. He also loves to cut and glue
and do worksheets at home that I either create myself or print off from the
Internet. I love to see how he has
become much more intrinsically motivated to maintain attention while doing a
variety of academic-type tasks and art projects.
Throughout the year pre-reading skills have been
incorporated in various ways, first recognizing all the letters, both uppercase
and then lowercase and then learning the sounds the letters make along with visual cues with hand gestures to go along with the sounds. I remember towards the beginning of the year
Eli was singing a song about the letters.
It took me a little while to decipher all the words but with some
context clues I could understand in the song, I realized he was singing: "T is a consonant, a letter in the
alphabet" and "A is a vowel, a letter in the alphabet." One night I heard Eli sorting out his foam
letters in the bathtub and grouping them by "letter friends" which
must be letters that resemble each other.
He is also able to identify the sounds various pairs of letters make together
along with sounding out simple words to either attempt to read or spell and
write them. Eli has also mentioned
various forms of punctuation and is aware of the purpose of each.
Ms. Kathy, the classroom assistant always greeted us each
day with a cheerful and friendly hello with a smile. She would oftentimes say a quick hello to
Aliyah, too. Eli really enjoyed Ms.
Kathy and her help and presence in the classroom. She could make him laugh easily. For Halloween, Ms. Kathy dressed up as a
larger than life Minion which Eli especially enjoyed since he also sported a
Minion costume this year. She
participated in pajama day as well with her Eeyore adult-sized zippered pajamas
complete with a hood.
Eli has wrapped up a fun first year of school. I am so glad he was able to experience a
great beginning to his educational journey.
I hope his excitement for school continues through his school years as I
believe one of the best ways to facilitate student learning is through
enjoyable and meaningful learning experiences which Miss Virginia and Ms. Kathy
provided.
This summer he will once again be attending Sacred
Heart Childcare. He is registered for
the pre-kindergarten program at Cardinal in the fall where he will go all day,
every day. It seems to be a great bridge
between preschool and kindergarten with a modified curriculum. This program is designed for kids who could
benefit from an extra year before starting kindergarten and with his summer
birthday it will allow him to take advantage of that before starting
kindergarten back at Sacred Heart.
