Fall Semester Pictures

The biggest adjustment (in my opinion) in moving Aaron and Jill to public school this year has been the reduced flow of information.  I'm not as informed about what they're doing in the classroom every day, especially since neither of them will give me a straight answer when I ask for updates.  And while I have the utmost faith in their amazing teachers and I trust that they are doing just fine, it's been hard to be a little bit in the dark about what's going on.  Thankfully, each of their teachers post photos on a photo stream website.  Here are some of my favorites from the Fall semester:

On one of her first days of school, Jill's teacher, Ms. Starring, took portraits of each preschooler...

...and hung them up in the hallway next to their self-portrait.  The kids are supposed to draw a new self-portrait every month or so and Ms. Starring will staple it over the old one so that at the end of the year you can flip through and see how it changes over time.

Jill also got to pose out in front of the mural on the side of the school building...

...and display it with another self-portrait and some information about herself.

Outtakes.

Recess games.

Already writing her name!

At the water table with her bestie, Gwendolyn.

Hard at work.

Tin foil raft for her plastic bugs.

Magnificent magnatiles!

Peace day projects with their Bulldog Buddies (kids from older classes who come down to work with the littles -- such a great idea!)

Working on their Fall leaf project.

Pumpkin chains.

Showing off her cat-bat.

Mommy came in to read a story to the class!

Pumpkin carving!

Showing off her Halloween costume.

Mommy got invited to the classroom Halloween party.

Making Thanksgiving turkeys.

Their "Tree Study" segment included many opportunities for tree-related artwork.

Making gingerbread houses.

Decorating Christmas cookies.

For "Family Sharing Day," Jill and I showed her class our advent calendar, and she taught them the words to her favorite Christmas Carol: "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells."

On the last day of school before Christmas break, they got to wear pajamas to school and make blankets in the gym for Project Linus.

Aaron's Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Swanson, doesn't take quite as many pictures as Ms. Starring.  Plus Aaron's class is more than twice as big as Jill's, so there are more kids to photograph.  As a result, there aren't as many pictures of him on his class photo stream.  But the ones on there are pretty cute!

"Jitter juice" on his first day.

Kindergarten superstar!

Ms. Swanson took a picture of each kid in the class on the first day and used this picture on all of their cubbies, etc.  So I like to think of this one as his ID photo.

More walk-a-thon moments.

Creating Halloween artwork.

Working with his Bulldog Buddy.

Aaron's self-preserving turkey

Snowman art.

Backstage before the dance show.