Hardy Highlights : Back to School Night

     Last night I got to go to Back to School Night at Pierce to meet with Haylee and Mackenzie's teachers. I spent about 25 minutes in each of their classrooms learning about what they'll be doing for the year and also getting to look at the stuff they had been working on lately.
     I went to Haylee's class first. She has recently been working on a project about the digestive system. She told me one of her requirements was to give a 30 second-1 minute speech about the digestive system. On the paper it said the speech needed to be memorized but she insisted that it did not. Last Thursday, she told me after school that she had already given her speech. It wasn't really due until Friday, but the teacher had asked for volunteers. I had been hounding her to get her to memorize the speech. I wanted her to write it down, learn it, then give me the paper so I could test her to see if it was memorized or not. She did not feel like that was necessary, although she did write the speech down. Well, when I found out she had already given her speech, I asked her if she had memorized it before she did it. She informed me that she had not, then, with a proud little grin on her face, told me that the teacher had said, "Sounds like you practiced a lot!" I know she felt like she had won by getting a good grade without having the speech memorized. But actually, she had practiced a lot. It was just a little different every time she did. :)
     When I sat down at her desk last night, I found the grading sheet for her digestive system project. It was divided into three parts: Her oral presentation, the written report, and the diagram. She got a perfect score on everything except the diagram. She got 40 out of 50 for neatness and 45 out of 50 for labeling. I was really anxious to go find hers on the wall and take a look at it when the teacher finished his presentation. Haylee tells me that art isn't really her thing.

I have to agree with her that her digestive tract diagram isn't the neatest artwork I've seen come home from her. This self-portrait she had drawn was very nice though.

"About Me"
My name is Haylee Hardy. I am nine 1/2 years old. I was born in Lancaster California on March 31, 2003. My favorite thing to learn is about is math if rounding. My favorite hobbies are playing basketball and swimming. If I could have one wish for the world it would be for everyone to have enough food to eat.

The kids painted a desert landscape in art class and they were hung around the room. I found Haylee's even before I saw her name on it. :) (Go Cougars!!)

      While I was sitting at her desk listening to the teacher, I was thumbing through some of the things she had written and I thought this one was really sweet. Maybe a little bit of an exaggeration, but still very sweet.
     "I remeber when I gave my brother a pushing helicopter. He loved it so much he was pushing it all over the house and now since the top broke off he throws it around the house every day until it's time for bed."
     She's writing about the helicopter she gave him for his birthday. He does still love it and he does also throw it sometimes. And it is definitely too big for throwing!

     Next I went to Mackenzie's class. Mackenzie's class had also made self "portraits" and written about themselves.

This is the cute girl that Mackenzie made and this is what she wrote about herself.

"My name is Mackenzie Hardy. I was born on March 10, 2005. I have one brother and three sisters. My faverit subject in school is reading. At recess I like to play bascitball. When I'm not at school, I like to watch Pair of Kings."