End of Year Wrap-up

The kids have finished up another year of school and have had an amazing year.  Vicki will continue with Math Mammoth through the summer while George will work on specific math skills out of workbooks.  Both will continue with daily reading and journal writing but mainly they are going to be swimming (they both jump in and swim underwater now!!) and bike riding (they both can ride now!!) and enjoying the summer.  Both kids will be taking a few weeks of 1/2 day camp - George through the local university G&T program, Vicki through our town rec program.  We also plan to spend lots of time at the lake trying out their new kayaks.

 

Vicki

Vicki completed Level 2, Issues 1, 2, 3, 4 and Level 3, Issues 1,2 in The Wand.  These involved reading and doing grammar and writing activities with Frog and Toad Are Friends, Frog and Toad Together, Harry and the Lady Next Door, Owl Moon, Chicken Soup with Rice, Big Max: The Worlds Greatest Detective, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Olivia Goes to Venice, The Golly Sisters Go West, The Story About Ping, and Zack's Alligator.

She finished all of second grade Evan Moor Daily Reading Comprehension, all of second grade Evan Moor Word-A-Day, and all of second and third grades in Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Spell and Write.   Like George, spelling seems to come fairly easy to her.  The Skill Sharpeners Spell and Write also covered grammar, punctuation and creative writing.

Early in the year Vicki did all of the second grade Evan Moor Grammar and Punctuation, finished up Scholastic Success with Vocabulary Grade 1 and gave No Boring Practice Please! Spelling and More Proofreading Practice Please, Grade 3 a try.  She wasn't quite ready for the proofreading practice and we put it aside after just a couple weeks.

In Math, Vicki completed all of Scholastic Success with Addition & Subtraction Grade 2 by November, and finished up Scholastic Practice Practice Practice Addition and Subtraction that she had started last year.

She solidified her time and money facts using Evan Moor First Word Problems: Time and Money, finishing that up in October.

Her main programs for the year were Math Mammoth and Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Math.  This year she finished up Math Mammoth 1B, all of 2A and about 1/2 of 2B.  She will continue working on MM through the summer at a slower pace.   For Skill Sharpeners Math she finished all of Grade 2 and started Grade 3.

In addition, she completed Evan Moor Daily Word Problems Grade 2.

George

George completed Grade 5 in his Evan Moor Daily Reading Comprehension, finished Grade 5 (started last year) and all of Grade 6 in Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Spell and Write (we're looking into other options for next year since Evan Moor only goes to 6th grade).

For extra practice in applying the spelling and grammar skills he learned, George also did Scholastic More Proofreading Practice Please and completed the third (started last year), fourth and fifth grade books.  He also completed Scholastic No Boring Practice Please Spelling which was considered a 4th through 6th grade book.

For Vocabulary, he completed the fourth grade level (started last year) and about half the fifth grade level of Evan Moor A Word A Day.

George completed Writing With Ease 1 and through Week 14 of Writing with Ease 2. 

For Math, George completed Math Mammoth 4A and 4B, in addition to Evan Moor Daily Word Problems Grade 4, Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Math Grade 4 and through Unit 4 of Grade 5.  He also did lots of Logic puzzles and Sudoku, including making up his own logic puzzles.

In addition, George took his first class at our local universities gifted and talented program and "passed" with flying colors:

The Student's work has merited the grade....A
The Student's overall classroom performance has been....Excellent
The Student has actively participated and contributed to classroom activities and discussion....Always (not a surprise to anyone who knows George. Speaking up is definitely not his problem).
The Student demonstrates mastery in the important competencies of the course.....Excellent

Comments: George did well with the content presented in class. He is bright and a hard worker. We worked on classroom environment behavior and he improved over the semester.

Both

The kids did units on Explorers, Plymouth Colony and the Colonies for US History this year.  For Science they covered Simple Machines, Electricity, Health and the Solar System.

They did Literature Pockets on Aesop's Fables, and Folktales and Fairy Tales.

They did book reports and file folder reports on the Food Groups, Earth Day, Arbor Day, The Weather, Columbus, Autumn Harvest, All About Me, and Black Americans.

We  took field trips to a Maker's Day event, an Arboretum, a Safari Adventure, and a Butterfly Bonanza (still have to write up that last one).  They joined me at Take Your Kids to Work Day and learned about advertising, and went into New York City for the St. Patrick's Day parade.

They spent the year doing swimming at the Y, ice skating, bowling, archery, fencing, choir at church, and art at a local museum.  We tried out a couple 4-H groups (including one really fun hike that I still need to write up) and decided that George Sr. (aka Daddy) and I would start our own STEM group in the Fall (more on that later I'm sure).

All in all, they had a great year.  This was the first full school year with Jen as their teacher and they made great academic progress, met some wonderful new friends and got to know some old friends better, learned new skills, and still had time for lots of fun.