School News...

Last week the elementary school hosted an International Parade.  Each student wore or carried items from countries all around the world (made in art class).  The parade was held on the middle school track, which is located right next to the elementary school.

The starting line up!
(That's the brand-new middle school in the background.)

Sweet James

Nicolas and
Mrs. Smith, their teacher, behind him.

That's Mrs. Keeter, Henry's teacher,
in the blue school shirt and back pants.

I missed getting a picture of the kindergartners in the
parade; here they are walking back to school.

I continue to volunteer in the big boys' classrooms every Wednesday morning.  It's nice seeing the boys in "action."  James is so very studious-- quiet, attentive, focused.  Henry is so very five.  His attention span is short and all of Mrs. Keeter's cutesy, Pinterest learning activities don't seem to impress him much.  

Yesterday I volunteered in Henry's classroom.  Mrs. Keeter has her classroom set up in 5 work stations (phonics, math, reading, etc).  The children work in blocks of 10 minutes and move around the room seamlessly to their next learning station.  After each 10 minute block of independent learning time, she calls the class together to work as a group with her (again, for 10 mins).  I think breaking up the time in short duration definitely helps with all of those squirmy boys!  

Mrs. Keeter has wonderfully creative work stations all of the children seem to enjoy (ones with iPods for them to listen to stories and then write about; ones with stamps to stamp out their spelling words; cards with itty bitty pictures hidden in them and the children have to use magnifying glasses to find the picture and spell the word; reading baskets for every child with their "own" books which change weekly, based on their level; lots of cute learning games.)  

In this "game," Henry has a folded card-- you can see the
clothes pin holding the answer-- and he has to sound out the word
and use the dry erase marker to spell it.  After, he
uncovers the clothespin to check his work.

Working hard to sound out the letters
and write out the new word.

This "word wall" allows the
children to pick harder
words to build their sentences.

Here Gabby is working on her sentences.
She wanted help writing "I love my brother."
Sweet girl! 

The boys really do enjoy their school and I'm grateful for all of the opportunities for parents to get involved!