The Golden Year Comes To An End

All good things must come to and end, and our Golden Year of all 3 kids in the same building has sadly ended. It was a great year, though!

 

 

Each year there is a cup stacking tournament on the last day of school. Mrs. Adrienne has playoffs leading up to the 6 fastest kids in each grade. Our Lijee made the cut this year!

Here he is pregame with his buddies Alberto, Gabe, Luis and Lester.

Patiently waiting his turn. OK, maybe just waiting not so patiently.

 The whole school was watching.

Since a lot of 5th graders know him and a lot of 3rd graders know him, a lot of students were chanting, "Eli! Eli! Eli!" 

 And he's off!

He was trying so hard to go as fast as he could and he kept dropping the cups. Bummer. I'm still proud he made it to the finals!

Last day of school is also class parties. Here is Daisy with Kenley and Carson.

 The Daisy and Sam.

We have loved Michelle for the past 2 years.

Randi has been a great first teacher for Lijee and we're glad to have her again next year.

 The kinders had splash day. Here are Gabe, James and Elijah taking a break.

 Lester, Eli, James and Gabe = trouble.

Kindergarten Be Like Bye, Felicia

I had a lot on my plate the last few weeks of school. So much, in fact, that I had to have Grannie step in for me at Elijah's kindergarten 'graduation' ceremony. Thankfully it isn't a huge deal since they loop with their same teacher and classmates for first grade. But they still had a little something. So even more thankfully Grannie was able to be there for my Lijee and to take some pictures for me.

 Curls for the girls, apparently.

 Elijah and Jubilee looking at his yearbook.

 What a great start to 13 years of school! 

I'm proud of my baby boy.

Thank you, Vivia, for being there for Elijah and me!

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My Little Scholars

The Ann Brannon Award is a scholastic award given in FWISD to high scholars. In most schools the teachers choose the recipients. Since Carlson is student-centered, we approach it a little differently. The third-fifth grade students are able to nominate themselves for highest achievement or most improved in any discipline. They must write a letter to the committee stating why they are the most qualified for the highest achievement or most improved. The selection committee narrows it down to a small group of finalists. Then the chosen participants must create a 10 minute presentation with a little guidance from a mentor. It's a time consuming and stressful project to willingly take on, in addition to regular school work. 

Both my third grader and my fifth grader decided they were willing to go for it and they both applied for highest achievement in reading. It was a little stressful for Mommy because I wanted each of them to do well, but I was worried one would make it through the first round for an interview and the other wouldn't. To my pleasant surprise, they both got an interview!

The day of the announcements is very stressful for the kiddos. You can tell here that they are both on edge.

First the committee introduces each of the candidates and tells the student body what each student applied for and a few of their skills and accomplishments.

 This is what Daisy's mentor Cindy (one of our favorites) said about her.

That big smile was when his mentor Donnette was explaining that when Zekers only missed one problem on his STAAR reading bench test that he really should try harder on the actual test, which is exactly what he did by earning a perfect score.

Our Zekers was chosen as an Ann Brannon Award recipient! Someone told me their favorite part of the ceremony was Daisy's big smile when her brother was announced.

I can't tell you how proud I am of both Zekers and Daisy. It's a big risk to willingly put yourself out there to be judged. The opportunity for rejection is there when you compete. They both took that challenge by the horns.

I always tell them that God has blessed them with a smart brain, but they have to choose to use it wisely. That's exactly what they did! I couldn't be more proud!

After the Ann Brannon awards, it was time for the annual 5th grade vs. teachers volleyball game. The teachers won again.