And of course Katie didn’t want to wear PJs on the one day she technically could…
Category Archives: School
Inclusive Schools Week—Spirit Wear
Friday: “Unity Day!” Wear our Halley spirit wear/ school colors (black/yellow).
I completely forgot to take a picture, but I did snap this one as they were playing Minecraft together. 🙂
Inclusive Schools Week—Blue Day
Thursday: “I am Blue-tiful” Day!” Wear blue.
Inclusive Schools Week—Hat Day
I missed a picture on Tuesday: “We are all UNIQUE!” Wear crazy socks to express yourself. Owen wore my sushi socks. 🙂
Wednesday: “Hats off to inclusion!” Wear a favorite hat. Also, for Owen, picture retake day.
A quick visit to Owen’s classroom.
Long story short, he had been missing his daily folder (we’d looked everywhere) so since I had to drop off some stuff at the school, I took him to school and had him search his classroom. We didn’t find it, but he enjoyed showing me a few things in the room.
The treat bag they all decorated—they get small treats at the end of the day if they had good behavior.
I liked this and am going to start using it at home—it’s one of Owen’s major issues when writing!
They had to do an acrostic poem:
Oreos are my favorite
West Virginia football team is not my fav
Eating chicken is my fav
New Years Eves is my fav
Hugs are my favorite
U_____ is cool (he doesn’t even know what this is)
Duny [Dunia] is my friend
Summer is fun
Olives are not my favorite
Nuts are yummy
Inclusive Schools Week—Wear a bow/tie
Technically it’s National Inclusive Schools Week but for basic conversation, it’s a type of spirit week. 🙂
Inclusive Schools Week is an annual event sponsored by the Inclusive Schools Network (ISN) and Stetson & Associates, Inc., which is held each year during the first full week in December. Since its inception in 2001, Inclusive Schools Week has celebrated the progress that schools have made in providing a supportive and quality education to an increasingly diverse student population, including students who are marginalized due to disability, gender, socio-economic status, cultural heritage, language preference and other factors. The Week also provides an important opportunity for educators, students and parents to discuss what else needs to be done in order to ensure that their schools continue to improve their ability to successfully educate all children.
Monday: “Your talents are a gift!” Wear a bow tie or bow to show what a gift you are to our school.
Spirit Friday—Decades
It was Through the Decades at school today. I don’t have much of an imagination so we did an 80s collar and pegged jeans.
Painting snowflakes
Art night ceramics at school! I was clueless as to how to decorate my snowflake…until I finished it…at which point my mind flooded with ideas, all of which I liked better than what I did. The kids’ are great, though you are only seeing the boring back side because they were still drying. And Tom’s impressed me, too…the only one that looks like an actual snowflake! A fun night!
Veteran’s Day Part 2
The school posted a slew of pictures on Facebook from the assembly today and I snagged these:
I knew from some of the faces it was Owen’s class but it took me a minute to find…his head. 🙂
Two of the three marines in the audience (they played each branches song while the appropriate members stood up).
And lookie here. 🙂
Veteran’s Day
We all went to the Veteran’s Day Assembly at Owen’s school. It was very nice, and each of the grades performed either a song or poem. During one of the songs, every child who had a military family member stood up and waved a sign that said “Thank you, Service Members!” (This is a photo from a random person on Facebook.)
We were a bit too far back to see well, so it wasn’t until afterwards we learned that Owen didn’t stand up…because he was shy. Poor kid. It wasn’t like he was the only one, either—there were probably (conservatively) 50 other kids standing up, too.
This was what he brought home from school:
1st Grade Veteran’s Day Assembly project
Owen’s teacher emailed me last night to see if I could help with a class project today for the Veteran’s Day assembly on Wednesday. It was last minute but she thought maybe I could do it since I was already going to be in the classroom (for a makeup P/T conference). I quickly agreed because I like helping out—and I could bring Katie. 🙂 She said she’d let me know what the project was when I got there.
Hoo boy, LOL.
It wasn’t just a CLASS project, but a GRADE project. An ART project. Where I had to paint everyone’s hands to make the stripes on a flag. And stick their name stickers on as well. So, around 100 kids 2-10 at a time in a hallway…ON MY KNEES the whole time.
I gave up control of hand placement on about the fourth red hand, LOL.
I had on the wrong clothes—a tank with a swingy top which kept flapping about getting close to the paint (washable, of course, but still…I’d have worn something different if I knew I’d be painting).
I had the wrong hair—I wore it down, but with all the moving around and kids and close quarters and paint…I would have worn it up.
And my knees. My poor, old, broken knees. I can barely deal with kneeling for five minutes, let alone an hour. I wouldn’t have said no even if I knew, so it doesn’t really matter…I’m just lamenting my old knees and how I took some strong drugs and am currently writing this entry sitting with my feet up because it hurts to walk. 🙂
It was fun overall (though a bit messy and chaotic), some kids recognized me as Owen’s mom, the teachers really appreciated me being there, it turned out cute, and I was too busy to worry about Katie but Mrs. Talley said she was just fine…and I walked in after to see Katie just sitting with the kids (not even with Owee!) watching the math lesson. 🙂
First 1st grade P/T conference
On the way in, we stopped to see Owen’s Hero submission for Veteran’s Day in the main hallway:
Overall, Owen is doing great!
He’s ahead in reading—she said she’s had to keep moving him up levels! He’s currently on Level 8 (levels are much different than back in our day) and needs to be at Level 16 by the end of the year…which his teacher said she wasn’t worried about at all.
He’s doing well in math—he got 13/14 on a recent makeup test from the week he missed (but she didn’t give him any instruction like the rest of the class had). And the question he got wrong he just didn’t pay close attention to the instructions because he was likely going too fast (it was 4 + 2 = ___ + 3 and he wrote 6).
He’s also doing well in social studies, science, and writing—and I got to quickly look at his journals.
He uses his time well (an improvement from kindergarten) and behaves in class.
His teacher said he had no major areas that needed improvement (yay!)—just basic (expected) things like using upper/lower case consistently and correctly, spacing between words when writing, etc…all stuff we know and are working on.
And we got a list of questions we need to ask when he does his daily reading to help prepare him for the state testing at the end of the year (like Who was the main character? What happened first?) as well as more critical thinking like this:
We surprised Owen at lunch!
Tom was home today so we decided to surprise Owen during his lunch!
Don’t you love Katie’s lunch? Sometimes I just make life easy. 🙂
Owen seeing us!
Halloween starts tonight!
Owen’s school Fall Festival was tonight and we wanted some one-on-one time with him so asked friends to watch Katie. They were going to a Trunk or Treat event so she was excited! She was Rapunzel—with Pascal on her shoulder!
And then we had Harry Potter—SO stinkin’ cute!
With his fresh scar:
Getting his new shoes tied. I bought these shoes on clearance about four years ago and they’re finally the right size…and worked well with his costume!
Couldn’t you just eat him up?
We kept bouncing back and forth between the games in the gym and the music in the cafeteria. He didn’t want to dance but loved playing with the hula hoops! He was very shy because he didn’t know many of the kids.
And you’ll notice he’s missing the glasses. Yeah. He decided about 15 minutes in that he didn’t want to wear them. Or carry his broom. Kids. :/
Back to games!
And then since it was crazy crowded and he was pretty much done, we suggested frozen yogurt—and he wanted to leave immediately. 🙂
Katie actually got home later than us! They said she qas very well-behaved and had a BLAST! And she came home with a TON of candy!
The vampire teeth were the favorite thing.
And, lastly, pics from Katie’s night. Her friend Ainsley is Tinkerbell.
Owen’s classroom tour
I had to drop off the table signs for the fall festival and a bag of odds and ends containers to the STEAM class…so just took Owen to school. Since we had extra time before school actually started, I had him show me around his classroom. I learned more about his days in that 15 minutes than I have all year. 🙂
Hallway art:
Color: Blue
Food: Pizza
Animal: Cat
Book: Stop the Bot
- I will look for [I can’t tell and he couldn’t remember]
- I will look for ink for writing
- I will build a house for living
- I will discover Spain
- I will discover America
- I will find fresh water
- I will find gold and food
I joked with him, asking if that was really his handwriting because it was SO much better than what I get from him at home. 🙂
In his classroom:
I had him walk me through what happens when he comes in every morning.
First, the coat gets stuffed in the box (behind his knees), the lunch box goes across the room to the big lunch bin (the teacher carries it down at lunchtime because they go straight from recess to lunch), the Book Baggie goes in a specific numbered basket (each kid has their own number), and the homework folder goes in a bin.
Some of the book bins:
Owen’s hopes and dreams: to learn to write. 🙂
Some of their daily schedule:
Work centers—he had to point to each column and read all the names and activities:
This picture was sitting on the teacher’s desk and he pointed it out saying “Look! I’m wearing my Minecraft shirt!” Not what the picture was for or when it was taken, LOL. I asked and he said “just because.” I’m guessing maybe it was the first say of school because I know that’s what he wore that day. (The teacher wasn’t in the room so I couldn’t ask her.)
Then he told me about a bunch of other stuff in his room…poetry center where you grab a sheet from the basket and read it, how when they read to self they grab a book and a pillow and can sit “anywhere in this section,” etc. He was so proud and so full of information! I told him THAT’S the stuff we wanted to know when we asked him about his day. 🙂
Lastly, when his teacher came back, I spoke with her separately for a few minutes to update her on his GI issues. We told her he had a change of clothes in his bag and we just recently put his underwear in a separate ziploc bag in case he had to change them during class and didn’t want to be obvious about it. We also let her know that it’s okay to tell him to go change if she notices anything, and maybe she can take special care to let him deal with it after everyone has left for recess or lunch or whatever so that the other kids don’t know. She was very nice about everything.
This is about as close as I get to Pinteresty things.
I volunteered to do the posterboard table signs for Owen’s school’s Fall Festival this coming Friday (these are for tables with games and activities). I may have gone a tiny bit overboard (EVERYTHING was designed and printed then cut and glued!), but it felt great to do something creative for once!
My boy is growing up. Sniff.
Owen decided that he wanted to walk to the bus stop by himself. I’m perfectly fine with that as he’s a good kid, he needs the responsibility, and there are lots of other parents down there. 🙂
Katie wasn’t happy—she wanted to go so she could play with the kids. (We’ll go sometimes but not every day.)
She watched for him from the back steps. When all the leaves are gone she should be able to see them, if barely. We can hear them now because they run around playing and screeching.
This is what she kept saying. Poor kid.
Owen’s Good Character Award
Owen’s teacher emailed me last night to let me know he was getting the award this morning and that he didn’t know about it—so she left it up to us whether or not to tell him. We opted to keep it a surprise—and Tom was luckily able to make it, so we kept that a surprise, too!
He doesn’t see us…
Doesn’t see us…
Then sees daddy!!
Such a happy little boy!
Owen’s part is about at 2:11.
Mrs. McLenigan and Mrs. Stulman did a great job with the kids—all four 1st grade award recipients were from their kindergarten class!
Kindergarten Teacher Letters
As I was making Owen’s kindergarten book, I realized I hadn’t taken pics of what his teachers wrote in his memory book!
Patriot Day and first Morning Program of the year!
And from the school’s Facebook account (back in class):
Grade 1 Morning 2
I wanted a closeup of his hair but the pic didn’t turn out too well. And I’m still practicing getting the front spikes just right—it’s a good thing he’s not picky!
He took a book this mornimg. 🙂
I know the number of parents will lessen after the first week…but WOW there’s a lot of people at our stop this year.
I’m actually kind of looking forward to NOT having to go (it’s only a requirement to be there for kindergarteners) but then I miss chatting with my friends…so I’m sure I’ll skip some days (so Owen can gain some responsibility) and go some days (so I can talk to other adults). 🙂
Home from school!
Katie was super excited to have Owee home! (The buses usually run late the first week, so it should be way earlier than 4:45 from now on.)
Owen told me someone asked about his pink lunch bag and he told them he liked pink and he loved his mom! 🙂
Kindergarten & 1st Grade
Owen’s first day of 1st grade!
We bought a bunch of new lunchbags for Owen in various patterns—red owls, multi-colored dark stripes, pirate treasure map, etc…and what one did he want to use for his first day? The pink multi-colored hearts!
I figured I should prepare him for kids teasing him about it (I didn’t actually expect it, but better safe than sorry).
Me: Owen, what would you say if some kid made fun of you for bringing a “girl-colored” pink heart lunch bag.
Owen: [You could see his heart sink.] I would say that was mean.
Me: Yes, it would be mean. You just tell them you like pink and it’s a cool color.
Owen: [Getting sassier.] And if they ask me if it’s because I love anyone? I’ll tell them NO!
Me: You don’t love me? Or daddy? Or your sister?
Owen: Well yes. 🙂
And then it was time for pictures! I did Katie while Owen got his shoes on. She had to sit on the very top step.
“Mama, take a picture of me upside down!”
The same questions I asked him last year. The funny thing is that he usually just spouts something off the top of his head! Like I can’t remember the last time he asked for an orange—it’s always strawberries. And I can’t tell you the last time we watched Incredibles–it’s usually Lego Movie or Wreck It Ralph. And it was the very first time I heard anything about wanting to be a policeman. Kids are silly. Oh! And the favorite book? I think we’ve read it maybe twice that I can remember, so I asked why that book and he said “Because it shows how you take care of me and love me.” Awwww.
And then it was off to the bus stop…where it was hotter than hell. Holy wah. It was horribly hot and the kids were sweating from running around. I love the first day of school, though, because there were more parents there than kids! 🙂
I was really excited about his new backpack—it’s from Costco and is much more well-made than the Minion one he had last year…but it’s really overkill for him (it has a laptop pocket, room for lots of pens and pencils, a phone, etc.). We’ll see how it works, but we may end up getting a bit smaller one.
Back to School Night
We were the first family in Owen’s classroom so he wasn’t too shy…and agreed to a picture with his new teacher, Mrs. Talley.
I took advantage of the empty room by taking a few room photos.
As more and more people arrived, he got more and more shy…and was eventually glued to my side. There are six kids total from his Kindergarten class (24 students total) so it’s nice that they start with friends. He also knows a neighbor girl (from our street) and a boy we met through t-ball (the older brother of a teammate) so he’s happy!
The teacher had a brief presentation and it was much less chaotic than the Kindergarten one last year! When I got home, I found this picture on the school’s Facebook page—you can see Tom and Katie at the very right edge and I’m sitting in front of them.
What might have been the best part of the event, though, was talking to the preschool director about getting Katie in the Peer Modeling program (it was recommended by a friend). The actual pre-school program is for high-risk or special needs-type students, but they have preschool-aged peers come into the class to model behaviors and skills. And it doesn’t cost anything! (I just have to provide transportation and lunch/snack. I can do that!) I filled out the paperwork and now just have to wait—they typically invite kids to the classroom for a trial period and see how it goes or where the best fit would be. I’m practically jumping for joy to think about her being in preschool for three days a week! And she’d be in the same hallway as Owen!
So the night was a success!
Teachers on buses!
Owen’s elementary school had their teachers get on buses and visit a few neighborhoods to say hi and hand out treats!
Owen’s two kindergarten teachers are on the far right.
We were coming home from the sprayground a few minutes before the bus was to arrive at the local library, so we stopped. Owen got to say hi to his Kindergarten teacher and Aide, he met his new art teacher, and got an icee pop!
A mad rush to school after school!
So, this morning before school, I had Owen write a thank you note for his teachers. It turned out super cute.
Circle Time
My favorite things
1. Learning vowels
2. The Oh No! game
3. I loved the slide at the pumpkin patch
4. Zoo
5. Computer
Thank you for being my teachers
I also sent in a thank you card and small gift for him to give them. When he got home, and after we asked about his last day, I asked if he gave his teachers their present. He couldn’t remember. SERIOUSLY?! So we questioned him some more and he went and looked in his bag and it wasn’t there. So I quick emailed the teacher asking if he’d given it to them or left it sitting somewhere. Then I checked his bag—and there it was, in the front pocket he hadn’t unzipped. Ugh.
Of course I really wanted them to have the gift and especially his card, so we tore out of here and rushed to the school to hopefully get there before they left. (The kids had a two-hour early dismissal, but I knew the teachers would be cleaning out their classrooms.)
Thankfully, they were both still there, so we got to talk with them for a few minutes, give them their gift, and take a picture!
And a picture of me and my boy on the way out.
Owen’s last day of kindergarten!
Morning selfie with the kids
School Dance
Owen really wanted to go to the school dance tonight so since I wasn’t feeling well, Tom took him (meaning there weren’t many pictures taken, LOL). This was taken by a friend and posted on Facebook:
I asked if Owen was having fun and Tom said yes! At the moment, he was learning how to line dance! I asked if he was getting a video and he said no because he only does things for about 39 seconds and then chases a kid around for 2 minutes. 🙂
And a special treat afterwards:
