Above is Daniel's classroom project. He came home and told me we had 6 more weeks of Winter. Well, if 80 degree days and 60-ish degree nights are Winter, sign me up for 6 more months of Winter! SuperBowl Sunday was very eventful. Megan and I left the house at 7:30am to go to the grocery store, since we knew it would start getting really busy. We got all of our shopping done and were home in time to make breakfast about an hour later. Then the kids played and Keith studied, while I went to the gym to burn off some calories before indulging in way to many football snacks.
Megan was all geared up for the game. Although, she misplaced her Patriots shirt, so she put on her Georgia Bulldogs shirt.
Daniel helped make the snacks and he snacked so much during the cooking, that he ended up just eating some celery and eggs for dinner. 
Joshua loved watching the game and some of the funny commercials. I was pretty pleased with how family-friendly the commercials seemed this year. Megan liked the dancing during the half-time show and then it was bedtime for all the kids. It was an intense end of the game, and sadly, the Patriots lost. There's always next year.As I was driving the kids to school yesterday, Joshua and I had a funny conversation...
Joshua: Mom, we're learning a new Ozzy song at school.
Me: Oh, really? (Inside my head: huh?? Ozzy? Really? Like Ozzy Osborn?)
Joshua: Yeah, in music class we are working our way around the world and are now in Australia.
Me: Ohhhh...an Aussie song. Like kangaroos and boomerangs and stuff. I gotcha now.
Their music teacher is really fabulous. The kids all came home and told me about Chinese New Year and how they played drums in music class. So fun!
Art is a favorite for all the kids. At their school last year, they didn't have a designated art teacher, as it was incorporated into the classroom curriculum for the main teacher. This year, I'm loving that the kids are learning about different artists, different types of art mediums and are being allowed to try out their own art creations. Daniel tells me that the kindergarten kids are learning about sculptures and that he's been working with clay.
Megan's artwork above is from her art class. She's been learning about the impressionists.
Another thing that's new for the kids this year is the media teacher. Their last school had a great library, but didn't have a designated library class for the younger grades. Here at the new school, the kids each have Media mixed in with their LAMP rotation. L = Life Skills (teaches things like community involvement, responsibility, anti-bullying, the DARE officer talks about drugs, it's really fabulous that they talk about these things on a repeated basis)
A = Art (each grade level has a different emphasis, starting with Kindergarten, it's Megan's favorite class)
M = Media (the Media teacher teaches the kids how to behave in the library, use the computerized card catalog, some computer skills, and the kids get to check books out of the school library to bring home)
P = Physical Education (PE has 1 coach and 2 teachers that help the kids work towards the goals on the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, and teach organized games like Capture the Flag, so fun!)
I love, love, love how broad their knowledge base is becoming this year. Everyone kept telling me that public schools do nothing but "teach to the test". The test being the FCAT, part of No Child Left Behind. This has not been our experience, but I can imagine a lot has to do with each teachers' individual teaching philosophy and this year we've been blessed with awesome teachers. Joshua will take the 3rd Grade FCAT this year, and other than soccer practice being cancelled for FCAT week, he's really not too bothered by it.
With Daniel's reading coach at school, he's been reading Mo William's books about Pigeon. I love these books, they are hilarious! Daniel picked out two at the Altamonte Springs Library today after school.
No comments:
Post a Comment