Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School 4th/5th grade 2011-2012

How are the 4th & 5th graders doing so far this school year?

DD10 (5th grade) came home today thrilled that she had been given a math problem that stumped her. Admittedly, it was just something extra she was given to do while waiting for others to finish their math assessment packet, but I'm glad her teacher had something challenging for her.

DS8 is doing ok (4th)...this years teacher is big on writing which he is very not fond of (and his teacher last year did very little of) so its made for some large headaches at school/home but hes loving math as usual and is making more friends this year so he is surviving and I haven't lost my mind quite yet.

DS10 is doing well in 5th grade. Doesn't want to do HW. I don't blame him, they work hard during the day! He has a triple acceleration for Math but is with 6th graders that have a double acceleration. That's what I like about the school, they can accelerate but still be with age peers. He is doing pre-algebra, getting ready for next year's Algebra I Honors class. He really absolutely loves the class & teacher, it's a good level for him. In Goldilocks-speak it's "just right" His first Unit Test is today, his final period of the day and I hope he isn't too tired! It's not a PE day and it's rainy so he won't be wiped out from recess.

Everything else is 1 yr ahead. Seems like he's got QUITE a load of work for his reading class with Power Point presentations and lots of on-his-level but above-grade-level reading to do. They use the Lexile levels and Accelerated Reader programs so the kids have to read books that are on or above their own Lexile score, books have to be approved by the teacher. He's reading Dragonhaven and The Hobbit this quarter while in class they are studying Walk Two Moons, which is on grade level (5th-6th).

Science Fair projects will probably start in October. They have been working on really using the Scientific Method in their labs.

SS looks like there will be a lot of research projects and he hates writing, so we'll see how that goes. I hope it's mostly in class and not HW. That's what he really hates, HW writing assignments!

3rd quarter he starts French, which I think he is dreading. He had a little exposure to French in his preschool (that was CUTE!) but has done Spanish in school for K-4. This school offers a different language each grade until middle then they can choose. (DD8 had Chinese last year and Arabic this year)

Met all the teachers at Open House last night, they seem like great teachers - no nonsense, organized & strict but still make it fun. (They had a Chocolate Fountain in class for a party after reading The Chocolate Touch, how fun is that? They all brought different treats to dip) He likes them all and that's the important thing!

Hope everyone else is having a great Back-To-School!

Antsy...it sounds like your son has a fabulous school! I really wish DS8 school offered a language...I'd take ANY language at this point. And the chocolate fountain is a nice touch to an end of reading that book, its been one of my DS favorites for years, and a favorite of DH's as well.

DD8 is having a rough start to 4th grade. She's not eating lunch, she's not finishing her classwork, she cries at the drop of the hat, she walks into immobile objects, she's incapable of picking out her own library books, she spends hours listening to the same audio book over and over again, she's having some disturbing unwanted / intrusive thoughts that are scaring her.

On the plus side, her teacher has kindly agreed to let DD eat a snack in the afternoon until we figure out the lunch thing. DD reports that she's been playing with her friends at recess the last few days, rather than sitting alone in a corner. She's being challenged by her spelling words, and is enjoying the challenge. She likes her teacher, and her teacher likes her.

After we've been in school for a month, she ought to be settled into the routine, and then things will go better. She is just not a kid who likes change, particularly when the change is not clearly laid out well in advance, and back-to-school is a big chaotic change.

i think this part is pretty important and it sounds like the teacher is trying to make her feel more comfortable. I hope she feels better about it soon

DD9 just finished her first week of grade four at a new school. It is hard to get any information out of her, but it seems to be going okay. DD did move to this school for the last three weeks of school in grade three. Unfortunately, they put her in a 3/4 split in which all the grade three students were boys. She met a few girls in grade four, but now they are all in a different class. Her teacher is young and new to the school. I don't know anything about her. DD hasn't decided if she is a good teacher yet, "I need more time to decide" she told me when I asked. On a positive note, the complaining hasn't started yet. But, this IS only the first week.

She said that she wanders around at recess and lunch, mostly trying to avoid an uber-annoying girl who just moved onto our street and has decided DD is her BFF. Poor DD is having a hard time negotiating the act of extricating herself from this leech without hurting her feelings. She defended her from a nasty bully on Friday and is now further ingratiated in the girl's mind as her friend. I'm trying to stay out of it, but I do feel bad for her. The kid even gets on MY nerves!

DD saw her psychologist for a handwriting assessment to begin investigating for dyslexia/dysgraphia. We are putting off our meeting at the school until we get those results, so for now I am sitting on my hands and begging DD for details about her day.

DS9 is doing ok in 4th grade so far, although he's heavily into the "school is boring" thing already. He is in a math class of one, with his own teacher who takes him when his class is doing math; he's finished the placement testing and is somewhere in the 7th grade curriculum with her, which I will need to clarify with his teacher this week -- it's hard to get information out of him as to what exactly he's doing in math. He still brings home the 4th grade math sheets for homework and does them because he can earn "scholar dollars" for the bonus side -- another thing I'll have to find out about at the open house. I haven't seen any homework for his 7th grade class yet.

He swears he's not learning anything in the rest of school, but then I did get a whole list out of him yesterday by making him go back through each day, so it's more wishful thinking on his part. He's very melodramatic that way.

Nautigal, that sounds a lot like DS10. Always says he's bored too. I would get very irritated last year when he would do the class math worksheet when he had his own "real math" to do for another class. They take those class points/tickets/etc pretty seriously though,huh?

Things usually get ugly in November so I guess this year we'll see how things are at that point!

DD10 came home very unhappy today. Apparently her reading group is way too easy and she spent math time with the fifth graders (she was in fifth grade math last year). She's currently discouraged about school and doesn't want to do anything. *sigh* We're meeting with her teacher later this week, so hopefully we can get something worked out.