Sunday, May 17, 2015

5th Grade Awards Day

Every year the 5th grade has an awards assembly.  They recognize kids for academic excellence, perfect attendance, leadership, prolific reading and a US history project called  the Great American Award.  William received awards for 4/5 of these things.  He missed out on the perfect attendance award because I let him stay home on the 5th grade ski day.  Oh well.

He received the Great American Award, which requires students to memorize the Gettysburg Address, the preamble to the Constitution, the Star Spangled Banner and the presidents of the United States, among other things.

He received the Eagles Nest award, which his school gives to students who earn 1000 AR points over the course of their elementary school career.  You read books and take quizzes on them to earn points.  The longer and higher the reading level, the more AR points you can earn.  For example, the 5th Harry Potter book is worth 48 points but a Magic Treehouse (early grade chapter book) might be worth 1.  You have to read a alot and take a lot of quizzes to earn Eagle's Nest.

He received an Academic Excellence award for scoring a 4 (Highly Proficient) on two of his three SAGE tests at the end of this year.  He scored a 4 in Science and Language Arts and a 3 in Math.  He was disappointed but a 3 is good - it means Proficient which means you learned what you were supposed to learn.

He also received a Kiwani's Club Award called the Hope of America.  He was one of six kids in his grade to earn it.  It is teacher-recommended and is based on scholarship and leadership.

William has had a great 5th grade year.  I wasn't too sure how it was going to go at first - he was bummed that he didn't have too many of his buddies in his class.  But he made new friends along the way and benefited from a great teacher!

Congratulations, William!


Sunday, May 3, 2015

Tessa's 9th Birthday



This girl is 9 today!  She wanted a new bike for her birthday so that was her big present - she went with Jay on Saturday to pick it out and she loves it.  She never wants to have a party - she just wants to go out to dinner and this year she picked Sizzler.  After Jay gets home from church we are having Mongolian beef for dinner with cake and cupcakes for dessert.

Tessa is sweet and funny and loves to sing, dance, read and cook.  We love her so much!