Responsible

Today the elementary school conducted their semi-annual Awards Ceremony. Cameron received the Thunderbird "Pillar" Responsibility Award and a certificate of recognition for participating in the Science Fair. She also got to stand and be recognized for All A's, One B Honor Roll in the first 9 weeks, and All A's Honor Roll in the second 9 weeks.

Poor Brenna spent the day at home sick with a fever, so she missed the Awards program and anything that might have been given to her. She will just have to attend the one in May.

Voting for Bluebonnets

Cameron arrived at school this morning at 7:30 a.m. to cast her ballot for the TLA Bluebonnet Award. The Texas Library Association established the Bluebonnet Award reading program back in 1979 to encourage to encourage Texas children to read more books, explore a variety of current books, develop powers of discrimination, and identify their favorite books. (Yep, taken right from their website.)

Students were encouraged to read a certain number of books on their own, and the teacher and/or librarian also read 2 other books. Any student who read (i forget how many total) would be allowed to participate in the official student voting for the Bluebonnet Award book.

I'm not going to list all of the books Cameron read from the list, but she did confide that her vote went to The Blue Ghost by Marion Dane Bauer.

Her second favorite was Roxie and the Hooligans Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Though if you ask her about one or two others, including George Crum and the Saratoga Chip by Gaylia Taylor, she gets real animated telling you about the story (the invention of the potato chip.)

I even read two of the older books, and I read most of the books Cameron read. Though some how I missed reading The Blue Ghost. Hm... guess I'll have to pick it up and read it some night.

Glu-ghost

Today both girls came home from school full of questions (and details) about Diabetes. Did we know anyone with Diabetes? Anyone in our family have diabetes? Type 1 or Type 2? It's very odd to sit at the dinner table and listen to my kindergarten five year old talk about Insulin and Nucleus and Glu-ghost and sugar. The scary thing is everything she says is correct!

Both girls were very concerned about their dinner, did the soup have any sugar in it? They even passed on dessert. I know this won't last long. Though when I brought up Lent coming up next week and that we need to think about what to give up, both girls said dessert.

The special Diabetes lecturer was part of a Walk for Diabetes (fundraiser) launch at their school. (All the forms were in backpacks today.) Health and fitness are having a huge influence on curriculum lately. There is a state mandated fitness test for all grades 3-12 coming up soon. The superintendent's letter assures parents that their child's physical fitness status will not affect their grades.

After I put Brenna in bed, she was a little jabberbox. She spent another ten minutes very animated talking excitedly about how she and "girl Jordan" (one of her best friends at school) want to write a play. She wanted me to help her. I asked her if Mr. K. could help them at school, but she gave me an exasperated look and said, "Mom, he only does music - singing? - Boring." (oookayyyy.) So I said what about Ms. P. (the GT teacher who has been testing them) Oh Yes, she would be good.

Jordan is the best writer/reader in the K class, and when I suggested that Jordan could write down the play, Brenna wrinkled her nose and said, "But Jordan writes big (waves her hands to make the point) and I don't want it all big across the page." Well, says I, she could write it down and an adult could type it up on the computer. (BIG SMILES) "Perfect Mommy!"

So apparently Brenna and Jordan want to do a play that sounds a whole lot like Barbie Island Princess with Harry Potter. Harry would be ON the island with Roe (Brenna) and whomever Jordan and Xyla (another girl friend) would be playing. And there have to be songs. And she needs a dress-up dress that is currently at Nana's house. And a wig.

When I said aloud that this play sounded an awful lot like Island Princess, Brenna says, "No, I'm not copying it. I'm only borrowing small details. Barbie's name is Rosella. I'm only using ROE, see!?"

Where does she get these ideas?

Meanwhile Cameron is in her bed, lights off, writing in her story ideas notebook by the hallway light. She decided that her three girl characters would form a baking club, but she needed a name for the club. I brainstormed a bunch of words and she wrote down Pies R Us, but then changed it to The Baker Girls. Just another day All Things Kelly.

Sabine River - here we come!

Cameron earned her first "B" on a report card for the last 9-weeks of second grade. It was in social studies. SOCIAL STUDIES! Third grade brought a new year, and yet she continued to bring home worksheets that clearly demonstrated she either wasn't grasping the concept or wasn't applying herself. I knew I had to do something when she brought home a worksheet where she was to identify the three rivers that form part of the Texas border. She had colored the Red river (we've been across it many times) and then colored the Colorado and Brazos (we've been across those about 100x more than the Red river.)

So I sat down with her and we talked about the Rio Grande and the Sabine. I don't recall exactly how it came about, but I told her that if she could get an A in Social Studies on her report card this year, I would take her to the Sabine River, our Texas/Louisiana border. I wanted her to have a tangible, realistic, goal to strive towards during the year.

She pulled the grade up a little for her first report card (from the progress report grade), but it was still a B. She's worked really hard this past nine-weeks on her social studies, and when report cards came out on Friday she just about bust to show me a 91 in Social Studies. (All A's with a 100 in Science thanks to Science Fair participation.)

So watch this space - we'll be planning for a weekend drive out to the Sabine.

I should brag just for a moment - Cameron had all A's and all E's in her behavior (E=excellent vs. S=Satisfactory.) Brenna contined to receive many SD (steadily developing) and a few AI (Applies Independently). However, Brenna raised her behavior scores from all S to all E. Her teachers comments noted that her behavior has improved a good deal.

MLK weekend at SBR

Check out the two posts on SBR blog for photos and comments about MLK weekend.

Reading Rainbow

I like to call this one, Brenna's Reading Rainbow audition.

Got Mold?

Third grade still isn't "required" to do a Science Fair project, but it's *ahem* strongly encouraged. In this area of town, it's practically a religion! Between the space and oil industries, we have a lot of scientific people surrounding us, and it is a huge influence on their kids. They offer the "Lucky 13" award in high school to those students who have participated in 13 years of Science Fair K-12. Now I don't know how many students receive this award, but the fact that they offer it speaks for itself. (I'll take this opportunity to mention that our ISD doesn't support National History Fair, though participation in Science Fair is mandatory for grades 4-5.)

Cameron decided to do her project on moldy bread. The question came about honestly enough - every time I buy Pumpernickel Rye bread (yum), it gets moldy before I can eat the whole loaf. So she wondered which breads mold faster than others. (um, the rye bread honey....)

We put a whole bunch of bread out on the table and "observed" it. We watched it dry out and turn into toast. So I broke down and picked up a few books on mold and surprise - you need moist, dark, spaces. We modified her project a bit and she wrote up the words and took some of the photos. We put it together tonight.

Do they give points for looking nice and neat?