Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School 1st/2nd Grade 2010-2011

Shellymos and irisheyes - wow! Great news! Irisheyes - I especially like the part about dd feeling comfortable and accepted. Awesome!

Along those same lines, I'm thinking that our DS6's acceleration can already be counted as a success because he also feels comfortable and happier with school in general. We just had an education plan meeting today, where we found out that DS6 has no troubles sharing information in class and doesn't seem shy at all. Last year, he did not want to speak up.

In addition to DS6 seeming happier, we are happier as parents after hearing what they are planning. For reading, the classroom teacher has lots of experience working with kids at their own level, and he even said we could send in any books DS6 likes to read and he can use those for class. Also, they placed several kids in this class who are higher lever readers, so DS will not be alone (and in fact, they are pretty ahead in writing, so he'll have some catching up to do there!). For math, they plan to do end-of-unit tests before starting new units, and if DS shows mastery, then he goes to the gifted teacher for math. If there are any gaps, he will join his class when they're covering that material. DS6 has lots of catching up to do in handwriting (mechanics) and writing (conveying thoughts), but it sounds like even though he's behind, it's still within the range of 2nd graders and everyone's confident he'll catch up.

So, happy news here as well!

I'm happy to hear that from all of you. That emotional aspect is very important. We've always struggled with that part, and it seems to be getting worse, but it makes me very happy when I hear that others are overcoming these issues.

And totally unrelated....

What kinds of things are your children studying in first and second grades? We are all over the place because we homeschool and have that freedom, but I am curious about what others study. Do they teach science in first and second grades in most schools? Geography? Social studies? Or, do those things come later? Just curious really about how the school day is filled.

Off to catch some much-needed rest. Hope you all have a good week/end.

Yay for Irisheyes and st.pauli girl too!! It is great to hear good news sometimes. It really seems like you don't hear it too much out there. DS6 seems to be very happy, but he still has had one day where he talked to me about not feeling like he fits in. It's not that unusual though and he has been very positive about things for the most part. So yes in 2nd grade DS has social studies and science. I think some geography in social studies possibly. He did have science last year, but not formal social studies...just some topics from time to time that could be related to social studies. They have "writers workshop" silent reading time, group reading time, a special each day (gym 2x weekly, music, library and art once a week. Recess, lunch, morning meeting, computer lab, science lab 2x weekly, etc. I am sure there is more but that is the stuff that I know about at least. He is going to be going to Math at a different school and then go back to his class but the nice thing is that his regular 2nd grade teacher will be doing math at the time (and maybe some of the easier stuff that he is not as interested in like morning meeting) and then he will get back to his 2nd grade class in time for snack and other stuff that they do during the day. Sounds great to us and hopefully it works as well as it sounds!

Mom2MrQ - DS7 is in 2nd grade at a specialised "Math, Science and Technology" school, so they incorporate the 3 things into all aspects of the school day. I tend to forget that most schools are not like that ! In science at the moment each student has their own mealworm, and are learning all about them. They do alot of stuff on Smartboards - I discovered the other day that in the morning, they use the Smartboard to sign in and put in whether they will have hot or cold lunch ! They do so much more, of course. They have specials throughout the week - art, music, gym, library and computer (they do computer in their own room - they each get a laptop to use). I know they all got a new gadget the other day on which they will learn to type correctly - no idea what it is - can't wait for conferences ! I'm pretty sure they do social studies, but ds is really bad at telling me what they do during the day

Yay for all the good reports (shellymos, irisheyes, stpauligirl)!

Mom2MrQ: We have a mixture of science and social studies in all grades here. (Some units they get social studies instruction; some they get science instruction) In 1st, DS8 did fossils, rocks, etc., continents and bean plant growing for part of the science curriculum. Don't know if DS6 will have the same curriculum, as our county's been changing it all around the past two years. I'm skeptical about the changes only b/c DS6 didn't get to watch tadpoles grow into frogs last year, which his older brother had done in K. Our school also has a weekly science special (only a couple of schools here offer that). DS6's teacher mentioned that the reading/writing/science curriculums will be more tied together this year. They might do something on bugs, for instance, and read, write and do hands-on as the unit.

I'm happy to hear that many people seem to be having a great start to the school year!



Our DD6 is schooling at home through a k12 charter and they do science and history/geo. Here's the description from their first science unit to give you an idea: "Learn the tools and techniques for measuring length, mass, volume, and temperature in standard metric units. Use the scientific process to make predictions, record results, and draw conclusions. Gather and communicate information by compiling data in a table and drawing and interpreting a bar graph." They also have units on matter, weather/water cycle, light, animal adaptations... Both our DD's love science, I think I just need to give them a day to focus on it because they would spend hours taking the experiments and projects wider. I recall DD9 studying light in first at her B&M school, as well as oceans.

They also do history/geo. This year first grade seems to focus on ancient civilizations while last year was about world geo and US history. DD6 got sucked into the revolutionary war in K and still hasn't come out of that little obsession. She's excited about ancient Egypt this year though.

Wow! That sounds great. I don't recall doing these kinds of things until middle school, and even then it rarely happened that we did anything really fun. I loved school, but I would have loved it a lot more had I been able to raise mealworms, grow plants, study geology, etc.

I love all of the science activities. We are really science heavy at our house; we too could spend the majority of our time on it. I have to schedule it as the last thing in our school day because we are so prone to "disappearing" into it and losing an hour or more.

Thanks so much for sharing!

My DS6 is also doing a k12 charter. He's really enjoying it so far - especially since he can do as much science as he wants, lol. The history seems to be getting his attention since he gets to learn about ancient Egypt.

What he really loves is math though and they moved him up to the 3rd grade math - and it's still too easy but I think it'll be good review for him for now.

I'm just happy that he is enjoying school and will tell anybody who asks what he is learning and how much he loves it!

Given the science curriculum discussion, I thought I'd update you with an idea. DS6's science teacher is teaching the kids about paper. They talked about paper coming from trees and how it can be made from recycling used paper. They made pulp and got to feel it last week. Next week, they'll be making they're own paper. DS6 is so excited about it; he's mentioned it every day this week. And he now talks about how he LOVES science.

Yay! I think this is what we all want -- our kids to be excited about something - anything - at school. As for science in DS6's 2nd grade, their class will be learning about trees and planting apple trees at the school. I asked DS6 about science class, and he said he hasn't had any science yet. He has, but it's not the science he was expecting.

Although we're really happy with the school -- the classroom teacher, principal, and gifted coordinator all seem to be supportive of whatever DS needs -- at home we're finding that things are still not quite challenging enough. The grade acceleration was completely necessary, but we're hoping things fall into place in the next few weeks. DS6 said the other day that "Math is as hard as finding a needle in a needle stack." DS6 did 3/4th of the 2nd grade math book in kindergarten last year (getting 100% on most unit tests), and now the plan is to just leave him in the class for things he misses on pretests and go to the gifted coordinator for other math, such as Zaccaro's challenge math. I'm a bit concerned that this is just pushing the problem off another year - he should be in 3rd grade math now, IMO. He's just missing things like strategies other than counting. My DH says I need to put some trust in the school, so I'm trying.

And in reading, DS6 let it slip that he was picking easy books and just flipping them over and reading them again during silent reading. Happily, when I told the teacher, he made DS6 pick a more appropriate book. So I'm not as worried about reading. And DS's spelling and writing is age-appropriate, so he does need to work on that.

I have general worries about the other everyday stuff not being challenging (like science/social studies/computer). But it seems like they might be giving him keyboarding lessons in computers, which would be great. The biggest issue is that I'm pretty sure that if DS6 is given a choice between something easy and something a bit more challenging at school, he'll take the easy route. DS6 does not ever want to make waves, either, so I worry that his teachers will just say "He's happy and doesn't need more." But at home we get comments like, "My teacher is taking school to a whole new level of boring." Of course, he could just be pulling my leg. I'm just rambling now. Thanks for letting me vent!