CBI Trip to Academy Springs Park and El Charro!

We had such a wonderful time on our first CBI trip of the year. We started our trip by going to Academy Springs Park. Ms. Malcom lives very close to the park so we also got to ride by her house on the way. That was pretty cool!

Mettano LOVED this lion statue!

There is a huge slide at the park. It was quite a hit!

Ms. Malcom.... What are you doing??

 

Uh-Oh... Following the leader!

There seems to be a hold up!  Ha! Ha!

Just a few group pictures from the park!

For lunch, we went to El Charro Mexican Restaurant. Yum! Ava's mom met us there. We loved having lunch with her!

Just a little fun while waiting for our food!

Time to eat!

Dontavious' birthday was the day before. We celebrated with a rush of servers to his table, a song, a sombrero plopped on his head, and a free sopapilla. His face was priceless. Happy Birthday Dontavious!

9/11 Ceremony!

I am so thankful to be part of a school that takes the time to have a special ceremony on the morning of September 11th. The school is always adorned with flag decorations. Although none of our kids were born a that time, the entire school (PreK-5th grade) joins together at the flag pole to remember the lives were lost on September 11th 2001!

Our boys (Mettano, Tony, Hunter, and Santoes) have the big honor of assisting the color guard from Newton High School raise the flag during the ceremony!

We are so proud of them!

It was a beautiful morning!

I love this picture of Tanayry. All smiles!

This was also an opportunity to honor our first responders and service men/ women!

Mrs. Courter's Kindergarten class led a beautiful song in sign language!

Here come our boys!

After the flag was raised, the entire school participated in singing "America the Beautiful". They had previously learned, in Music class, gestures to accompany the song. Beautiful moment!

The skies couldn't be more beautiful!

After the ceremony, of course we had to pose for pictures!

Latasha was so intrigued with the color guard. I think we have a future member of the ROTC on our hands!

These boys from Newton High School were so sweet. They made sure to give our boys hand shakes and high fives for a job well done!

Friends Forever!

Friends Forever.

Friends Forever.

When good friends stick together, 

you know they can weather any storm.

Friends Forever. 

Friends Forever.

Friends are the single most,

extraordinary people in the world!

Music with Mrs. Stowe!

 I can not tell you how lucky I have been these last 8 years to have Mrs. Stowe as my "second-half" in the classroom. Not only is she incredible with our kids, she brings a wonderful musical talent (playing anything from the accordion, to the keyboard, to the guitar) to our daily learning. Mrs. Stowe has many songs that she has written and the students love when we have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy some music time with Mrs. Stowe!

Thank you Mrs. Stowe for all that you do!

Current Events- Learning is FUN!

 I'm not sure if I have said this on our blog yet, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE our curriculum (Unique Learning System)! One of my favorite parts of our curriculum is the News-2-You current events section. This section provides current event articles that are actually things that are going on in our world at the time AND they are adapted (words paired with pictures) so that they are easier for us to read.  Every other Friday, we pick three current event articles that look interesting. We break up into three groups and each group is responsible for presenting their article to the rest of the class in a creative way.

On this day, Mrs. Stowe's group was responsible for the article "Baby Panda". They read about the baby panda that was just born at the National Zoo. They drew a beautiful picture of a panda bear!

 

Mrs. Stowe's group did a great job adding creativity to their presentation by adding hand motions and other effects!

Then, we looked up the LIVE panda cam at the National Zoo. We watched for a second and all GASPED when this tiny little face appeared under the mother panda's arm. It was the baby panda that we read about. It was magical. We could have watched it all day! **If you look very closely, you can see the white on the baby panda's face. it is under the mother panda's nose.

Ms. Beckhom's group was responsible for the article "Parachuting Teddy Bear". They did a wonderful job creating a visual of the parachuting teddy bear.

 

We listened to their wonderful presentation and even got to watch it parachute off of the top of the desk. Fun!

Ms. Malcom's group was responsible for the article, "International Bacon Day". They used a recipe and the microwave to cook some bacon.

  

 

Then, we all got to taste some in celebration of this day!

All of our students did a wonderful job with their current event articles and we learned so much. They even had their own copies of each adapted article so that they could share what they had learned with their families! Learning is FUN!