End of Year Wrap Up

Taylee had a busy last couple days of school.  On Tuesday she and her friends were in the talent show.  They sang and danced to a song Taylee learned at theater camp.  It was so cute.  Thursday, Taylee received an award for her Science project.  She did so well and got a plaque.  On Friday, the kinders went on their yearly end-of-year field trip to the Children's Museum.  I took 1/2 personal day and went with her.  I couldn't ride the bus because I still had to do leap-up with my future 5th graders, but maybe that was a good thing. 


Taylee had an excellent first year of school.  Here are some of her thoughts:

Favorite thing about school-
My favorite things about school, well, I have 2 and they are centers and gym.  I like centers because when I sat at the green table I got to have art on Mondays and art was always the most fun.  And when I sat at the orange table I got to do the big blocks first.  I like gym because it was a time to get away from all the work and just have fun.  I liked open gym a lot because we got to swing on the rope.  One day a girl named Emily in sixth grade left her video game with Ms. P to do with little kids and we got to dance to "Who Let the Dogs Out" and we got a chance to choose our own and me and my friends chose the Salsa girls.

What do you remember about the beginning of the school year-
I remember playing with Reece and Aubrey because I knew them from before school and then I got to be better friends with them.

What were some favorite recess games?
Wolves, stuffed animal puppies, X-men, and hop bop hoppity

What was a favorite project-
I liked doing the first grade Math Minutes.

How do you know you are good at reading?
I know I am good at reading because at home I read a chapter book that had 5 chapters.

How do you know you are good at math?
I know what 100 + 100 is..200.  And I know every single fraction like 1/2, 1/6, 1/8, 1/12, 1/5.  There's a lot of them.

Was there anything you were nervous about?
There was this thing we had to do and it had like 5,000 pictures and we had to cut them out and then only choose 4 out of the 5,000 and put them in this certain order. (That does sound challenging for five-year olds).

What do you think about homework?
Homework is really, really fun because I had a folder with a picture of a Jack Russell on it.  And homework is important because you get smarter by reading stuff and learning new things. (I wonder if the folder will still be making the homework fun in middle school...let's hope so).

What are you most proud of about your year of kindergarten?
Me finishing it. (Was there a question about that?)

List some qualites about your teacher.
She was nice, she believed all of us could do it and if we struggled a little bit she could help us.

Name some of your friends.
Reece, Kylie, Meghan, Jennie, Aurora, Shana

Any advice you would give to new kinders for next year?
Oh yeah.  When you start doing first grade work and you get first grade spelling words you will get a packet with a word bank to the side and then lines to write the words on the other side.  When you write the words on the correct line make sure to cross out the words in the word bank, not just look them and then you'll know which words you have already used.

What are you most excited about for first grade?
Getting to make leprachaun traps!

Taylee and her friends, "grow bananas, grow, grow bananas..."

Horrible, blurry picture (bad camera).  She is receiving her plaque from Mr. Reiger the ECS teacher.
Here is what one judge wrote on the back of her porject rubric:  Taylee,  you did a great job of presenting a clear understanding of your project.  You were very passionate about your research and your energy for the project was very evident.  You did an excellent job at presenting facts and conclusions.  I enjoyed your presentation's designs and colors.  You have done a fantastic job and I am very excited to see your next project.  I want you to remember to always reach for you dreams and goals.

What perfect weather for a field trip indoors.  I think it made it even more fun to walk the 67 kinder kids the 3 blocks to the museum from the bus stop, but maybe that's because I was there as a parent and not as a teacher.

Aaah.  What is going on with this camera?

Taylee had a blast and I am glad I was able to share that day with her.

This is a picture from Lilac Bloomsday in May. Taylee and I did it together this year.  It was...interesting  Just so you know, my goal is to post something at least once a month from here on out.  I got so behind this year.  I'm hoping for a laptop for Christmas to help expedite this process.  I pushed T in the stroller because it's 7 1/2 miles.  Here's the story:  the previous year I ran the Bloomsday and had a ton of fun.  As I was running I noticed a lot of vendors selling ice cream and otter pops and churches and church groups along the way with signs for free hot dogs and Pepsis.  What?  They should have been at the fnish line, right?  Or so I thought as I puffed my up all the hills while also reminding myself to breathe.  How odd.  So this year in the Red group.  The stroller group.  The walkers.  The back of the pack.  I figured out why there were so many vendors along the path.  The people I was running with the first year in the Orange group were there to run the race.  Their accomplishment was finishing with a good time.  The walkers were there not so much to finish with a good time, as to have a good time along the way.  I think that's great.  I love enjoying the journey. I just had a few issues; the smallest being I was in the mindset to finish the race with a good  finish time and I had a hard time transistioning out of that.  My biggest issue was the the walkers started last (and let me tell you I figured out why) so it was already 10:50 a.m. by the time I started and my dog was in the hotel room in the valley that I could not get a later check-out time that 1 p.m.  I seriously booked.  I went off-road a lot (my elbows were very sore the next day from lifting the stroller and T up over curbs and rocks).  I ran into at least 20 ankles of people who had suddenly stopped in front of me.  Picture 5,000 people with strollers along with 15,000 other people "enjoying the journey" on a city street.  We were packed like sardines and some of the sardines wanted to stop and eat or spontaneously start holding hands and skipping, slowly skipping of course, but managing to block the entire street.  I can't even tell you the number of times we were at a total stand-still.  It was a little nerve wracking and I won't do it again.  Instead we've decided to do Bloomsday as a family from now on and stay an extra day in Spokane AND to not be in with the stroller group. Ever. Again.