1st Grade Conferences for Isaak

We had conferences last week for both kids. Remember that Yin | Yang thing I posted about last week? The conferences we went to made us feel proud of our son's. Another positive added to our lives. I don't want you | my readers thinking that I'm entirely negative all the time. It's just that a negative wind hit us.

We started with Isaak. Isaak's groups started something new in Kindergarten. His class does self guided conferences. Isaak's teacher had booths set up for the kids to show us what they do in the classroom. There were a few word game booths, a money booth, and more.

Isaak loves to count money.

His teacher talked with us, while Isaak showed us around.
 
When he went to show us the reading games he mastered most of the words. I mentioned how Isaak says he hates reading. She said, "He said that to me to. He reads at the end of 1st grade for his reading level. I think he's just not there with his attention span to read big books just yet. He's doing fine with reading though."

I know some kids get into different things at different times. A month from now he may be into reading, and math will take a backseat for awhile.
 
Isaak is above in math. He knows how to do multiplication, and he's only in 1st grade.

Behavior wise he's only gotten 2 yellow dots all year. Green is good, yellow is distracted, and red is where kids couldn't focus at all. Isaak got bothered when he got the yellow dots. 

The things Isaak needs to work on is doing things he doesn't want to do, and not being so moody. When Isaak's bothered buy say the yellow dot he got, or how someone else was naughty in school it's like it's the end of the world.

Isaak is a smarty pants. He's in the gifted class at school.
 
In the hallway every kid had a Martin Luther King Jr. 

Isaak's said,

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was...get along. Everyone to be in the same places.

My dream is to get alaing (along) because we nede (need) to de (be) nise (nice).

He had a monster up in the classroom to.

I'll try and figure out what this one says, 

My monster's name is Scary it is a mean monster. It eats a bee. It likes water. It lives in a bat cave. It scares bears away for me. Because bears pick on my trees. It is strong. It also stomps on snakes so hard that the snakes goes away. It has paws to scratch things. It has very big muscles. It is green. It is ten years old.

Isaak wrote this towards the beginning of the year. 

I'm glad he's doing well in school!

Isaak's School Conferance

I went to Isaak's conference alone, since Daddy was at Mica's conference.

This was taken this weekend when he was watching The Young Indiana Jones.

Isaak's had the opposite teachers than Mica had. Each one is new. I'm hoping that tradition will happen next year. Mica's 2nd year teacher didn't push him nearly enough. 

Isaak is doing good.

The not so scary scare crow.

Translating what's written above:

Isaak Apel

Hi! My name is Nike. I am so tired standing outside waiting for the crows to come, so I can scare the crows away.

Isaak goes in streaks with liking certain things in first grade.

Earlier this year Isaak was big into numbers. He wrote numbers all the time, and worked in his Go Math workbook. Isaak convinced me that despite what I hear about the negatives with Common Core there is good in it to. You see Isaak gets math because of Common Core. It's visual, and he thinks like me; in a visual way. I strongly think whenever there's a negative with something, there's a positive to. The yin and yang theory.

A few weeks ago Isaak got into writing. Math sort of got pushed aside, and writing was his thing. He wrote a 5 page story, then a 1 page story. At school he wrote a story about a bear. His teacher said he's really excited about it. They've been talking about rough drafts, and move onto final copies. I couldn't take his story home, but wanted to. I had to ask his teacher if the bear got ran over by a car in the story? She looked at me funny, and I told her about how Travis AKA Daddy ran over a bear with his car this summer. For the record Isaak didn't have his bear get ran over.

Lately Isaak wants to read. This is new. Before I couldn't get him to pick up books, unless I read to him. I told his teacher that he probably didn't want to read to me because he was afraid I wouldn't read to him if I knew, he knew how to read.

Isaak's not in the gifted program this year. Maybe next year.

That's perfectly fine with me. He works hard, tries hard, and comes home with good behavior dots every day.

Isaak hangs out with a kid named Jacob mostly. Jacob is a good kid. Isaak's really ultra silly around him because it makes Jacob laugh.

Two of Isaak's friends are no longer in class with him. I think most kids like Isaak, but he's stand offish with friendships. Isaak likes to play with girls because many of them are good students, and nice. They don't want to play what he wants to play, which is superheros. He's kind of in limbo land for friendships. Isaak wants to be one of the good kids. He feels like school is his job.

Rock N Learn DVD Review and Giveaway!

I love products that are fun, and help my kids learn! 

I had a wonderful chance to review Sight Words Level 3 by Rock N Learn.

Isaak just started Kindergarten, so the DVD is a little advanced for him. We already started working with him on site words. Even though this DVD is for first graders, Isaak was still zoned into the TV!  In fact Mica, who is in second grade joined in on watching it. It's just a matter of time before words come together for Isaak. I truly believe any reading is great for them.

They both didn't want me to hit the pause button for them to eat breakfast. It's 50 minutes of fun and learning. They thought it was super cool!

To be honest I didn't know what sight words were before Mica started school. I was taught with phonics. Once I saw Mica learning the words, I was sold. He learned to read so fast! It's all about visually learning words that are used every day. Repetition is key.

What I like about Rock N Learn is that they do have different levels of DVDs. They start out with Level 1 (pre-k) and move onto Level 2 (Kindergarten). I'm going to go buy Level 2. Isaak seemed to really enjoy the DVD they sent us.
 

The Words Covered on Sight Words Level 3: 

Some of the words from Level 1 and Level 2 are reviewed on this DVD. Then they get into new words.

just • stop • think • about • know • put • them • then
as • going • by • would • ask • walk • his • when • back • thank
open • door • close • over • river
once • an • old • has • again • if • could • fly • how • day • try
people • each • other • take • some • time
him • her • number • these • their • way • games
round • table • may • give • lives • after • write • many • birds
left • from • heart • of • every • had • part • any • were • more • work • which • why • gave

About the Rock N Learn Sight Level 3:

The DVD is filled with bright, colorful animation to help capture interest. It has humor, and catchy songs. There are different characters like zany armadillo Festus and his friends that make this video fun to watch. 

Find a store near you!

It's Giveaway Time! One of you is going to win your choice of DVD or CD. - US only. A $19.99 value. 

They were nice enough to send me a coupon code for you to get 25% off anything off their site! It is: JQ7711 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review. You need to be over the age of 18 to enter. This giveaway is for the US only. I did get products to help with the review. The winner will need to respond back within 48 hours, or I will pick a new winner. 
 

First Grade Conferences

We had Mica's 1st grade conferences on Thursday. It isn't like the old days. My parent's used to get a babysitter when they had conferences for us. Now we just set the boys up in the hallway of the school with the portable DVD player, and they are entertained the whole time. It works out great because then Mica is able to show us his artwork on the walls. We don't got to go into his classroom all the time because that to is different then it used to be. Daddy drops him off and he waits outside until it's time to go in; the teacher brings the whole line of kids outside when class is over. I assume because they want to keep traffic flowing through.

Little man is doing great! It's hard to say if he's an A, B, C, or D student because they don't give grades like that anymore. They don't even give 1, 2, or 3s either. It's more O for outstanding and A for average. I don't even know the other letters, because that's all he got.

We were a little worried with Mica on math. He shows no interest in doing math at home. One day he came home from school all sad because he wasn't finished with a math worksheet and couldn't go play with an iPad. His teacher says that he's really good at math. He just takes his time, unlike some of the other students. He wants to make sure he's right. I'm happy to learn they are doing touch math. Back when I was in school touch math was just beginning. In fact I only learned it because I was in the chapter 1 classes, otherwise known as the classes where the kids went that haven't picked things up yet. Touch math helps kids understand math visually.

Mica runs so hard during gym that he's sweaty when he comes back to class. That's one area I'm surprised he gets a Average in. His favorite is gym.

He's at the end of 2nd grade or beginning of 3rd grade in reading. The boy loves to read! Mica generally has one love for awhile, then he moves onto something else. It first was Fisher Price Little People, then Thomas and Team GeoTrax, then puzzles, then drawing, then writing, then Legos and now reading. He hones in on that one thing like crazy. His nose is in a book 80% of the time at home. The other 20% are playing with Legos and eating. He eats a lot!

Here's a classroom project I was excited to see:

It's a brown paper bag city. Mica worked on the state capitol. He made it Adam's capitol after the school. He also worked on a few others.

He also created this monster:

I know a lot of words are spelled wrong, but his handwriting is really good. One word you may not get is Monntens is "mountains". Here's what it says:

He also created this lion:

Here's a poem he wrote. One word you may not be able to get is forda is actually, "Florida".

WW: First Grade

Mica said he wasn't excited to go back. Secretly he was.

Last year he thought first grade was going to start the Monday after Kindergarten was over. He somehow didn't get the memo that there is a summer break. He was all sad. Then when he found out that we were going to go to Chicago, a lot of play time he was super excited.
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1st Grade Blues

Mica finished the big Kindergarten last Friday. His teacher and everyone at school said, "You are all 1st graders now!" Mica got up on Monday was kind of down. He thought he was going to go to first grade. We're like, "NOPE it's summer time kid!" Sometimes parents and teachers just don't always think of the right things to tell their kids.