More Than Enough End-of-the-Year Events

There were lots of year-end activities that made our last month pretty busy...

1. BIKE RODEO

Eli's class had a Bike Rodeo and Eli totally rocked it!  It was odd that out of 11 kids, only 3 kids did not have training wheels.  And there was even one girl who had never been on a bike before.  It was kind of an eye-opener!  Another classmate had a teeny tiny bike with a flat front tire.  You can tell that a lot of the kids don't get out on bikes often.  Kind of sad, right?

Well, Eli did an awesome job...he flew right through all the obstacles.  

2. BAKE SALE

The first grade class had a bake sale and it was a huge success!  Eli and I made mini-bundt cinnamon cakes.  (Yum!)  I learned that everyone loves dipped pretzel rods.  I also learned that packaging is everything.  Some parents didn't have the time to wrap up their treats nicely and it made all the difference in the world.  

3. OPEN HOUSE

Evie's class performed 2 songs at the school Open House.  The first one was the Planet Song.  Evie has been practicing this song at home for a while now.  She wouldn't tell us the second song because she wanted it to be a surprise.  She was so into her songs!  She did a great job!!

4. DAD N ME CAMPOUT
We have gotten so much rain this month...and unfortunately, it happened right before the annual Dad N Me Campout!  The kids had been looking forward to this all year so they were so sad about it.  To make it up, the kids camped out in the bonus room with B.

Then the next day they all went on a nice hike.  It wasn't the real thing, but it was a fun weekend!  We'll have to make it up some time over the summer!

4. END OF YEAR GIFTS
For end of the year gifts for classmates, Evie gave out popsicles with cute tags.

 

Eli made bookmarks using Wordle that had words describing each of his friends.  It took him a long time to come up with all the descriptive words, but in the end they came out cute!

5. END OF YEAR PARTIES
Eli and Evie's parties were both at indoor inflatable/trampoline places because of the possibility of rain.  It was still a fun time for all!

6. SPELLING BEE

Elina was in the school spelling bee again.  She was so nervous about it because of last year's mishap.  We practiced a lot again...going over easy words as well as the difficult ones.  We talked about asking for repetition, definitions, and sentences if she even had an inkling of a doubt.  I also talked to her about being slow and clear when speaking.  Well, she made it further than last year, but she still got out around the 5th round.  Her word was lozenge, which she knew very very well.  BUT when she spelled it, she slurred the "G-E" at the end of the word and the judges only heard the "G."  She was so shocked to be out...and I knew she had included the "E" but I knew it was also hard to hear.  Poor thing.  Every year she learns a new lesson about spelling bees....the hard way.  We'll try again next year! 

 

7. ALPHA NIGHT

For the past few weeks, Elina has been working on a GT Disappearing Destinations project highlighting the Galapagos Islands.  On Alpha Night, the kids put up their trifolds and other presentation materials and present their projects to students and adults who come to visit their station. 

Elina made a powerpoint slideshow and a short stop-motion film to discuss the problems that the Galapagos Islands are facing.  She worked hard on her movie and was so proud of it.  To us, it was a little confusing at times, but she really liked the end product and so did the other kids.

Definitely plenty of year-end activities to keep us busy...and a little crazy!!