Academic Museum

When I left the public school system, I thought I was leaving behind the awful stress of the TAKS/STAAR test.  Thank goodness I don't have to worry about an entire class passing 2 tests they have never seen before, but instead, my new school has academic museum.
Now don't get me wrong.  This is an amazing educational experience for my students (and this year, for Gianna)  Every student in my class has to research a topic, write a paper, create a timeline, draw a picture, a map, write a speech, and put it all together on a poster.  At home, they have to create a costume and a 3D project.  Whew.  Now that its all over, I can say it was well worth it, but with a snow day the Monday before it was all due, I was worried it wouldn't get all done.

Using kitchen utensils to go break up the ice.

All students 1st-8th grade have this project, and display it in the halls and gym of our school.  Then for an hour on Academic Museum night, parents, teachers and other guests can walk around and ask students anything they want about their topic.  This year, my students were studying plants in science, so they each picked a plant for their AM project.  They put the life cycle into a timeline, drew a map of where their plan grew, and drew and labeled a picture of their plant.  All the pictures I took of my students have their face in it, so I don't want to post for privacy reasons.  

One of my students did the Tulip.  She wrote a paragraph on the history of the tulip, and there are very famous tulip gardens in Holland.  Here is her own Dutch Tulip garden 3D project.  She also dressed as a little Dutch girl.

I thought the hardest part of the project would be the costume.  They had the option of dressing up like a person from the region of where their plant grows, they could dress up as their plant, a farmer, a gardener, etc.  The creativity flowed here.  One student, who had the Sequoia tree, dressed up as John Muir, who discovered and studied them in California in the 1800s.  One student dressed in a lei and grass skirt for the palm tree.  One of my students had the Hibiscus, dressed like a little Hawaiian girl, and served hibiscus tea.  Her station had a constant stream of people!

My Water Lily (permission from mom to post)  This is my student, Lily :)

I dressed as a pregnant gardener.

Gianna's class had been studying Greece, and Gianna's specific topic was the Greek alphabet.  Her ending sentence in her paper was "My favorite part of the Greek alphabet is that instead of starting ABC, it starts ABG."  Love her creativity.  1st grade does the 3D project in class.  They made greek pottery and laurel wreath crowns.  We put her toga together at home.

She was so proud!

The night before academic museum and the day of, whenever I saw her at school, she kept telling me her tummy hurt.  I think it was nerves, she was so worried to present!  She could recite all the letters in the Greek alphabet.   In the bottom left corner of her poster, she put a picture of Chris and I in togas from the geek Olympics we did in Rome almost 10 years ago.  This was a great way to start Spring Break- we had the next day (Friday) and there were no more tummy aches after that :).

I'm glad its over.  I learned a lot, and already have ideas for next year that will make it even better.

School Update

Week 3 is in the books and we are chugging along!  The girls are so happy at school, and have made so many friends.  During week 3, dance practice and soccer practice started!  Both practices are right at school, so I am able to work in my classroom while they enjoy those after school activities.  They are especially excited about dance, and LOVE their teacher.  Both girls have been correcting Chris and I's posture already.
I think school at this point is mostly review for Gianna, so right now her favorite class is Latin.  She takes it twice a week.  I think she likes it so much because it is brand new and exciting for her.  Her Latin teacher is so wonderful, and comes up with all these cute little songs to help them remember certain words.  The Latin teacher also goes down to the pre-k once a week, so Elia has learned 2 words and thinks she is the coolest.  It is so cute to hear her say Salve or Salvete!
This school is very small- only one class per grade, so it has allowed me to see them many times a day!  My classroom is right next to the cafeteria, so I usually see them walking to lunch.  Their classrooms are right next to each other, and also on the way to PE, so I often see them when I take my class their way.  Elia's recess time overlaps with my 3rd graders recess time, so when I go to pick up my class from recess, there is little Elia running towards me to give me a hug and say hello!  The first day of school when I started to take my class back to the building she started crying because she thought I was going to stay out there with her!  She has since learned that I can't always be there with her.  I pick my students up at noon, and the whole school stops what they are doing at noon and prays the Angelus.  So she will come over, say the Angelus with my class, gives me a hug, and then runs off to play with her friends.
My students also have taken to Gianna and Elia.  They think its pretty cool I have kids at this school and I talk about them all the time so they are always saying hi to the girls and trying to get on my good side by being nice to them.  :)  What else could a working mom ask for?
I am still adjusting to this new curriculum and there are still a lot of late nights!  The commute isn't so bad with the HOV lane, but there was one day this week it took us 50 minutes to get there.  It is really motivating me to move out of our house and move closer!  Definitely thinking about putting our house up for sale in the early spring.
Last night, Chris and I went to the parent teacher social.  It was at a beautiful house in Highland Park.  It started at 7, and I thought maybe we would be there for an hour or so because I was worried it might be awkward and parents might turn this time into a conference- "so how is my child doing in your class?" kind of situation.  We ended up staying until 11, mostly because I was trying to introduce Chris to co-workers as we were leaving, and everyone wanted to talk to him about Manila and such.  Also, I talked with quite a few parents who were just fun, and wanted to know more about me and didn't even bring their children up! There is one social per semester.  Such a positive experience and fun evening.
And lastly, there is this great reading competition that Gianna is getting into.  It goes by non- homework reading minutes.  G is required to read 15 minutes each night for homework, so any minutes after that go toward the competition.  So in 3 weeks, she has racked up over 100 extra minutes for the competition.  She loves reading, and Elia loves listening to her read.

With the Carse kiddos last weekend.

Last Week of School

I write this long after, but I cannot believe the school year we have had!  I grew so much as a teacher, and it was so wonderfully unique to be able to see Gianna everyday.  Next year is going to be even better in that arena, with both girls at the new school!  And though this new school I'm going to is ah-ma-zing, I will miss Spears!  Here are some highlights of the last week:

I had 2 mystery readers- Gianna and Elia! they were the stars of my classroom.
My students wanted their autograph and everything.

Huddles will be missed!  In April, G got to dance on the stage.

Gianna's best buddy, Brandon.  I have never met a more sweet, enthusiastic kindergartner!
They shared a lunch table all year, so I got to know him pretty well.

My end of year gift.  All of my kiddos contributed summer stuff, and put it in this awesome beach bag- gift cards, coozies, beach balls, floaties and goggles for the girls, crafts, towels, flip flops, and more gift cards.  I was SO spoiled.

We did a measurement Olympics, and my class represented Ireland.

If you want to see more, you can see my class blog, Passing the Torch, which is located on the sidebar of this blog.
I am so blessed!

March Madness

Sweet G earned the kindness award in March!

Open House- they had been learning all about farms!

Spring Break- went to Grandma's house who had a little bit of snow left.

Grandpa's specialty- pancakes!!

His other specialty- the ipad.

Can you guess how old this stud turned?

A quick playdate with the McBrides!

Back in Dallas, we ditched the STP parade and went to the Arboreteum instead.

Cousin's Bday party- 1 of 5 G was invited to in March!!!

My sweet girls.  Yes, Elia insisted on wearing a Christmas shirt in March.

Holiday Hoopla

Our school's Chistmas Holiday party was awesome.  PTA put the entire thing on outside of the classrooms, and the different grade levels rotated through.  My class had a blast, and afterward we watched Narnia in my classroom since we just finished reading it.  Gianna's party was during lunch, so I went down to hang out with her on my break.

 

 

Cotton ball on your nose race.  SHe would not let me take a picture of her with it on her nose!  I promise she was cute.

Antler toss

Ski relay

I couldn't stay with her the whole time. We had a blast!

Fun Run

Our school had a fundraiser, and it ended with a fun run.  I was so excited that Gianna's run coincided with my lunch so I could cheer her on.  The lap was a tenth of a mile and I managed to run 17 laps.  (I've been so off and on with running these days).  Well our little G ran 15 laps!  I think that is amazing.  She really had her eye on the prize- the boy and girl with the most laps from each class got to have a playdate at McDonald's with their teacher.  Sadly, she did not run the most in her class, but still, I was so stinking proud.  And it was a great life lesson- she is still talking about how dissappointed she was that she didn't win and that she is definitely going to win next year!

I even got into the ring and ran a lap with her- I was huffing along after her!

My favorite picture ever.

She passed out on the way home from school- probably 5 minutes into the car ride!

Moe's Day Off

I took today off so I could go on Gianna's field trip.  Her class went to the Celina Pumpkin Patch.  I dropped Gianna off at school right at 7:50 and so I had an hour to kill with Elia before I had to be back to follow the buses.

 

We went to Walgreens and picked out some nail polish, and then we went to a park near her daycare.

Onto the Field trip-First up, a hay ride

 

picking out a pumpkin

This is Maggie.  Her mom teaches 4th at our school and she used to use the same daycare as me back when we both worked for CFB.  So these 2 have literally know each other since they were about 3 months!

This is the counselor's daughter, also in Kinder.

Totally reminded of Grants Farm, although Gianna was not too scared!  She let them eat right out of her own hand.

Once the kiddos were back on the bus, I spent the afternoon shopping and then got the girls back home by 3:30.  It was a great day off!

School Update

I love being able to see Gianna during the day at school. We sure do miss Elia, but its nice to know that I pretty much know exactly what Gianna is up to.

First Monthly School Assembly, called Huddle. 

Homework face

The Music teacher emailed this pic to me.

an aside: Elia told her teacher that she is 4 and that she has 2 brothers!

Yellow day.  Each thursday she gets to dress up in the color of the week.  Elia always wants to do it too.  I even got in on it when it was purple day.

Matchy Spears Elementary shirts.  Of course Elia got one too!

October Huddle

Another aside: Elia thanks God for taking care of the animals.

Her family picture in her hallway.



 

Going back full time has been super hard and stressful, but I am so thankful that I have the unique experience of being here with Gianna as she navigates through her school years!