Coale and Tia

 
Little girl.  Big cat.

Best friends.

2012



(No, she's not sunburned, her cheeks got really red when she was hot.  I'm sure she'd been running around like a crazy person.)

TBT: Kira on the money

Snow globe

Last year, when Tia was a first grader, she gave me this beautiful snow globe picture. It only took a year for me to get a frame. I am so excited. Nick is hanging it for me now.

Last day of first grade

Tia and Mrs. B It's always extra sad when we're "done" with a grade. We'll miss you first grade!

My new water bottle

For Mother's Day, from Tia! I have to show you what Nat and Kira made for me, too! I have to show you pictures of what I did last week. I have to show you pictures of Gerard and Kelly's visit, playing over the weekend, and Kira's birthday! Now, tonight, it's Nat's band concert, too. I may never catch up! (School ends soon, too and that will set me even further behind.) Hopefully, I will have time to sort pictures and upload soon.

Tia at the Science Fair

Hrmmm... Going to have to do some editing on the photos (to remove last names) before I can post more of the pictures. In the meantime....

Tia shows off her program.

She explains things... She did a super job explaining x,y coordinates and how changing parameters makes the bunny move.

Science Fair! First grade 2012

Yes, it's that time of the year!

This year, we had three science fair projects and a Mom who was over-extended, so it was super dad to the rescue. Nick and Tia did a technology project. Tia wrote a program with Scratch. At some point, we'll link to Tia's program (and Kira's program), but for now, here are some photos of Tia, her daddy, and her program.

Today, Tia is showing off her project at the Science Fair. The kid's fair was this morning and Daddy was there for part of it; he learned something. He learned how much little boys like programming projects. Tia was surrounded by them. He's not sure how he feels about this.


Daddy and Tia work.

Tia thinks about the program. Today, to her friends, she described how thinking about the program was hard, but showing it to others was fun.


Tia describes what "If" does.


The programming environment.


Hard at work!

Cooking

Tia's been very into cooking and helping in the kitchen. Super fun.

101 . . .

days of school and 101 dalmatians.

In first grade, they celebrate the 100th day of school AND the 101st day. I believe she was the only one of our 3 who went for the face paint.

In

Week 46

Wall o' monsters

It's the start of school and I'm trying to figure out the schedule. I'm guessing blogging might be a little spotty for the next couple of weeks. Just when I get the girls' routines determined, I'll start teaching and then things will be crazy, again. I'm going to try to get back into a routine of blogging, again, this week.

In Tia's class, we did a session to introduce The Monster Project. Here are some of the pictures of their first monsters.

After we told them about the monster project, we read them a description of a monster and they had to draw it.

Head: black circle, 20 red spots, alternating big blue & small orange spikes

Arms: (Left) octopus-like (Right) throwing flames.

Body: 2 triangles purple, red, white.

Legs: hairy, bony, buggy, dirty yellow.

They could add their own faces. In this project, they have to read, follow directions and figure out how to make something that fits the vague directions (be creative) all at the same time.

I love the Monster Project; it's a lot like life. Life comes with lots of instructions and people telling you what to do, but often those instructions are vague! In this introductory sessions, the kids worked alone, but as they build their real monster, they'll have to work together to figure out how to do the parts and work in teams. Okay, enough Monster Talk for one day.

First day!

4th, 2nd and 1st grade!!!

Can you find the birthday girl?

Uncle Joe visits. He's been here for the start of school for the last couple of years.

First grade

Our little bookworm. We think she may have read more than any other first grader.

Here's what was going on around her on the last day. And her WONDERFUL teacher is in the background. Oh, Mrs. B, how we HOPE Tia is in your class.

Last day of ...

kindergarten, first and third grade. They all did super well and Nick and I are very proud of them!



At 12:25, they became first, second, and fourth graders. School starts in August on Miss T's birthday!

Oh, the dress Tia is wearing was one I wore to kindergarten, a few years back. It was made for me by Grandma F. There are pictures of Kira and Nat wearing it too, somewhere on the blog, but I'll find them another day.

LATE: Walkathon 2011 (Photo of the week 15/52)

It was fun except Nat was sick and couldn't walk--very sad.


Photo of the week... Daddy and Kira walk together!


Kira walked 18 laps... Yay! Almost 4 miles (1 mile = 5 times around the track, we think.)


Tia did 10 laps!

3 girls, 3 classes

One thing I love to do is volunteer in the girls' classes. In Tia's class, I go on Friday afternoons and I get to help with "centers." A center is a place in the classroom that is set up for the kids come to do an activity. In Kindergarten, there is an adult who facilitates. Sometimes they are doing a math activity like practicing counting by 5s or working with pattern blocks, sometimes it's painting, sometimes it's reading, or science! Whatever it is, it's a blast. When Nat was in kindergarten I usually went and helped in the computer lab. When Kira was in kindergarten I mixed it up and did both computer lab days and centers.

In Kira's class, I'm teaching some dance. The kids in Kira's class really love tap. It's super fun. I taught some dance in Nat's first and second grade classes. I hope to teach dance in Tia's first grade class. (Also, in first for both girls and second grade for Nat, we did the Monster Project. I hope I can do that again next year with Kira and Tia's classes!)

In Nat's class, I haven't been able to go in as much. In third grade, the teachers want the kids to be more independent and the Moms not to come as much. I've gotten to go in once a month or so, but usually I'm helping by sorting, prepping, or grading papers. It's not as much interaction with the kids, but it's still fun to see what they are doing. However, tomorrow, I get to go in and help with an activity. Nat's bringing her microscope and we're looking at crayfish water...it's kind of like pond water. I did some research today and have some other great web resources to share and use to help the kids. I'm excited to talk with the kids and help with the science project. I might even get some good photos.

Here's a gratuitous shot of Nat's microscope.

Division

Here is a picture of Kira's homework. Her comment about #4 was, "They are making me do division and they don't even know it."

She is a smart cookie.

First grade science fair (The real photo of the week 9/52)

We interrupt the posting of pictures from the Hawaii trip for pictures of the Science Fair!

The kids do two presentations of their projects. This photo was from the one in the day. During the day, the students that have done a project show their peers their work.  The fair at night is for parents to see.

I went this morning to help and I was talking to one little girl about her project. I asked how she picked her topic and she replied, "My dad thinks it is important and thought I should learn about it." Heh.  Other kids who had typed projects told me their parents typed them. Other kids told me their parents picked their projects for them. I am happy to report that Kira picked her own topic and typed almost all of the report.  Towards the end, on the 4th and 5th pages of the report, to keep her motivated, we had to play a "game" to get her to type.  I would tell her if she could type a sentence in 2 minutes or less, that I would do the next sentence. It worked great and made her try to do better on her typing. Yay, Science Fair! Yay, Learning!

Tonight, we had ice cream for dessert in honor of her first science fair.

Sharing

Homework done by Kira a few months ago.

Bookworms together...

Hiding in her book.