Haven Kindergarten Screening!!

On the morning of Haven's 3 1/2 birthday, she had her kindergarten screening appointment.  She did so amazing!!!  I don't know why I'm still surprised by these things, she's such a great kid! :)

Our district does the Dial-R test for screening and screens all the kids going into 4K or Kindergarten (if they hadn't gone to 4K) with the same test.  This was our first time testing at Wheatland since Venily had to test at Trevor/Wilmot because they didn't allow early entrance into 4K at that time.  I was really surprised at how extensive the testing was!  She was testing for over an hour and as soon as I signed her in, someone came and took her into the testing room right away and I couldn't see her the entire time!  I was super nervous.  She is nothing like Venily at this age (Venily's screening was kind of a nightmare at first) but she does get shy around people from time to time.  Luckily Mrs. Jacobs (Venily's kindergarten teacher) was involved in the testing and put me to work, lol.  I had to make some bunny things for Venily's class and bring them to the sub in her room.  I was definitely getting emotional any time I thought about Haven being in there all by herself!

The testing was set up in 8 or so different stations with Mrs. Graham (the 4K teacher), Mrs. Jacobs and Mrs. Coates (the kindergarten teachers) and various other teacher (including the speech therapist) at the stations.  Here are some of the things she had to do:

*hearing test
*large motor- skip, hop on one foot, balance on one foot, throw a ball at a target
*small motor- replicate drawings- cross, circle, etc.  Write name.  Touch each finger to thumb, cut out a semicircle, rectangle, and dinosaur shape
*count to 20+, count groups of objects, identify #'s
*identify body parts
*identify pictures (bird, bee, etc) and make up a story about them, then rapid identify the pictures
*follow directions, directional words, identify the meaning of coldest, longest, etc.
*colors
*they set up different block pyramid things and she had to replicate them with her own blocks
*she had to say various words and they listened to how she said each sound in the word

Those are just the things I remember the teacher talking about when she went over her results with me, lol!  And I really liked that they DID go over her results and what they did, they didn't do that when Venily had screening!  The teacher said she did great though, especially given that she is only 3.5!!  They evaluated her specifically to see if she would be able to be put in a year early, and she said that she definitely thinks Haven will be able to!  I think her overall score was a 98%!  I'm very happy, I couldn't imagine making her wait another year.  When I teach the 4K class now and think that Venily is SUPPOSED to be in that class this year, it just seems ridiculous, lol.

I am still surprised though that the screening does not involve identifying letters or letter sounds whatsoever.

Haven thought the whole thing was so fun!  She got cookies, juice, a pencil, magnet, and tattoo when she was done and thought it was the greatest thing ever!  I can't wait to hear "officially" that she'll be able to go to 4 year old kindergarten next year!