Battle of the Books

This past school year, Briggor earned his way onto the
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS team representing Buena Vista Elementary School.

The students have to read a certain amount of books from a predetermined book list.

Briggor had to reach 4 benchmarks throughout the school year to keep his

standing on the team.

To make the official team, Briggor had to read 20 books and get a 80% or better

on the reading tests.

America's Battle of the Books is a reading incentive program for students in 3rd thru 12th grades. Students read books and come together usually in groups to demonstrate their abilities and to test their knowledge of the books they have read. The student competitions are usually similar to the TV series Family Feud or Whiz Kids styles of competitions. 

This year I was asked to be a chaperone to the actual battle day which took place in May.

I drove this crazy bunch of kids to the event.

This was our team - each one of these kids read 20 or more books this past school year.

It was a privilege and an honor to be apart of this squad.

This is just one page of the teams that were preparing for battle!!

What Is The "Battle?"

A typical "Battle" is a full day tournament or game, like College Bowl or Family Feud, in which students' teams earn points by answering questions about the books on the book lists. A typical competition day begins with a meeting in the cafeteria, a morning snack and directions for the day. Then they are assigned to a team, given a mascot or name, and sent to their first round of the "Battle." They play several rounds, each against a different team. At the end of the morning, points are totaled and the two teams with the most points are invited to a "Grand Battle" after lunch, with the other teams as their audience. These two teams may be given the opportunity to participate in the regional "Battle" in April and also the statewide "Battle" usually held in May or June, if county and local participants in your area have organized state battles.

I was asked to be a "reader" for this event.  

When the teams came into my room to battle, I was the reader of the questions regarding the books they read.   Here is a list of 24 questions for one of the battles.

The kids and I had a great time and we can't wait until next year!!!

For more information, here is the website:

America's Battle of the Books

Briggor's 5th grade Open House

This past week, Briggor's 5th grade class had their annual Open House.

Briggor's date for the evening was his Beema.

I hope you take your time to click on each of the following essays, thoughts and visions.  

Briggor did a lot of writing and expressing himself this year.

He has grown into such a wonderful young man with great dreams

of the future.

Below is Briggor's Vision of Summer:

Briggor's Visions of Summer

Briggor's 5th grade class read The Indian in the Cupboard

by Lynn Reid Banks.  The following essay is what Briggor envisioned in his cupboard:

Briggor is looking forward to 6th grade: 

The following is Briggor's short paragraph to his teacher, Mrs. Thomas,

about what she will remember about him.

The Best Part of Briggor:

These next three pages are the best.  Briggor wrote about where and what he will be doing in 20 years:

This boy is reaching for the stars!!!  I hope he catching every single one that

he chases after........

Briggor and his teacher, Mrs. Thomas.

He had the best school year because he had a wonderful teacher!

Megan meets

Megan had a wonderful opportunity through her FFA program at school to meet

a Agriculture Icon.  The lady she met was Dr. Temple Grandin.  She spoke to

the kids about Animal Handling and her journey with autism!

There is also a wonderful movie that Megan, Jade and I recommend watching titled:

Temple Grandin (movie)

Walk Thru The American Revolution

Briggor's 5th grade class had a wonderful experience with a

in-school field trip:

WALK THROUGH THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION  

This is directly from the website:

"Welcome to Walk Through the American Revolution™! This presentation is designed to allow your students to actively participate in a lively retelling of our nation’s beginnings.  Through the use of games, music, and storytelling, history will come alive!

This dynamic program has become one of our most popular classroom experiences. Students explore the famous events, historical figures, and relevant vocabulary of this pivotal point in America’s history. Through dramatic activities, students “become” famous men and women of the American Revolution. Flags, maps, re-enactments, music, and games help students explore and understand the importance of American liberty and patriotism."

Briggor portrayed Thomas Jefferson!!!

Mrs. Thomas' 5th grade class

5th Grade State Prohect

Guess what state Briggor did his Open House project on?

It took approx 2 weeks to gather the materials and assemble this project.  It was really fun! We used quite a few different items; shoe box, construction paper, tissue paper, snow Tex paint, scrap booking supplies, cotton balls.  

Mother/Son date night.

Mother/Son Date night fell in the middle of March.

Briggor's Elementary School hosted the event at the

local theatre.

We saw Zootopia!

This picture shows Briggor loading up on Movie Junk Food!!

My boy and I waiting to go into the theatre!

Formal 2016

Last weekend, Megan attended her last winter formal for high school.

She was excited and sad to see it end.

During the week, she got her dress altered, had her hair cut,

got her nails done.

The day of was spent at her friend Mackenzie's house along with

her other girlfriends prepping for the evening events.

They all had their hair done and makeup done.

They helped each other get dressed.

And finally, waited impatiently for their dates to arrive.

Wyatt was Megan's date for the evening.

Mackenzie's mom prepared a beautiful dinner table for

the pre-formal festivities.

The theme of this year's formal was

Wizard of Oz!

This is Megan and Mackenzie behind their flowers.

Megan and Wyatt

The gang of friends and their dates!

Principle's List

Briggor made The Principle's List for the

second quarter of 5th grade.

Principle's List is straight A's!!!!

Briggor and his best friend, Blayden after the ceremony.

Briggor and his teacher, Mrs. Thomas

Formal

Megan got asked to formal tonight......

Wyatt showed up with this poster, cookies and cupcakes....

Megan said "YES!"

School Christmas Party

The Friday before Christmas, the last day of school before vacation, Briggor's 5th grade class had

their Christmas party.  I volunteered to help out.  The kids ate snowmen made out of small donuts stacked on each other with candy eyes, nose and scarves.

They also had santa hats made out of strawberries and cream cheese icing.

The room mom gave each child a tupperware container filled with baking soda.  Us moms walked around and added conditioner, yes, conditioner for your hair to the baking soda.  It is a really cool

special effect.  The baking soda turns into "snow".  California snow!

The kids really had to work the conditioner into the baking soda to

get to the point that they could mold it.

What was really great to see was when the kids started sharing and

building together with their "snow".

5th grade

This is Briggor's 5th grade class.

Mark and I tease him to look around and take note of the girls in his class.

Many years ago, Mark and I were in the same 5th grade classroom at 

Village Christian Schools.  Here we are now, married!!!

HAHAHA!!

You never know.............

GATE Project - Galactus

After studying the first quarter all about the Mars Rover project and visiting JPL in

Pasadena, Briggor had to design his own rover.

His design plans:

Meet Galactus......

Briggor had to come up with the design and a mission for his rover.

Galactus is made out of recycled materials.  The materials include:

a plastic box, spray painted black for the body,

a wooden spindle on the top for the "antennae",

the top of a spray can for a "camera",

a metal piece of something to be the "vacuum" which will

collect samples,

wheels from a broken R/C car,

wooden dowels for the axels,

and a piece of reflective material for "solar panels".

Briggor designed Galactus to travel to Janus, one of Saturn's moons,

to land and collect samples of the surface to

bring back and compare to our moon.

Briggor did most of the construction himself and came up with the

ideas while we were cleaning out our garage a couple of weekends ago.

He rummaged through the trailer of trash to find his items.

He drilled his own holes and also received injuries due to 

the hot glue gun.

The teachers gave me 5 out of 5 points for his project and

his teacher said she was "blown away" by his project.

JPL

At the beginning of the school year, Briggor tested into the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Program for his school district.  He attends his GATE class on Tuesdays.  They take education to a whole new level.  The teachers push their intellect to new possibilities.  The 5th grade GATE program is studying Space Exploration with an emphasis on the idea that in Briggor's lifetime, we may have people living on Mars.

Briggor and I were able to go on a field trip a few weeks ago with his GATE class.

We were welcomed to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena for the day.

The JPL Public Services Office offers tours free of charge for groups and individuals on an advance reservation basis.  Our tour included a multimedia presentation on JPL entitled "Journey to the Planets and Beyond," which provides an overview of the Laboratory's activities and accomplishments. We also visited  the von Karman Visitor Center, the Space Flight Operations Facility (Mission Control) , and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.

Briggor has decided that when he grows up he wants to attend Cal Tech after

high school and work at JPL as a scientist specializing in astronomy.

Mission Control

Assembly Facility