The Ella Report

This post is very long overdue. I've been meaning to write up an Ella Report ever since school started in the fall (and of course, I will get to a Lily Report as well--but probably not until next weekend, after her conference this coming Wednesday).

When we got Ella's teacher assignment in the mail last August, I was thrilled to learn she had Mrs. Fogarty as her teacher. I'd heard fabulous things about her from other parents and she seemed so sweet and caring when we visited during kindergarten open house last winter. She bent down and talked to Ella and gave her a hug back then and it just really stuck with me. Well, we have not been disappointed in Mrs. Fogarty at all. She has been a fantastic kindergarten teacher for Ella. So nurturing and kind. She LOVES Ella. She tells us every opportunity she gets how wonderful Ella is. How she wishes she had a whole classroom of Ella. How Ella is a perfect student. Isn't that the most wonderful thing to hear about your child from their teacher?

At Ella's conference this past week, Mrs. Fogarty said Ella was the most conscientious, happy, kind student. She perseveres. If something is difficult, she works through it. She never gets frustrated. She is so nice to all her friends. She is so excited to learn everything. Mrs. Fogarty also said she believes Ella is kind beyond her years. So much more so than an average kindergartner.

As far as Academics, Ella has improved in everything from the fall. She could only verbally identify 15 or so of her letters when asked in the fall. She has them all now. She knew how to write several letters of the captial alphabet in the fall and now can do all of them capital and lowercase. She can write her numbers all the way to 39 now and can actually count to hundred and count to a hundred by tens. There was a phonemic quiz (having to do with reading skills) that she only got 4/24 in the fall and got 24/24 this time. Also, rhyming was an extremely hard concept for Ella this fall and we worked and worked with her on it. Now, she has rhyming down with now problem! (And so does Lily from listening to us work with Ella!).

Her reading is coming along spectacularly. Amazingly actually! She reads to us at night now! And the other night she read to Lily at bedtime.

And all of this from a kindergartner!! I'm constantly amazed at what is expected in kindergarten these days. I remember painting on big easels with tempera paint in kindergarten. I remember filling out worksheets where you wrote the word "cat" over dotted lines and then colored a picture of a cat. I remember playing and doing puzzles. I don't remember doing anything close to what Ella is doing in kindergarten.

The final thing I asked Mrs. Fogarty was how she felt in terms of Ella being prepared to move on to first grade next year. Mrs. Fogarty said she had no doubt that Ella was completely prepared to move on to first grade next year and will do great!

So enough gushing. Sorry to go on and on. We are just so proud of Ella! And I just wanted to get this down before I forgot some of it.