Even Better

So as if my little friend Danny Boy didn't make me happy enough yesterday, today he did even better.

As part of our Fast Track Phonics lessons, we practice writing words that contain our sound of the day. Since we blew through the entire alphabet and the digraphs before Christmas break, we are not onto what I refer to as the "First Grade Sounds" such which include learning about the silent helper e and other sounds like /oo/, /ar/ and /ing/.

Today we did the second day of our lesson on /oo/ as in moon. The kids are doing really well with these more advanced sounds and I am just so proud of how much their skills have improved.

So, back to Danny Boy who wrote his name independently for the first time in class yesterday....

Today, he blew me away.

This is the same kid who always writes tiny little swirl marks on his papers instead of letters.

The child whose work I identify by those swirly marks because he was not able to write his name.

Well, today something clicked because I witnessed greatness.

Not only did he write letters on his page, but he used the little alphabet cards I have on their tables to write the correct letters in the words. I assisted him, but he totally rocked it out.

Same thing with my friend Anna in the morning class. She barely speaks at all and up until recently, she spoke Spanish to me when she would ask to use the bathroom or get water.

Just last week she asked for permission to go to the bathroom in English for the first time all year! When it was her turn to be the Math Master, she asked the math question without any prompting and today, she had the same success that Danny Boy did. As I helped her locate the letters for each sound, I asked her what letter makes to /oo/ sound. She pointed to the o and I asked her how many? She replied, "two."

I am just so happy to see these huge changes taking place. I have kept my expectations high for these kids in hopes that things would start clicking and all of a sudden they have.

As I helped Danny Boy this afternoon, I crouched down next to him and said Danny, you are filling my bucket and a BIG smile spread across his face.

:0)