Soccer Carnival

String Bean played 4 soccer games today at the annual Catholic Schools Soccer Carnival. 1300 players from the local and surrounding districts converged on the Uni of Canberra playing fields for the day.

Given the rainy weather the night before I wasn't sure it would go ahead but we ended up with beautiful sunny weather today.

Our school was the hosting school so alot of organisational effort went into making the carnival the huge success it ended up being. You get this opportunity once in 21 years!

String Bean and her team: Team Awesome! Delia scored 1 goal and the manager said she is a natural soccer player!

Towards the end of the day during game play String heard her name being called... she ended up winning the raffle and scored a pink Nikon Coolpix camera and memory card! A lovely end to a perfect day :)

Pride and Prejudice

Steph aka Lizzie, second from the left. Photo from CT.

Canberra Rep are putting on 'Pride and Prejudice' and my friend Steph is playing Miss Elizabeth Bennett. How exciting!

I'll be going tonight with a gaggle of work friends and Husband Deluxe.

First Day

Schools started off well this year. The first year when all 3 are at the same school. Oh the joy that brings! All three are happy with their respective teachers and we have quickly settled into the 'at school' routine.

During the holidays Squealy received a letter from his teacher. It was so cute, as it asked him to send her a picture. This is what he drew. Squealy is on the right. His teacher is actually blond :) Loving the smiles!

Fete Time

Spent most of the weekend helping out at the kids school fete. Mum and I worked the craft stall which was heaps of fun.

The kids had a ball running around with their friends. The craft stall made over $1200, so we were really pleased. Not sure how much the cake stall made but they were crazy busy all day long.

New EBA's...

... are never smooth sailing.


I spent 4 hours today fighting the good fight for better conditions for students and teachers.

Over 2000 teachers from across the ACT public education sector held a stop work meeting this morning at the AIS.







There are further rolling stoppages planned over the coming weeks.

For a write up click here.

Photos courtesy of The Canberra Times website.

Book Week

Older 2 dressed for Daffodil Day and Squealy for book week.

Here are our book week dress up photos for the year. String Bean went as biker chick Princess Smartypants and Fuzzy Wuzzy went as the kangaroo in Possum Magic. Squealy went as a 'transformia' he can't say Transformers properly yet!

Paddington Bear Visits

Squealy at Kings with Paddington Bear.

Squealy is having a visit for the weekend from the class pet: Paddington Bear. He has to take him places and report back in the journal provided.

So far he's visited Kings, where Squealy in his endless enthusiasm, slid off the platypus and face planted. The tears dried up very quickly though and there were no lasting injuries :)

Fun Year!

Squealy has had an awesomly fun year with the fabulous Liz and Lina at Wombats 3 Year Old Preschool in Page.

Here are some of my favourite snaps from his school photo package.






Lina, Squealy & Liz.

Oh how sweet!

I've been home sick for awhile now and today the postman delivered this gorgeous card from a little boy in my class.

I'm glad to hear they are all working very hard in my absence! :)

Fun for Boys.

Fuzzy is doing so well at school and pretty much read now, pretty good going considering he's 6 months into Kindergarten!

Anyways because he can read and type so well, he's managed to find himself games that he enjoys playing online. Favourites include: Sonic and Enigmata. He also enjoys Reading Eggs, which he gets a free subscription to via his school.

He should have been completing his homework but all little boys need a break every once in awhile. I adore this photo. Such happiness (Fuzzy) and total concentration (Squealy)!

Can you build with bubblegum?

Is the question posed to Fuzzy's Kindergarten class in the Unit Of Inquiry they have been studying.

As you can clearly see the answer is YES!!!

What a superb model. Fuzzy has used pasta, marshmallows, m & m's, sugar cubes and other assorted food stuffs to create this.

He is so very proud of it.

Not sure how we are going to store this little gem once it comes home though? I suspect the ants will have a field day with this :-)

Homework #2

Fuzzy has been given the best homework task that fits in with his Unit Of Inquiry: 'A Sense of Place.' He choose a photo of himself at the zoo for the title page.

He is busy reflecting on spaces and places that are important to him. First up he had to reflect on his favourite place at home. He drew, then traced a picture of himself using the laptop. He's nicknamed the computer: Jolly Phonic! hahaha He finished off his painting by using watercolour paints. He also chose two pictures: hanging out with Daddy and Squealy & catching bubbles with me.

The next two pages are about his favourite place in Canberra. So far he's designed his version of CISAC Pool, cafe included. So cute. He seems to be developing into another 'artist in residence'.

Homework

Fuzzy and String Bean are loving school this year. They are both quite happy to do any and all homework sent home.

So far it's all been pretty low key. With Stringy doing home readers and Fuzzy doing his 'sounds book'.

We spent some time comparing how long our legs are and how big our feet are. They have both grown so much these past school holidays!

Wow How Exciting!

Our Canuck gal pal: Kelli has made it onto the front page of her Uni newsletter. She'll be a torch bearer later this year.

The little snippet reads:

Support our Olympic torch bearer - Put on some red and come out to support Capilano University’s Olympic torch bearer and Paralegal student, Kelli Jennings, as she makes her historic run on Wednesday, February 10 at 12:36 p.m. on Mountain Highway from 18^th Street to 2032 Mountain Highway.

So very proud of all that you do and are Kel. Miss you and wish like crazy that you didn't live so far away... sob. I hope we get to see some photos of you while you're running! Can't wait.

Spider-Frog

Fuzzy made this gorgeous 'spider-frog' at school for their campfire learning journey. They had made a pretend fire out of stones and cellophane which they were roasting marshmallows over. These delightful little creatures were stationed all around the campfire.

So well crafted. I am placing him inside my book shelf, where all of the Stringy's special pieces are. Am starting to think I'll need some more book shelves to store our growing collection of artworks.

Kindy Disco

String Bean had her end of Kindy disco tonight. She was so excited by the whole idea of wearing her new outfit. She looked so beautiful. Hair curled, lippy on, silver ballet flats ready to go.

Unfortunately she was about to be picked up by friends, when I decided to play photographer and she really didn't want to play along. So not the best photos of my little girl. Can't believe how quickly she is growing up!

Father's Day '09

The kids school put on a special Father's Day breakfast for all the Dad's. Husband Deluxe went along and enjoyed some quality time with the older two.

The kids can hardly wait to give their Daddy the gifts they have carefully made and chosen. Will update on Sunday.

So inspiring

Mr Paul Southwell @ Target.

It isn't very often that you meet a Principal of this calibre. Husband Deluxe managed to catch this happy snap of Paul dressed up as 'Where's Wally'. Obviously some primary related activity, as there were plenty of school kids and staff wandering round looking for Wally.

I've been lucky to meet 2 fabulous Principals in my teaching career so far & I'm so pleased that the kids are going to school with someone at the helm who genuinely loves children and will go to any length to make their day. Engaged: not just office admin, paper work or behaviour management.

Thank you Paul for being you and caring so much. You're inspiring and appreciated.

Just in case

I'm pulling this off the lovely Ainslee's blog and popping it here, as I would hate to lose it.

Photos courtesy of Ainslee Mc.

My Birthday Cake

My lovely teaching partner Steph baked me my very own 'Cake Wreak'. I should have worked out that something interesting was about to happen, as she wrote on my card: "Happy Birthday. I hope you have a day full of surprises".

So when I walked into the staffroom at recess I was definitely surprised and impressed to find this cake waiting for me...


omg! What a classic. I was laughing so hard. The best bit was that nobody got it, except Steph and I, which added to the general amusement factor as most people sat there trying to work it out.