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.

Our youngest child had her first Communion last Friday and here is she (with a photo I had to sneak taking, lol)

It was a bittersweet day for the family. The two older children were not able to go to this blessed occasion but I am glad my mother and brother as well my sister-in-law and their daughter witnessed the event.

This is a drawing done by my daughter of Tramp, from the book and movie “Lady and the Tramp”.

It is a classical Disney movie that the children love to watch again and again.

The drawing is not perfect but it is for me, the proud mom. 😀

1955 Lady and the Tramp trailer.

The youngest child (younger daughter) chose to make a comic strip (among five other tasks) for their English project for The Hundred Dresses book. We started conceptualizing and making sketches for the comic strip but she was a bit reluctant to finish. The hubby suggested that she use digital art drawing using MS Paint instead.

She finished the comic strip faster than the actual hand-drawn illustration.

Here is the first part of her comic strip, from the chapter “The Hundred Dresses” from the book with the same title, authored by Eleanor Estes. The book was written in 1944.

The Hundred Dresses is a sad, sad story, according to my daughter. It is, because ti was about bullying and being judged and being made fun of.

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.

Fish feeding children during a rainy field trip (another wet/rain entry) who do not seem to mind the drizzle that came before they boarded that raft. The field trip chaperones were just glad that this was a roofed raft because it afforded protection from the elements:

Some photos from this field: yellow flower, orange flower, and rainy field trip posts.