Will's Alpha Play

The Alpha program is what Will's school calls Gifted and Talented.  This year they learned all about law and order.  The kids got in groups and wrote plays.  The plays were made up courtroom trails of different characters from classic childhood stories.  William's group put the Big Bad Wolf from the 'Three Little Pigs' story on trial.  He played a mouse that was a witness to some of the wolf's actions.

 

Working on the Science Fair

William's science fair project was on the conductivity to different liquids.  He a Papa set up an electrical path with a light bulb and probes to put in the liquid to see if the bulb would light up.  It was pretty neat!

 

100th Day of School

On the 100th day of school the kids in William's class dressed up like they were 100 years old.  Here is William.  Isn't he cute!  We put white body paint in his hard and it looked perfect!

 

First Day of 1st Grade

Ben's first day of first grade!  His teacher this year is Ms. Kaltenborn.  She is very sweet and we think she will be a great teacher!

 

First Day of 4th Grade

Here is Will on his first day of school for the 2013-2014 school year.  Fourth grade!  Wish I could make him stop growing!  He is in Mr. Bailey's class which is a combined 4th/5th grade class.  He will be doing 4th grade work for math and English, but 5th grade work for science and social studies.

 

Last Day of 2012-2013 School Year!

Another school year has ended.  I'm so proud of these two!  William is finishing 3rd grade and Benjamin is finishing kindergarten.  Look how much they have grown! (Will's First Day and Ben's First Day) They had great years and good teachers and are really looking forward to summer!

 

Ben's First Day of Kindergarten

Ben is ready for his first day of Kindergarten!  In our school district kinder and first start a week later than the other grade.  (The reason Will and Ben's pictures weren't shared together)

 

Will's First Day of 3rd Grade

William is ready for 3rd grade!  (Stay tuned for the pictures of his first day of 4th grade!)

 

 

Anchorage Museum

William had to visit a place of interest in the Anchorage area for a school project.  We decided to go to the Anchorage Museum since it is a place we had been wanting to visit, but hadn't yet.  It reminds me of the Science Museum in Oklahoma City, only this one was much smaller than the one in OKC.

Ben's Zoo Field Trip

Ben's first school field trip was to the zoo.  The zoo was of course covered in snow, but it was still fun.  One of the zoo keepers took us behind a gate to get up close to the polar bears.  The female polar bear was right up next bars and the path we were on.  Oh, and did I mention that we left the zoo at about 11:45 and the blizzard warning went into affect at 1:00?

A zoo employee reading the kids a story before we wen to see the animals.



This is the female polar bear.  We were seriously just feet away from her!

Ben on our way out of the zoo.  He brought his camera, but was sad when the extreme cold killed the batteries in it.



First Day of Second Grade

Life has gotten in the way of our little blog here.  I'd love to share lovely pictures of the spring in Alaska, but first I feel like I should catch up on the first few months of the year. 

This is William on the first day back to school after Christmas break.  I took this picture because he is entering a new grade on this day!  Second Grade!  This process started around Halloween when his first grade teacher, Ms. Steiding, approached me and suggested that we think about moving William into second grade.  Ms. Steiding is a wonderful teacher who had previously taught third grade.  She had been giving him harder work in Math and Reading than the other kids in the class were doing.  He was doing reading and comprehension at a third grade level.  We took some time to think about this decision, but we have known for a long time that William was an extremely smart and bright boy.  We knew he could do the work in second grade and ultimately decided that since his birthday falls in October he would only be younger than many in his class by a couple months and that he would be ok socially.

After Thanksgiving, William began going to the second grade class for math in the afternoons.  It gave him a chance to meet his new teacher, Mrs. Flagg, and to get to know the students.  He did great and really liked it!  So here he is on the first day back to school after Christmas and he will be in Mrs. Flagg's class full time!

By the way, this picture was taken at 8:30 am,  Look how dark it is outside!  The light in the smaller window to the right is from the porch lights.

Ben's Preschool Christmas Performance

Ben's pre-school performed one Sunday morning in December for the church that runs the school.  These pictures are from Away in a Manger.  The kids learned motions and ALL the verses.  So cute! 

My Little Star!

The first and second grade classes put on a short holiday program.  They sang several songs and had a child read letters to Santa in between each song.  William was chosen to be one of the readers.  He did a great job!  We are so proud of him!

Will is in the middle of this picture, in the second to last row.

Here he is reading.  He is at the microphone, which the music teacher is adjusting.



Project 52 - Week 50

Week 50 ~ December 11-17

Ben's preschool class had a Christmas party and invited the parents to join.  Such cute kids!

This is Ben's teacher reading them a story.

Ben sitting next to his best friend in the class.

They sang jingle bells to us.  (Ben does not like the song, Jingle Bells)

James helping Eli eat his party goodies.

Ben enjoying his goodies!

Project 52 - Week 49

Week 49 ~ December 4-10

I could have used the Christmas photos for this week's pictures, but I wanted to share these two images of William performing at his school.  This is an annual program put on by the school for the parents.  William is in the back row (third one in).  Such a cute class!



10 on the 10th ~ November

1. Snow, snow, and more snow!  The snow has arrived and we have already gotten a ton!

2. We went trick-or-treating on base with our friends this year.  It was a lot of fun taking my "little zoo" around!  William was a zoo keeper, Ben was a lion, and Eli was an elephant.

3. We had parent/teacher conferences for both William and Benjamin.  They are both doing great and their teachers had nothing but good things to say!

4. We are back down to 7 hours and 42 minutes of sunlight.  The daylight savings change has really made it get dark early.

5. My current animal sighting count is 1 beaver, 3 mountain goats/Dahl sheep (they were too far away to determine which one they were), 2 bald eagles, 2 bears, 8 adult moose, and one baby moose.

6.  James finished his training to be an instructor pilot!  He came home last Saturday at 1AM.

7.  William's teacher approached me with the suggestion that he move up to second grade.  After talking with her about it we have decided to let him go to the second grade teacher for math until Christmas.  If that goes well, then he will be moved into the second grade full time after Christmas break.  I'm really nervous about it, but he is so smart and need to be doing harder work.

8. Don't forget to make a giant wish tomorrow at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11!

9.  William got a Nintendo DS for his 7th birthday (Ack!  When did he get so old?).  He and Ben are amazed at how good James is at playing his Super Mario Bothers game.  James keeps trying to tell them that he was playing Super Mario LONG before they were born.

10.  The new game system may have something to do with the boys wanting to do a Super Mario Bros theme for next years Halloween.  The good news is, I get to be the princess!

New School Year

ETA: I am obviously still catching up.  These are from August when school really started.  :)

Time for a new school year!  William is in first grade this year and Ben is in Pre-K.  Ben is going to a preschool in Eagle River, so we have bit of a drive three days a week but I think he is really going to like it!