Report Card!!!

As if things couldn't have gotten any better, after yesterdays good report from the teacher, her report card was sent home today.

She has an "A" for advanced and a "P" for proficient in EVERY area of her report card - Readin, Writing, Math, History, and Science. And all the sub categories under the subjects she has a 'strong performance' on just about all of them with the exception of a couple of 'satisfactory performances'.

Most definitely another wonderful report and sigh of relief!

A Day of Great Accomplishments

This morning was a very full morning.

Last week a flyer went home inviting the families of our school to join in on a school wide celebration of our awesome achievement of raising our score of our California State Testing by 22 points! This morning was going to be a celebration of that success. I originally had a doctor's appointment scheduled for this morning, so I was not planning on going. Until...Hannah came home with a special letter stating she would be recognized for her academic success on the State Testing last April. Needless to say, I cancelled my doctors appointment.The morning started off with the ceremony recognizing the 3rd and 4th graders. Our Principal got up and started off the ceremony with great words of encouragement and adoration for our students, for the parents, and for our teachers. He was bold and very direct and said that far too often in this day and age, the takers keep on taking while the givers go unappreciated. And the same goes for academic greatness. The great achievers keep on achieving and go unnoticed. And that was what today was about. Recognizing the students who scored Proficient or Advanced on the California State Testing.

Hannah scored Proficient in the area of Language Arts. So when her name was called she stood and received a special certificate. Other kids who scored Advanced received medals and trophies. Another ceremony followed for the 5th and 6th graders and then following that ceremony, the entire school was invited back out to the blacktop for some dancing! It was awesome to see the students and teachers participating and having fun. What was also fun for Hannah was that her sister was in on the ceremony where she was recognized. Not because she came with Mommy and Daddy like days past, but because she was sitting with her own class. It was special for me when I saw Hannah find Rachel with her class dancing about and they came over and greeted me at the bake sale table. My girls are growing up!! At the end of the morning we had our Parent / Teacher Conference with Ms Harris. And to be honest, I was a little stressed with how this conference was going to go. Homework has been such a struggle this school year. Hannah's had some returned back and had to be redone, etc. It's taking a lot of work this year, and I've heard 4th grade is a big transformation. So I was nervous to hear what the teacher was going to say.

We weren't even seated before Ms. Harris told us what a tremendous improvement she has made since August. And that about 6 weeks ago, something 'clicked' and she got it. That made my eyes well up in tears. I was so proud to hear that Hannah had gotten it and she was doing good in class and was even doing her writing the way we'd been working on at home. The teacher had nothing but great things to say about Hannah. To say we were pleased would be an understatement. We were very, very proud! It's a relief to know things are clicking and Hannah is going to be just fine.

Harvest Party

We were part of a good old fashioned Harvest Party this evening. Our friends graciously opened their home and there were about seven tables set up with different activities and crafts to do. All along the way collecting goodies and treats from each table.

We were to come dressed as friendly scarecrows, no other costumes. And everyone looked so cute! Earlier in the week, I went to Goodwill and go the girls each a cute flannel shirt to wear with jeans, but as the temperatures drastically changed as the week progressed, it ended up being over 100 today and that warranted another trip to the thrift store for short sleeve plaid looking shirts. LOL.

There were hot dogs and nachos. There was face painting and carmel apple making. Rootbeer floats and coloring of your treat bag. Making fabric pumpkins and squirting out the tea light in the carved pumpkin. We tried to include all the families with small children in the inviting, and just about everyone came who was invited. It was an AWESOME evening with our church family.

Fundraiser Success!!

A few weeks back, I posted about the Fundraiser that Hannah's class was doing, selling candles. The candles were delivered to our house yesterday and today and here is what 175 candles look like! I had already boxed up three orders before I remembered to take my picture.Our Fundraiser was a huge success!! With only 17 students selling (that's half the class), we sold 200 candles!! That many candles qualified us for FREE shipping and half sales tax, which brought our PROFIT to $878.00!!!! The teacher was shocked when I told her what our profit was.

We are most definitely well on our way to cutting the cost of our field trip in April down!

Field Trip to the Local Mountains

Hannah's class went on a field trip today to our local mountains to study an ecosystem they've been learning about in Science.

Due to budget cuts, we had to pay for our bus service which ended up only being $15.00 a person, and then the hike and exploring we did was free. But it was one of the best field trips I think I've been on.

We left the school shortly after the morning bell rang. Boarded the bus and were given an assignment to do on our way the mountains. It was a fun assignment! Ms. Harris had printed out a page of landmarks (certain off ramps, the A&W stand, city signs, elevation signs, etc, etc) to look for and then we had to put the time in which we drove past it. The kids really enjoyed this project and it kept them busy on our hour long bus ride.

Our first stop was Ponderosa Nature Trail. We walked/hiked the trail for a good hour, stopping along the trail to listen and learn. This was Ms. Harris' 25th year doing this field trip, so she knows her stuff. And she pointed out trees and things that used to be much smaller or have become damaged or even hit by lightening through the years. One of our stops along the path, Ms. Harris had the class find a spot and lie down. And for five minutes you had to listen and smell and breath the fresh pine air. And then we studied the things right around us. Showing the kids the layers of pine needles, leaves, the decomposers, etc. It was all very interesting. Our next stop was back down the mountain a ways, to Thurman Flats picnic area. We ate lunch here and used the restrooms and enjoyed the beautiful day some more. After lunch and a brief rest, we lined up and crossed a few streams and then a creek, all along the way stopping to pick wild blackberries. The kids really had fun doing this and found quite a few! I was so proud of Hannah, she not only picked a blackberry, but she ate it too! And liked it!

She almost fell in here, and was hesitant to give it another try,
but she did! And made it across the big creek.We arrived back to school just minutes before the school day officially ended. It was a great field trip and I am so glad to have been able to have gone. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful Fall day, clear skies, and great weather.