4th Grade Play

The 4th Grade is doing a play!  The entire social studies lesson this quarter has been centered around the play.  They have learned names, dates, actions, about the birth of the state of Texas.  Then they acted it out as the final part of their lesson.

 

 

 

Mikayla was cast as the teacher.... to know Mikayla....is to know she is destined to be in a teaching capacity in some way/shape/or form.  She LOVES to teach (hence the 5x5 magnetic dry erase board hanging in her play room and overhead projector and many many lesson plans and some serious imagination....) actually to say she loves to teach is an understatement..... she LOVES to teach.  And she is not afraid to yell at her "kids"  (namely Nana and me)

 

 

The stage - Mikayla and her "students" are on the left of the stage and introduce each set of characters and talk about them before hand....then the rest of the class, sings/acts out the "lesson" on the right side.  Everyone had a very special part.

 

 

 

 

 

I am not ashamed to admit I had tears of pride/gratitude all weekend long at what a GREAT job all of these precious children did.

 

 

 

 

They enjoyed doing this and it really came through.

 

 

 

 

Seriously - so many proud mom moments.....

 

 

Funny thing about our beloved teachers.....

 

Ms. V in kindergarten left the school after Ms class and moved to another school. 

First grade teacher Mrs. H - left the teaching field completely after Ms class. 

Second grade teacher Mrs. K - left that school when we did and came to our new school after Ms class. 

Third grade teacher Mrs. N - moved out of teaching into administration after Ms class.....

 

Do you see the trend.  We were wondering if the trend would continue....and.... it has.  Mrs. F is moving into administration after Ms class this year......  Mikayla says oh gosh why am I such a curse... I said you aren't  curse, you are the blessing that provides different opportunities for all of these teachers....

 

Here is our beloved teacher.

 

Below is the program.  I still tear up thinking how incredibly awesome this experience was for all of us.  Especially Mikayla.  Seriously.... WOW.....

 

 

Wow!  uh oh..... proud mom moment....tears are present... that sure seems to happen a lot!  She is just such a beautiful person.... BEAUTIFUL!!!  In an email from the teacher she said that she went to lunch with her mom after the play and her mom even commented how mature and beautiful the teacher was. 

 

See.....proud mom moment.... ok, I'll stop for now..... it's good though..... it's really good!!!

School Field Trip

We were following the bus and low and behold there's my gal waving to me from the window.

 

 

My group of girls was seriously SOOOOOO good. I'm sure there were no less than 4,000,000,000 people in the museum and I had a healthy fear of losing one of them!  I think they were nervous about getting lost too and we established our rules right up front.  I said, so how are we going to stay together... they said start a line from shortest to tallest.... ok - that works....what will our code word be... "conga line".

 

OK!  SO every time I yelled CONGA LINE...those girls RAN to their spots and we got where we needed to be.  It.Was.Awesome!

 

 

They were SOOOOO good.

 

 

Peek-a-boo

 

AAAAAACKKKK

 

 

They loved photos!!  I loved it too!!!  I have about 50 more that aren't on here! LOL.

 

 

 

 

 

When looking back at these pictures I am laughing because it does not show ANY other people.... I promise you there were a million people there.

 

 

When we met back up with our school (it was the entire school that came on the field trip), the teachers/parents set up the boundary..... I loved it!!!  there were SO many people there!!!!   I LOVE going on field trips.... I have so much respect and appreciation for the teachers wow!  what a job they have.  I did see our teacher slip for just a moment when the T-Rex came out and she screamed "4th grade SIT DOWN"  ha!!!  every single kid stopped talking and went down!   Nice!

 

 

There was one exhibit..... It took an ordinary moment and changed to the extraordinary.   All six of my girls were on their knees and said a prayer together, out loud, in the middle of the museum.  It was incredible!!!  The hecticness of the day just totally stopped and in that moment all time stood still.  It was so touching to witness these young ladies expressing their faith.  It was awesome!

 

 

We all then picnicked across the street while we waited for the buses to come back and get us.  It was a FANTASTIC day and we were thoroughly worn out by the time we got home.

Science Fair 2016

Ohhhhhh I love science fair!!!!  My friends call it MY science fair...but it's not.... really... it's Mikayla's... mostly... and heck it's ok for me to be excited about a big ol project we get to do together!  Yes it is!!!  That is the best part.

 

Last summer at day camp, there were some engineers that came every Wednesday and one time they had the kids all make an "Art Bot"  so we have been sitting on this project since last summer!

 

Mikayla made three different Bots...had them draw...then calculated and measured the differences in circles that they drew compared to the size/height/circumference of each bot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here they are - subjects 1, 2 and 3

 

 

 

 

then "we" made her board... (even though some things may or may not have been started/completed while she slept/recovered from the slumber party).  Here is her board/display. (hello MESS).

 

 

 

 

The "Bot" below was HORRIBLE - dumb Styrofoam head made him look stupid...so he didn't make the cut.

 

and guess what!  She won first place for 4th grade!  The school is a STREAM school so they are going to add this project in particular to the activity list to do AND one of the little kids that saw it, went home THAT night and made one!!!  Isn't that cool!

 

SO!!!

 

She made it to the next round, she was competing with all of the Houston/Galveston 4th Graders in the Arch Diocese!

 

We left home at 6:15 am and got to watch the city wake up while we drove there.

 

We drove past my old work building and I am SOOOOOO glad I don't have to go this far anymore.  Granted it's still a round trip hour each way but it's not highway travel.

 

 

We were early but that's ok, I was very concerned about traffic and I'd rather have to wait a bit rather than stress about getting there.  I need to get my parking spot.... it was a small lot and then I wouldn't know where to park.

 

So she got her area all set up.

 

 

We met up with the 5th graders....

 

 

There were 13 schools represented and 195 participants.  Very creative kids were here!!!!

 

 

A lot of time waiting....

 

 

Then they called her to go present!!!  Yikes! 

 

 

(Love the photo bomb of the kid dragging the other kid in the background)  HA!!

 

 

More waiting time.

 

 

Our little group, there were 8 kids from our school that went.

 

 

We didn't win but we sure had a good day.  Mikayla was very disappointed but she was able to turn it around and say, I didn't need to win twice.... bless her little heart!

 

This was her afterwards, she slept HARD all the way home!

 

 

 

It was tiring..... but oh man I can't wait for next year to see what we do!!!

 

Here is a funny picture from this weekend.  I'd say we're exhausted from everything that's been going on. From the kiddo that doesn't take naps any more..... she is tired!   Oh and on top of all of it...they have had two weeks of Iowa testing at school...UGH!  (at least we haven't had as much homework) and now because they missed last week, this week will be more testing to finish it off. 

 

 

Stormy days

It's kind of hard to see but if you look closely, we have no street!!!  It was the most intense... non sleeping.... night ever!!  (even more than that slumber party).  It was all night of lightening and thunder...no sooner one boom would end and the next would begin.... seriously, no exaggeration at least 6-7 HOURS of it.... we were all a bit shell shocked after it was all said and done.  Intense.  Why do these things always happen at night.....   When I first looked out, the water was up to the tree.... we did have our trash out.... we no longer own an outside trash can.... crazy.

 

 

 

It took a few hours for the water to drain down....and we tried to run a fast errand.  (and being that it was tax day, we needed to go to the post office).

 

The picture below is the bayou park we walk to all the time, it was more than 6 feet under.... crazy!

 

 

This is the entrance to the neighborhood right behind us....they had massive flood damage, more than 180 houses flooded.

 

 

Here is the bayou separating the two neighborhoods (ours and the one behind it)(next to it/whatever).  Thank goodness this didn't overflow!!!!!

 

 

 

It turned out that school was closed all week because of the floods and roadways under water.  Mikayla came to work with me all week.   It was crazy!!!! 

 

Of course we have two very scardy cat dogs..... Abbie became my earmuffs as she curled around my head on the pillow and Bella, I figured out how to keep her from shaking us off the bed, I wrapped her up in a blanket, keeping her head covered up so she couldn't see the storm.... good grief!  then at one point she got so hot she was panting and HOT.... so I uncovered the lower part of her body and left her head bundled up, she was just fine! We have to do what we have to do, huh.....