How is my child doing?

Parent teacher conferences are approaching, and I have been sitting down to think about my students and how well I know them. I'm looking back through my observations, noting who they have been interacting with and in what ways; remembering instances they connected a letter to the sound it makes, and trying to think whether or not they display one-to-one correspondence. These are the three things so many parents are going to want to know about: Social-Emotional development, literacy, and mathematics.

What I want to tell them is that their children are amazing people who surprise me every day. They make the most beautiful artwork I've ever seen. They think of subjects that we talk about together from a completely original, fresh point of view. I laugh every single day, and so do they. Sometimes they forget to take their coat off before sitting down at a center to start work because they are so excited to start their day. The children and I all get a kick out of counting how many people have bananas in their lunches...every single day.

We are learning to recognize our letters, their sounds, and alliteration and rhyming. We are always counting and noticing patterns. We are working on being kind and respectful and safe and fair together. And this is all happening through our daily conversations, explorations, and interactions with people, places, and things. It is just amazing to be with these children five days a week -- I would not change it for anything right now.

I hope you are all settling into the school year, too.

Side note: These are in the cards for this week. Come back for the finished product!