Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Memorizing in Kindergarten...

Perhaps but I still find it useful to know basic maths even though there have been calculators for some time now.

While that is true - after all, rhyming couplets were originally used as a mnemonic device for recalling oral histories, I have always had a pretty good memory so enjoyed memorizing stuff as a kid.

I also think that it helps wear to the mental grooves that will be vital to later learning - some facts do just have to be internalised.

DD memorized a sonnet's worth of lines of Shakespeare in drama class at 4 and. 5. But yes our judgement is off; she memorizes everything. Could you make a little book with different pictures? Even flash cards for lines? I'm thinking of how kids memorize books so easily. But I agree, hand and body motions help.

It's an old-fashioned thing to ask, but I wouldn't assume it was differentiation, though if my 5 or 6yo child was then to recite it solo in front of an audience I might! At DS's (old fashioned, non-selective except by being fee-paying) school they did the odd bit of memorisation at age 4/5/6/7. From 8, they have Poetry Recital, at which every child stands up in turn in front of an audience of 200 or so people and, unamplified, performs a poem of 20-30 lines. I was impressed the first time, and more so by the improvement the second time. They can all do it, many of them very well.

I wouldn't be doing any kind of artificial mnemonic, except maybe at the end if there are one or two mistakes remaining; I'd just assume that lots of repetition would get it learned. I'd learn it myself and recite it together while walking anywhere, for example.

He's memorized six lines as of today. We have them posted on the fridge.

I've been just asking him what his lines are and he recites what he knows and then we add another line. He's absorbing them quickly. Having him repeat the known lines each time is helping to reinforce them, and since we do this maybe four or five times a day during-breakfast, or in the car, or walking around, or bath time, etc.- he's not feeling pressured.

At any rate, I'm struggling to keep up more than he is struggling to remember. I'm trying not to "cheat" and use the sheet when he's reciting.

I would be very surprised by this expectation in a public K, given that you say they only have a week's time. In DD's public K, the K kids did a play, but they rehearsed for weeks, and no one had a speech that long. Couple of lines at time, here and there. They also sang songs all together, but if you flub the words doing that, it doesn't matter. But maybe they are all reciting this as one? Have you asked?

No idea what is asked in private schools, though.

I haven't asked the teacher if it's a group effort, but when I asked DS, he said he's the only one doing that poem because he's the "only one who can read fifth grade."

He did say three of the girls will be doing a poem on teeth, though.

He knows the entire poem, including the title and author now. He picked up the last stanza without my prompting.

Update:

Silly me, I realized the teacher wanted DS to only READ the passage at the graduation ceremony. She wasn't expecting a memorized rendition. I suppose this sort of misunderstanding is to be expected of a mother who is used to an advanced child, right?

The reading went like this:

DS came to the mic and teacher said he would read the passage. He lifted the sheet of paper and she turned around and told the audience, "Yes, he really can read!" and cued him on.

He read the poem (pausing at the correct points for his classmates' acting it out-which they somewhat followed through.) and did very well overall. He was the only one to give a solo.

This upcoming school year, he's going to a school that hosts a twice-yearly all school play. I'm wondering if he will enjoy it.

Lol! Glad it went well.

Ametrine- that's awesome! Glad it went well!

My ds (in k) was the "narrator" for the play. He memorized it just from the practice. My ds was sad to narrate, because he wasn't allowed to wear a costume.lol.