Week 4: Department Store Adventures

We’ve had another good week. I think we all enjoyed our trip to the department store on Tuesday. Parents, please note that beginning next week we will be doing morning exercises in our classroom independently. It will be especially important for all students to arrive before 9:00AM.

Sunny has made some significant improvements this week. She still has some trouble staying focused in class and dilly dallying in between classes, but I can tell she is working to improve. I’d like to reiterate that when Sunny applies herself, she picks up new material extremely quickly. Keep it up!

Lily has been behaving marvelously as little teacher. She has been finishing her work qu ickly and effectively. We will continue to focus on minding her own business, not other’s.

Esther has been a little reserved this week. She often completes her work a little more slowly than her classmates but much more thoroughly. Rather than finishing first, she has been the first to finish correctly. I hope she will continue in this manner.

Lauren has had a very strong week. Aside from reminding her not to chit chat with her friends on occasion, she has been focused, on task and excited. I hope she will approach the rest of the semester with the same spark in her eye.

Frank has been a little out of sorts this last week. He mentioned something about his grandmother earlier this week. He has also been complaining about his teeth hurting all week long. I know he just saw the dentist for some fillings but it seems like something might be wrong. On another note, I love to see the way he plays with his younger sister during recess. It’s not often that siblings enjoy each other’s company so thoroughly.

Carson has been on task and focused this week. If he keeps up the same work ethic, I’m sure he will make great progress this semester.

Henry has been a bit calmer this week. Just yesterday, we were reviewing a science lesson and he answered a question that nobody else new. When I told him he was correct, he threw his arms up in the air with a big smile on his face. It’s good to see him so excited about learning.

We’ve had another good week. Tuesday’s Bar-B-Q and balloon party was a real success. All the students learned to make their own balloon animals and balloon swords. As a class, we need to work on treating each other the way we would like to be treated. This looks like it will become a theme over the next semester.

Frank has been making improvements in his math and reading. We will continue working on his reading comprehension. He needs to make a real effort to play during recess and focus during class. I’ve had to remind him a few times this week not to chat with his classmates while we are working.

Carson has made great progress this week. He is working hard on reading and I can see noticeable improvements. Keep up the hard work.

Henry, also, has been putting forth an effort to pay attention and calm down in the classroom. I hope he will continue on the same trend. Reading is especially hard for some students. If he keeps working like this, I’m sure his effort will pay off.

Sunny has had hard week. She’s clearly a very smart girl but she has trouble focusing in class and dawdles in between classes. She pushed another girl rather hard while waiting in line the other day. The latter behavior is especially unacceptable. That being said, she was focused and on task this morning, finishing her work quickly and effectively. Sunny has the opportunity to be a very strong student but only if she applies herself.

Lily is smart and quick to pick up new ideas in class. Sometimes she gets a little bored while she is waiting for other students to finish their work. I hope she can learn to be as well behaved as she is bright and hard working. She has also picked up the habit of tattling on other students. I’d like to cut that out right away.

Lauren has been doing an excellent job as little teacher. I think she did get bumped in the eye rather hard the other day. The other students were swinging a bit more enthusiastically than they should have been. On the other hand, Lauren was standing right next to them and should have been more aware of her surroundings. The back of one of the boy’s shoulders caught her right in the eye. I’ve placed her at a permanent desk closer to the board, so she should be able to see from now on. We have enough eye patches to last through Tuesday afternoon.

Esther has been having a good week. She’s usually very attentive to her work. I’ve been enjoying doing arts and crafts projects with her while the other students take their Chinese Class. I hope next week she can focus on paying attention during class time rather than chatting with her friends.

This week we have continued to make progress through the coursework. We’ve made a big jump in math from addition and subtraction to the concepts of how many more than and how many less that. That will take some time to sink in. We have also begun working through our one of our new books, the conversation based TOP textbook. The also began their Chinese class Tuesday morning. Chinese class will be in the morning on Tuesdays for August. This September we will begin having Chinese class on Tuesday afternoons.


Carson is still only with us in the afternoons but he has been working hard, focusing and making strong improvements. This semester I’d like to see Carson make some real progress on his reading. I will begin working on sight recognition of high frequency vocabulary words later this week.

Henry is also only with us in the afternoons. The last few days he has been focusing in class. He also needs to put in some hard work, especially focusing on reading. Same as Carson, I will begin introducing high frequency vocabulary words later this week.

Frank seemed like he was a bit out of sorts earlier this week. He was especially quiet yesterday. Today he seems to be back to his normal, personable self. Most boys would feel a little uncomfortable being the only boy in class but he holds his own.

Lauren has been having a good week. She seems to be getting more and more comfortable in the classroom. She struggled a bit with our new math concepts but with a little more work, I think she’ll get it.

Lily has again proved that she is an extremely smart girl. She often picks up new ideas faster than her classmates but she needs to work on sitting quietly while she waits for everyone else to finish their work. She has already earned the teacher’s helper award three times.

Esther has, for the most part, had a very good week. She’s usually diligent and focused. From time to time, I need to remind her that class time is not the time to chat with her friends.

Sunny has been having a little bit of trouble this week. She often isn’t completely focused in class. She’s almost always the last student to finish lunch, the last student to be ready for class, the last student to roll up her sleeping bag after nap time, etc. I’d like to see her work on taking care of these things herself, without being reminded over and over again. She needs to work on using her time efficiently.

Week 1 Pictures

Welcome Back

Hello Parents,

I have greatly enjoyed getting to know each of my knew students. They are all such wonderful, bright and well behaved children. I was expecting to spend this week mostly getting to know each other and setting ground rules but they were ready to continue working. We've been making steady progress through the semester coursework.

Lily is an extremely bright and mostly well behaved young girl. From time to time, she gets a little to excited. She needs to make an effort to listen to her peers as well as making her own contributions. Lily won our good student competition on Wednesday and has been rewarded by serving as Teacher's Helper today.

Sunny is also quite smart. She seems to do everything, from textbooks to the lunchroom, accurately but slowly. Taking care with the things you do is important but I'd like to see her put an effort into completing each task with a bit more efficiency.

Lauren has been a little shy in the classroom but I can tell there is a vibrant, engaging personality underneath. After a brief mix up the first morning, she has been very responsible putting on her eye patch for two hours each morning and one hour in the afternoon. FYI, we will need more eye patches on Monday.

Esther is very studious and a little more withdrawn than the other students in the class. It's not that she doesn't get along with the other students; she does. From time to time the other girls get a bit cliquish. She doesn't seem to care about the more trivial social competitions. She shows a surprisingly mature strength of character on this level.

Frank is the only boy in our class during the mornings this August but he has held his own. He was a little shaky on some of his mathematics at first but he seems to have gotten a firm grasp for basic subtraction over the last few days. He's on track.

Carson is only with us for the afternoons now. He is a little older than the other students and has proven a positive role model. He struggles a bit reading out loud but he clearly has the phonetic tools to work it out on his own. We will work on this in the future.

Henry is also only with us in the afternoons. He is easily excitable and needs to put in an effort to calm down and focus when we begin class time. Once he does settle down, he is a positive force in the classroom but it takes a great deal of work to him to that point.