June 7, 2011 - Kindergarten Year in Review

I can't believe that Kristen has already finished kindergarten. She had a great year and learned so much. She met a new best friend in her class, Amy, and we've become close to their whole family. I enjoyed helping in the classroom regularly and even Dad got to be there to help out a few times. We were at Disneyland in September when I got a text from Laura (Amy's mom) that the girls teacher, Ms. Umstead was sick and would not be returning to school. We were so sad because we loved Ms. Umstead and thought she was great. After weeks and weeks of different subs and "we should have a new teacher by next week", they finally got a new teacher in November (when we were gone on our cruise.) But she was worth the wait, Mrs. DeMilto was totally awesome and Kristen really enjoyed being in her class. About halfway through the year we got smart and started carpooling with Amy, so we would take the girls to school, and Laura would bring Kristen home. Kristen drew lots of great pictures for her many book reports and actually enjoyed doing her homework. Each week on Fridays the table that had the most points would pick out a prize from the treasure chest. The kids were rearranged after Christmas break and Kristen sat with two others at the heart table. (But because they didn't have a heart shape for the board, Kristen made one herself, you can see it in the pictures.) They were on quite the winning streak. I went along on both field trips for the year, one to the zoo that I was able to bring the other monkeys with me and the other was to the AZ Puppet Theater. (Kristen got sick and ended up throwing twice on that trip.) During their space unit they observed phases of the moon, paper mached the earth & moon, made moon rocks and made a robot. Kristen designed what she wanted hers to look like and we had to make it with items we already had. After two hours and a few minor changes, her robot was done. The end of the year parties were fun and I feel that I really got to know all the kids in her class. We even put together the end of the year video. We're thankful she enjoyed school so much and that she is such a smart little cookie.