Hat Day

The last full week of school for the kids marks their school's annual spirit week. Today is hat day. Alexa wanted to wear my old Girl Scout Camp hat.

Well, she wanted to wear it until she saw what Chloe created to wear...

Then she wanted to make one of her own except she only decided it at bedtime. So she wore the hat she started out with... until she got to school and took it off. See a pattern here?

Concert and an Art Show

The girls had a concert at the school tonight. It was lovely. Long. But lovely.

Alexa is in the center front row.

Chloe is in the back on the left.

You can see her busting a move back there. We even got to see one of Alexa's art pieces on display.

The biggest excitement tonight though comes from the visit from the Tooth Fairy.

This one has been about three weeks worth of delicate wiggling.

Literacy Breakfast

I went to school with Chloe this morning to hear her read her stories.

She has some wonderful writing!

School Play

Chloe was in the school production of Willy Wonka. Well, she was in the chorus. All the third graders are, and she did it under duress. I did take it as a sign of how far she has grown up that she could tell me, "Mommy, this school play is really stressing me out." She is excited that next year as a fourth grader she can be in the set design. This appeals to her much more that being on stage. However, she did it.

and lived to tell the tale.

The Many Faces of Chloe

She was having a lot of fun after dinner was finished tonight.

Cracked herself right up.

Art Show

Last night there was an automated call from the girls school announcing that my child's art work was chosen to be displayed at City Hall. There would be an awards ceremony with awards given by the mayor tonight at 5:30. Well, talk about short notice. Also... which kid? So the details were a little sketchy but I figured we would just go and see who had art there. As it turned out Chloe mentioned it to her teacher and she gathered the details for us that it was Chloe's piece that was chosen.

Here she is identifying number nine as hers.

Nice birch trees don't you think?

She got her award and shook hands with the mayor. Alexa was a bit disappointed to not get one too. She decided the mayor was a meany head that didn't like her art and that it why we all voted for a new mayor. I didn't bother to explain that I don't think the mayor had anything to do with choosing the pictures and we just moved on from that. As you can see she perked up.

Little Book

Chloe's Creation

The after school program at the kid's school is so great. They really do a wonderful job. Why just yesterday Chloe worked away at creating this wonderful sculpture.

Now what does one actually do with a gumdrop and toothpick creation? A wall hanging?

Board Game Design

Chloe designed a board game. It was done to earn a badge for Girl Scouts. This is what she came up with. She ran out of time at the last meeting and had to finish it over the weekend.

She had the new babysitter play it several times to make sure it worked. It is called Puppy Hide and Seek. I think we can sell it to fund her college education.

Literacy Breakfast

This morning I went to school with Chloe to attend her literacy breakfast.

She read to me from her writing journals.

She has some amazing stories and poems in there.

Applying for a Job

Chloe is applying for her first job. She brought home an application for a student job at school. She wants to be a photographer- taking pictures for the school slide shows at community meetings. I came home today and found the application she was working on this morning with the sitter. So sweet I had to share.

I am not sure how well you will be able to read this so here is what she wrote:

(Please write a complete paragraph describing the reasons why you would like this job)

Chloe- I love the slide shows and I would love to help take photos for one. I would like to help the school. I want my friends to look at me and think Chloe the girl who helps take pictures for the slide shows we watch. I really want to be a part of our school wide community. I love takeing photos of flowers and art.

(Do you have experience related to this job? If yes, please describe your related expereince)

Chloe- Once I went around my house taking photos and I put them in a book. I think my book is nice.

(Please describe some of your strengths and skills)

Chloe- I am good at focusing the camera and I know how to use tricks of the camera to help get fabulous photos.

I hope she gets it. It will be tough competion though as there are only three slots and all third- fifth graders are allowed to apply.

Fill the Bowl

We had another event at the school tonight. The third grade class held the third annual "Fill the Bowl" event. It is a wonderful activity that has the third graders handcraft bowls through several field trips to the Burlington City Arts pottery studio. There are over two hundred bowls made by the time they are done. Chloe said she made four. Then tonight the bowls are all set out on tables in the gym. You go and pay five dollars to buy one. You then select a type of soup you want to eat (to fill your bowl).

The event is to raise awareness about hunger. The money raised is being split between the local farmers in the Intervale Center in Burlington (whose crops were destroyed right at harvest time by the flooding) and Heifer International. The kids did a fair amount of studying about these two organizations. Chloe even wrote a poem to the farmers.

The kids were told that they were not going to be keeping their bowls. However, I secretly hoped that I could arrive early and be able to buy one of Chloe's. No such luck. Here she is though with a owl she picked out to purchase.

Alexa and I choose some neat ones too.

It was fun event and I think the kids learned  a lot about giving back to others which is wonderful. We also put in a few bids at the silent auction where some local artists donated bowls.

When I Grow Up Song

Chloe's Winter Concert

Chloe had a winter concert tonight at school. I took a video of each of the three songs they sang that I will try to post. I can never be sure that the Blogger site will cooperate and load them if the video is longer than a few seconds. Sometimes it takes so long that I give up. I took a few pictures of her though.

Here she is before the concert starts waiting with her class on the mat. It was night time and not at all sunny, but they were suppose to bring sunglasses as a prop for one of the songs.

This is when they were getting all arranged on the risers. She is in the middle with her friends Madeline and Sami on her right (our left).

I LOVE this picture! She is trying to squeeze into her spot for the final song.



Jeh Kulu Performance

Tonight was the first time that both girls had a performance at school. The school has had a two week residency with a West African dance group called Jeh Kulu. The kids have been learning dances in their PE classes. They all got matching t-shirts for the performance which is really cute but makes it hard to pick out your child on a crowded stage. Especially when you have the tall children that get put in the back of the stage. 

They did a great job though. Here is Alexa's class performing Kuku which is a celebration dance. this is the best shot I was able to get of Alexa if you look on the right side of the picture in the back. She is wearing a pink dress and tights which stick out from under her t-shirt. You can see her just over and to the side of the little blonde headed boy in front.

Chloe's class performed a hunting dance called Sofa. She is in the back as well. She is wearing turquoise pants which does help you to pick her out, if you look to the center at all the legs.

They did a great job and said they had a lot of fun. Well, OK Alexa said she had fun. Chloe wouldn't admit to it.

Square One Art

The girl's school runs this find raiser every year that I call the suckers fundraiser. They have each child design a picture one a piece of square paper. They then sell you products with that picture on it. Chloe loves this activity. Thus each year we end up with a variety of product with think art work on it. Everything from hot plates to mouse pads to t-shirts. On Thursday she came home with her design from this year.

Is that not amazing? I haven't seen Alexa's yet, but I can tell you this year with two of them creating things that school will be making a fair amount of money off of me. Which of course is what they are counting on sucker that I am.

School Pictures

School pictures are in..

pretty cute huh? I let them pick out their own backgrounds. I am not really a fan of the rainbow, but she really wanted it. I do think the leaves are nice.

Open House

Tonight was the annual school open house. Of course this year we had two classrooms to visit. Alexa's class showed us their math song and their clean up dance.

Chloe showed us her new composition book,

the new pencil Mrs. Robinson got just for her to work on her grip (she is actually excited to use it!),

and she showed off her new book browsing bin.

I apologize for the short entry, but when we got home the dog managed to get sprayed by a skunk. frankly people, short is all I have the energy left for after dealing with all that.