First parent-teacher conference

Emma, tonight we had your first parent-teacher conference.  It was a bit different being on the other side of the table for a change.  You are young for preschool: your birthday is actually 4 days past the birthday cut off.  (You'll do a second year of preschool for that reason.)  Mrs. Rogers said there are times she can tell you are definitely one of the younger kids but other times it seems like you're one of the oldest ones.  There was a lot of great feedback both things you're already doing well and things you can improve on.  One thing you have to be able to do is identify 4 out of 6 shapes.  On the way home, your dad asked, "Which shapes?  She could probably have asked about a dodecahedron and she would have gotten it right."  I don't know about that, but you'd definitely be able to identify some polygons some junior high kids can't.  A lot of the knowledge things we expected -- counting to 20, recognizing and naming colors, identifying all capital letters.  You need to work on figuring out "b" and "d" and "p" and "q" better.  I expected this.  I notice this when you're reading your words at night with me -- you'll read "be" as "de" sometimes.  Hopefully putting it in context of words will continue to help that.  We also have to work on you writing your lower case letters.

I think some of my favorite things to hear about were things not related to knowledge.  Apparently most often you are very caring and a great helper (although you like to draw attention to the fact that you helped).  You seem to have a soft-spot for a boy named Jacob.  He wears braces on his legs and seems knock-kneed.  I'm not sure if it's MS or just legs that didn't form right.  He is always excited to see you in child care.  He always pops up to hug you when you leave for the day.  Apparently you let him touch your hair but no one else can.  It reminds me of one of my current students who has taken a student with Autism under her wing to mentor completely of her own volition.  I hope you always are open to all students.

She had a sheet with numbers 1-9 that you had to trace and then glue the appropriate number of Froot Loops on it.  She initially thought you might struggle with it, but turns out you were fine (of course) AND that you were helping some of the older kids!  She said you also have some days when you have to go to the bathroom a lot -- sometimes it's right around clean up time or when another student has to go too.  She said she'll distract you with something else if you've gone not too long ago, and by the time you're done you no longer have to go (magically!).

We're super proud of you and all you're learning about your letters, math, and being a caring, generous person.  You've put in a lot of hard work to get to this point, and I hope you continue to reap the benefits of working hard!