On Firetrucks, Farms, Greyhounds and More

Happy November, everyone! Three months into school. It's hard to process. I know, I know, I start almost every blog post like that. "Woah, time passed you guys. Crazy!" But it is crazy. Just yesterday all the leaves were green and still on the trees and fall was way off in the distance. Now we're over a third of the way through fall and winter doth approach on the not-so-far-off horizon (it is snowing right now even as I type this). You know Astronaut MD has grown over two inches since last year?

 

Crazy.

 

We ended October in a rush of activity. I did a blog post two weeks ago - you might have missed it, as I forgot to post about it on Facebook like the master of social media I am - and it was pretty tame, owing to the fact October started off at a crawl. The two weeks that followed were more like a sprint. First, we had a visit from the...

 

 

They come talk to the students of both LTCC and FMLCS once a year about fire safety, and let them climb about in the truck. The astronauts always look forward to it, particularly Astronaut JA (our firefighter in training). Five pictures down, you can see Astronaut JA telling the firemen about where the various things on their truck were located - and, much to his surprise, he was right!

 

 

The next day we went to Wolfe's Neck Farm in Freeport with the students of Pine Tree Academy. I worked there in 2012, so it was super fun to see everyone again! The astronauts were at first shocked into a stupor at all the kids running around, then warmed up as a nice lady enthusiastically told us about pumpkins and then let them pick pumpkins of their own.

 

However, during this field trip, a phenomena occurred. Although the Astronauts were having loads and loads of fun, whenever they weren't involved directly in something, they went into what I like to call 'resting grump face' mode.

 

You'd never know he'd just had a little 'I picked the perfect pumpkin' dance party seconds before.

 

Also just after picking his pumpkin.

 I had fun startling them out of their grump faces, and it's a shame the rest turned out so blurry, because they thought it was wildly entertaining how sad they looked in the middle of a pumpkin patch. Once you got their attention, they were all smiles.

 

Ta-da!

 

 

The day after that, we had a very special visitor to the classroom:  Pastor Brenda and her greyhound, Danny! Pastor Brenda (or, as the kids now like to call her, PB&J - for Pastor Brenda Johnson) taught the Astronauts all about greyhounds and what part they play in God's great big world. Danny's grandfather was the fastest dog in the world, so it was basically like having a celebrity in the classroom. We read a book about greyhounds, watched a video of Danny's grandfather running, and petted Danny at every chance we got. The Astronauts were in dog heaven!

 

Things slowed down a little after that, but only a little. We finished up our unit on ecosystems and our ecosystem model journals, which the kids had a lot of fun keeping track of. Our next unit is on Space & the Universe, and they've been waiting for that one all semester, so we should have double the fun!

We also finished up our unit on Vincent Van Gogh, who the kids loved learning about. I had excited reports from the parents of three different Astronauts talking about how their students came home and rattled off everything they knew about the famous painter - right down to Vincent's brother's name and, in at least once instance, what said brother did for a living. We're a classy bunch at FMLCS, let me tell you. Here are the kids working on their 'Starry Night' paintings, the finished projects of which I forgot to get pictures of (Master of Social Media, I'm telling you).

 

Finally, as the first quarter of school came to a close, we had our quarterly Classroom Bazaar. Our classroom management system is largely monetary, which means they get 'paid' for things like doing their chores (i.e. wiping down tables, feeding the pets, etc.), finishing all their workboxes/workpockets, and being on their 100% best behavior. At the end of every quarter, the Astronauts get to spend the "money" they've earned on items in a little store. There are cheap things, like stickers and erasers, and there are expensive things - like a play vet clinic and giant stuffed bear. The Astronauts have to decide whether to save their money for something big or spend all their money on little things. We saw some really great decision making, which was great! And some of the Astronauts chose to spend all or most of their money, which will be great down the road as we see how past decisions impact our future investments. The older Astronauts benefit the most from this, but because we use play money modeled after the real thing, it's also great for the younger Astronauts to memorize and practice using the various coins and dollars in our monetary system. The Astronauts loved the store, and I'm excited to see how they react to our next one in January!

 

I am very excited that it's November. We'll be studying Space & the Universe, learning about the artist Mary Cassatt, writing novels for the Young Writer's Program (a subset of National Novel Writing Month), passing out bags to collect Thankstiving food for those in need, putting on our Thanksgiving Program, and more! The holidays are upon us, my friends, and we at FMLCS cannot wait. Check out our October Month in Review video on our Facebook page (or just RIGHT HERE) for an even better look of what all we got up to this past month. We'll see you in two weeks for the next blog post (November 16), and for those of you who are experiencing the surprise winter weather, stay safe!

 

God bless,

Mia