Last Thursday evening Fairmeadow had an all-school Learning Celebration where we got to see the boys’ classrooms and their work from this year. I had previously heard that last year the structure of this celebration caused some consternation among the parents, who were used to an annual open house. The difference seemed minor to me, but apparently the problem was that many parents were less interested in seeing their child’s current work and more interested in checking out the next year’s classrooms. Since we had Celebrations of Learning at Aveson, this format seemed perfectly normal to me and I saw no reason for any hullaballoo.
During the opening assembly, however, our Principal took no fewer than three opportunities to reiterate that the point of the evening was the appreciation of this year’s work. He pointed out that parents should focus on the process and not the product of the work, and celebrate their child’s year. Basically, it looked to me like his thought bubble was something like, “THIS IS NOT A RACE; YOUR CHILD DID NOT WIN.” But then I’m a bit of an outsider here.
We split up so each boy could have a turn with our undivided attention. I went with Ezra first. Here’s his desk, set up with his raccoon habitat, his Mission, and a couple of the books they are reading in class. (I love that he put a note that said “Special thanks to my dad” next to his habitat.)
There was also a circuit building station.
And after we played a math game with polygons, he showed me a couple of his favorite iPad math games.
Ezra is a reluctant tour guide, but he did pretty well on this evening.
Finn, on the other hand, loves to show us his stuff.
Here is his “Chagall’s Fantasy.”
And his butterfly.
We spent a lot of time going over his other artwork, as well as his journals for reading, writing, and science.
These boys have had a busy year!