Today was a big day for Annika - she had a school field trip in the morning, her class party in the afternoon, and a field trip with the Brownies tonight. And I got to accompany her in some fashion on all three events. Whew!
All of the 3rd grade students in gifted in the district had a field trip to K-State today where they went to a drama event in the morning in the Purple Masque Theatre, ate lunch, and then went to the Beach Museum of Art for a craft. Unfortunately, since it was a district-wide event, they did not coordinate the time with individual classroom teachers, meaning that part of the field trip was scheduled during Annika's class Valentine's Day ("February Fiesta") party. Horrors! Fortunately, since I very conveniently work at K-State, I was able to pick her up in the middle and bring her back to school. I wanted to take a picture but Annika was SUPER INTENT that we hurry and get back to school as fast as possible, so she clearly did not have time to stop for a picture.
This departure worked out well since I was one of the parents helping with the class Valentine's Day party today. I was not able to come for Halloween so it was great to be there in person. We tried to put together a halfway healthy-ish spread.
The class party was great! I noticed a huge difference between kindergarten/1st graders and 3rd graders - the 3rd graders were entirely self-directed in making their Valentine's Day boxes and in doing the crafts, and did not seem to need any help from the parents (!??). Instead, I got to chat with the other moms and watch the kids work intently.
Annika's teacher this year is awesome! She is very sweet and calm, and inspires calmness and on-task behavior in the kids like none other, all while radiating sweetness. It was my first time in the classroom while school was going on and I was very impressed. We love our school!
Annika thoroughly enjoyed herself.
After the party, I hurried back to campus for office hours and to teach class. When I returned home, Will had made pancakes in honor of Shrove Tuesday! (I seem to have caught a milder version of Annika's stomach bug and haven't really been able to eat today, but I did appreciate their delicious odor.) Daniel was very excited about the chocolate chip options.
Annika requested that her "pancakes" be cooked in the waffle iron.
Will did not seem to appreciate being photographed, but I thought it was only appropriate to capture the chef.
We hurried through dinner because we had an important place to be at this evening - Petco for a field trip for the Brownies to help earn their Pet Badge! I talked Will into tagging along (and bringing Daniel) in case I got sick and needed back-up. (Thankfully, I did not.) Petco has an online "Field Trip Factory" that is a self-guided one-hour field trip to the store, including learning lots of things like habitats, nutrition, socialization, etc. of the animals. Here the Brownies (plus Daniel, the honorary Girl Scout) are crowded around a snake's cage. I think we were talking about habitat but the kids were more fascinated by its flicking tongue.
Another activity we went was to go around and read the ingredients for pet foods. It was really interesting comparing the main ingredients for different pet foods, including dog (lamb), cat (chicken), turtles (oats), fish (fish meal, aka ground up fish), and bird (sugar).
We wrapped up the evening by picking up dilly bars for the kids from Dairy Queen. I think the idea was that we were celebrating something. I am not sure what. Our family likes to celebrate. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment