Grade 1 ~ 2nd Quarter Reflections

Today was the second parent-teacher-student conference in school.  Unlike Keefe, I don't know much about what Belle learns or does in school every day.  We received the formal written report of Belle's 1st semester progress back in February and she appears to do well in all core and specialist subjects.  

These are some of the artwork she did in class, which I saw during the conference.

Oil pastel/watercolour painting, food plate done with another 1st grade class as part of the "Healthy Bodies" unit of inquiry, skip counting craft

An activity she did during German class where she labeled different parts of herself in German

A fiction writing activity as part of Read Across America week

Belle's teacher mentioned during the 20-minute conference that Belle is doing very well in class and always hands in quality work because she always does her very best in everything she do.  The teacher showed me Belle's Math journal which I was told was "elementary" for Belle (adding numbers using number lines) but was told that it was important for her to learn the different math strategies.  They were working on word problems this quarter so Belle was taught to highlight key words so that she will know when to add or subtract.  I thought these were good skills to reinforce but not new for Belle as she has already learnt these as part of our Primary 1 afterschooling last year.  

Belle was moved from Level M to Level N in Raz-Kids which according to her teacher, was more challenging as it requires deeper thinking and comprehension skills.  She is reading beyond her current grade level so the teacher wants to push her further.  Belle enjoys reading so I don't see any problems stretching her.  Her teacher recently started a book club where a group of readers meet regularly to read and discuss books, and have meaningful discussions with their peers.  Belle enjoys these book club sessions.  One of the areas that she will be working on for reading is to tell the main idea(s) in the story as opposed to summarising everything. 

Belle's writing has improved from the previous quarter and this is an area which I think the teacher is doing a wonderful job!  Here is a non-fiction writing piece she wrote this quarter about Singapore, which I thought was hilarious! (Click on the picture below to read the entire book!)

This was the summary I received from Belle's teacher after the conference: