Last week was Character Counts week at Caitie's school; it was also the first semester parent/teacher conferences. I met with Caitie's teacher last Tuesday morning, before school started. Caitie's doing very well. Her teacher described her as very sweet. Where is this Caitie when at home? ha Kindergarten doesn't grade with the same marks as the other grades (A, B, C, D & F), they use E, S, and N to let you know how your child is doing in different subjects.E = Consistently Demonstrates (needs minimal support. displays confidence)
S = Is Developing (needs some support. shows progress)
N = Needs Support (needs additional guidance and direction)
Caitie got all E's and S's, she didn't get any N's, which was very impressive. She does have areas to work on, but overall, she's doing very well. The teacher said she's quiet in class, which surprised me since she's such a talker, but she does open up at 'center time', at lunch, and on the playground. She does well at 'share bag' time, which I will be doing a post on soon. This is similar to show and tell, but with a twist; the kids have to guess what's in the share bag after three clues are given. This makes it interesting for everyone. I didn't meet with the Enrichment teachers, they don't have conferences, but I could have went to the classroom to look around, but I was running late to get back home and pick up Caitie and get her to school; she wasn't allowed to come to the conference.
Caitie missed school the Friday before last due to having strep throat again, so she didn't get to participate in the first day of Character Counts. The kids were to wear blue shirts with ties. It was "Tie into Trustworthiness" day. She got to go back to school last Monday; it was "Show you care and turn your back on disrespect" day. The kids wore either a red or yellow shirt backwards. Caitie wore a red shirt backwards.
Tuesday was "Count on Fairness" day. The kids wore either an orange shirt with a number on it, or a jersey. Caitie wore an orange onesie... yes, you read that correctly, a onesie... size 2T. I couldn't believe it still fit her (except for the length). She didn't have anything orange in the size she wears now, so the onesie had to do. Since the onesie didn't fit lengthwise, I couldn't snap it at the bottom, so she just tucked it into her shorts like a regular shirt. I cut out a number 7 on some brown felt fabric and glued it on the front and I did the same for the back of the onesie.
Wednesday was "I'm not mixed up, I am responsible" day. The kids wore green and crazy socks. Caitie wore similar 'crazy socks' last year. This year she wanted cats, so I glued on some shapes for the ears and nose, and put googly eyes, then drew the mouth and whiskers...
We couldn't forget the tails... so I glued pipe cleaners to the back of her socks and bent them a little at the bottom. Caitie picked the ears and tails colors; they're supposed to be Holly and Molly. Do they resemble them at all? Hey, at least I tried.
Here she is wearing green and her 'crazy' (she called them cute instead) socks... she's ready to head to school...
This was after I picked her up from school... as you can see, Molly didn't do too well; she lost an eye and both ears. Holly didn't do much better, she lost both eyes... but they both still had their tails on. At least that's something, right? The teacher put the pieces that fell off in a baggie for Caitie to bring home. That was embarrassing... but just a little. um, yeah...
Thursday was "Hats Off to Citizenship" day. The kids wore purple with a hat. Caitie wore her Bearizona hat on the way to school, but when I dropped her off at the gate, she decided she didn't want to wear her hat at school, she was afraid of losing it.
Friday was "Character Counts" day. The kids wore either rainbow colored shirts or a 'Character Counts' t-shirt. Caitie wore a rainbow colored shirt. She got a 'Character Counts' pencil that matched her top (seen in the first pic above). I don't know if Caitie paid much attention to the reasons why she dressed as she did, but we had fun preparing for each day. It was a fun and interesting week.
