World Buffet

For the second half of this school year our social studies class focused on the cultures of the world.  I think that is why we did "It's a Small World" for the school's spring musical.  Our teacher also happens to be the music coordinator.  The kids were broken into groups and each group got to pick a country that they'd like to learn more about.  Brenna was paired with her buddy Leeanna and they chose China.  The social studies unit carried throughout the entire semester, moving from one project to the next.  The first project was to pick a book related to the your country and write a persuasive book report on why someone should visit.  For the next project, they were required to build a paper structure in the likeness of architecture from you country.

Both of the first two activities were completed at school.  Oh, but the next assignment, it was an all-hands-on-deck experience.  Our teacher decided that each group should chose an authentic dish from your country to prepare.  The kids were responsible for finding the recipe and making their own grocery list.  The recipes were tripled (that's right, tripled!) because our teacher decided to turn the project into a community event.  Our school is a protestant christian based school and as such we have more than 15 protestant churches that are represented within the school.  Our teacher decided to use the project to create a "World Buffet" for our area pastors, bus drivers, and school janitorial staff.

It turned into a three day adventure.  After the kids made their grocery list we had a field trip to our local farmers market to purchase all our fruits and vegetables.  The next day was a second field trip to visit the grocery store for the remaining ingredients.  Keep in mind, we braved an open market and grocery store with twenty-one eight-year olds.  It was total chaos.  I repeated the phrase "Don't touch that!" dozens of times.  Shopping carts raced down the isles and product displays were knocked over.  The only person that wanted us out of there faster than me was the store manager.

But the best was still yet to come.  With a school bus loaded with kids and groceries we left the school at 9 AM for our third field trip and made our way to a local soup kitchen downtown.  The owner had granted us use of the facilities to prepare and present our meal.  The kitchen had two ovens, two stoves, two fridges and plenty of tables and counter space.  If we thought the grocery store was challenging, it was nothing compared to 21 kids running around with knives, playing with raw meat, and frying in hot grease.  We cooked from 9:30 am until 1:00 pm that afternoon, when our first guest walked in the door.  And if all that cooking wasn't bad enough, there was no air-conditioning!  We did manage to get two floor fans set up to at least provide a flow of air through kitchen.  Also, another downer was that the kitchen was not equipped with a dish washer.  You can't imagine how many dirty dishes a group of 21 kids can produce!  I thought the pile of dishes would never end!

Brenna and Leeanna chose to make chinese chicken and vegetable spring rolls.  We also had meat pies, cheese pies, empanadas, salad, breads of all kinds, and other dishes that I couldn't even name.  When it was all over, I'm happy to report it was a great success (though extremely stressful!).  Everyone walked away with all their fingers, no burns, and to our knowledge no one ended up in the ER with food poison (it was a serious concern).  The kids could not have enjoyed it more and it was definitely an experience to remember.

Track and Field Day 2016

Track and Field has turned into one of Brenna's favorite and most anticipated sports.  This makes our third season to participate, and Brenna started asking in January when it would start.  After the long wait to March, they finally started school practices and then it was another long wait until mid-May when Track and Field Day finally arrived.  The school has a full day of events as the students compete by grade for a berth in the Christian School District Track and Field Meet.  Brenna competed in eight events this year, adding the 400 meter and 800 meter races to her resume, along with the usual 200 meter and 100 meter races, standing long jump, running long jump, high jump, and ball throw.  Jacob took the day off and helped out with managing some of the events.  I volunteered in the kitchen but was able to step away from time to time and catch most of the action.  By the end of the day she had made a clean sweep for the 3rd grade girls and came home with eight 1st place ribbons.   She was very pleased with herself!  It was a great day.

I'm so thankful that the christian school district puts such a big emphasis on their athletic programs along side education in the early years.  Other schools, both here and back home in the south, also have athletic programs, but most don't start until 5th grade.  These type of extracurricular activities builds character and experiences beyond what a "book learning" environment can provide.  It's been such a fun experience for Brenna.

It's a Small World

Every year our school puts on at least one big production show musical.  Last year, it was "Candy Cane Lane" for Christmas.  This was Brenna's first stage debut.  She auditioned and was chosen to sing a short solo performance.  This seemed to be her stepping off point.  The school does a good job of encouraging the kids to take on the spot light and use their talents.  Couple this with hand-bell performances, junior choir, and leading school chapels, and it came as no surprise when Brenna came home this past Christmas and said she had volunteered to read the scriptures in front of the entire church congregation for the Children's Christmas Program.  Stage fright is definitely not an issue for her.

This year our school decided to do "It's A Small World" for a spring musical.  Brenna raked over the audition sheets and surprised me when she decided not to audition for a speaking role, but to try out for the dancing part of the Russian ballerina.  They spent weeks on auditions, rehearsals, set design, and costumes.  It was so much fun for the kids to act out their parts.  Each country was represented with great effort for attention to detail.  We had the Mexican hat dance, the Beatles, and Highland dancers.  There was no stereotyping either.  They let the dark haired Asian kid be a Russian ballerina, the blond haired Swedish kid got to be the China woman, a Canadian kid played Uncle Sam, and our Australian kid didn't even get the Australian part!  They all did a fantastic job and we were so proud of Brenna's fearlessness.  She was beautiful on-stage doing her ballet set!

Le Chat et la Lune

Near the end of every year since 1st grade, the kids have performed a play in french to demonstrate their language skills.  Our first year, it was "Chicken Little".  The second year, it was "The Three Little Pigs".  And this year it was "The Cat and the Moon" or "Le Chat et la Lune" in french.

Brenna has done very well with her french during our time here and even I've picked up a few phrases along the way.  The kids were responsible for learning their own lines and creating a mask that was appropriate for their character.  When it was time for Brenna's group to perform, they were shy one character.  Brenna knew all the lines, so she gladly volunteered to perform the parts for both the dog (le chien) and the horse (le cheval).

3rd Grade Spring Pictures