We had a wonderful week! I would like to welcome Tanya and Reno to our class. We now have eleven good friends to learn with. The behavior in class with so many students is great and I am pleasantly surprised. We did so many things this week I don't know where to begin. Jae had a birthday party on Monday. On Thursday, my mother came for a visit again and we had a tea party. We made rose tea and after that we made a caterpillar and my mom read them the hungry caterpillar story. I am sorry that I forgot to take pictures of the children with my mother... It's too bad. Next week, she will visit again and this time I wont forget.

Jae is doing really great in class. She seems to be really enjoying herself as well.

Theresa is also doing great and she is always in a good mood and doesn't complain.

Elaine had a good week and she rarely asks when Mom is coming to pick her up. She doesn't cry and get homesick at school anymore either.

August is steadily improving and is happy to be in class.

Ryan is still having trouble controlling his outbursts in class. I have to stop him or else the whole class will join in. He doesn't like it when I need to have talks to him about his behavior.

August is trying hard. He is improving and will start improving at a greater pace when he matures.

Jason is much better behaved lately. He still gets overly excited when he is having fun and needs to be restrained. But he is a very bright boy and has a bright future. He just needs positive influence.

Ivy continues to exceed my expectations. She doesn't say too much in a day, but when she does, it is well thought out and clear. She is well suited to my class.

Christine's posture is still an issue. But, she is doing well both socially and academically.

Tanya is a different person in my class than I expected. She doesn't know the routines in my class yet, but she is catching on and will do great in the future. He behavior is far better than I expected and she is trying hard even though it is a big challenge for her.

Reno is very smart and will have no problems with the material. The things I need to focus with on things that deal with fairness and taking turns.

Yay welcome back from your holiday! I hope you all had as much fun as I did.
We had a fun week. On Friday I invited my mother in for a visit and the kids enjoyed having her around. She will be back to visit again. She is also a kindergarten teacher back in Canada.

We made sticky rice-ball soup and lanterns for our lantern festival.

We also check up on the flowers we planted before Chinese Newyear, but unfortunately none of them have sprouted yet. We added more seeds to the pot and maybe these ones will grow better.

This week in reading class we started a new book that they are going to love reading. It is a semester ahead of schedule for the class, but I feel they will be able to do it. So far they already can read most of the words in the first story.

In Science class this week we planted some flowers for our new greenhouse. The children already know what plants need to grow, but it was a good review for them. We also started creating a book about our five senses. So far we are finished sight and hearing.

In phonics we are still practicing how to differentiate between short i and short a sounds in short three letter words.

August surprised me this week during reading class. We played a game where the students have to read a line from the story before they can have their turn. It was Jason's turn and August wanted Jason to have a turn so he helped Jason read the page. Not only does this show that August is improving, but he is displaying more thoughtful behavior.

I saw signs of improvement in Elaine's social behavior this week. Children are talking to her more. She is still very dependent on the teachers on duty during play time, but it is improving.

Christine and Leetrue are getting into more and more trouble together lately. They are very noisy at inappropriate times during the day. This is mostly due to the fact that when they are talking, they want EVERYONE to hear what they have to say.

Theresa is well behaved, but has been taking longer than usual to finish her lunch. It is taking an hour just to eat. We'll try again next week.

It was lovely seeing Ryan again. The students miss him and can't wait to have him back. I think the break he is taking will do him some good. We can't forget how young he is and how mature he has gotten.

Jason has a lot of fun at school. I am trying hard to make him understand the right place and the right time to act silly. I just need to remain consistent with how I deal with him so I can change his thinking pattern.

I am so impressed with Ivy. She is already reading and she is always well behaved. She is a real pleasure to teach and will become a great role-model for her classmates.

I have had no problems this week with Jae's bossiness. Part of the reason is students are becoming less likely to fight over sitting beside her. She is now beginning to understand that kindness is a better way to make and keep friends than dominance.

We had an interesting first week to the new semester.

In science class, we learned about scientists and what they do. One of the things they do is measure. So we pretended to be scientists and we measured a whole bunch of things.

In Math class we played a leapfrog game and counted by 2's all the way to twenty! The students are getting better at it.

In Phonics class we learned to distinguish the middle sounds of words. All of the words were one syllable words but all of the class can get the right answer most of the time. We also took out the picture dictionary for the first time and students had to find some words in the dictionary using the alphabet as a guide. They did very well for their first time.

Christine was great. She has started to become able to sound out words. She was able to spell the word panda in class with my help sounding it out.

Jae is doing well academically, but her classroom manners and behavior is beginning to slip. She makes some mean comments to her classmates and has been talking while the teacher is talking especially with Theresa. I have had to separate the two of them often this week and it is the first time I have had to take such steps with either of them.

Theresa and Jae have become even closer in the last little while than before. I want to encourage them to be good friends, but they must know that being good friends should not be about excluding others or talking over the teacher.

August is getting much better in phonics. The puzzle pieces seem to be falling into place for him.

Jason has developed a habit of playing with his fingernails during class. This keeps his attention away from what he should be learning.

Leetrue talks very loud in class and when I am trying to get the class's attention, he often will continue to talk and even talk louder. It gets him in trouble quite often and it is an issue that is very difficult for him to fix.

Elaine has a habit of standing up in the middle of class and walking up to me to tell me something like how much she misses her mother or that she needs to blow her nose. She needs to learn how to raise her hand when she needs something.

Ivy is doing just fine. She is easily keeping up with the level of the class. Although her speaking ability is not quite as high as the others, her understanding, behavior and phonics/reading/writing level is right on!

It's the last week of the semester and the Badgers are all healthy and ready to learn again!
It's been a while since we had a full class and now with one more student the noise level in the class is a bit too loud. We had to get back to basics this week and practice raising our hands before we speak and not using our outdoor voices in the classroom.

In Phonics class, we are almost finished with all of our consonants. The only one we have left is "Z". So next semester we can focus all of our phonics time learning our vowels and blending them with the consonants.

In Math class we are starting to count by 2's 5's and 10's.

Leetrue is having lots of trouble raising his hand before he speaks. He also tends to want to tell stories during class time that has nothing to do with the subject we are talking about.

Jae and Theresa are talking and giggling a lot in class. It happens mostly when I am disciplining other students, and Theresa is beginning to make other children laugh when they are getting in trouble. I need to stamp this out quickly because it makes the person who is in trouble feel cool.

Elaine is very clingy. She spends most of her play time close to me, looking for hugs and wanting to sit on me. At first I didn't mind because she was new and she needed someone, but now she needs to start making friends and gaining some courage to go up and play with them.

August is starting to talk more in school and to teachers. Other teachers have noticed and mentioned it to me.

Ryan has an extremely difficult time sitting still in class and not making noises and laughing. I am gradually putting more pressure on him to stop this behavior because I don't want to discourage him.

Christine is well behaved for the most part and stays under the radar. Sometimes she joins into the gigglefest and talks to others when I am talking.

Jason has started with some odd behavior that needs to be stopped ASAP. He has started rolling his eyes when he is in trouble and looking to others for approval. This need for negative attention will be self reinforcing if it is not corrected ASAP. He needs more positive encouragement.

I had a great week with the class. I seem to have made a breakthrough with August and Jason in Phonics class. I played a phonics game using the letters we have been learning about lately and both of them didn't make any mistakes. They can now relate the sounds of the letters to the beginning sounds of the words. I am relieved that they have taken this step just in time for the beginning of next semester.

Leetrue is doing well. All he teachers love watching him play and talk to others. He is really funny and has a interesting, innocent perspective.

Theresa and Jae are really getting less competitive and becoming more cooperative. It's great to see them grow and mature together in a healthy way.

I had an other chat with Ryan this week about making friends and how to play with people nicely. I will keep reminding him and will encourage him on Monday to keep up his spirits.

This week in phonics we continued with letter "P" and started letter "Q". On Friday, teacher Angel and I combined our classes and made a giant quilt. (since quilt starts with "Q")

I told the class a made up story about a young girl and his brother. She always got angry when she didn't get what she wanted. He would be more understanding and his parents gave him more of what he asked for. She soon learned that doing what she did actually made it harder for her to get what she wanted.

I am working hard with August correcting him when he makes mistakes, and making sure he always tries to use complete sentences. I am also calling on him more and more in class and trying to boost his confidence so he is not afraid to speak out.

Jason is improving in phonics class. He is remembering more words that start with each sound and seems to be making a connection between letters and their beginning sounds.

Christine seems to be getting along very well with Elaine. They like to play together and sit next to each other.

Ryan was much better this week in class. He was back to his usual self. I'm going to start working on the tone he uses to talk to his friends. Sometimes he talks in a very aggressive tone, which causes tension in class.

Elaine is well behaved in class. She has a hard time falling asleep during nap time. She seems to be making a couple friends. One in Christine and an other girl named Estella in an older class.