October Notes

 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.