Wizard of Oz in School?

Apparently she watched the first part of Wizard of Oz, until just after meeting the scarecrow. She was singing "Ding Dong the Witch is dead" on the way home from school. I'm intrigued by this, as I think that Oz is kinda scary for her, and I'm not sure school, esp kindergarten, is the right place for it. 

Lost a tooth

Yesterday, while picking up Quinn from school, she came walking down the hallway covering her mouth. She was super excited to show me that she lost her first tooth.
Then she talked about how she wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween because now she looks like a jack-o-lantern.

We talked a lot about the tooth fairy, and what kind of toy she brings. I told her, when I was a kid, I remember the tooth fairy only bringing a quarter. Apparently these days, she brings a dollar :)

Quinn's Kindergarten reading level

So since this is my forum for bragging, Quinn just received her DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). Quinn's *beginning* reading level is a 4.

The end of year goal for kindergarteners is 4. It is 2 months into the school year.

Although the information that we don't have is, what was the G/T class average? What is the non G/T class average. Is the goal of 4 for all kindergartens or tailored for the G/T class?

Update: The DRA level is the same for all Kindergarten classes. Most GT students (Quinn's Class) are already on level 4.

I'll be really smart when i'm older

Quinn said that she'll be really smart when she is older. She said that is the case because she pays attention when she reads. She recognizes the difference between fiction and non-fiction.

I also told her because she pays attention outside of books too. And she works hard, and she stays focused, and doesn't give up.

And she nodded on agreement.

Awesome!

School lunches

Quinn decided to participate in the school lunch program yesterday. This is AWESOME. For us it means we don't have to struggle with the guilt of only sending her with jelly sandwiches and hot dogs. For her, she gets a healthy variety of foods.

We are very excited that she has decided to do this.

Jobs: Geneticist, Bicycle Repair, Electrician, Cartographer

As a geneticist we watched movies about DNA, made DNA out of pipe cleaners, and did a study on the diversity of mommy cookies (with chocolate chips), daddy cookies (with m&ms) and kid cookies (mixed together)

As a bicylce repair person, Quinn helped assemble her new bike, put air in all of the tires, discovered grease and that it doesn't come off easily, and learned about gears

As an electrician, Quinn learned about the breaker box, helped install a fan light, helped install a remote for the garage, and we studied light bulbs and the differences between incandescent and flourescent

As a cartographer, we looked at a story book about maps (kinda) and will hopefully draw a map of something (either from our house to school, or her bedroom, or something like that)

Reading and Math

Quinn is doing a fantastic job reading. She is able to cover the high frequency words very quickly and can usually read about 50% of a page easily. If she takes her time she can usually sound out the words she doesn't know, but sometimes she is in a hurry and guesses. Her guesses are usually not even close.
Overall though, she'll be reading and I'll just be watching her in amazement, with some internal kvelling.



On the math front, she is able to figure out all of the combinations to get to a value. For example she has 5 stars left to get to a prize at school. Stars can be earned in 1 (ready to learn) , 2 (Great), 3 (Amazing) increments. She has figured out that she needs 1 amazing + 1 great, 1 amazing + 2 ready-s, 2 greats + 1 ready, 5 ready-s to get to her prize. I think that is pretty cool.

Loose tooth

I think we are getting the beginnings if a loose tooth...