pre-K parent-teacher conferences for Erika
Parent-teacher conferences this past Thursday with Erika's pre-K teacher, Miss Andrea.
Miss Andrea is 8 months pregnant and starting maternity leave in 2 weeks, so Miss Tina, who will be taking over the class, was there too.
She has mastered all the self-reliance skills: she can go to the bathroom by herself and she dresses herself independently (they have to change for swim at school, twice a week. They were also asked to work on learning to zip and unzip their coats, which Erika already knew how to do).
She can say her first and last name, and knows how old she is. She meets all the social/emotional checkpoints: she accepts and responds to the teacher's authority, she respects and shows concern for people and things aroud her, she plays and shares cooperatively with peers, she has a good self image, and she has appropriate control over her feeligs.
She has excellent work habits: she follows routines independently, follows directions, works well in groups, and does not disturb classmates while they work. In fact, she is such an exemplary student that Miss Andrea switched her seat so that she would be across from a student who is not focusing, and Miss Andrea hopes that Erika will be able to lead him by modeling proper behavior in class. (Erika told me he is very easily distracted; he doesn't listen to directions, he doesn't work quietly, he spins his chair a lot, he looks out the window a lot, and he makes annoying sounds while she tries to work.)
Erika meets all fine motor skills for pre-K: she holds and uses crayons, pencils, and scissors well, she pastes and glues, assembles puzzles, strings beads, and manipulates small pieces. She has good gross motor skills: she can walk backwards, run, jump in place, balance on one foot, hop from foot to foot, throw and catch a ball, bounce a ball, gallop, and skip.
She is reading ready: she can say the alphabet (rote memory), identify and write both uppercase and lowercase letters, produce letter sounds, print her first name, and identify like/different. She is math ready: she can rote count to 20, and even count by two's or ten's! She recognizes all numbers from 1 to 10, and can recognize shapes (she amazed her teacher by mentioning how 2D shapes corresponded to 3D shapes, for example: a circle would be a sphere in 3D, and then went through cube, pyramid, and cubes, and talked about what a rhombus is). She can sequence different sizes (small, smaller, smallest), and find shapes in her environment.
In terms of speaking skills, she communicates in sentences, she answers questions, she is expanding her vocabulary, and she waits her turn when speaking in a group. The only one item on this entire pre-K checklist that she did not excel at was "speaking clearly". Her teacher feels she does not enunciate clearly; specifically "lizard/wizard", "with/whiff", "treble/travel", and "cat/that". Also because she has a large vocabulary, some of the tougher multisyllabic words like "interesting" and "specifically". It's not something we need to be concerned about, and her pre-K teacher believes she will outgrow it with age (if she still makes these pronounciation mistakes when she is 6 years old, we will reevaluate), so she is perfectly fine.
Aside from the requisite checklist, Miss Andrea noted that Erika is her "go to" girl. She, along with another girl in their class of 12 students, are the model students. They are called on to lead the class, to set the table for lunch, to get everyone organized in a single file when they need to line up. If something needs to be brought to another teacher (sent out of the classroom, down the hall, and maybe up a flight of stairs), Erika is the student she will call on. She keeps her eyes focused on her teacher when asked to, she raises her hand to speak, she only answers when called upon, she participates fully, and plays well.
BUT, she got into her first fight at school. I knew about it beforehand, of course, because when I mentioned to Erika that I was going to meet with her teacher, she confessed immediately. Remember Addison? (Link: http://aliki.livejournal.com/631816.html) Summary is that Addison had asked for Erika's new hairclip, and had said if Erika didn't give her the hair clip, she wouldn't be friends with her any more. Erika gave her the hairclip, with the following logic: Addison is my friend, so I should give her my clip. Of course, two weeks later, Addison came to school sporting the hair clip, and when Erika asked for it back, Addison said no.
According to Erika's pre-K teacher, what they heard a commotion and saw Erika lunge at Addison and place her hands on Addison's shoulders (the motion where you'd grab someone and shake them). Miss Tina yelled "ERIKA!" and Erika froze, removed her hands, and tears welled up and she sobbed "I'm sorry, Miss Tina!" Her pre-K teachers mentioned it because Erika is genuinely very even-keeled, sweet-natured, and they describe her as the "class' moral compass", so they were surprised by her emotional outburst/aggression.
According to Erika, she had walked over to the group to play during "free play", and asked if she could join them. Mackenzie and Emi said "yes", but Addison looked up and said in a mean voice "no". Erika asked why and Addison said "because we're not friends." (Mind you, Erika has been referring to Addison all week as her 'best friend'). Erika then turns to walk away and join some other girls playing, and Addison says "you're not allowed to play with them either." What happens next is unclear, because Erika tells me "I don't know what happens next, but then we had our hands on each other's shoulders, and Miss Tina caught me holding Addison, and Addison had to go into 1-minute time-out but I didn't, and I told Miss Tina that it was both our fault, but Miss Tina said it was OK and only Addison got in trouble."
I told them the story of the hairclips and suggested the two of them are working through some relationship issues. Miss Andrea implied that she's had conversations with Addison's mother about Addison's behavior-- she's the social queen of the class, up to a lot of mischief, a lot of whispering under her breath and tall tales to the teacher, and generally not cool behavior. Her teacher said "I kind of silently felt like 'you go, girl!' for Erika" which implies to me Addison mistreats Erika quite often, and Erika finally stood up to her shenanigans.
Erika and I talked about her friendship with Addison (Lord knows daughters don't listen to their mothers if their mothers flat out said "don't be her friend"...) and I asked leading questions like: Why do you call Addison your best friend? What makes a good friend? Is the way Addison treating you the way you treat a friend? These questions got her thinking a little bit about their friendship, and she agreed that it wasn't a very even relationship (Erika is the giver and Addison is the taker), but like a moth to the flame, I think Addison just has that addictive personality with flair and is the center of attention and the sun shines brightly on her little golden hair, so Erika can't help but want to like her. A smile thrown Erika's way, a kind gesture carelessly discarded in Erika's direction, and she believes Addison truly is her best friend.
Miss Andrea is 8 months pregnant and starting maternity leave in 2 weeks, so Miss Tina, who will be taking over the class, was there too.
She has mastered all the self-reliance skills: she can go to the bathroom by herself and she dresses herself independently (they have to change for swim at school, twice a week. They were also asked to work on learning to zip and unzip their coats, which Erika already knew how to do).
She can say her first and last name, and knows how old she is. She meets all the social/emotional checkpoints: she accepts and responds to the teacher's authority, she respects and shows concern for people and things aroud her, she plays and shares cooperatively with peers, she has a good self image, and she has appropriate control over her feeligs.
She has excellent work habits: she follows routines independently, follows directions, works well in groups, and does not disturb classmates while they work. In fact, she is such an exemplary student that Miss Andrea switched her seat so that she would be across from a student who is not focusing, and Miss Andrea hopes that Erika will be able to lead him by modeling proper behavior in class. (Erika told me he is very easily distracted; he doesn't listen to directions, he doesn't work quietly, he spins his chair a lot, he looks out the window a lot, and he makes annoying sounds while she tries to work.)
Erika meets all fine motor skills for pre-K: she holds and uses crayons, pencils, and scissors well, she pastes and glues, assembles puzzles, strings beads, and manipulates small pieces. She has good gross motor skills: she can walk backwards, run, jump in place, balance on one foot, hop from foot to foot, throw and catch a ball, bounce a ball, gallop, and skip.
She is reading ready: she can say the alphabet (rote memory), identify and write both uppercase and lowercase letters, produce letter sounds, print her first name, and identify like/different. She is math ready: she can rote count to 20, and even count by two's or ten's! She recognizes all numbers from 1 to 10, and can recognize shapes (she amazed her teacher by mentioning how 2D shapes corresponded to 3D shapes, for example: a circle would be a sphere in 3D, and then went through cube, pyramid, and cubes, and talked about what a rhombus is). She can sequence different sizes (small, smaller, smallest), and find shapes in her environment.
In terms of speaking skills, she communicates in sentences, she answers questions, she is expanding her vocabulary, and she waits her turn when speaking in a group. The only one item on this entire pre-K checklist that she did not excel at was "speaking clearly". Her teacher feels she does not enunciate clearly; specifically "lizard/wizard", "with/whiff", "treble/travel", and "cat/that". Also because she has a large vocabulary, some of the tougher multisyllabic words like "interesting" and "specifically". It's not something we need to be concerned about, and her pre-K teacher believes she will outgrow it with age (if she still makes these pronounciation mistakes when she is 6 years old, we will reevaluate), so she is perfectly fine.
Aside from the requisite checklist, Miss Andrea noted that Erika is her "go to" girl. She, along with another girl in their class of 12 students, are the model students. They are called on to lead the class, to set the table for lunch, to get everyone organized in a single file when they need to line up. If something needs to be brought to another teacher (sent out of the classroom, down the hall, and maybe up a flight of stairs), Erika is the student she will call on. She keeps her eyes focused on her teacher when asked to, she raises her hand to speak, she only answers when called upon, she participates fully, and plays well.
BUT, she got into her first fight at school. I knew about it beforehand, of course, because when I mentioned to Erika that I was going to meet with her teacher, she confessed immediately. Remember Addison? (Link: http://aliki.livejournal.com/631816.html) Summary is that Addison had asked for Erika's new hairclip, and had said if Erika didn't give her the hair clip, she wouldn't be friends with her any more. Erika gave her the hairclip, with the following logic: Addison is my friend, so I should give her my clip. Of course, two weeks later, Addison came to school sporting the hair clip, and when Erika asked for it back, Addison said no.
According to Erika's pre-K teacher, what they heard a commotion and saw Erika lunge at Addison and place her hands on Addison's shoulders (the motion where you'd grab someone and shake them). Miss Tina yelled "ERIKA!" and Erika froze, removed her hands, and tears welled up and she sobbed "I'm sorry, Miss Tina!" Her pre-K teachers mentioned it because Erika is genuinely very even-keeled, sweet-natured, and they describe her as the "class' moral compass", so they were surprised by her emotional outburst/aggression.
According to Erika, she had walked over to the group to play during "free play", and asked if she could join them. Mackenzie and Emi said "yes", but Addison looked up and said in a mean voice "no". Erika asked why and Addison said "because we're not friends." (Mind you, Erika has been referring to Addison all week as her 'best friend'). Erika then turns to walk away and join some other girls playing, and Addison says "you're not allowed to play with them either." What happens next is unclear, because Erika tells me "I don't know what happens next, but then we had our hands on each other's shoulders, and Miss Tina caught me holding Addison, and Addison had to go into 1-minute time-out but I didn't, and I told Miss Tina that it was both our fault, but Miss Tina said it was OK and only Addison got in trouble."
I told them the story of the hairclips and suggested the two of them are working through some relationship issues. Miss Andrea implied that she's had conversations with Addison's mother about Addison's behavior-- she's the social queen of the class, up to a lot of mischief, a lot of whispering under her breath and tall tales to the teacher, and generally not cool behavior. Her teacher said "I kind of silently felt like 'you go, girl!' for Erika" which implies to me Addison mistreats Erika quite often, and Erika finally stood up to her shenanigans.
Erika and I talked about her friendship with Addison (Lord knows daughters don't listen to their mothers if their mothers flat out said "don't be her friend"...) and I asked leading questions like: Why do you call Addison your best friend? What makes a good friend? Is the way Addison treating you the way you treat a friend? These questions got her thinking a little bit about their friendship, and she agreed that it wasn't a very even relationship (Erika is the giver and Addison is the taker), but like a moth to the flame, I think Addison just has that addictive personality with flair and is the center of attention and the sun shines brightly on her little golden hair, so Erika can't help but want to like her. A smile thrown Erika's way, a kind gesture carelessly discarded in Erika's direction, and she believes Addison truly is her best friend.