Lately: Winding Down the School Year

The last two weeks of school have been jam-packed with all sorts of fun activities! There's nothing better than ending the school year with a bang.

Here's a quick peek at what the boys have been up to lately:

The classroom chickens are growing, growing, growing.  Here's Henry with Chickmunk during week 4.

Henry with Lemondrop (week 5)

The chickens are heading back to the ranch this weekend, but they've been an incredibly fun addition to the classroom.

Last week was the Strega Nona luncheon for all of second grade. After reading the story by Tomie dePaola, the kids listened to an opera singer and enjoyed an Italian meal in the cafeteria. It's really a lot of fun.

 

Last week, our school librarian held a Texas 2x2 reading celebration for a small group of 1st and 2nd graders who had read all the books on the current 2x2 reading list (this is a list of books aimed at kids ages 2 through 2nd grade to encourage a love of books and reading). We had four different activities for the kids to do based on a few of the books, and then ended the celebration with ice cream bars. What fun!

In Will's class, the biggest fourth grade project of the year was due last week and it culminated in the Texas State Fair. Will chose to research Robert H. H. Hugman, the architect of the River Walk. He wrote a research paper, created a tripanel and made a model of the River Walk for his 3-D element. It was a huge project and Will worked really hard on it!

Salt map of the River Walk

Will also had to dress in costume, so wore his suit jacket and carried a replica of Hugman's plan for the River Walk (which was originally called The Shops of Aragon and Romula!).

After presenting their project in the cafeteria, all the classes paraded around the school with floats. Our class's float was the Texas Rangers because our teacher is from Dallas and is a Rangers fan!

Following the parade, the kids enjoyed a chuck wagon lunch in the cafeteria and then headed outside for an afternoon full of activities. The fourth graders rotated through nine different stations, including line dancing, barrel racing, a petting zoo and more. 

Making a leather wristband

Roping

Mechanical Bull Riding

At one station, I took pictures of all the kids behind the fence so it would look like they were in jail

and then created "Wanted" posters for each child.

Last Friday was a jam-packed day at the Texas State Fair, but it was such a fun celebration after weeks and weeks of hard work. 

Henry's class has also been hard at work with an end-of-the-year play, "The Case of the Bewitched Books." The play features three fractured fairy tales, in which the villains become the heroines. It was hilarious! 

Henry was both the narrator and "Sniffly" in Snow White.  

 

We pulled Will out of his class to watch the play too. Henry did a great job!

Henry has had the best teacher this year. She has so much energy and enthusiasm and has an incredible way of making learning fun. 

More end-of-the-year pictures and details coming up soon!

Lately: Celebrating

The month of May brings many, many celebrations! The school year is almost over and if that isn't a cause for celebration, I don't know what is.

Yesterday was my last day to volunteer at Cunningham for this school year and I got lots of hugs from my kiddos, teacher, and librarian. I love working with kids and helping them learn to love books.

Our weekends have been a bit nuts lately so we spent a fairly quiet Mother's Day morning at home working on Will's last school project before heading off to an afternoon soccer game. Henry picked two recipes from his Chop Chop magazine to make for me. These are eggs fried in bread crumbs and they were surprisingly delicious!

Gene and Henry made a very healthy fruit crisp with fruits from our farmers market run for dessert.

Soccer season ended on Mother's Day this year!

We stopped by Ben and Jerry's last Friday night for some "just because" ice cream.

 Saturday was a whirlwind day. Henry's first communion was at 10am.

All of Gene's family was there and it was a lovely Mass.

Afterwards, we came back home for a super-quick lunch and then Henry passed the family's Portuguese Mass book to Mary, since her first communion will be next year. 

We had to gobble our lunch because the boys' piano recital was at 12:30 pm, but the whole family was able to come.

Henry played "Indian War Chant" by William Gillock and "Perfect Balance" by Dennis Alexander.

Will played "Alouette" by Alfred and "Minuet No. 1" by  Bach. Both boys played so well and we were all so proud of them and their hard work!

We had plans to head out Saturday night, but some big storms rolled through Houston, so we stayed in, ate pasta, played chess, and snuggled with Ruby. 

Sunday morning was cool and breezy, so we took Ruby to the dog park. She was in dog heaven! 

There are only six more days of school but many more end-of-the-year celebrations to come! 

Lately: School Fun

The school year may be winding down, but that doesn't mean we aren't busy with some exciting projects and fun events. Here's a quick peek at some of what we've been up to at school for the past two weeks:

Henry and his kindergarten reading buddy made art projects out of recycled goods for Earth Day.

The school book club is still going strong! After reading The Candymakers by Wendy Mass, the kids designed their own candies for a mini school competition. Will and a friend came up with "Flavored Medigum" that keeps its flavor forever, can change flavors AND cures all types of the flu. Sounds pretty good to me!

Henry was student of the week in his class last week and we filled the "Bravo, Darling!" board with pictures of all his favorite things.

Last week, Gene and I hosted a library volunteer appreciation coffee at our house for all the school library volunteers. I work closely with our school librarian to help train and schedule all the volunteers. We have over forty volunteers (more than ever before) and our library just wouldn't work without them! They are an amazing group of women that I am so thankful to know and call friends.

And I couldn't have thrown this party without Gene, who made homemade bagels, scones and two quiches AND who prepped everything and made it pretty! It was fun party and a great way to say "thank you" to all our lovely volunteers.

In addition to thanking my library volunteers, I attended the volunteer appreciation breakfast for Read Houston Read. What a joy it is to spend an hour a week reading with my second graders at Cunningham Elementary! 

Back at our school, the second graders are gearing up for the annual Strega Nona luncheon. Henry's class made pinch pots, which will be fired this week so that each child will have his own magical pasta pot.

Finally, I'll end with the Baseball Reading Celebration in Henry's class. Two teams, the Lightning Bolts and the Cowboy Chickens, duked it out to see who would rack up the most minutes read in a two-week period. In the end, the Cowboy Chickens accumulated more than 6000 minutes!

Henry was the MVP for his team, with a whopping 1234 minutes read! He is competitive and on all but one night, he wouldn't go to bed until he'd read the maximum allowed (90 minutes).  

His teacher gave him his own baseball with his name and minutes read on it. Way to go, Henry!

The Baseball Reading competition ended in a friendly baseball game on the field.

And then Henry's teacher provided hot dogs, chips, lemonade and baseball cupcakes! What an incredible way to encourage reading. 

The next two weeks are full with even more of end-of-the-year activities at school. It's busy but exciting too!