First Day of School

Today was the first day of Kindergarten for Lucy and the first day of fifth grade for Emma Jane.  It was our second year in the new building.  We were all a little less frazzled this year.  Lucy was much less apprehensive this year than last year.

We have been up there volunteering for about a week.  Mike built a closet/room for the Einstein teachers to store things in.  And Emma recently hemmed some curtains for the teachers.  So once again it was a team effort to get the school ready for the first day.

This is the last year that the girls will ever be in the same school together.  And Lucy is really attached to her sister.  When Emma takes a shower, Lucy sits in the floor of the bathroom and plays with her barbies.  She can't bear to be away from her.  I hope that as Emma's need for privacy grows, Lucy's independence increases.

Lucy was all ready to conquer Kindergarten.

And Emma was ready to be the leader that she already is.

Lucy gave her daddy a great big hug before her big day.

We practiced introducing ourselves last night to the teacher.  I was the teacher and I said hello to Lucy.  Then Lucy said, "Hello Mrs. Beckman, my name is Lucy, it is nice to meet you.  I am ready for a great day."  Emma Jane was pretending to be Lucy's mother and then started to cry and refused to leave the classroom and made a really ugly scene...it was really rather embarrassing and kind of funny in a 'hitting-a-little-too-close-to-home-kind-of-way".  My children apparently know me very well.

So, after snapping this photo, I ran off without making a scene and hosted a breakfast for the new Mayo parents and didn't cry one tear...or make a scene...or refuse to leave. 

Mrs. Shepherd

We recently went to a Mayo teacher's house for a dinner party.  Mrs. Shepherd taught Emma Jane and recently retired from Mayo but substitute teaches so frequently that Lucy knows her and loves her.  She donates a dinner for 12 lucky couples to raise money for the school and this is the first year we have been lucky enough to attend.  The dinner was last Saturday night and it was fabulous.

Upon arriving I immediately regretted not bringing my camera.  You know me with my camera.  But my subject is usually the girls and they were not with us, so I didn't even think about bringing it.  The first thing you notice when you get to Mrs. Shep's house is the art.  It is an art gallery.  And the featured artist in residence is her daughter Hannah Shepherd.  She is a remarkable artist and I feel sure that we will be seeing more of her work earn broader recognition some day.

They had wonderful food and plenty of adult beverages to choose from.  The parents in attendance were an interesting mix with kids from different age groups and interests.  There were some teachers and the principal was there.  The weather was perfect for sitting out on her beautiful deck.  Her husband Scott is very personable and dynamic (and very good at making bar-b-Que).  They have an OU basement and TV room with a couple of kegs.  What more could you want in the event of a tornado...OU sports and beer?   

Mrs. Shepherd made these amazing cupcakes and gave us these party favors that were Mayo drinking glasses.  When Lucy saw the glasses this morning she was reminded of our dinner with Mrs. Shepherd.  She started to ask me some questions about having dinner with her teacher.

Lucy:  Mom?  How was dinner with Mrs. Shepherd?

Me:  It was great!

Lucy:  Did you sit beside her or across from her?

Me: Both.  Sometimes I sat across from her, but sometimes I sat beside her.

Lucy:  (With a knowing grin on her face she says) So when you sat beside her you weren't following directions were you, Mommy.  When she asks you to sit beside her is when you can't sit criss-cross apple-sauce or follow directions.  It's okay...I sometimes have to sit next to her too.

I love that four year old brain...

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of Pre-K for Lucy and the last day of fourth grade for Emma Jane.  Here is a before and after, a beginning and an end.

The last day at Mayo is full of fun.   They have yearbook signing and beach blanket bingo and they play in the water from a fire truck.

You can read about last year's fun here.

But this year we are in a new building and building new traditions.  And this year I had two kids to watch and take pictures of.

Two of Emma's favorite teachers who have made the blog in the past.

Lucy Piper was her literacy and math teacher and really pushed her to do great things this year.

And Mrs. Power-Jimenez who we dissected brains with in August and who got married over Spring Break.

It was partly cloudy and barely reached 70 degrees.  It was a little chilly when you got wet.

And finally a photo of Lucy's teacher for the second half of her Pre-K year, Mrs. Eakes.

We are going to caption this one..."I SURVIVED A YEAR OF THIS CHAOS!!"

Volunteer of the Year

As this school year comes to an end, I am reflecting back on how far we have come.  Last year at this time we were in a different building.  A beloved building.  I will admit that I was against the move to the new building, but have changed my mind completely.  I love the new space.  I love the new location because I can get there from work in 8 minutes.  This means I can spend more time volunteering.  I can spend more time there in the morning or make it there fast if someone is sick.  I am so happy with the new location and the new building.  There were things that needed to be done and the parents have really stepped in and filled the need.

But from my point of view, the person that gets "Volunteer of the Year", is Mike.  There is no such award, but there should be.  He has spent hundreds of hours up there on weekends and evenings building lofts, a sandbox, painting, hanging art wire, hanging sheet metal for art, hanging bulletin boards, making LAN cables, building shelves, moving furniture, and constructing a shed.

We have spent so much time at the school this year that the girls feel at home there.  I also think it gives them a sense of pride and ownership.  They are proud of their dad and all that he has done for their school.  The physical improvements to the school will last longer than my children will even be there.  I am so grateful for all the wonderful parents that volunteer their time to improve the atmosphere for our kids.  I am also thankful for the teachers that stay late and volunteer their time above and beyond their job descriptions.  We are a community.

There has been a problem with vandalism and littering at the school.  I believe that if we could get each family to volunteer one Saturday with their child, we could create ownership and a community where a student would not want to deface their building.  I know my kids would never dream of defacing the property that they love and have seen their parents work so hard to improve.

Regardless of my grand dreams of getting the whole community involved, I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for all we have done.  Forget the ninety hours making the quilt...Mike has donated 5 times that over the last 8 months.  He has been the driving force behind group projects getting done and he has been the lone project manager on the lofts getting built.  If ever there were an award for volunteer of the year, he should certainly be in the running.

But once again, it should not be about the recognition.  Mike has set an example for his girls.  The work ethic and volunteer spirit he has taught them is worth more than any plaque or certificate.  And they are so proud to call him their dad.  They think he can do anything.  And he can...

Spring Sing

Last week the Einsteins (the pre-K and Kindergarteners) had a Spring Program.  They sang about ladybugs and the sun and plants and flowers and rain.  They were absolutely adorable. 

Lucy has a best friend named Lily.  They absolutely gravitate toward each other.  They have since the beginning.  Isn't that funny (Tosca?) how you make a friend when you are so little and share so much with them? 

They also get into a bit of mischief together.  Here they are talking and making each other laugh when they were supposed to be singing.

 Those girls...

The Einstein Quilt

Because many of you have asked how it turned out, I thought I would post pictures of the Einstein quilt I made for the auction.  I still really wish I had it as a keepsake.  But I am getting over it.  I realize that I can teach my girls a great lesson by getting past this.  I also realize that Emma Jane already learned a valuable lesson.

One night when I was cutting and piecing the quilt together she said, "Mom, I love watching you accomplish something you have never done before.  It makes me think I can do anything.  It makes me think that nothing is beyond my abilities."

That is all I needed.  At the beginning of April I had never made a quilt before and by the third week I had one.  And I had a little girl who was inspired to be creative and never stop learning.

Fourth Grade Writing Homework

This title is a bit misleading.  Emma Jane is indeed in the 4th grade.  However, I am blown away by her writing teacher.  The assignments are not like anything I did in elementary school.  I learn something every week from this amazing teacher.  And the progression of Emma Jane since August is like nothing I have ever witnessed.  She keeps a composition book to turn in each week.  It is amazing to look through her writing assignments from September and see how she has progressed in her creativity and construction.

A couple of examples of assignments and what Emma Jane turned in.

From the teacher:  Since we are continuing to refine our sentence writing skills, we are moving on to parallel construction.  With that construction in mind, with our pens in hand, and with dedication of purpose, we will write ten sentences - each with a series of phrases or clauses created with parallel construction.  (Notice here that the teacher uses parallel construction in her directions?  I love that woman!)  Each phrase or clause must consist of at least four words.  They may be subordinate clauses, prepositional phrases, gerund phrases, participial phrases, or anything else.  

From Emma Jane:
1. Because my sister is sick, because she is contagious, because I don't want to get sick, I stay in my room.
2. Inside Lucy's doll house, on top of her wardrobe, and around her bed, tissues are everywhere.
3. With a canvas in front of me, with paintbrushes in hand, with a sky full of pink and orange clouds, I paint a masterpiece.
4. On a lake full of ducks, on a cold day in March, on a shoreline that was once flooded, my grandpa bought a boat.
5. Swimming through the freezing water, quacking their beaks off, and eating bread from my breakfast, the ducks I named Nelly and Gertrude are fun to watch.
6. I woke up to the sun rising over the water, the birds singing their morning song, and the moon setting on the horizon.

How is that for using the material before you?

This week the assignment was to write 3 poems.

From the teacher:

Writing homework is to write three poems:  One haiku, one cinquain, and one diamante. Choose one topic and write all three poems on that topic.
 

Remember a haiku is three lines: the first has five syllables; the second has seven; and the third, five. 

Because Emma Jane had just finished reading the book Hatchet this weekend, because she had Hatchet on the brain, and because she needed to write three poems, she used the novel as the topic for her three poems.

Here is her haiku.

Starving, stranded boy

Surviving in the forest

For fifty-nine days

The cinquain has five lines. The first line is a noun that is the topic or the title. The second line is two adjectives. The third line is three words describing the noun.  The fourth line is four words describing feelings related to that noun.  The fifth line is a single noun that is either a synonym for or is some reference to the first noun. 

Here is her cinquain.

Boy

Scared, strong

Trying to survive

Desperate to be rescued

Brian

A diamanté is a seven-line poem.  The first line is a noun. The second line is two adjectives. The third line is three gerunds (ing verbs).   The fourth line is four nouns. The fifth line is three verbs (again gerunds). The sixth line is two adjectives. The seventh line is a noun that is either a synonym or an antonym of the first noun. The poem often changes tone (or if it’s an antonym at the end—changes topic) halfway through the line of four nouns.

Here is her diamanté.

Castaway

Desperate, hungry

Crashing, starving, hurting

Hatchet, tornado, radio, airplane

Landing, surprising, rescuing 

Brave, resourceful

Survivor

Shaped like a diamond

Just like it was meant to be

Creative, smart girl

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Einstein Overnight

One of the quintessential Mayo experiences is the overnight.  There is an overnight for each group of grades.  The Pre-K and Kindergartners are called the Einsteins.  And the Einsteins have their overnight in the school.  Last Thursday before Lucy got sick on Friday, we spent the night in the school.

We did activities around the building, including reading this book in the library!  You can read about why this is funny in this post.

We made pigeons with paint and our hands (as in Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus).

Then Lucy painted a truck in the cafeteria.

The first thing she did was grab a paint brush and put a big swath of black paint across a paper plate.  Just as I was about to ask her why she did that, she put the truck down and ran the wheels through the paint, thereby painting the wheels all the way around.  My jaw dropped.  It would have never have occurred to me to do that.

Then it was time to brush teeth and read books and go to bed.

Lucy has a little trouble with the water in the water fountain jumping off and running down her shirt.

Below we are reading books with our dear friend Lily and her dad Jeff.  I hope we didn't give her the Flu that we ended up with 48 hours later!

I did not get much sleep that night but it was worth it!  I will always treasure the bonding time of the overnights.  The teachers put so much work into this night.  It is always a learning, bonding, sharing, memory-making adventure.  I can tell you who has sleep apnea, who has allergies and who has a deviated septum!  But I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Mom, I need a costume!

Have you seen this ad?

Well I had a similar experience, with albeit a little more notice.

"Mom, I am in a living museum at school and I am a French Canadian named Louis Jolliet, a fur trader and cartographer who mapped the Mississippi River in 1675.  I need a costume and three artifacts that he would have had in his era."

Yes dear...

There is faux buffalo and bobcat fur all over my craft room.

Time Machine

Tonight we were in a program at Mayo.  The 4th and 5th graders are called Armstrongs and the Armstrongs put on a program tonight for the parents.  Lucy and I got to participate along with other parents and little brothers and sisters. 

The students discovered a time machine.  Emma Jane went in as a 4th grader and there was smoke and then she emerged as a preschooler (Lucy).  Then she went back into the time machine and went into the future (Emily).  Then they returned to 2013. 

Here we are as the past, present and future Emma Jane...

Brain Dissection!

Last Friday I got the privilege of assisting Emma Jane's science teacher with brain dissection at Mayo.  We dissected sheep brains.  The students were very excited (and so was I).

You can read about our new Mayo here, or the last day at our old Mayo here.  This new building is such an amazing place.  I was so happy to be here in this building and share this moment with the fourth and fifth grade Armstrongs.  

This is Mrs. Power.  She is talking about the two hemispheres of the brain and how they control opposite sides of the body.  We love Mrs. Power!!!

Here are the brains waiting on the anxious children...er..I mean the anxious children waiting on the brains.

We learned about the cerebrum, cerebellum, brain stem, corpus collosum, sulci and gyri.  The two grown ups dissected the dura mater off of the brains.  It was too tough to cut through.

Then we let the kids cut down the midline and look for the landmarks.  

We learned about what each part of the brain is responsible for.  Did you know the brainstem is responsible for the functions necessary for survival such as breathing, digestion, heart rate and blood pressure?  Of course you did...

I got pretty excited because during one dissection we found the olfactory bulbs still intact, as well as a few of the cranial nerves. 

Look at that studious girl...

Truth be told, she was a little grossed out by the smell but she got through it.

One group of kids even had snack during this class.  Those kids are tough as nails...

Thank you Mrs. Power for letting me come to your class and dissect dura mater and talk about the pituitary gland and how the surgeons get to the pituitary gland and look at MRI's and take pictures of your amazing students and create a very good example of a run on sentence that would make Lucy Piper's head explode!

Addendum:  Right as I was cleaning up from the brain dissection and the students were lining up for lunch I got a call that Lucy was throwing up downstairs.  I ran down to the office and she was sitting there all puny looking and pale.  She must have eaten something bad because she vomited a couple of more times and then was better after a nap.  She was happy and back to herself by dinner time.  She announced that she was hungry and we all sat down to dinner that night.  I asked the girls about their day.

Emma said she got to have ice cream with Madeline.

Lucy said she learned a new song at school.

I said "I saw Lucy throw up and a dead sheep's brain."

(And if you missed the joke, you can read why I thought this was an appropriate answer here.)

The New Mayo

 

This marks the end of our first week of school.  Last weekend we worked at Mayo to help get it ready for the first day.  They moved buildings and the new building was quite old and needed a lot of renovation.  But it is a beautiful building and we are so lucky to be in it.

The call went out for volunteers over a week ago and Mike answered the call.  He was invaluable to all the teachers and staff at the school.  All weekend long I heard, "has anyone seen Emma Jane's dad?", "oh, you should ask Emma Jane's dad to fix that, he can do it."

We all went up and chipped in but Mike put in more than his fair share.

The girls unpacked boxes, scraped stickers off lockers, and fetched snacks for the teachers.

And if you know me at all, you know I LOVE School Supplies!  (I was accused once of becoming a teacher just for the school supplies.)

All the pencils sharpened to a fine point.  All the crayons in every color.  The markers still have ink and the correct lids on them!  All those primary colors! 

And all the books ready to be read to eager children sitting "criss-cross applesause" in a circle around a nurturing teacher who knows all their names and sings songs and gets down on their level.

After a full weekend of working the school had it's grand opening on Monday morning.  It was quite an event!  Lucy was so happy and excited to be going to her "sissy's school".  She was a little intimidated by the hoopla surrounding the grand opening.  There were television news crews and music and people talking on a PA system and lots of cheering.  It was not the best way for a little girl who doesn't like crowds or noise to start school.  But it was the perfect way to start off the school year for the rest of us.

Here is sweet Lucy on her very first day of big girl school.  Pre-K here we come!

And both of my beautiful girls in our front yard.

And here is Emma Jane's best friend Sophie too!  Two of the smartest and prettiest 4th graders I have ever known.

Then we all drove to school.  I have this exact same picture of Emma Jane with her dad 5 years ago.

 I love the community of Mayo.  We have the best teachers and parents.  I am so proud of how we all came together to get the barn raised.  It takes a village to raise a child or open a school.

It is going to be a great year!