Zion Archibald - Year-End Report, Kindergarten

A look at some of what Zion did during his 2016-2017 school year.

beginning the year

Math

Zion very much enjoyed practicing addition with single digits up to 9. We also worked on subtraction, making tens, and place value (tens and ones up to 99).

independent work, 3-13-17

Other Math Work Samples

• 1-28-17
• 2-20-17
• 3-20-17

ELA

Zion got to listen to many many books—mostly fiction, but also non-fiction and poetry—and he practiced making predictions and inferences from texts and pictures.

We did a unit on poetry that included a variety of poems from picture books and anthologies. We talked about the features of poetic language, and compared different poetic forms and styles. We also worked at noticing poetic language in prose.

Towards the end of the year we started to work on phonics, including reading and spelling short-vowel words.

handwriting practice, May 2017

Science

Our science studies were based on making observations in nature. We did leaf rubbings in the fall and looked at buds in the spring. In late spring Zion learned about how seeds develop and planted his own corn crop.

sowing corn, May 2017

Social Studies

We talked about American holidays and their observation and history, and a little bit about holidays in other cultures. We also looked at the Pilgrims and the American Revolution, with special emphasis on the role of disempowered people in each case.

Physical Education

Zion can easily walk a mile at a reasonable pace, but likes running better than walking. We spent some time this year we working on over- and under-hand throws and two-handed catching, and he was very interested in learning to bat a ball. He's currently working on learning to swim and to ride a two-wheeler.

playing baseball, January 2017

Music

We listened to lots of music—jazz, classical, opera, bluegrass, pop, and hip-hop—and we did music and movement together frequently. Zion is interested in musicals, and we listened to a variety of them, from Anything Goes to Hamilton (and of course including several of the Disney musicals). Zion worked hard to learn the complete lyrics to many of the songs.

Art

Zion worked this year on developing fine motor control for drawing and writing. He was able to overcome his frustration around his motor control early in the spring and started to enjoy drawing and practicing letters and numbers. Over the course of the year we also worked with paint, stamping, clay, collage, and folding paper.

flying lion, March 2017