Math
We just received the Right Start Math books and manipulatives this month
and enjoy them. They are definitely growing his base knowledge in math
in a far superior way than the horizon math K book which we were using
previously. I can see Trevor's fluency growing in the way this math is
taught and he is able to practice counting (without counting) using the
abacus, with blocks and even by grouping sounds by 5. The dreambox
practice has challenged him just the right amount without exasperating
him and showing me where more help is needed. Trevor's understanding of
place value needs work. He is improving greatly in his writing numbers
in the correct order. For example, he had a much worse habit of
writing seventeen as a seven on the right, then a one on the left. We
practice telling the date, weekday, and time every day and his
understanding is improving. I expect him to be more proficient with
place value and time within the next month. In spite of his poor test
scores on measurement, he seems to understand it and execute measuring
well. We are on lesson 8 of Right Start Math.
Trevor has completed about 1/2 of the kindergarten curriculum on
dreambox-- most of it about comparisons, ordering and counting with 31
lessons completed.
Trevor has read all 24 Fun Tales books, but has a hard time not slowing
down and focusing on the letter sounds instead of the pictures. This
problem is much less evident than at the beginning of October. He can
now fly through the Explode the Code pages in about 1/3 the time it took
him at the beginningof the month. He is on Lesson 11 of 11 in Explode
the Code 1.
Trevor no longer needs a pencil grip as he consistently holds his pencil
correctly, can write every letter in capital and lowercase correctly as
well as number 1-20. He had a small but definite problem of not always
going left to right in both writing and reading, but it is improving
week by week.
We are working on sight words, and will have mastered many more before
the end of the year.
Reading Eggs is a good online practice for Trevor. As he took the
placement test he simply became impatient/lazy and began guessing on the
answers. His progress since then has been quick, but a review. He
just unlocked level 5.
Trevor learned all the sounds of the alphabet, vowels and consanants,
and the sounds of ou, er, oy, oi, ay, ai, oo, ea, ch, ee, sh, th, and a
couple of spelling rules.
Trevor practices writing mostly in the form of letters to Grandma,
Grandpa, friends, etc.
We practice and discuss new vocabulary everyday . We are on chapter 33
of 36 in Uncle Wiggly's Story Book and chapter 20 of 21 of Milly Molly
Mandy and chapter 8 of The Boxcar Children.
Trevor is enrolled in a once-a-week Science Class through Providence Co-Op. Thru this he has participated in seed studies, yeast studies, and rockets. We also meet with a group of other kindergartners for science club. This month we studied polar regions and studied ice(berg) blocks in bathtubs. This club meets weekly on Wednesdays and we just started Oct. 24. At home we have been through Brain Pop Jr.'s earth science studies titled "Land" He watched this over and over with fascination repeating, "I didn't know that did you, mom?" We have made paper air races with folded paper. Trevor regularly helps me in the kitchen and we talk about physical properties of food at a kindergarten level. We have read Bearnstein Bears big book of Science, "How Do you lift a Lion?" (about simple machines), "Is the blue whale the biggest thing there is?" and "What's smaller than a pygmy shrew?" as well as pertinent parts of the Usborne Starting Point Science book "Why do Tigers have Stripes?"
PE/Health
Trevor is enrolled in Gem
State Gymnastics where he attends every Thursday for 45 minutes. He
recently learned to complete a real right-handed cartwheel and improves
weekly in following directions instead of playing class clown.
He
raced in the Harrison Classic October 14th and immediately decided to
"work out everyday from 1-5". We created a collage of healthy and
non-healthy foods from newspaper advertisements and we regularly review
what we've learned from BrainPop Junior on nutrition and dental health
which prompted him to
"NEVER" again drink strawberry milk.
