Science Fair Project

These are some pictures I took of Isabel when she was starting her Science Fair project. The Science Fair is next week Thursday and since we have a snow day today, we have been working on her presentation board, report, presentation notes. She is in awe of the ability to Cut and Paste and very thankful she doesn't have to retype everything.

 Her question was, "Which Seeds Sprout Faster?" and her hypothesis was that "Small Seeds Sprout Faster". She completed two trials with 3 small seeds and 3 large seeds in each. She did prove her hypothesis but she did have 2 kinds of large seeds that did not sprout at all, so she will have some "discussion" to include about that.

This morning we transplanted several of the seedlings in to small pots so that she can add to her display. Hopefully the transplantation will take.

I am very interested to hear what she thinks about the Science Fair after she is done with everything. At her grade level she only gets a participation ribbon (in 3rd grade she can compete), but she still has to do just as much work. I am not making her do all the research that she would have to do at the competition level, but she is having to type everything and do most of the work for the project and the display and the presentation she has to do on her own.

I am curious if she will think it is all too much work or not. It really is a lot of work and I think all she really cared about was doing the experiment. Plus I am not sure if she will like the presentation part of it as she didn't want to do cheerleading again this winter because she didn't want to cheer in front of a crowd.

She isn't finished yet. She has only prepared 3 of the 5 sections for all 3 parts (display, report, notes) so far and the 2 that are left each have as much typing as all 3 combined. I am envisioning a lot of complaining as she is not familiar enough with the keyboard to type efficiently.

First Day of First Grade

 Isabel on her first day of 1st grade.

 She wanted a picture of her by her fairy house.

 Waiting for the bus, she is on the far right.

 Walking over to the bus stop across the lawn, you can check out her new backpack.

 She is talking to one of the big girls at her stop.

 Daddy & brother are in their jammies with bed head watching Isabel get on the bus.

She was the first one on the bus, so you can't see her in the picture. But this is the bus & the kids at the stop getting on.

1st Quarter of Kindergarten

Isabel had a really good first quarter of kindergarten. The quarter ended last week Friday and report cards came home on Wednesday. The grading system here is X = mastered it, D = developing skill, not yet mastered but showing improvement & N = needs work, little to no improvement shown. She got X's on all the areas that they were tested in for 1st quarter.

Also in her report card as a letter from the teacher asking that she participate in the AR (Accelerated Reader) program. I told her about the program and what it entails as a kindergartener in the program (she brings home an AR book and we read it to her once or more if needed, then she reads it to herself a couple times, then we ask her comprehension questions to prepare her to take a quiz on computer that consists of comprehension questions.) She is very excited to do this and yesterday was sent home with her first AR books (about bats - the animal, not the sports equipment.) She is only 1 of 4 kids in her classroom of 23 that are in the program. The other 2 kindergarten classes also have kids doing it.

And if that isn't enough to be proud of, she got an award/ribbon from her gym teacher for doing well and showing good effort. She said that he gives one out each month to a kid in each class, so she got one for October.

I am such a proud mama!

I've only bragged to a couple of friends who have kids who do not go to the same school as her and are not the same age because I don't want to be that braggy mom at our school. I know we have some friends whose children are still developing skills & some that did not agree with their teacher's assessment of their child's skill, so it's hard to mention how well Isabel did without coming across as braggy. I'll let the grandmas do that to their friends. :)

Preschool Day Camp

This picture was taken as we left this morning to bring Isabel to school for the first of four preschool day camps this summer. Each one is three hours long. When I brought her there she told me "Give me a hug & kiss before you go." And as soon as we got in there she saw play-doh and it was like Mom-who? I held her to the hug & kiss, as mom needed it. It was surprisingly easy, yet hard to leave her at school. It was in the preschool room she will be in the fall (which is the ECFE room we are in for classes) but the teachers are a kindergarten teacher and an elementary Speech teacher. Isabel knew several other kids there as well.

She was very excited when I picked her up and had lots to show me and tell me about. And she went down for a nap at 1:30 today, which is she does nap is early for her.