Monday, September 24, 2012

Third Grade Art Projects

Last year Hunter adored being in third grade!! I think it is so fun to do art in third grade because those fine motor skills have really started to become finely developed, neatness improves, and the imagination is easier to express. Hunter has ALWAYS loved doing art projects and Mrs. McMurtrey really liked teaching them. They were such a good fit together. (He already misses her this year.) As I was going through his stack of papers, I realized there are just way too many to stuff easily into a file folder and save for future years. So filing them away on my nifty computer and into cyberspace sounds so much less cluttery.


 Enjoy his beautiful work. I have no ideas of the dates on these, except they are all this past school year (okay, I'm sure the Halloween one is from October 2011).





Lines

Hunter's Hand


 

Halloween
Crayon colored Butterfly

Beehive and Busy Bees




Quilted Look

Christmas Design (I spent an afternoon getting these off the wood wall in the classroom!)

Snowflakes
Paper Heart--says I 'heart' U in the middle

Watercolor--Rainbow Circles


Aluminum Foil Owl





Learning to be a Writer

Luke spent a lot of class time in first grade learning how to write. I love his little stories and it has been fun to see how much he learns by DOING! 

I've been going through the 1st grade papers this morning and I just want to share a few of his writings.

First are poems he wrote to get ready for a Mother's Day gift. He wrote several difference poems and then picked his favorite. His teacher, Miss McMorrow typed up his favorite poem and then he added an illustration and then they framed it. Seriously this is the TOP of my favorite Mother's Day gifts EVER!  

Here are his poems:

My Mom (this one is spelled like he wrote it)

Luve
is floing from
the iwl
frum you to
my (me) 

(I think I need to have him help me with what iwl is)


The rest are edited with proper spelling.

My Mom


Like the 
sun
shining up the
day.


My Mom

Like a
bird
bringing the
chicks
food.

(That poem feels very true!!! What a great simile he applied to my life.)

Now the FAVORITE poem he chose to make into my gift:

My Mom

Like a
shooting star
on your
birthday
granting
your 
wishes.

Here's a picture of the present:

 Aww! I keep it right on the mantel. It melts my heart and helps me remember to keep being a good mom. (I think most moms need reminders of how they make their children feel.)

This is one of Luke's earlier writings. This is from Martin Luther King Day in January. Luke is CRAZY about recycling. He likes to make sure we put all the paper, cardboard, milk jugs, etc. in our recycle bin. Mostly though he likes to recycle by reusing things at home. He likes to build stuff with the old cardboard and cereal boxes. He uses lots of tape and staples to build creations. Lance says he was like that as a young boy too. They are so much a like!

I love how Luke always draws pictures of himself. Orange hair, of course,and almost always a striped shirt. He really doesn't have that many striped shirts. They must just look good for self portraits though. 
 

Here are some links to more of Luke's writing featured on his teacher's blog.

http://foreverin1st.blogspot.com/2012/01/andee-revised-small-moment-about-her.html

http://foreverin1st.blogspot.com/2012/04/strong-voices-are-contagious.html 

 

Monday, August 27, 2012

Smilebox of Star Students

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First Day of School 2012


Yeah! It's school time again. A schedule. Kitchen stays clean for a few hours at a time instead of just minutes. The floor can stay picked up for a while. Everyone goes to bed so much earlier (except Lance--he is pretty consistent all year long).The house is quiet during the day. "I'm bored" is a saying for summer.

Dallin started his junior year at Kuna High School. He has three different ag classes this year--one from each teacher: plant and soils, a speech class, and flower arranging. He also has US history, language arts, algebra II, men's choir, and seminary. For the third year in a row he has been pleased with his schedule. Math has a challenging teacher though--she does not really explain things and he needs that. Good thing Lance is so
good at math so he can help Dallin. Dallin didn't tell me a goal for this school year yet. But I bet he has several like: get good grades, play football hard, do his senior project and Eagle Scout project (it can be the same project), and get to districts with discus during track season. 


Bruce is a 7th grader at Kuna Middle School. He is a Golden Eagle. The middle school divides the grades into teams and each team has a group of teachers in a specific hallway making things easier for the students. It also helps the teachers because they can collaborate together in working with student's needs. Bruce was a bit exited to be a Golden Eagle at first because the hallway were their teachers are is the only hallway in the school with big lockers. So it is rumored that all the Eagles get a full-sized locker. Unfortunately that is not
always the case. Poor Bruce. His locker is around the corner from the main hallway and he got a half-sized locker. He was also bummed because most of his friends from Ross were not on his team either. However, school has been better than the inital "get your schedule day" and he's found several other friends in some classes. He did take a typing test on registration day and he was able to get out of "Input Technologies I" where they learn basic document skills and typing. So his schedule got changed and now he's in drama for a quarter and hunter's education for second quarter. His other classes are band--he's playing the
baritone saxophone or bari sax for short. He and Thayne are in band together--pre-algebra, language arts, and  world history. Before school started, I asked the boys to each make a goal for school this year. Bruce's goal is to get straight A's.


Thayne is a 7th grader at Kuna Middle School. He is a Mighty Duck! Dallin was a Mighty Duck too--so he has some of the same teachers Dallin had. Thayne really likes his teachers, especially the p.e. teacher, Mr. Crusat. He has a friend, Blake Morrill, in his p.e. class and they share a locker together because they trust each other. They have to change clothes for p.e. This the first time he's ever had to do anything like that. School started Wednesday and that night Thayne asked Dallin, "So how do you change your clothes for p.e.? Just out in the open in the locker room?" yup!! Dallin agreed that it feels a bit freaky, but warned Thayne to get used to it. That's how it works. (I found the question quite funny because T is the lest modest child in our house!) Thayne's main locker is in the same hall as Bruce's but down the hall from each other.
All the boys have bottom lockers this year--which are less than desirable. He is playing the baritone, aka euphonium in band. He and Bruce both think that Mrs. Peterson is cool. She is too! She makes band really fun from what my flute students have told me. Thayne also has pre-algebra, language arts and world history. Thayne's goal for school this year is to have no zeroes!


Hunter is a 4th grader at Ross Elementary. Ross is a new school for him this year. The elementary schools we are zoned for are split between two building. Indian Creek Elementary has the kindergarteners through third graders. Then they move around the street corner to Ross Elementary for fourth through sixth grade. The schools have the same principal, p.e. and music teachers. Hunter has Miss Cunningham for fourth grade. She is a cute, petite blonde teacher--right up Hunter's ally! He has always had really cute teachers. He already loves her. And that is no surprise, she's a super teacher. He is sitting next to a boy from his
class last year, Sean. He and Sean were a bit competitive with each other last year. Sean's really athletic--I see the future KHS quarterback in him and Hunter's really good at school. I think they were a bit jealous of each other last year. So this is a good year to become friends. Most of Hunter's really good friends all have a different teacher this year. Hunter told me his goal for school this year is to make more friends. I told him it needed to be an academic goal. So he agreed to get straight A's. Although I think his original goal of making new friends will be accomplished too!


Luke is a 2nd grader at Indian Creek Elementary. He has Mrs. Doan who is sweet and kind. He likes her and is happy to go to school each day. I'm really interested to find out what his speech teacher thinks about his speech over the summer. He has had a huge backslide every summer, but I think this summer he continued to improve instead. I don't know much about what has happened at school yet because he isn't much of story teller unless we're totally alone. We haven't had that since school started. Wednesday night we had a pack meeting/boy scout court of honor, Thursday night we had the JV football game, Friday I was doing corn. Maybe today we'll get to hang out and talk. His goal for this year is to be able to read books all by himself--chapter books like Nate the Great. 




Sunday, May 22, 2011

Our Luke is SIX!












Luke had a "THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!" on May 5th. He didn't want a friend party (he really just likes being at home and we don't live by any kids in his kindergarten class) he just wanted his family to come. He had tried to get me to take him to Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday, but I resisted. Not really found of the the icky, expensive pizza and freaky animatronics that have changed since I was a kid. Then a few days later he said he wanted our neighbors, The Sawyers, to come. Eric is in his Primary class, but will be in kindergarten next year. So they came over at 7:30 for cake and ice cream.

For his presents Luke got a foam rocket that shoots really high, his own "HUGE" bag of puffy Cheetos, a candy bar, police Lego stickers, a shirt with a Piranha on it, armor for his Zuzu pet, and a green light saber, and some money from grandparents. The very next day he ordered a Lego Star Wars landspeeder from Lego.com and then insisted we go put the money in the bank so he could pay for it!



One birthdays at our house the birthday person gets to choose what we have for dinner. Luke picked cereal. So we had "Magic Soup," as I heard a friend call it--cold cereal and milk, for dinner. Then we followed that up with cake and ice cream. No wonder he said it was the "BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!"

Birthdays at our house have a lot to do with the cake. Luke picked an alligator after looking through some pictures. He turned out pretty good!

The day after his birthday he started walking around and acting so much bigger and older! He brought me his two baby blankets, one from each grandma, and told me he didn't need them any more and he was going to put them in the D.I. box in the laundry room. I tried to tell him I'd wash them and then we could just save them in closet. He said, "No, I don't need them anymore." I tried, "but maybe you'll be sad and need them." "No." and he stuck them in the box. I just left them there. About a half hour later he told me, "I really think you should go to D.I. today." He hasn't wanted them since. I did wash them and have them in a laundry basket close to the box. I think he put them back in the D.I. box. Hunter freaked out when he saw them, "Mom, look what is in the D.I. box!" He tried to take them out, but I explained the situation to him (letting him know I really was not going to take them to D.I.) Dallin also got very concerned when he saw them there. He said, "I still use my white-blue B" (his blanket's name). That six foot tall boy just makes me laugh! Our boys each have had a very special blanket. None of them were so attached that they have to have them to sleep as they've been older. Most of them just hang around like a stuffed animal or pillow by their beds. Luke is the first to "be done" with his baby blankets though. I think he just wants to be grown-up like everyone else in the house.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Easter Bunny Delivers!

Happy Easter! We celebrate Easter on both Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. Saturday morning the Easter Bunny visits our house. Hunter woke up a bit on the early side. I don't think Thayne and Bruce were very happy to woken up by Hunter. I could hear them plotting and talking all the way in my room. I finally got up to save him from his older brothers that were getting very annoyed with Hunt. Hunter kept trying to tell them what he could see out in the family room and Thayne specifically did not want to be told the surprises.

I think the smilebox catches a bit of the fun! After they spent quite a while playing with the basket gifts they looked for the hidden Easter eggs that the Bunny hides all over.
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Easter Candy Favorites:

Hunter: Reese's Pieces Eggs
Bruce: Chocolate Bunnies & Peeps (they get blown up in the microwave)
Thayne: Malted eggs and Reese's Pieces Eggs
Dallin: bunnies & chicks (like circus peanuts), well, actually all of it except...
Luke: Peeps
Melissa: bunnies & chicks, hide 'n seek eggs, black jelly beans, Reese's pieces eggs, good malted eggs--prefer the non chocolate ones
Lance: Reese's Pieces Eggs & black jelly beans & non chocolate malted eggs

What They Don't Like:
Dallin: Black jelly beans (make him very cranky when he smells black licorice)
Bruce: Malted Eggs and white chocolate bunnies, not to crazy about bunnies & chicks either
Luke: white chocolate
Melissa: CHEAP chocolate! Yuck! and commercialized non-traditional candies--like the candies that you can just buy in a candy bar all the time--I like it to be special to just Easter. And we only get Peeps at Easter time!
Lance: Hide 'n seek eggs, bunnies & chicks, peeps or anything that is just like straight sugar.
Thayne: Black Jelly Beans