I didn't think I would but I got emotional. How could I not? This little girl is one of the most beautiful things I have ever made and I'm always so in awe of her. Her first parent-teacher conference was no different, but it was interesting to hear how she is doing relative to the others in her class. Since have have no real comparison, we don't know if the things she's doing are "typical" or "advanced."
Mr. John sat us down and handed us her evaluation. He first started by explaining the scale (1-4) and that he rarely gives out 4's because he said that at this age it's typically "you either know it or you don't."
The first section was Literacy. Ellie got all 4's. Here is what he wrote for his comments:
"Ellie is a superb reader! She is very advanced and, as you know, can read primers fairly well, especially at her age. At this stage she is just putting finishing touches on sound combinations that she may not know from memory and repeating her exposure to these sounds will lead to quicker reading. She is amazingly quick to pick up new sound combinations, many times only taking two times to remember the sound a letter combination makes. Her sight word knowledge is amazing, she usually learns the words in the first day. She is ready for first grade at this stage (in terms of reading level) and continued reading both at school and at home should see her being at a reader level by the time she begins first grade!"
Mr. John is right. Ellie is SOOO proud of herself for knowing her sight words. She often tells us "Do you know how I know that? It's my sight word and I HAVE to know it!" She is so motivated to know as much as Mr. John gives her. She is constantly sounding out words she sees everywhere we go, like the names of stores or signs. I love watching her beam with pride after she sounds out a new word all by herself.
The next section was Writing. Ellie got mostly 4's and a few 3's. He says:
"For the second half of the year we will be doing more first grade level reading where there will be a heavy focus on phonetic reading and writing. Ellie is already doing much of her writing phonetically and is able to very accurately approximate the correct spellings of words. The amazing thing is that there have been many occasions of her being able to remember a non-phonetic spelling the next time she uses the word even days later. From a legibility perspective, she already has very precise and excellent handwriting technique. We do a bit of work on building up her writing skills beyond penmanship and phonetic writing and towards learning about story and sentence structure. Ellie does a wonderful job learning about how stories are structured and flow as well as how to construct sentences, even showing a desire to expand her sentences with adjectives."
I have to say that this has shocked us as well. We are constantly finding sentences (whether on a piece of homework, class project or a scrap piece of paper lying around the house) that Ellie phonetically sounds out. She's not afraid of big words, either. One shocker was when we read the following title:
The next section was Sciences (mostly 3's with a few 4's) and reads:
"Ellie has a wonderful understanding of science and the scientific method. She loves experiments and is usually the first to try to both come up with a hypothesis as well as try to figure out what happened. It is that inquisitive nature that we try to teach, not just the facts learned. Ellie has a great ever-widening knowledge of scientific facts and not only picks up ideas quickly, but also retains the information for a long period of time as well."
I do have to say that Ellie is SOOO proud of herself for being able to come up with solutions, both in "how do we get make something happen" as well as "how do we resolve conflict." She is always asking us "Mommy, am I good at coming up with solutions?" or telling us "I love myself because I'm good at coming up with solutions!"
Social Studies (mostly 3's) reads:
"Ellie has a wonderful understanding of important inforamtion of herself and to be able to use it to keep safe. She also has a great understanding of the world and people's differences. WHen learning about new social studies concepts, Ellie has a quick understanding that also leads to her wanting to know more about a topic."
Mathematics (all 3's), Mr. John states:
"With Math, I do not give out 4's because I feel there is no advanced, you either know an aspect of math or you are developing that knowledge. Ellie is doing wonderful with math, she understands numerals and what they stand for and picks up quickly on some of the newer mathematical ideas that were introduced such as place value, greater than / less than, etc. She is quick to remember rote facts like additions and subtraction figures as well as quick to caculate answers. She enjoys the subject and looks forward to learning new ideas!"
Aww Math. Ellie likes to show off that she can do calculations in her head without using her fingers. She's a smart cookie.
OK... OK... I realize this is a long post about stuff that most people probably don't care to read, but here's where it REALLY got interesting for me. When it came time to talk about Art/Music/Physical Development, this is when I was in for s shock. Mr. John started with "And as I'm sure you know, Ellie is a true artist..."
A what? An artist? No, really, I didn't know that. Seriously, tell me more.
Here's what he wrote:
"Ellie creates very advanced artistic representatives and has a wonderful mastery of art techniques for her age. She loves to do art and is wonderfully precise with how she wants her artwork to look. She not only is capabel of creating very advanced artwork, but also is very creative as well. She addes touches and minor details that are beyond her years! She loves music and loves to create it as well as getting up and moving. Ellie understands the importance of movement and activity and looks forward to movement time each and everyday. She loves to learn new exercises or activities and then during free time later on tries to do the activity again."
And in summary...
"Ellie has been an excellent student and wonderful leader for the Kindergarten classroom. She is excelling at every aspect in regards to her education and always serves as a model of great behavior throughout the day. She is very much first grade read and will undoubtedly continue to excel in her academic career!"
Keep it together, Mommy. I'm so proud of this gentle soul.
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