Friday, October 31, 2008
Happy Halloween, Y'all!
It's Halloween! We had several different ways to celebrate this year, as you can see in the slide show. During Fall Break, we went to the Creative Discovery Museum's Monster Bash. Last night, Baylor faculty and staff's children went Trick or Treating on campus and tonight was Trunk or Treating at the Baptist Church down the road (everyone parks in the lot and puts the candy in their trunk and you just go from car to car). You can see the girls have had lots of fun over the last few weeks, especially wearing their fun Halloween shirts from Korisa.
Enjoy!!
Enjoy!!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Fun Fun Fun!
In my procrastination of getting something done for school so I am not up until midnight or later tomorrow night, (and that also tells you how exciting our Saturday nights are...) I decided to check out Korisa's blog because I love seeing what they are up to. She has found an awesome site with free backgrounds for your blog and they are soooooooo cute. So, I thought, I'll check it out. Maybe it won't take forever to do. And it didn't! It's so simple so I just had to share. The link is in the sidebar if you want to check it out for yours too! Happy blogging!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Exhibit Night
Since we are a Museum Magnet school, at the end of every quarter we have an Exhibit Night where we showcase what the students have learned in module (what we call social studies and science, integrated). First grade was studying the Human Body, and I can't tell you how much Katie learned. Every day she came home talking about blood cells, the trachea, plasma, etc. and was drawing cells and labeling all the parts all on her own. Here are some of the pieces of their exhibit:
Katie's Body Book:
Page 1: She wrote Skeletal System: Bones make blood.
Page 2: Respiratory System: The lungs help us breathe.
Page 3: Circulatory System: Your heart pumps blood.
Page 4: Digestive System: Your esophagus sends food to your stomach.
The Body Lab:
1st grade became doctors at the beginning of the year and went to a "medical lab" where they got to touch and explore organs (from a cow, I think) Here they are on exhibit:
Here are the pictures of the students at the Body Lab...
Every student gets a Travel Journal every quarter, where they record what they learn about in module. Here's Katie's cover to her Travel Journal which was out on Exhibit:
And here's the first page
This is the picture of Katie and her friend Ella during the Body Lab. Katie has the pink bow in her hair. They are in their lab coats, masks, and in the full get up!
As an interactive piece of the exhibit, they made body parts out of that Crayola "clay" stuff (I can't think of the name of it at the moment, but you know what I mean, I hope!) that included each system they studied, and kids could come and follow the directions and build a body. How fun!
Another cool idea... this is a layered "book" which on the top layer made out of wax paper it says "If I didn't have a (stomach)" and then a drawing of it, and then "I couldn't..." and then you lift up the wax paper and they had cut out pictures from magazines of things they eat!
They also studied Healthy Choices. In art, they made healthy food models out of clay. Here's Katie's apple she made and painted.
They also made Healthy Choice commercials, which were awesome! In Katie's, she had to sneeze without covering her mouth and nose (this was a big deal for her - she said that even though she knew they were "acting", she was raised to always cover her nose when she sneezed, so she had a lot of trouble doing it!) and other students told her to cover her nose. They are SO cute!
Here she is looking through a microscope at blood cells.
And this is how they "built" blood cells in Science Lab...I think the label explains what candy represents which part of the cell. The one in the container was really cool...it's honey with red food coloring to look like blood, and various types of candy to represent red cells, white cells, and plasma. And, what I think is really impressive, is that she can tell you what each of those do!
So, I'm sure my kids didn't learn as much as 1st grade did, but I know this has been an incredible learning experience for Katie. Exhibit Night is a LOT of work...I have never worked this hard before. But it is so cool to see how much she knows!
Katie's Body Book:
Page 1: She wrote Skeletal System: Bones make blood.
Page 2: Respiratory System: The lungs help us breathe.
Page 3: Circulatory System: Your heart pumps blood.
Page 4: Digestive System: Your esophagus sends food to your stomach.
The Body Lab:1st grade became doctors at the beginning of the year and went to a "medical lab" where they got to touch and explore organs (from a cow, I think) Here they are on exhibit:
Here are the pictures of the students at the Body Lab...
Every student gets a Travel Journal every quarter, where they record what they learn about in module. Here's Katie's cover to her Travel Journal which was out on Exhibit:
And here's the first page
This is the picture of Katie and her friend Ella during the Body Lab. Katie has the pink bow in her hair. They are in their lab coats, masks, and in the full get up!
As an interactive piece of the exhibit, they made body parts out of that Crayola "clay" stuff (I can't think of the name of it at the moment, but you know what I mean, I hope!) that included each system they studied, and kids could come and follow the directions and build a body. How fun!
Another cool idea... this is a layered "book" which on the top layer made out of wax paper it says "If I didn't have a (stomach)" and then a drawing of it, and then "I couldn't..." and then you lift up the wax paper and they had cut out pictures from magazines of things they eat!
They also studied Healthy Choices. In art, they made healthy food models out of clay. Here's Katie's apple she made and painted.They also made Healthy Choice commercials, which were awesome! In Katie's, she had to sneeze without covering her mouth and nose (this was a big deal for her - she said that even though she knew they were "acting", she was raised to always cover her nose when she sneezed, so she had a lot of trouble doing it!) and other students told her to cover her nose. They are SO cute!
Here she is looking through a microscope at blood cells.
And this is how they "built" blood cells in Science Lab...I think the label explains what candy represents which part of the cell. The one in the container was really cool...it's honey with red food coloring to look like blood, and various types of candy to represent red cells, white cells, and plasma. And, what I think is really impressive, is that she can tell you what each of those do!
So, I'm sure my kids didn't learn as much as 1st grade did, but I know this has been an incredible learning experience for Katie. Exhibit Night is a LOT of work...I have never worked this hard before. But it is so cool to see how much she knows!
A Miracle Has Been Performed
The day that Mom and Dad went back to Illinois, for some strange reason that no one yet fully understands, Katie came to an understanding that has changed her life (and ours).
Since she was able to sit on a swing, we've been showing her how to pump her legs so she could swing by herself. It's never been successful. She's always had us push her, no matter what. If we didn't push her, she just sat there motionless, swearing that she couldn't make it go.
Well, on this particular day, Katie decided that she could pump her legs and swing by herself! And, lo and behold, it worked!!! And, we're not kidding, it has been a life changing event. The minute we get home from school (which usually isn't until about 5:15) she runs out the back door yelling "swing! swing!" and she likes for us to come watch her, but she will swing all by herself, and she goes high. Which she will show you (and explain fully) in the video...
Since she was able to sit on a swing, we've been showing her how to pump her legs so she could swing by herself. It's never been successful. She's always had us push her, no matter what. If we didn't push her, she just sat there motionless, swearing that she couldn't make it go.
Well, on this particular day, Katie decided that she could pump her legs and swing by herself! And, lo and behold, it worked!!! And, we're not kidding, it has been a life changing event. The minute we get home from school (which usually isn't until about 5:15) she runs out the back door yelling "swing! swing!" and she likes for us to come watch her, but she will swing all by herself, and she goes high. Which she will show you (and explain fully) in the video...
Granmma & Grampa Come to Visit
Well, a few weeks ago my Mom and Dad came all the way down here to visit, and this is the first minute I've had to post anything! We all had a great time! Here are some of the pictures from that weekend.
Katie and Gramma playing Webkinz:
Camden and Grampa smiling for the camera:
Gramma and Grampa with both girls:
Camden with Gramma and Grampa at Baylor, looking over the Tennessee River:
Gramma helping me make tea-stained paper so my 4th graders can write Colonial Pen Pal Letters:
Camden taking her new Froggy from Gramma and Grampa all around the house with her. She LOVES Froggy! She will take him everywhere, sit him down in the middle of the floor, and plop herself down with a book to read.
Gramma and Katie on the Tennessee Aquarium River Gorge Explorer - a huge $3M catamaran that was made just to go up and down the TN River Gorge. The ride was really cool (all of us but Camden thought so) and when we got back to the dock at Ross' Landing, it did a 360 right there in one spot in the river, just because it can, the capt. said!
We even went to the Chattanooga Choo Choo (our favorite local hotel...and a great place to get Moon Pies)
So, thank you, Gramma and Grampa for coming all this way to see us! This week is Fall Break (hallelujah!) so maybe I can get more than one post up here before school's back in session...
Katie and Gramma playing Webkinz:
Camden and Grampa smiling for the camera:
Gramma and Grampa with both girls:
Camden with Gramma and Grampa at Baylor, looking over the Tennessee River:
Gramma helping me make tea-stained paper so my 4th graders can write Colonial Pen Pal Letters:
Camden taking her new Froggy from Gramma and Grampa all around the house with her. She LOVES Froggy! She will take him everywhere, sit him down in the middle of the floor, and plop herself down with a book to read.
Gramma and Katie on the Tennessee Aquarium River Gorge Explorer - a huge $3M catamaran that was made just to go up and down the TN River Gorge. The ride was really cool (all of us but Camden thought so) and when we got back to the dock at Ross' Landing, it did a 360 right there in one spot in the river, just because it can, the capt. said!
We even went to the Chattanooga Choo Choo (our favorite local hotel...and a great place to get Moon Pies)
So, thank you, Gramma and Grampa for coming all this way to see us! This week is Fall Break (hallelujah!) so maybe I can get more than one post up here before school's back in session...
Friday, September 26, 2008
Happy Feet
This was from a few weeks ago, but since it's been a long time since I had time to post anything, I thought everyone would like to see Camden's Happy Feet from that particular day. She would not put on any pants, but couldn't stand to not have on these fancy shoes. The girl has a thing for shoes already, as you can tell at the end of the video clip when she finally finds another pair of shoes to pick up.
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