Craft sale at Stephens

Anna's class had a "craft sale" to help them learn to count money. They made a variety of adorable Christmas sundries and "sold" them to parents one day. (Parents received $3 in fake money when they walked in the classroom.) Anna was in heaven. I don't know how many times her and MJ set up a store at home, marked prices on their toys and sold them to us. It's probably every kid's dream! Anna was in her element as she waited on her customers, marketing the marshmallow snowmen at her booth. And she gave me the correct change!

Field trip

On a chilly October day I joined Anna's class for a field trip to the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. We braved the cold on a hike to a pond where we fished for treasures in slimy water. They also put on a puppet show inside (which I thoroughly enjoyed ... because it was inside!).

Look -- I'm carrying seeds!

Don't ya love Anna's striped boots? Fun!

School open house

Anna's in her element at school. She loves all the hustle and bustle, her "specials" -- gym, art, music and library, recess (duh!); the kid even loves homework. At her recent Open House, we met some of her new friends this year, chatted with her various teachers and learned what we already knew: Anna is a good student and a good friend. We're so proud of her and enjoy being involved in her school experience. (Plus, visiting elementary schools just takes me back -- way back! -- to my own school days. We didn't have computers, but not much else has changed. :)

Anna, Mrs. Stevens and Anna's best friend Lauren.

School is (finally!) out

If anyone from the Madison School Board is reading this (um ... unlikely), can you please tell me why we need to go to school until the 3rd week in June! Oh, well. We made it through another year. Anna had a great experience in 1st grade. We will certainly miss Ms. Nolan as she leaves for another school, but she'll always be in our hearts.


Daddy taking Anna to the bus stop on the last day. One of the many reasons that Daddy is the best in the world: He took Anna to the bus stop (two blocks away) through rain, snow, sleet and hail the WHOLE YEAR. Thanks, Daddy!!

Graduation

Congrats to Mary Jane on her SECOND graduation from Middleton Preschool! She'll have another one next year. :)

Receiving her diploma from Teacher Joan and Teacher Sally.

Teacher Sally, we love ya.

This was taken while the kids had their arms around each other,
swaying to a song called Friends Forever.

May Brownie Meeting

Troop 549 earned two badges at our last meeting -- Girls Sports and My Body. We learned all about proper stretching, exercising and taking our pulse. That was pretty fun since the girls would run around playing freeze tag, stop to take their pulses, and be AMAZED when their pulse number was higher! We also talked about bike safety and the importance of wearing a helmet this summer. This was our last official meeting for the year. Our troop earned 9 badges and had a ton of fun. Way to go, Brownies!

Back row: Alexa, Sophie, Lauren, Rebekah, Megan
Front row: Jamie, Maia, Anna, Kayla

The Brownie helpers, MJ and her friend Sarah, the daughter of my co-leader. They will go to kindergarten together in 2009.

Middleton Preschool

I went in to help at MJ's preschool and snapped a few shots of her in her element. She loves MPS! When I picked her up this same day, the kids were running around in a pack on the playground. I asked her what they were playing and she excitedly said, "We were all superheroes!" Love it.

"There's a dog in school ..."

How can you not smile at a preschool music program? Mary Jane's class sang the Cuppycake Song, I Have Super Manners, Bop Til You Drop and the ever-popular Dog in School, among others, with the lyrics:

There's a dog in school -- oh, no!

What are we going to do?

As long as there's a dog in school

He'll have to learn his alphabet, too.

(to the tune of the alphabet song:)

ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff

ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff

ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff ...

You get the picture! It was darn cute and MJ was a show-stopper with her big smile and wiggly behind.

Rocks Rock

I joined Anna's class at the Geology Museum on the UW campus today for their field trip. Fascinating! Anna got to demonstrate how something gets fossilized. She convincingly played dead as our guide talked about the parts of her body that would disintegrate. A shark bit off her arm and then all the soft parts of her body were gone until she was just bones. She should get an Oscar for her performance!

Our guide rocked (pun intended). Two interesting things I learned: 1. Wisconsin is not called the Badger State because we have a bunch of badgers here. "Badger" was a derogatory term given to the men who came to look for gold and other minerals in southern Wisconsin. They came as single men and dug their small homes from the sides of hills -- like badgers! and 2. Anything that flies or swims is NOT a dinosaur. (For instance, I thought pterodactyls were dinos -- nope!)

You may have known these things, but obviously my knowledge base is at a first grade level!

Oszkar, Anna and Alexus next to the wall of fossils.