During staff appreciation week, and after spending an entire day spent putting on the staff luncheon, followed by setting up for and helping out during the book fair, it was off to Ella's classroom for Literacy Night.
You learn a boatload in first grade. So when you're parents come to your classroom to see you stuff, you have every right to brag it up.
To go from a non-reader to a chapter book reader in one school calendar year? Nothing short of amazing to me.
The kids have been doing Georgia O'Keefe inspired paintings. How beautifully adorable.
Maya kept herself occupied by developing this new trick- plugging her nose and making her nostrils stick:
The kids made "kite" poems. We thought this was hers but it was one written about her from a friend. TOO. CUTE. (Being the kind of person I am I couldn't help but hope that this might be just the beginning of a long line of poems written about her. I know. You can hear the sounds of me trying to reel myself in.)
I think first grade is hard. You are done with the simply playing part of school and you have a huge amount of intellectual growing to do. You are finding your way as your own person, but there are still lots of things you can't decide for yourself. We see Ella searching for independence and power in less than ideal, and even self-destructive ways. I am trying to respond to the need by giving her more say, more wiggle room, but she is mostly uninterested in my offers. By definition of independence, she wants to exert when and what to choose for herself. As a result there is a lot of back talking, yelling, whining, discontent and grumpiness. It is exhausting and makes for a lot of sighing.
I am proud of my first grader and all she is becoming and sometimes I want my obedient kindergartner back!
2 comments:
Fun to remember when they are little and cute not big and pimply :) Is the last adjective on the poem about Ella whole language spelling for "parasite"? That's a good quality in a person!
Okay, so I asked the author of the poem about the last word. Apparently, the word was not parasite but person. The kids were supposed to write what their poem was about on the last line. It is a loose spelling of person for sure but I was relieved to know my child's friends don't think she is parasite.
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