Category Archives: Schoolwork
Owen’s P/T conference
All great things to say from both of his teachers!
Katie’s P/T conference
Teacher says she’s doing great—she’s a great reader. Huh? What?! Well, we know she is…but we can never get past the complaining. She doesn’t complain at school, of course. Here are some of her projects.
Katie’s Curriculum Night & Tornado Warning
Parents who do their kids school projects for them? UGH. Our second graders had to create a square about themselves/their family. Are you kidding me with these?! I mean she they’re GORGEOUS and amazing but c’mon.
The letter Katie left for me:
All the things she references are other projects hanging around the room:
Baseball sheet:
Her shirt (her goals):
And she wins the most organized desk over Owen:
When we all walked in it was sunny and nice. Then we were in the basement and couldn’t see because it was getting dark out. Then everyone’s phones started going off…
Then there’s nothing like being sent into the hallway to wait out a tornado warning! There’s a first time for everything!
I checked in with Tom because they had been at baseball practice and he said it had been cancelled so they were actually already at home…eating dinner in the basement. And Owen was showing Tom what to do in case of a tornado. (Interestingly he wasn’t nearly as scared as he used to be with wind issues. So that’s a bonus.)
They ended up cancelling the rest of curriculum night as we had had ended up waiting for like 30 minutes. Thankfully our teacher had been about done.
This was waiting for us at Owen’s curriculum night.
Add just look at this messy desk. /shudder But why am I not surprised?!
F***ing cat.
IF THE DINOSAURS CAME BACK, THEY WOULD TAKE ME TO MCDONALD’S.
I am not sure I could love elementary artwork any more than this. Oh who am I kidding, I love most everything she brings home.
And if you look on the far left bottom corner… McDonald’s!!
Katie’s Open House
The Buddy Project
Works by young artists and even younger artists were on display during the Buddy Project portion of the Live Arts event held Friday at Warren Township High School’s Almond Campus. Woodland Elementary East had 72 students participate in the event where they drew somebody or something helping someone. Selected drawings were given to high school art students to recreate using drawing, painting, digital image or sculpture. Not only were the works side-by-side but the artists were able to meet one another for the first time and high school artists give their art work to their younger counterparts.
Katie’s superhero drawing was selected so we all went to see the display!
Sometimes the schoolwork that comes home just makes me smile.
Parent Teacher conferences
Both kids had student-led conferences. Owen needs to work on his presentation skills and info presented as his answers were like:
What are you good at?
Everything.
What is your goal?
To be the best at everything I do.
What do I need to work on?
Nuttin
I’m pretty sure he’s trying to be funny…but we talked to his teacher and she said she had zero complaints or worries about him. He listens, pays attention, doesn’t get distracted, has lots of friends…
Katie is doing great, too. She filled out her self-evaluation that she didn’t like math, spelling, or reading—which both us and the teacher thought odd since she’s great at all three. You could even see her demeanor change when talking about it. Her teacher even asked where the other Katie was. It’s so frustrating. She obviously knows, for example, her math facts (tests show it). But at home when she’s doing homework she flails when trying to answer 7+4 or 12-3 and gives us ridiculous answers like “I DON’T KNOW. 50?”
She also showed us her Kindness Quit square that was hanging in the main hallway.
Her teacher said she’s doing very well and is very smart and helpful. We just have to figure out the math and reading thing.
Owen’s dream is to live in Occoquan.
I love looking at the assignments in the hallway when I visit Owen’s classroom.
We had Teddy for the weekend.
Each of the kids in Katie’s class gets to bring Traveling Teddy home for the weekend. They have to write a page about what they do and post pictures. I forgot to take a picture of what she wrote, but here are the pics.
The kids both got glowing reviews!
Parent teacher conferences were tonight and both teachers had glowing things to say about the kids! Katie’s teacher was surprised that she balks at reading and doing math homework because she does awesome in class. Owen’s teacher said he really could not be doing better. We are so proud of them!!
The veterans thank you wall at Katie’s school.
And at Owen’s school:
And some of Owen’s work hanging in the hallway (maybe my favorite part of conferences).
And from Katie’s meeting:
I like the sound of the air because it sounds cool. I had pumpkin donuts at the pumpkin patch. I bought pumpkins at a pumpkin patch.
Katie Appleseed
Today Katie’s class celebrated Johnny Appleseed so she came home with this “pot hat.” 🙂
Who does Owen think he is?
This was one of his first projects of the school year.
This is how they opted to do their daily schoolwork.
Do you have a dictionary in your house?
Owen was just doing some summer slide work and needed a dictionary. I had to google a dictionary page. So it got me thinking and I asked on Facebook. I have to say I was somewhat surprised.
Owen’s Open House
Owen got to show is a bunch of stuff they’ve been working on…
But first a photobomb.
I am Owen.
Sneaky, kind, helpful
Child of Tom and Jen
Who loves video games
Who needs family and money
Who feels happy
Who gives help
Who fears being alone
Who would like to be a gamer.
I am Owen.
They did a unit on the Oregon Trail.
Look at how little he looked at the start of the year?!
Katie’s open house!
Owen’s first concert performance!
The entire third grade class presented a concert tonight. (This is actually only half the students—the other half went an hour earlier!) They sang a few songs together and then each class sang their own song while playing instruments. It was much of what you’d expect a third grade concert to be but they all looked like they were having fun and were proud of themselves. 🙂
After the concert we wanted to find Owen’s self-portrait (all the third-graders had done them and they were lining the gym). Owen had to point it out—I don’t think I ever wood have found it on my own. 🙂
Katie’s 100 Days of School project is making me twitchy.
As it is, it took a lot of subtle persuading to get her to do groups instead of total chaos. (Yes, I admittedly have issues with kids and art projects.)
Katie’s phonics demonstration
Owen brought home this gift for the family.
You know you’re old when…this is in the instructions for how to call 9-1-1.
Pumpkin Day
I volunteered to help with Pumpkin Day in Katie’s classroom. I had no idea what would be involved but then I got the email saying we’d be carving pumpkins so bring a knife and bowl if we could. Hoo boy—I hadn’t carved a pumpkin in years…
The classroom was a bit insane (I don’t know how she does it without an assistant—we were spoiled with Owen’s class having one) but overall it went well. There were four moms total so we each had a group of six. We had to measure the pumpkin with blocks and chain lengths, write what the pumpkin felt and smelled like, weigh the pumpkin, see if it sank or floated…and then design and carve the pumpkin. In an hour.
As you can imagine it was pretty much like herding cats. It started with the teacher switching Katie’s seat with someone so we could be at the same table…and the kid completely lost his shit and was a crying hot mess because “he wanted his seat.” Really, kid? You lose it over moving seats for an hour? And then some kids couldn’t pay attention for more than three seconds. One had no idea how to draw an H (“we haven’t done that letter yet”). A few wrote their numbers backwards (71 for 17) but fixed it after I told them—except one kid who literally kept writing it 71 no matter how many times I told him it was 1-7 not 7-1. One kid wrote all his letters on top of one another. You get the idea. I’m not bragging when I say that Katie seemed among the most advanced in her group (able to pay attention, answer questions, write her letters and numbers correctly, and follow instructions).
This is a snapshot of mass chaos before we even started.
I didn’t take many pictures because I was very involved in every step of the way—plus I didn’t have pockets, remember.
Katie was the badge collector.
And then it was time to go home so Katie got to ride home with me. She had a good time and was happy I came.
Kindergarten Curriculum Night
We got to hear about the Katie’s day and talk to the teacher. Of course I also used the time to take pictures!
Owen’s first classroom self-assessment!
His teacher agreed with everything—except one category she ranked him higher! (His marks are in pencil; hers are in green.)
Katie’s first kindergarten work!
Owen finished his summer slide worksheet!
We had a few ups and downs but tonight Owen earned his huge Nerf gun! Yay Owen!
