I meant to get this post out way before now; I actually meant to post about each thing/event that are in this post as they happened, but never got around to it for one reason or another, so here is the last half of Caitie's school year... well, the last few months of school for her anyway. I think I blogged about most of her school stuff up to around February or March of this year, not sure. Anyway, here are the things I can remember that happened the last few months of Kindergarten...
She had her school class pics taken in February and received the pics in March. Caitie attended both Kindergarten and Enrichment classes, which meant she went all day. She went to Enrichment class in the mornings and Kindergarten class in the afternoons; this hopefully helped her prepare for a full day of school come First Grade, we shall see. The first class pic below is of her morning Enrichment class which had more kids in it than her Kindergarten class; the Enrichment class was split up between two different classes come afternoon, and vice versa for the kids that had morning Kindergarten and afternoon Enrichment classes. Did that make sense? If so, please explain it to me, thanks. Lousy pic, I know. I just took a quick pic of the pic, or somethin' like that, so the quality isn't the best, it's on the dark side.
This pic is of her afternoon Kindergarten class. Not as many kids as in her Enrichment class (i explained above... i think... didn't i? um, yeah...). Just in case you're wondering... she's the one in the first row on the right in red and blue. Gotta love her worn-in-the-knees jeans look.
Caitie's Kindergarten teacher had all the students do word lists, starting with Kindergarten words, then moving up to First Grade words. Caitie passed every list the first time, and was the only one that finished them all, I believe. There may have been a boy in her class that did, or came close to finishing the lists, not sure. She got a certificate and a free book and a Pizza Hut coupon for a free small pizza. That's my girl! :) Here she is with her certificate.
One of the fun things the children did all year long in her Kindergarten class was 'share bag'. It's similar to 'show and tell', but it's with a twist. The kids were to pick out something unusual and educational, no toys, to bring in when it was their turn. They were to give three clues to the class to see if they could guess what it was before the student would show them the item, then they would tell about it, and then show it and answer questions the kids would have about the item. We didn't find the most unusual or educational type of items, but not many of the other kids did either, we mostly just had fun with it. I wanted to put pics of all the things Caitie took in on her 'share bag' day, but I could only get to three of them due to having trouble with one of the hard drives that some of the 'share bag' pics are on. She took in quite a few things... I'm trying to think of them all... the first one was a label maker. The second one was a cute pumpkin (it was near halloween), the third one was my Flip recorder, the fourth one was the baby Jesus from our Nativity Scene we put out for Christmas (it was near Christmas), the fifth was one of the things she got for Christmas, which was an Electronics Board Kit; it's in the first pic below. She put it together with my help and the book that came with it. It lit up and made noise; it was pretty cool. The sixth was a camera zoom lens of mine; it's in the second pic below. The seventh was a necklace from Israel; it's a cross made of Roman Glass with a gold chain; it's in the third pic below. My mom got it for me when she visited Israel a few years back.
Electronics Board Kit...
Camera zoom lens...
Cross necklace from Israel...
Back in March there was Field Day... this was the Friday before Spring Break started. Caitie and her classmates and other classes participated in many field games such as a water game...
a push the huge soccer ball back and forth race...
and tug of war... (bailey wanted to participate)
Caitie's Spring Break consisted of Spring Break Camp for a couple of days... She went to a different school than she did during Winter Break Camp. It was a cool lookin' school... horse benches and all...
and a nice campus with picnic tables all around, etc. She enjoyed being with other kids playing and doing neat projects.
On the other days when she didn't attend camp we went on picnics near a playground...
She rode her bike...
She fed ducks...
and we went to other nearby parks. We were outside a lot; it was beautiful out. (how i miss that beautiful weather right now)
When school resumed, there was a children directed conference. This was like parent/teacher conference except the kids were more involved. Caitie showed me around her room and told me the stuff they did on a daily basis, etc. She showed me her journal and other projects she was working on. We played an educational game on one of the Ipads, and she showed me one of her favorite things, which was the computer center. There was the reading center and the project area, and also the carpet area where they did 'share bag' and other things. Since she didn't have any problem areas, I didn't actually sit with the teacher this time, but I did get their pic... This is Caitie with her Kindergarten teacher on the left and one of her Enrichment teachers on the right. This pic was taken in the Kindergarten classroom.
When we were done with the conference, I let her and Bailey play on the Kindergarten playground for a bit... Here's Caitie on the monkey bars...
Here the girls are on the swings...
Bailey likes the toddler swing... (this swing is for the pre-k kids)
A couple of weeks after conference Caitie was in a 'reading play'. She was one of the narrators for the 'Three Little Pigs' story. She got the part as the narrator because she did so well on the word lists; she had the narrator part along with the boy who also did well on the word lists.
Even though she's wearing the same shirt as in the above pic, this pic was taken on a different day. This was a project she did for her zoo trip. All the kids were given zoo animals to choose from to do a report on, Caitie got the deer. You think this would be a simple animal to do a report on, but there are three different types of deer at the Wildlife World Zoo. I helped her with her report which included bits of information about all three types of deer and just information about deers in general. They were to draw, use clay, or make a diorama about their animal... we chose to do a diorama of the deer. I didn't go all out on it, as you can see, but I thought it turned out cute.
A week later was the zoo trip; we went to Wildlife World Zoo. Caitie went by bus with her classmates, and since I was taking Bailey, I drove there. As you can see below, it was a bit chaotic when we arrived, but it wasn't long before we met up with Caitie's group. There was more than just one school on the zoo field trip that day.
One of Caitie's favorite parts of the zoo was feeding the giraffes. We didn't have change, so she just waited until someone bought some giraffe food out of the machines and would open the door where the food came out to get the bits of food that was left behind. She thought of that idea, clever girl. She got quite a few good feedings from doing that. Here she is feeding a giraffe. Gotta love their long, curvy tongues... yikes!
I took quite a few pics, but most didn't turn out very well due to the bright sun. The pic below wasn't too bad since it was taken in a shady area. See the lazy kangaroos in the background? I took some pics of the girls on the zoo carousel, but boy did those pics turn out bad due to bad lighting and Bailey screaming her head off in most of those pics due to wanting back on the ride after getting off. That 'little' tantrum was so not fun in front of everyone. Hey, that rhymes! Moving on now...
A couple of weeks later Caitie received a 'Character Counts' certificate for showing good character. I think most kids in the school ends up getting the certificate which gives them incentive to continue showing good character. Here she is with her certificate and the school mascot, the leopard. She now has three leopards; two from Pre-K and the one below. She loves them all! When you turn the leopard inside out it becomes a soccer ball. It's a two-in-one kinda thing. I guess the soccer ball is more for the boys? um, yeah...
The stick bug in the pic below was for Caitie's Enrichment class. They did a bug project and were told to pick their favorite bug to do a report on, which included a 3D model of their favorite bug. Caitie chose the stick bug. Boy did I have fun with that project. I took small tree branches and some glue and made this stick bug... this was after I did some research on the Internet. I cut the branches as needed for the legs and found some slightly curved limbs for the antennae; I used a thicker tree branch for the middle body part. I used some small clots of potting soil for its eyes. I had it all put together and let it sit so it would stay sturdy on the day Caitie took it to school, but on the morning she was to take it, I decided to get a pic or two, and when I did this, the unthinkable happened... when I put down the camera, which I set against the boxtop the bug was in, the top fell on the bug crushing one of its legs down. I had to think fast and got another small branch and repaired the leg the best I could. It stayed together, thank goodness. It was a panic moment, and took some quick thinking and fixing to make it work. I was so relieved it worked out. Does this thing look creepy, or what? Caitie thinks it's cute. She named it 'Twigy' (caitie's spelling). It actually looks like one of the types of stick bugs. Yes, I admit that I'm proud of it! ha
This is her whole project... the stick bug 'Twigy', the report, and notes to help her with the oral part of her report.
This was the morning she took 'Twigy' to school.
This pic was taken when she brought 'Twigy' home from school. It was left in the classroom for a week to be part of the class bug exhibit. She wanted me to get a pic of her holding him. You can see the leg that needed repair... see the glue on it? ha
A week or so later was the 'duck race'. You buy a rubber ducky for your child, and a portion of the money goes to the Junior Diabetes Foundation. There were a few of us that bought duckies for our kids... I bought one for Caitie since the money went to a good cause. The rubber duckies that are bought are in a duck race in the stream in front of the school, and the winners get prizes. Caitie's duck didn't win, but it was a fun experience.
Caitie didn't care if she won or not, she was just happy she got to keep the duck. It's hard to see in this pic, but she is holding her duck... we're talkin' tiny ducks here.
The next week was Teacher Appreciation Week... On Friday of that week Caitie took in some treats for her three teachers. I meant to print out nice teacher appreciation cards, but the printer ran out of some of the color ink, so I couldn't do them, and it was the night before she was to take them, so I couldn't run out and get ink, so I had to come up with another plan... I decided to print out black and white best teacher award certificates that Caitie could color in, which would get her involved in the project. We had to rush the next morning to get them all done. Candy bars/fruit-filled cookies, $5 bills wrapped in ribbon, and best teacher certificates were her gifts to her teachers.
Her end of the year party was held the week before the last day of school. Here she is with some of the stuff she received at the party. A photo book, which she received two, only one is shown here, and a DVD of pics that were taken of her and her class throughout the school year were given to each student, along with treats and other stuff. She had fun.
That same evening was the 'end of the year show'... that's what the teachers called it. Caitie's class and the rest of the Kindergartners all sung songs... it was like the Christmas show. The teachers told the kids to wear red, white and blue since they chose a patriotic theme. I put one of Caitie's older dresses, which I believe is a size 3T, on her over a pair of jeans. The dress became a top. It worked. It was a nice show. They do this instead of doing a Kindergarten graduation, which is what a lot of other schools seem to do. We sat towards the back this time; Michael had the camcorder and I took pics. Here are a few pics...
See Caitie on the right?
I took a few pics after the show, on the school campus. Here are a couple... (bailey fell asleep during the performance)
I took this pic in the school parking lot, the stream is behind her.
After the show we went to Peter Piper Pizza.
The last day of school was a half day... they had water day. They had a small wading pool, sprinklers, coke bottle explosions, they played games, etc. The kids had a lot of fun.
Here's Caitie with her BFF Abigail... and Bailey too, of course. I took this pic after all the water fun.
And that was the second half of Caitie's school year... or the last two or three months of it, anyway. There could be more stuff that happened during that time, I'm just going by memory at this point, so who knows what I might have forgotten to include in this post. It's hard to believe that Caitie will be in First Grade this next school year... boy how times flies...
