What a busy night we had - but lots of fun! We had piano class as always, and that's what started the festivities, really. The theme for this year's music recital is PIRATES, which of course is right up our alley. We've already got costumes, props, and basic weaponry to help out with. The only thing we no longer have here is a full-fledged pirate ship. But maybe we can get one of those for later. Needless to say, all the kids are excited about the prospects of playing a few sea shanties, and throwing in an occasional "Arrr!"
One new thing that Mrs. Pam is having the kids do is something nice for others. Each student had a homework assignment to do something nice for someone else - or observe someone doing something nice. These were all shared at the end of class, where each child would put a pebble into a large vase. Slowly, that vase will fill up over the following weeks. It's a nice activity. Madison shared about how she helped a new friend learn to skate this past weekend. And she gave another child a quarter to play games at the Skate Country arcade area.
After piano, we went over to the school for a lot of things. A lot of things. Let's start with the Book Fair. Did you know that Madison won the "Dress up like a Book Character" contest the other day at school? She had the best costume in her class, one that the principal actually picked as best. So Ladybug Girl won the day, and one of Madison's prizes was a $5.00 gift card to the Book Fair. This was money well-spent. Mommy and Daddy had given her some money already, so she walked in there, already a big spender! She got a Monster High book - of course - and another smaller book dedicated to the Disney cartoon short, "Frozen Fever." With her remaining dollar, she opted for an eraser in the shape of a cell phone. Now she can pretend to be obvious to the entire world as she texts her friends on their eraser cell phones!
Another thing tonight was the art gallery! Yes, it is that time of year again, where the students' works are on display in the gymnasium. All are nicely framed, and available for a small fee, which of course is money raised for the school itself. Yes, we got Madison's painting right away. She did a very nice drawing of a lion, and used water colors to make it look very nice. We've hung up the previous two artworks that Madison has done, and this one will no doubt make its way to one of our walls at home.
But we weren't through yet. No, there was a lot of other things tonight - it was a curriculum night, which meant all kinds of learning activities. Tonight's theme was science. Lots of science. We sat first of all in the cafeteria as always, munching on free pizza and drinking sweet tea. But after that, it was off to stations set up at various classrooms to see different simple science experiments.
Our first destination involved lights, using the camera to capture the pathways of light (glowsticks swung around in circles by the kids). After this, we went over to build some bugs that balance, and some that make noises when swung around violently.
We played with bubbles and dry ice, and built small rockets out of old film canisters. There was colored slime, and a place to build your own hovercraft out of CDs, clay, film canisters and a balloon. There were experiments with static electricity, and a place to test out inertia with a "miniature roller coaster."
All in all, a very full night! Madison walked home with all kinds of fun experiments, and it is safe to say there was a bit of learning tonight as well.
But we got home later, as you can imagine. Which meant, it was time to go to bed right away, pretty much. That we did. All of us, actually. Can you believe it is just a week until Easter? There are a lot of practices coming up soon, and a lot of work still to be done. Tonight was a great break from all of that, and a chance to have fun at the school. Busy… but fun!
One new thing that Mrs. Pam is having the kids do is something nice for others. Each student had a homework assignment to do something nice for someone else - or observe someone doing something nice. These were all shared at the end of class, where each child would put a pebble into a large vase. Slowly, that vase will fill up over the following weeks. It's a nice activity. Madison shared about how she helped a new friend learn to skate this past weekend. And she gave another child a quarter to play games at the Skate Country arcade area.
After piano, we went over to the school for a lot of things. A lot of things. Let's start with the Book Fair. Did you know that Madison won the "Dress up like a Book Character" contest the other day at school? She had the best costume in her class, one that the principal actually picked as best. So Ladybug Girl won the day, and one of Madison's prizes was a $5.00 gift card to the Book Fair. This was money well-spent. Mommy and Daddy had given her some money already, so she walked in there, already a big spender! She got a Monster High book - of course - and another smaller book dedicated to the Disney cartoon short, "Frozen Fever." With her remaining dollar, she opted for an eraser in the shape of a cell phone. Now she can pretend to be obvious to the entire world as she texts her friends on their eraser cell phones!
Another thing tonight was the art gallery! Yes, it is that time of year again, where the students' works are on display in the gymnasium. All are nicely framed, and available for a small fee, which of course is money raised for the school itself. Yes, we got Madison's painting right away. She did a very nice drawing of a lion, and used water colors to make it look very nice. We've hung up the previous two artworks that Madison has done, and this one will no doubt make its way to one of our walls at home.
But we weren't through yet. No, there was a lot of other things tonight - it was a curriculum night, which meant all kinds of learning activities. Tonight's theme was science. Lots of science. We sat first of all in the cafeteria as always, munching on free pizza and drinking sweet tea. But after that, it was off to stations set up at various classrooms to see different simple science experiments.
Our first destination involved lights, using the camera to capture the pathways of light (glowsticks swung around in circles by the kids). After this, we went over to build some bugs that balance, and some that make noises when swung around violently.
We played with bubbles and dry ice, and built small rockets out of old film canisters. There was colored slime, and a place to build your own hovercraft out of CDs, clay, film canisters and a balloon. There were experiments with static electricity, and a place to test out inertia with a "miniature roller coaster."
All in all, a very full night! Madison walked home with all kinds of fun experiments, and it is safe to say there was a bit of learning tonight as well.
But we got home later, as you can imagine. Which meant, it was time to go to bed right away, pretty much. That we did. All of us, actually. Can you believe it is just a week until Easter? There are a lot of practices coming up soon, and a lot of work still to be done. Tonight was a great break from all of that, and a chance to have fun at the school. Busy… but fun!
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