Mr. B's Badgers

2010-03-05T19:00:00.005+08:00

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.

2010-02-26T16:10:00.003+08:00

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.

2010-02-12T12:24:00.004+08:00

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.

2010-02-05T12:17:00.002+08:00

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!

2010-01-29T12:40:00.003+08:00

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.

2010-01-22T18:49:00.003+08:00

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.

2010-01-15T12:26:00.003+08:00

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.

2010-01-08T09:14:00.003+08:00

The Badgers would like to welcome our new student Elane to the Badger class!

Yay! we got our classroom back! The room feels so much bigger than it used to because we were in such a small room for 2 weeks. The children seem happy to have more room to move around in, and so am I. Now lets just hope for better weather :)

The new washrooms in the school were the first time the boys in my class used a real toilet in the school. They always used urinals before, so at first there was pee all over the toilets. (It wasn't only our class)

I took the opportunity to teach the boys to lift up the seat and wipe anything left behind after. I also told the girls to look before they sit and wipe anything left behind before they sit on it. I was surprised how quickly the bathroom stayed clean. After one day it was much better.

We are happy Jason is back and healthy again. He was quite well behaved during class time except that he has forgotten to use his indoor voice in class and I often have to remind him to save his outdoor voice for outside.

Leetrue has also been very loud in class. He often sings songs and makes loud sound effects at inappropriate times. I am also having difficulty getting the truth out of Leetrue. I don't mean that he lies, but he often exaggerates stories and sometimes misunderstands the intentions of his friends' actions. He knows the boy who cries wolf story but has not taken it to heart.

Ryan is doing great in class. He is getting along very well with the boys in the class and they enjoy playing together now.

Jae did an excellent job during craft time this week. I taught the class how to cut a circle out from the middle of the paper and she did an excellent job. It is very hard to stop Jae from getting a big ego and controlling others in the class, because it is the others in the class that feed the problem. They all want to sit next to her, sleep next to her, play with her etc... She is slowly getting better at controlling the situation in a nice way.

Elane will go through an adjustment phase in her new class. But she is very brave at school and not afraid to have fun with students. It won't take long for her classmates to accept her into the group.

Theresa was a little bit rude to Elane this week during class saying things that one might say to a new student. But on Friday, especially after Mom talked to her about that in the morning, I could see that she made a great effort to be nice to her and accept her as a friend. I was very happy to see that.

August has been copying his friends in a mocking way. He does this to vent his frustration when he doesn't get what he wants. It is often Leetrue that he mocks. Since they are good friends and they always play together, they just don't always get along.

2009-12-31T13:00:00.002+08:00

Happy New Year!
This week the class had to put up with a change of classroom. As you know the school is being redecorated. The students were very well behaved even if they had to deal with a week in a smaller classroom. I tried my best to get them out of the room as often as possible so they can get a chance to move around and play while they learn.

We started counting by twos and I made it more exciting by going outside and jumping on numbers as we say them out loud.

Next week a new student will join the class. I hope the Badgers can be accepting and make this new girl feel at home.

In phonics class we reviewed letters W R and C. Some of them got W And R confused because they sound a little bit alike.

Jason remembered that the word wagon starts with W. I am not sure if he made the connection with the beginning sound, or if he just memorized it.

August missed most of the week. All the badgers wish him a quick recovery.

Ryan really likes playing with the girls in the small class. He knows I don't like the way he puts his arms around them, especially when they complain about him grabbing them. Sometimes, when he is grabbing them, he knows I am watching and he looks over at me and stops right away. I am not sure if he is stopping because he knows I don't want him doing that, or if it is because he understands that what he is doing in inappropriate. I know he is a boy that cares a lot about his friends but other students don't understand that he just wants to give hugs.

The class misses Christine and hops that she can get well soon. I hate tummy aches :(

Leetrue has been saying that he will "tell on" his friends even when they did nothing wrong. I think Leetrue miss understand the intention of some of his friends and thinks that they are always saying mean things or doing mean things when in fact they just want to tell him something.

2009-12-24T16:33:00.002+08:00

Merry Christmas!
This week we talked about the true meaning of Christmas. The children should know now that Christmas is really about sharing, family and giving. It was funny when I asked the first time all the children said Christmas was about presents.

Jae had a some trouble this week. She hit her friend on Wednesday and said mean things to her other friend on Friday. Jae has power with her popularity but she needs to learn how to use that power in a good way, not in a selfish way.

Theresa has been complaining abut who she wants to sit beside when there is already someone sitting in that spot, she still whines about wanting to sit there.

Christine is getting better at raising her hand when she wants to speak, she is half way there. She raises her hand and speaks at the same time. She needs to be reminded that she needs to wait when she raises it.

I feel Jason does most of his learning outside the classroom. He is great with me and other teachers during playtime and after school. But he has extreme difficulty paying attention during a lesson in class and this is the reason he can't remember his phonics. Also when he is asked a question during class, he is very rarely able to answer it on his own unless someone says the answer first. He will repeat what the students' answers are whether they are right or wrong. The difference in his behavior from outside the class to inside is like night and day.

Leetrue is becoming a well rounded student. He has come a long way this semester.

I know Ryan is very young, and I try not to be too hard on him. I still need to work on his posture in class, and I need to work harder to get him to understand how to play with his friends in an appropriate way.

August has been getting away for too long using body language and incomplete sentences to tell his teachers things. I'm going to tell all the teachers that when August wants something that they need to make him use his vocabulary to express his thoughts.

2009-12-18T09:01:00.004+08:00

What a show eh? The children really had fun at the Christmas show after working so hard, almost too much fun ;) But now the class has to get back into the rhythm of our regular schedule so we can get crackin' again.

Christine getting really creative when she creates funny stories that she tells all of us. One story was about when she was shopping with her mom and a shark attacked them!

Theresa was a great help in the Christmas show. She could always remember wen she was suppose to sing her part and she helped lead the students in the song.

Jae is a good dancer. She has good rhythm. She would always dance to the beat even when she was learning.

Ryan had fun at the show too. He was obviously very happy and a bit in awe when he was on stage. I had a chat with him about what he should do if he is angry with others, and he knows that he should talk to people instead of hurting people.

August loves telling his friends about his new airplane and helicopter. His is very happy with his Christmas present.

Jason had so much fun. He was talking about all the people in his family that came to see the show and he was very proud that they were all there. He loves his family very much.

Leetrue is so funny when I tease him about how his dinosaur is a chicken. He gave me a tisk and rolled his eyes and asked why I always say they are chickens. It is a much better reaction than the first time I made a joke. He cried that time. Now he has learned how to laugh and not take everything personally.

Even Watercolor Markers Are Difficult to Remove

2009-12-11T12:57:00.004+08:00

Publish Post
A rough week for the Badgers is over. This week the students seemed to be retesting my boundaries. The class has been unresponsive lately. For example, if I ask the children to get a chair and drink water, they all mull around slowly and I have to tell each of them individually what is expected of them. I would expect this behavior from children their age some of the time, because they tend to forget the rules, but this has been happening time and time again, hour after hour, day after day.

I would not be surprised if you notice your children are not in as good a mood as they are usually. I hopefully can help them understand that if they are better behaved in class, that they can have more fun at school.

August had some trouble remembering words that start with "w". August was not as poorly behaved as the other students this week. He had one bad day and he learned from his mistake.

Jae has been in the habit of saying it was not her that did something when it clearly was. On nap time Teacher Beryl and I walked into the classroom during nap time and she and her friends were laughing and talking. When we told them to stand up, she said it wasn't her, even after we clearly caught her red-handed.

Christine has been in the habit of doing things one last time just after I tell the class not to. For example, when I had a chat to the class about how to line up straight and quietly so we can do our chant properly and leave, right after I finished talking she made a silly noise just to spite me.

Leetrue has been in the habit of continuing to talk during lessons. I notice that some people are still talking and I ask the class to please quiet down. Leetrue doesn't quiet down until he is finished what he is saying.

Ryan felt really bad for what he did this week. And I am glad he learned an important lesson about being honest.

I have had to move Theresa away from Jae a couple times this week because they were chatting when I was talking about important things they should have been listening to. Lately I think that she thinks the problems lately in the class have nothing to do with her and therefore she doesn't need to pay attention.

Jason's had trouble especially during nap time this week.

P.S.

I must admit that on Friday afternoon the class was much better.

2009-12-04T16:22:00.002+08:00

Practice, practice, practice! The kids love rehearsing for the Christmas show. They are getting very good at their song and dance but they need to work on their focus and composure.

Christine had a good week. She seemed to be in a good mood all the time. Having someone always happy in the class make everyone else happy, including me.

I was disappointed in Jae's Behavior at the end of school on Friday. She took someone's take home reader and it made them upset. I know she usually tries to do things that help out, but she needs to understand that it is not her place to act like an authority unless she has been given a responsibility. I didn't have much of a talk with her, but I could tell she knew I was disappointed and I know she regrets what she did, which is a good thing.

I can see that August has been practicing his lines for the Christmas play. It is getting much better and smoother. I will do some more pronunciation drills with the class and with August to help with fluency.

Leetrue has come a long way in his maturity level lately. He is begining to know when it is appropriate to joke around and when it is time to be serious.

Theresa didn't cry after waking up this week. It was much different from previous weeks. She was in a much better mood.

Ryan was very funny this week. Each day after nap time he would pretend to be a monster and go to the baby class and make the children there laugh. They loved watching him be silly. It even made me laugh. His sense of humor is maturing.

Jason practiced very hard for our dance and puts alot of energy into it. It is exciting to see how hard he tries when he is doing something he likes to do. I hope I can become better and letting Jason know that he can do more of the things he likes to do if he tries hard at the things he might not like as much.

2009-11-27T09:11:00.004+08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! This week we have a delicious Thanksgiving feast and the children loved it. It was exciting to see the children try and eat new foods and all of the badgers liked it very much.

In Phonics we started on the letter Ww. They love using the computers to help them learn how to write the letters and it seems to help them remember the right way.

In Math class, we did an exercise that challenged their attention span and common sense. The children are getting better at writing the numbers now. We are past the hard part. the last numbers except for eight should be easy for them now.

In science we are still doing the states of matter. This week we learned about liquid. And what better way then with water balloons!

We got some new sight words in reading class this week. The words are starting to get longer now, and students are realizing that one word can have more than one syllable. "Butterfly" is now the biggest word on the wall replacing "yellow".

I am determined to guide my class down a path away from tattling. The students are beginning to understand that they are getting rewarded for solving their differences on their own. It is a big step for them to take and they have a long way to go, but they are starting to see the right path.

Jae
Everyone always wants to sit next to Jae, just this week I noticed that it is starting to go to her head, and she is beginning to pick and choose who can sit beside her. So I have given the students permanent seating. I also noticed just today that when it was time to wash her hands before snack that she just quickly rinsed her hands. I will keep an eye on this and make sure she keeps up good hygiene habits.

Leetrue also almost always forgets to wash his hands, but he knows I am watching him. It is funny because now all I have to do is look at him and he knows that he forgot to wash them and he goes back and does it properly.

Christine has been sticking her fingers in her mouth again. And she doesn't pull up her chair and sit on it properly. She usually has her chair too far back with one foot on the floor and one knee on the chair. I also often have to tell the other students to sit properly but I am especially concerned with her posture.

August
For the Christmas show, all the students have to say what they want for Christmas. August knows what he wants for Christmas and has no problem saying the word "airplane" in normal conversation, but when it comes time for him to say his lines, for some reason he seems to struggle with it and each syllable comes out very slowly. "For Christ-mas - I - want - an - air - plane."I think it's because when we he said it by himself the first time he said ""a" airplane", but we needed to correct it to ""an" airplane". This threw him off a bit. Maybe he could practice a bit at home.

Jason is still struggling to follow along with his finger when reading along with us. I don't expect him to be able to read right now, the first step for him is to recognize the divisions between words so he can follow with his finger. It would be good for him if when you were reading with him at home, if you could ask him to follow with his finger while someone else reads the words. Then he could try to repeat it and point.

Ryan has changed from the young new boy who could hardly hold a pencil, to one who can write many letters and numbers correctly. He is also now able to follow complex instructions and execute independently. Don't worry about him I believe he just has lots of energy, and a huge imagination.

Theresa has been quite grumpy after nap time recently. It takes her a long time to get into gear and ready for class time. And if she is urged to move faster, she just takes even longer. I realize that all she wants is some attention and a hug, and I will try and make her understand that she will be able to get more positive attention from me if she gets ready for class more quickly, then she will have some more time for a hug. I just don't want to give her what she wants when she exhibits grumpiness.

2009-11-20T09:16:00.006+08:00

Christmas is coming fast and this week we started practicing our song and dance. The students love singing and dancing and they will put on a great show. In phonics class we reviewed letters Ll, Nn and Dd. The children are having trouble writing the small "d" so I will spend more time on it with them. Math class these days has been more a focus on writing numbers. The hardest one for them is number 5 so far, but number 2 and 3 are also difficult.
They are really starting to love reading. I have been treating reading for them as a sort of play time and it is really working well. And they are actually proud to show how good they are to their friends and I.

Christine is really developing a great sense of humor. She loves to change the words to songs to make them funny.

Jae is getting good at figuring out rhyming words. She has no problem rhyming words with cat. I noticed that Jae is getting good at indirect learning. She listens closely when I am talking to other students and applies what I have told them to herself.

Theresa bought a top this week with her money. She is having trouble getting it to spin. It will be good practice for her hand eye coordination.

Ryan is still having trouble sleeping in class. His imagination runs wild during nap time and he still can't stay still enough to fall asleep. Next week we will take him out of the classroom so he doesn't disturb the others. I don't want to get angry at him, I just want him to understand that he has to keep quiet so the others can sleep and if he can't he must leave the class. I hope he doesn't like having to leave the room and after a week, when he is again able to rejoin the class, that he improves.

Leetrue is really beginning to accelerate his his learning pace. His speech and grammar is getting better and so are his manners and behavior.

Jason was well behaved for the most part this week. His attention span has improved a great deal since I joined. If he continues to improve this way, he'll begin to better understand the more difficult lessons in class.

I am sorry I left out August's comments.

I have been reviewing some of the past letters recently and have noticed that he is memorizing the words that go with each letter instead of listening for the letter. Just today I asked what word started with Ll and he said "tiger". It is obvious to me that he is getting tiger confused with lion because they look alike not because they sound alike.

2009-11-13T12:24:00.002+08:00

This week I really noticed how much the children lie to each other and to me. It is becoming very difficult to tell who is telling the truth and who is lying. I have been thinking about how to solve this problem and have decided that I am going to start punishing the whole class by taking away play time until one of them tells the truth. I want the children to know that lying is wrong and it hurts everyone when a lie is told.

Jae has been chatting more often during class at inappropriate times. She is also getting into the habit of not sitting properly in her chair, but I am reminding her to pull in her chair and sit with her back on the backrest.

I have not noticed Christine putting her fingers in her mouth this week. If i see it again I will remind her. I have a feeling that once she stops putting her fingers in her mouth she might start a new habit, like what happened when she stopped putting her hair in her mouth.

Theresa's allergies have been bothering her, but once I put some eucalyptus gel on under her nostrils she seemed to feel a bit better.

Jason was caught lying to me in class. I am glad that he admitted that he lied. He drank water out of Theresa's water bottle and then told me that he didn't . I asked him again a few times and he finally admitted that he did and I made him wash it.

August was acting a bit greedy during playtime this week. He was playing with someone else's toy for a very long time and not sharing it with others. He was very upset when he was forced to share the toy with his friend.

Ryan has a difficult time with forgiveness. Sometimes if a friend accidentally hurts him and says sorry to him, he will say that it's not okay. He has no problem saying that it is okay if it doesn't hurt so badly, but if it really hurts he has a more difficult time forgiving his friend.

Leetrue is one of the ones that is very good at getting away with things. I have yet to catch him in a lie, but I think that he sometimes does. If someone says that Leetrue hurt them he will never admit to it, and for some reason other students never seem to see it happen and neither do I.

2009-11-06T16:21:00.003+08:00

This week we said goodbye to Halloween and hello to Thanksgiving. I told the class a story about Squanto, but I'll have to do it again a couple times for the meaning of it to sink in. In Math class we starting learning about ordinal numbers. 1st, 2nd and 3rd aren't a problem but the rest of them are hard to pronounce. We will practice the "th" sound, and I am introducing a new lineup chant for them so they can practice these numbers.

Leetrue has been eating his lunch very slowly lately. We are pushing him to eat more quickly so he has more time to sleep and so he doesn't disrupt the class when he comes to bed late.

Ryan is still having trouble sleeping, but he does not go to the bathroom over and over again like he used to. It's a step in the right direction.

August had a good week and everyone was so happy that he brought a train to school on Friday. He was very proud of his train.

Jason is also having trouble sleeping during nap time. If this continues he will loose more privileges until he is able to at least lie quietly in class without disturbing others.

Christine's cutting with scissors is very surprising. She is able to follow any line or pattern almost perfectly with her scissors.

Jae is so excited that we are making turkey for Thanksgiving and is always asking me when we can continue working on our turkey.

Theresa was a great leader this Friday and was able to lead her class in the new line-up chant. I'm very happy with her maturity level.

2009-10-30T09:27:00.004+08:00

Finally Halloween is here and the children love it. We practiced our chants for the Halloween show and did some Halloween related activities. In Phonics we learned the letter "Dd" and finished up with the letter Ll. We also reviewed letter Ff. We practiced throwing and catching a ball, and practiced bouncing a ball to a friend. We also did some team building activities where students have to work together to solve a problem that they can't do alone.

August Leetrue and Jason usually forget to wash their hands after they go to the washroom. Please remind them when they are at home too. I will teach them how to wash their hands again next week and remind them about why they should always keep their hands clean.

Ryan doesn't seem as happy at school as he was when he first started. I'm not sure what the reason is. I feel you should know. If you find out why, please let me know. If I ever ask him something serious like that, he doesn't reply.

The Christine and Jae had a great time dressing up and fighting over who could be Ryan's princess.

One small problem with Christine, Jae and Theresa is that because they are so competitive with each other, they get into the habit of speaking out of turn in the class. It's great that they are paying attention and know the answer, but it makes the class environment very noisy.

2009-10-23T13:01:00.003+08:00

This week we make some cool bats out of our own hand prints. The children are very excited about Halloween and ask me every day if Halloween is today or tomorrow.

We made a little pocket reading book and I teamed up some of the weaker students with some of the stronger ones and they tried to read the whole story book together without help from me. Each team was able to do it and I was very happy to see them try so hard. They were very proud that they could read a book they have never seen before.

In phonics we started to learn about the letter Ll. At least it is easy to write, but it is a very difficult letter to pronounce for non native English speakers. For example the "l" at the end of the word Beautiful. If you want to practice at home tell your child to bit the very tip of their tongue softly and push up while making a noise.

August needs to work on his pronunciation. Sometimes he is difficult to understand and he leaves out or slurs words when he speaks too fast. One of the problems think is that when other children are repeating the words I say, he isn't. His listening will improve when he does this, but his speaking will suffer.

It is difficult for me to explain to Leetrue that the tone he uses to talk sounds like whining or complaining. Even when he is not complaining, it sounds like he is. I have not heard him speak Chinese so, I'm not sure if this is only a problem he has in English, or if it is just his personality.

Ryan was better behaved this week. When we sang a song I noticed him singing along with us and he seems more eager to join in other activities.

Christine did very good in the reading activity this week. She worked well with her partner. She is a good team player.

Theresa loves telling stories in class about the things she likes to do or things she has done. The students listen to her stories and it makes them also tell interesting stories about themselves.

Jae's writing and cutting skills are excellent. She always writes the letters on the correct line and she takes her time to make sure she does it properly the first time. This is an excellent habit.

Get well soon Jason!

2009-10-16T12:19:00.003+08:00

This week I had a hard time with the boys in the class. They are all having trouble getting along with each other. It's not anyone's fault in particular, it's all of them as a group. They have been taunting each other and trying to get the other in trouble. None of the boys will get all their stamps as long as they keep up this behavior. If this continues next week, I will start taking away their playtime as well. The boys need to learn to be good friends to each other and how to take responsibility for their behavior.

In phonics class, we learned Gg. The small G is very hard for the children to write and the big one usually ends up looking more like a 6 than a G. They also get the sound G makes confused with the sound J makes. But I might have to spend more time on G than I expected.

In math class we learned to count from 10-17. Most of the students forget the number 15, I guess because it doesn't sound like 5.

In reading we continued to review the words we learned and learned a few more from the book, "I Like To Hop".

Jae did very well this week. She knew 26 of the sight words on the wall. I have no complaints about her behavior. I had a talk with the class about taking a shower, brushing your teeth and helping around the house. I told the class that they should do these things before their parents ask them to. And that you should not be scared or angry at your parents for making them do these things. They make you do it because they love you. I hope it helped Jae at home. Let me know if this problem happens again. Keep up the good work Jae.

I'm glad to see Theresa is back. On Friday morning she was very upset, but we couldn't figure out why. Her Mom said she was good at home but she still seemed to be acting strangely and was crying a lot. She did stop crying in time for class and was fine for the rest of the day. I'm not sure if it is because of what has happened at home, or if it because she might be scared to get in trouble at school for being naughty in the morning even if she is not.

Christine had an odd incident at school today. August was moving in his chair and he accidentally put it on her foot without her knowing. Christine just said that August hurt her and I didn't understand how she was hurt. I went over to her to check, and realized that his chair was still on her foot and he didn't know. I found it very strange that she didn't tell him to get off. I checked her foot and it was okay.

Leetrue's and August's sensitivity them into trouble. They other boys know that they can easily upset them by saying pretty much anything. For example,"My pencil is longer than yours".

Jason and Ryan know that what they are saying should not make the others upset. But they also know that it does and they say silly innocent things to them on purpose to make them angry. It's not what they are saying that is wrong, it is the purpose they say it.

I will let you know next week if the situation with the boys improves.

2009-10-09T16:54:00.001+08:00

This week in Phonics we continued with the letter Ff. The children learned many new words that start with Ff.

In reading class we used our sight words to make scentences, and I introduced a new game where the children say a word and the other team needs to find it. I also started getting the children to make a scentence with a word. They loved to make silly sentences like; The pig is on my head.

In Math class we reviewed both patterns and charts. The children have little problem with charts, but patterns remain a challenge.

For arts and crafts we made a ghost out of glue and googly eyes.

This months theme is integrity and I told the children the story of the boy who cried wolf. We did a funny role play with the puppets in class and the children were able to improvise what the charecters would say without me telling them. You can ask them to tell you the story to see how much detail they can remember.

Leetrue had a good week with his behavior. He aslo did quite well in the reading games we played. He had so much fun making the ghost.

Christine also was well behaved this week. Her work was very neat. When she was making the ghost she had some problems following instructions and she did some steps too quickly and had to redo it.

Jason had a few problems this week. A couple times he hurt his friends' feelings. But he did try very hard in his class work and he is improving in other areas like phonics and math.

August is having a hard time with his phonics. He has trouble remembering the begining sounds and had only memorized a one or two words for each letter.

Jae was very well behaved this week. She always gets ready after playtime very qucikly. She gets her chair and her water bottle ready without asking. She is excelling in each subject.

Theresa is also doing well in every subject. She did a beautiful job with her ghost and I can't wait to see what it will end up looking like.

2009-10-02T18:36:00.002+08:00

This week was a difficult one for the class. I had to crack down on the students often for speaking out of turn, making random outbursts and not paying attention during lessons. They have extreme difficulty controling themselves when they are excited, (which is understandable for their age) but they need to learn consideration for others. If you notice your child shouting your name over and over to get your attention, or inturrupting you while talking to someone else without saying excuse me, please explain to them that it is rude and that you would never do that to them.

In phonics class this week we practiced writing the letter Jj which is the first letter we have learned which goes below the line. Teacher Jason also introduced the letter Ff for the children on Friday in my absence, and teacher Angel did some arts and crafts with the students in the morning I am sure they must have enjoyed.

In Math class we learned about patterns. It was difficult for the children to catch on at first but all of them can to the easy ones now. They made their own pattern on the wall in the class room.
And example of a pattern they are learning...

A B C B A B C B A ?

The reading book we are doing now is a little harder than the others. It's less repetitious and I have to take it slowly. It will take them a little while longer to memorize the sight of the new words in the book. But I am convinced all of the students can now recognize at least a few words including eachothers names and some of the other words from the other books. You can practice at home and see if they recognize any of these words: I, see, red, blue, yellow, a, bike, tire, rock, cat, pig, duck, look, tap, and, can, nap, on, my, bed, pillow, no, see

In science we are learning about the seasons but it is hard for them to relate to the 4 seasons since they have never seen the changes in the seasons and therefore difficult for them to understand that flowers blossom in the spring, and what winter is.

Happy birthday Leetrue!

2009-09-24T15:17:00.003+08:00

This week the badger boys seemed to make a breakthrough in phonics and writing. The phonics and writing activities I do with the class seem to be paying off and they are beginning to be able to distinguish beginning sounds and are starting to be able to write letters properly on the lines. The next hurdle is for them to recognize the sight words we are learning. I apologize for missing Ryan's blog last week. You can check his and all the other student's progress in this week's monthly report.

2009-09-18T12:36:00.004+08:00

This week in phonics class we learned how to write Mm and what words begin with that sound. Writing Capital M was easy but the lowercase m was more difficult. In reading class we read a cut out book to review the "I see red, yellow, blue" book we read at the begining of the semester. In science class we saw that the bean plants we planted on Friday were beginning to grow, but without soil, the plants would not survive. The class demanded that we put soil on the cups to save them. We also learned about earth and what we can do with earth, and also the diffrent types of land like canyons, plains and mountains.

Jae is doing very well. I'm pleased with her progress.

Christine is trying very hard in reading class and it is paying off. Even if she is memorizing the words instead of reading them, she can begin to recognize the high frequency words we are using.

Theresa had a hard time during nap time this week. I tried to explain to her that sometimes you may get into trouble even if it is not your fault when you put yourslelf into bad situations. She is a bit young to understand though.

Jason and August are struggling with phonics. We have done letters Tt,Ss,Hh,Mm,Bb but they still guess words that begin with those letters. They knows what sound the individual letters make, but can not make the connection between that sound and the first sound of any given word. I will continue to focus more attention on them in Phonics class.

Leetrue is doing well in class. My focus with Leetrue is on his social interaction with other children and his perception of what is and isn't fair.

2009-09-10T12:22:00.008+08:00

This week we started learning about the letter Hh. The children are getting better at writing the letters, but still have difficulty writing them on the line. In reading class we started a new book called Can Pig Nap. We put the sight words up on the wall so the children can look at them everyday and begin to read them. In Match class, we reviewed, top bottom, middle, left and right and did excercises to reinforce what we learned. In Science we talked about the homes of different animals and used the following scentence pattern. "Where do bears live?". "Bears live in caves".

Leetrue has a tendency to whine. I try not to respond to him when he whines. I would like him to ask for things he wants rather than complain. I would encourage you to reinforce this at home.

August is well behaved and quiet in class, but often he does not repeat after me when I introduce a word or a sentence pattern to the class. I believe if he di, that he would improve tremendously. I will encourage him to.

I hope Jason is back soon. This week we pretended he was in the class by pulling out a chair for him and putting a book in front of him. The class misses him.

Ryan is doing well and he remembers new words quickly. He has his own way of learning where he repeats very loudly. I am leanient with him when I know he is trying to learn and being very loud.

Im pleased with Christine's progress. She seems to be having more fun at school and retaining more of what she learns.

Jae did very well this week with the new reading puzzle we have in our class. Her reading is coming along very well.

Theresa also did quite well with the reading puzzle this week. It was fun watching her and Jae cooperate to get more pieces together.