Last Day!

The last day of 1st grade! What a huge difference! Taller, leaner, smarter, and more handsome!

 

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Lunch with Mom, end of year

I missed chaperoning a fieldtrip due to my SB trip so I promised James a special lunch. Of course he requested McDonald's!

 

James' friend Clayton took this picture of us. Not really focused but good!

 

Sam and James! I regret that we didn't get Sam's contact information for summer play dates. Oh well.

 

James was disappointed that I didn't stay for recess but he quickly ran off and forgot all about me!

 

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Cultural Festival 2014

In mid May we were treated to the Cultural Festival at Woodcrest. Last year James' class focused on Mexico and James recited a few lines about Mexico's art. This year we didn't know what to expect because we just received the time and date, no other details. We were lucky that we are on-time people because we realized that James was due in the gym at 6pm for his class' music performance.

A quick picture with his self-portrait.

 

Waiting for the adults and sound system to get ready...hanging out with friends Sam and Christopher.

 

The performance. James is in the bottom row, near the middle.

 

And some videos of the performances, if you're curious.

 

 

 

Back at the classroom, with Señora Sierra. She is wearing an Ecuador soccer jersey, since James’ class studied that country for the festival.

 

The classroom was transformed into Nigeria, Thailand, and Ecuador.

Frogs...

 

Monkeys...

 

A pit stop at James' desk. He was very eager to show us all of his class work and journals.

 

 

I LOVE his journal. I need to study this thing and learn all about my son. Here he started to map out his corazón, or his heart. Mom and Dad, of course, and then there are his Abuelas, the Vikings??, and then his Fish. He said he didn't have a chance to finish so of course I'm assuming he'd include his Grandpas, his Tías, and his Uncles...

 

 

Rainforest.

 

 

 

 

Lion puppets.

 

And a glance at his daily agenda.

 

Hanging art/work

 

And back in the school hallway, near the kindergarten area. Last year James' class concentrated just on Mexico.

 

So it was a fun night to explore the school and cultures! And see James in action- with friends and then singing.

 

 

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Mother's Day 2014

I don't think I appeared in any pictures this Mother's Day but I did take pictures of the artwork James gave me.

His homemade card that said, My love grows and grows and grows for you.

 

Describing me as his Mom- pretty, kind, helpful, intelligent, fun, very good, funny, interesting (I think), funny (again), and creative.

"Mom, you are the Queen of my heart because...you are kind and I like to play with my Mom."

 

And a book, "If you give flowers to my Mom..."

 

And this store bought card opened...

 

To be huge!

 

My boys gave me some alone, chill time. It was a nice day full of love and flowers!

 

Thank you, Jim and James!

 

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Whoa

There was this spelling list for May.

 

Hardest words yet! It was a huge jump in difficulty and I had to let the teacher know that our study efforts were met with some frustration. She told us that yes, this was the most difficult list and to let James know he can do it and they do expect the kids to make lots of errors.

I showed the list to my FB friends and we all agreed- what happened to learning cat, dog, tree, or other small words?! Also, my eight graders (in their first year of Spanish) were flabbergasted. They truly are at the cat, dog, etc level. James felt better knowing that he has even more Spanish than an eighth grader!

The results? Well, the first Friday he only got ONE right. There were too many red pen corrections :(

We learned that they were testing on the same list the following week too. We studied even more.

The 2nd result? Only ONE WRONG!

Yay James!!!!!!!!!!

 

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School Carnival April 2014

The school carnival was the same as last year, but to James it was an exciting world of meeting up with his friends at school and hopefully showing off his Mom and Dad.

 

There were carnival-like games set up in some of the classrooms. James was surprisingly picky about which ones he'd actually play.

 

There was a "taco truck" serving tacos and others foods for dinner. James enjoyed his ice cream cone the most.

 

And the most fun was meeting up with Dane (and his Dad) for an epic DDR battle.

Waiting in line...

 

 

 

 

We enjoy these nights. I'm always surprised that the teachers are NOT there. From working at a school myself I'm sure it's not a required, contractual night but still. Missing fun time with your students? A little disappointing.

James had fun. That's all that really counts!

 

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March Art & Homework

James knows that homework is done immediately after dinner. The adults do the dishes and clean up, and James' job is to head upstairs and do his homework without question. He does this 98% of the time with no issue.

One night I asked James if he would read from one of his returned school assignments. It was an art piece with an attached paragraph in Spanish. I knew he could read it easily and I enjoy listening to his Spanish pronounciation.

Oh boy, what a fit! He absolutely grumbled and stomped his feet about it. I didn't think it was such a big thing to ask, so we held on. We asked nicely. We didn't give in. It was such a simple request.. and James made a stink.

He cried. We were patient. When he was ready he came back downstairs (we banished him to his room to cry), and he said that he was hugging the monkey upstairs and it made him feel better. So the monkey came downstairs with him and gave him the courage to read.

Whatever works, dear boy.

 

By the way, his Spanish was easy and beautiful. And it took all of 15 seconds to read it, but he took about 40 minutes to get through this whole ordeal. Aye!

 

His other art pieces.

An invention- a Homework Machine! I'm not sure who wrote that on the top, maybe his art teacher, but James said he made up this invention. Math comes out all done!

 

Math word problems. I took this worksheet to my middle school to show the 8th graders (who take Spanish). They were flabbergasted at how much he is reading and he's ONLY in 1st grade. Immersion works, people.

 

 

 

 

A few days later we asked him to read again. He did it without argument. (Phew.)

 

 

 

If you give a monkey a coca cola. By James. Written by James.

If you give a monkey a coca cola, he wants a banana with the coca cola.

 

He will want a house of wood, and will want another coca cola with a banana.

 

The End.

 

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