The Barri (more than one Barrus): School Fun

Brandt had two super fun days at school last week, and I got to participate in both. Monday was the 100th day of school and they essentially partied the whole day. Monday is my regular day to volunteer at school, so I was going anyway. Blythe normally goes to Grandma Dawn's on that day, but Grandma was sick, so she came too. It was great!

Mondays are usually center days. The children will have three assignments that they need to fulfill, each of which helps them learn a skill of some sort. They will write or count or match or make a pattern. My job, as a mom, is to keep them focused and on task. For some children this is easier than for others, and some days are better than others. When Blythe comes, she plays or helps me or sometimes participates. Last week she got to participate.

Centers for the 100th day we all about 100. At one center they were to put 100 spots on a dog and stamp a paper 100 times. At another they were to find small, round, multi-colored stickers around the room. Each sticker had a number on it and they were to color the number on a sheet of paper the same color as the sticker. This one took a long time and most children, Brandt included, only had about ten numbers colored. When Blythe had played by herself long enough (in her mind), she asked if she could do something. She got one of the papers and began to color. When she went out of the lines, she turned to Mrs. Bigelow who was sitting near her and said, "Mrs. Bigelow, I colored out of the lines just a little bit, bit I will try harder." She has been listening to our talk with Brandt about kindergarten quality.

At my center, each child got to make a Froot Loop necklace with 100 Froot Loops. This also took a long time. They first had to count out 100 pieces of cereal, placing ten pieces in each of ten circles on a piece of paper. No one finished their necklace. It took some children a really long time to count out their cereal, and the stringing of the necklace took even longer. Blythe made a necklace, but I didn't bother to have her count.

Another center was the treat center. With perhaps fifteen different small treats, the children again counted out pieces of candy or pretzels, nuts or fruit in groups of ten until they had 100. You would think that each child, in their excitement to have a snack, would finish this. Not so. This gives you an idea of how unfocused the average five to six year old can be. Brandt and Blythe both finished their treat.

The last two centers were writing numbers from 1-100, and then comparing the weight of 100 small objects with 100 others. Brandt chose to bring a bag of 100 Legos, while other children brought candy corn, popcorn, marshmallows, raisins, and chocolate chips. 100 pieces of candy corn weighed the most. Brandt brought home his "Write to 100" page and finished it here. He is getting much better with his writing.

The last thing they did was make 100 goggles and a visor. The goggles were 100 on a piece of paper with the 1 being very long and the 00 being cut out so the child could hold them up and look through, like opera glasses.

It was a wonderfully fun day and Brandt sang, "Hip hip hooray! It is the 100th day!" the rest of the day.

I did not get a single picture.

Thursday Brandt had a field trip, Grandma Dawn was feeling better, and so I accompanied Brandt while Blythe went to play. In school, Brandt has been learning about neighborhoods and animals (separately--not animals in the neighborhood), so we went to our neighborhood grocery store, Day's Market, and to the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum (the stuffed animal museum) at BYU.

This was a great field trip. Although we go to Day's Market regularly, we got to go into the back areas, to the refrigerators, the unpacking area, and the freezer. We got to hear about the meat section, watch restocking, and visit the bakery where we all got a cookie. The group of four students I was responsible to keep in line included Brandt, Hyrum, Ryder, and Zach, four very busy, somewhat rambunctious boys. Mrs. Bigelow must either have great faith in abilities to keep things in control, or she must not like me at all.

I say that in jest. The boys were darling, and while they did run off separately and together, they did eventually come looking for me looking for them.

The Bean Museum was fun too. We saw a live reptile show, with a large tortoise named Otis, a desert gecko with a fat tail that can store water like a camel, and a python. I forget the gecko and snake's names; I'm not sure we're going to meet again. Our group got to sit on the front row, so we had an up-close view of all three animals. At the end we all got to pet the snake too. Page, the woman telling us about the animals, wanted the children to vote on which animal they wanted to pet. She said, "Who wants to touch the snake?" Brandt raised his hand. Then she said, "Who wants to touch the lizard?" Brandt raised his hand. Then she said, "Who wants to touch the tortoise?" Brandt raised his hand. Then he turned to Hyrum who was sitting next to him and said, "I raised my hand for all three!" Then mildly maniacal laughter, as if he had done something really naughty.

There is more to the snake touching incident. That night, as Kent was in bed with Brandt and after stories had been read and told, Brandt had a concerned look on his face. Kent said, "Brandt, are you worried about something?" Brandt nodded his head and said, "Pythons." Kent explained that it was far too cold for pythons, that they would die here, and he needn't worry. He was able to go to sleep.

When the animal show was over, we has free time to roam around the museum. This is when the mad dash and frantic hunting started, but I did manage to keep everyone from rolling around on the floor, and I did get all four boys onto the bus when we were done. The bus was, of course, a highlight, because how cool is it to ride on a bus when you don't have to do it every day?

I did get pictures this day.