Elementary School Lessons

Dear Teachers of my Children,

I know you and the school (the school we love the best!) put the learning of our children entrusted in your care as one of your topmost priorities and for that we are grateful.

My husband and I understand that in order for our children to learn more and understand the concepts they need to learn and understand, they need not listen to boring lectures while sitting for more than 6 hours just doing so. We know that you do your best to make learning interactive, dynamic and leaves lasting impression to young minds so that so these children are able to learn.

Let me just tell you that as a former classroom teacher, this former homeschooling mom who still currently teaches special needs students, I have been trained first and foremost to focus on “Process and not the Product” which means I am not too fond of children asked to memorize facts that they know no significance of.

All those wonderful ways of learning I mentioned: interactive, dynamic, creative and engaging are what the school, your school is all about and those are the reasons why we have stayed, why we have been with this school since year 2000.

Yep, that long.

I know the children need to have homework and if I may say so, this is the least of my worries because you teachers generally don’t give difficult ones.

I know that through projects they learn even more because they not only get to read about certain important topics but they do tasks that make them learn and understand more.

But here’s the thing…

Can you at least give us time to gather the materials needed for these projects or some unusual homework tasks?

I for one am rattled for things the children NEED  TO BRING THE NEXT DAY even if we have our own school supplies stash at home. Yes, we do have this kind of school supplies stash because going to a store or bookstore for a 1/8 illustration board or some art papers is just plain waste of time, energy and effort.

Since you have the lesson plans made in advance, is it possible to give the children enough time to tell their parents the materials they need for school, and not just ask them to bring these the next day?

My kids can bring cartolina pieces in primary colors the next day but don’t expect us to have yellow green or pink to be brought to school the next day.

A 1/8 and 1/4 illustration board? We have these too, but not bristol board.  

Maybe bring a folder the next day? We have these in long and short sizes, in color brown and beige but not in red or purple.

Envelope? We have these too in long and short sizes, in the common color brown but not in yellow or green.

Wood cut in specific lengths and sizes, a saw and some nails. <- Wait that was from a different school.

We can have these colors IF only you give us time enough to get these for you. Over the weekend perhaps?

I am not really complaining you see, if we are given enough time to get what the children need, you won’t hear us complain because we support our children in everything they do to be able to maximize their learning. 

I really hope you understand because this is not too much to ask for.

Sincerely,

A whole lot of moms and dads out there, not just me and my husband.

Here are a few tips on how to make paper houses.

If like me, you are design-challenged, it is better to look for available patterns in the internet to use for your paper houses.

Here is another post I made about making paper houses with some step-by-step instructions done by my then grade 3 daughter.

Here is a post about the materials to make paper houses.

Below is a photo of a pattern for a Gingerbread house that I was able to print out. Note however that I added space on the squares because these extra space will be what you will fold to glue to the other “walls” of your paper house. Note the yellow paper with extra flaps for gluing.

This is the end-product of the paper houses where the Gingerbread house pattern above was used:

For the houses, you can just add details to make it more “home-y”. We did not elaborate too much on the houses we used for the project on communities because as a teacher myself, I doubt who made “perfect” projects being submitted by children. If I were to “grade” projects, I will not choose the ones that are obviously not done by the children themselves.

Anyway…

For the tree, we just spread glue on brown paper and rolled it to form the “tree trunks”. We cut one end to use as “roots” and as braces to make the tree stand. The other end was flattened so that the “leaves” can be glued over it. Two green papers were glued together with the flattened end on one side. When the glued paper dried, we cut to form the green part of the tree.

Church paper house.

School paper house:

For both the church and school paper houses, I made my own patterns here. To avoid unnecessary usage of paper, use used paper as your pattern to be traced on the paper that you will use for the final product. Textured paper is better because these give the structures some “character”.

Just add details to make these paper structures look “real”.

There I hope I was able to help you make paper houses.

Parents, do not wait for the teachers to ask your children to make a community, you can have your children make their community like the wonderful Christmas villages we see during the Christmas season.

The Scouting Movement in the Philippines used to be a big deal. Schools had other ideas and did not give that much importance to the Scouting Movement and this became a minor school activity: not all are required to be scouts, only those who are interested.

As a former member of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (from early grades till high school), I put importance to the Scouting Movement and had my children join. For three years (that is how long the two former homeschoolers have been going to regular school), they are members of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of the Philippines. My eldest daughter is a Rover Scout.

On his third year in the Scouting movement, my son is now a patrol leader. Their patrol was the only group that had a complete attendance during the investiture and overnight camping last weekend. There was only one who did not attend the overnight camping but they still had the highest percentage of attendees compared to other groups.

Hurray!

Here is a copy of the Panunumpa ng Scout and Batas ng Scout.

It has been almost a year since we joined Run United 1 2011 so it’s about time we join Run United 1 2012.

I know it doesn’t look good that we didn’t go to the other runs since the youngest daughter, who placed 71st among 384 participants in the Ceelin 500 meter dash wanted that limited edition shirt they gave away, 😀

She won’t be at that standing this year because we have upgraded her run to 3k for this Run United 1 2012. I registered to 3k (from 5k last year) to be with her and the little boy.Yes, I registered the son, whether he is fit to be with us is still a big question though.

Run United 1 2012 consists of Run United 2 on June 17 and Run United 3 on September 16.

Categories are:

• Ceelin 500-meter dash for kids aged 5 to 12 years old,
• 3km
• Dolfenal 5km
• Enervon 10km
• Enervon HP 21km

Registration for Run United 1 is ongoing at the following stores

• Riovana at Bonifacio Global City and Katipunan, Quezon City
• Toby’s at SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City
• The Athlete’s Foot at Robinson’s Galleria, Ortigas.

For online registration, check details at www.runrio.com. Registration is until February 26.

Run United is for the benefit of Gawad Kalusugan (the health program of Gawad Kalinga) and Hero Foundation. It is part of Unilab’s advocacy through Unilab Active Health to promote an active lifestyle among Filipino families.

For more inquiries, check out www.unilabactivehealth.com and www.facebook.com/unilabactivehealth.

Congratulations to the son and his team, consisting of 4 students from Grade 4 -7 for winning  first place in this school year’s Math Quiz Bee.

He is also one of the finalists to his grade level’s Science Quiz Bee happening next month.

Yey!

Two Saturdays ago, our little Tenderfoot Scout had an all-day City-wide Scouting Movement with his fellow scouters from The Boy Scouts of the Philippines Quezon City Council.

The activities were held at the Quezon Memorial Circle and attended by many schools from Quezon City.

There was a parade of colors before the activities were given. The scouters played games, got acquainted and played more games.

It was a tiring but super fun activity not just for the scouters but for their families as well.

Mabuhay!

My kid’s growing up so fast and he is immensely enjoying himself doing  many activities with school friends.

The bag in the photos is my son’s must-bring because it has inhaler, wet tissue pack, ID and baby powder in it.

Dear son,

Your school days begin at the time you wake up at 5am to get ready for school. Sometimes it’s easy for you to wake up effortlessly but more often than not, you have to drag yourself out of bed.

Most of the time you and your sisters are able to have breakfast before the school bus goes beeping at around 5:45am. If Kuya Driver is early, you all bring your breakfast to school.

You come home with your sisters tired, but happily chatting away how your day was spent in school. And yes, you rarely come home “clean” as you get to play with your classmates while waiting for the school bus to bring you back home.

This was a Science project about the stages of physical development.

Was it just a few years back when you tried to play kadang-kadang while you were still a homeschooler? I still feel you just turned six years old when in fact, you turned 10 two months ago. Now, you are learning about the reproductive system among other things and getting all O’s in Math when the report card was given.

You love the outdoors even if you risk having asthma attack at night when you get tired. Being a Boy Scout is not easy but you found joy in it so much so you are on your second year of being one. Why, you even spent a three day camp with your schoolmates last month and tomorrow is another big day with Scouts from other schools.

And what about the Dramatics Club? Last year’s performance was something I know we are proud of and something you enjoyed because this year, you joined the club again. We are definitely looking forward to see you perform again. My fervent wish is to listen to you recite a poem again in Filipino or watch you perform a folk dance.

There are a lot more to discover, learn and conquer and I know you will be able to do these things you enjoy doing.

You are growing up so fast!

I love you to the moon and back!

Your mom, Teacher Julie