Mar 09 2010
Open House
Tonight was Open House at the boys’ school, Kay Granger Elementary. Both boys were quite excited to show us all they’ve been learning so far this year. Caleb, especially, couldn’t wait to show us how they’ve been learning about the planets. He had to tell Daddy all about it last night on the phone. And after seeing all that the fabulous teachers at Kay Granger do, I’m in awe. Elementary school teachers not only have the monumental task of teaching young minds, but doing it in such an engaging and creative way that it keeps those young minds interested!
We started out in Jacob’s main teacher’s room, Mrs. Sheffield. The room had been transformed from a regular classroom into Cafe Van Gogh! We waited to be seated, and then Jacob showed us to our table, showed us the menu (laminated, even!), and waited on us. Our appetizer ($6.25) was a figurative language book that Jacob put together. It gave us the definition of various forms of figurative language – hyperbole, simile, metaphor, onomotopaeia, etc. – and an example (complete with illustrations) of each. Next came the main course ($25.50), Grand Adventure. This was a story about Columbus’s crossing in 1492 that Jacob wrote as if he were Columbus. It was fantastic! For dessert ($7.00), we had a choice – Batter Up or Early Release. Since there were four of us “eating” (Mommy, Daddy, Caleb, and me) we opted for both. Batter up was a fictional story Jacob wrote about getting his first home run during the championship baseball game of the story. Early Release was another story about a fictional early release snow day from waaaaay back in second grade. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal, and Jacob gave us the grand total of our bill – $45.75. Next, we went two doors down to Jacob’s science and math classroom, Mrs. Davis’s room, where we got to look at his math notebook and science notebook. He’s doing really well in both subjects, and the notebooks were quite impressive!
Next, we went to Caleb’s classroom. He practically sprinted; he was so excited for us to see what they’ve been working on. Most recently, they’ve been learning about the planets! He had a paper where he’d colored and cut out all the planets and pasted them, in order, left to right from the sun. He also had a booklet about things beyond our world. He drew pictures and wrote about the other planets in the solar system. An example page from the book: “Mercury is the clos ist planit to the sun. It has no atmisphir so it cent hld its hit.” (Translation – Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It has no atmosphere so it can’t hold it’s heat.”) Caleb showed us where the class made the planets and hung them in the room. He also showed us where they learned about some farm animals. Each child got to write a fact about pigs, for example, on a sticky note and put the sticky note on the laminated pig. Caleb’s note said, “pigs have smol iybols” (translation – pigs have small eyeballs). Another sticky note subject was Helen Keller. Caleb’s sticky note said, “she lurned how to do sing ling age” (translation – she learned how to do sign language). Mrs. Harris had wonderful things to say about how smart Caleb is, and how he’s great at math and getting so much more confident in his reading. He’s even moved onto the 1st grade sight words list from the kindergarten list.
Yep, we have smart, wonderful boys – and it’s not just us who think so! 🙂