With Eli's school year wrapping up, I wanted to dedicate
this post to his teacher, Ms. Ellen. Eli
truly loved his teacher, and this school year was a great experience for him to
begin his full-time school career. Ms.
Ellen has a big heart, loves her students as if they were her own kids, and is
very dedicated to the teaching profession.
She helps foster a love of learning and creates enjoyable and engaging
educational experiences to help tap into the natural curiosities of young
minds.
When Eli stayed home sick one day and after his first dose
of Tylenol kicked in around midmorning, he was feeling better and was begging me
to take him back to school! He was
disappointed to realize he would still have to stay home the rest of the
day. My favorite thing about Ms. Ellen
is how she encourages even students as young as kindergarten to always do their
best. Eli has a tendency at times to
rush through his work and has been required to redo several worksheets. I love that she instills a good work
ethic. Eli seemed to enjoy math and
centers the most throughout this school year.
The theme on pirates was also a favorite of his. He brought home a lot of souvenirs at the
completion of this unit and shared some of the pirate-related vocabulary he
learned.
I think he is saying "arrrr" in this picture:)
Another one of my favorite things about Ms. Ellen was the
way she established a strong home-school connection through the homework and
other activities sent home to keep the parents involved. From weekly worksheets with the word of the
week to theme-related games, activities, and mini art projects sent home, Eli
even seemed to enjoy telling me about what he learned at school by completing
these assignments. I was always
surprised by the words of the week they were learning at this age, such as
"participate" for the letter "p" but Eli could explain what
each of the words meant, so his vocabulary was really enriched over the course
of the year. Some of our other favorite
homework activities included the fall leaf coloring game, outdoor fall
scavenger hunt, along with the disguise the gingerbread man project.
Throughout the year, I noticed the most progress made in
both reading and writing. Once Eli had a
good grasp of recognizing sight words, he took more interest in learning how to
read and really took off by reading mini phonics books I printed out that I
found online. He has really taken more
of an interest in trying to sound out words and spell them on his own, which he
learned in school. He knows where I keep
my stash of note cards and a lot of times I find him pulling out cards to write
his own little messages in them to various people.
I appreciate the willingness of Ms. Ellen to keep in contact
on a regular basis through e-mail communication. As a former teacher, I know the importance of
keeping in contact with parents in order to help kids succeed and keep parents
informed of their progress but is still yet another task added to a teacher's
lengthy to-do list, so I am grateful Ms. Ellen kept in contact with us this way
during the school year.
This year was Eli's first experience with a (long) bus ride,
one of the first ones on in the morning and one of the last ones off at the end
of the day. He seemed to enjoy his bus
driver and would routinely come off the bus at night with a piece of gum from
the driver, Paul. The bus arrived
promptly at 7:31 each morning and dropped him back off at 4:10 in the
afternoon. Eli knew how to tell the time
and watched the clock in the morning and knew just how much time he had left
yet before he had to be ready to go. A
kid with an eye for details, Eli learned over time which kids rode which buses
and the names of the other drivers. He
became intrigued by the whole bus barn routine and how the logistics
worked. He transformed all his
transportation-type toys into "buses" and little toy people into
passengers and placed them strategically around the house and appeared to have
routes for each bus. Once all the
passengers were loaded up, he would drive them all so they were parked into a
large oval shape, which must be what happens at the bus barn when the kids
exchange buses before they arrive at their final destination. He plays this version of his own "bus
barn" every.single.day!
Eli also ate school lunch every day. The parent-teacher organization sponsored a
week where parents could choose a day to eat lunch with their child. Ian and I ate lunch with him that
Monday. Plus, this reflects the nerd in
me but I have always loved school lunch!
It was one of the perks of being a teacher too - I ate school lunch
every day. There was nothing better at
that time of day than enjoying a good hot meal that I didn't have to prepare
myself with some adult interaction in the lounge. It was neat to see Eli interacting with his
class in his school environment and to catch a glimpse of a part of his day. I would LOVE to be able to take a peek during
the course of his school day without him knowing I am observing just to see
what he is REALLY like at school...
Ms. Sherri, the classroom associate, also had an impact on
Eli. One night after we were in bed for
a while, I heard Eli get out of bed, seemed to be on a mission to do something
and then I later realized he pulled out some paper and a pencil and was
practicing writing the number 5. It was
almost as if he had forgotten about how he learned how to write the number 5
that day until he was in bed for the night.
He then came into our bedroom to show me that Ms. Sherri had spent extra
time that day with him working on learning how to write the number 5, which was
evident on his paper showing me the well-executed writing. He was so proud of himself for the new skill
he learned and seemed to enjoy Ms. Sherri's special help!
Overall, this has been a great year of growth for Eli
academically with some goals yet to continue working on socially. I am so thankful this all day, every day
transitional kindergarten program is offered in our district. It is a great bridge for him to get ready for
a more traditional kindergarten setting this fall at Sacred Heart.
