School
Hero of the Year History Project
Karlie’s Time Magazine Hero of the Year Project – Thomas Sumter
The girls did a Social Studies project at school recently about various people in the American Revolution. They made their own Time magazine “Hero of the Year” cover page and article. They each picked one person and they did more research about the life of that particular person. Karlie choose to research Thomas Sumter who was nicknames “The Fighting Gamecock”. Brina did her research on George Washington who was nicknamed “The Father of His Country”. Both men were instrumental and influential during the early years of our country specifically during the time of the American Revolution.
Brina’s Time Magazine Hero of the Year Project – George Washington
On the back of each of the girls Time Magazine cover page was the details about the hero and his life. It was a fun Social Studies project and the girls got to learn a lot of other details about the American Revolution during their time of research. It is neat to see them get excited over fun school projects. Both of them really enjoy learning about history!
Seeing Astronaut Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin with a picture of his team in the background – Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and Buzz Aldrin. The amazing team that first walked on the moon!
Earlier this month we got the privilege of hearing astronaut Buzz Aldrin speak at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina!!! The girls were thrilled. Karlie especially was quite literally – “Over the moon excited” to be able to see and hear one of her astronaut heroes in person! It was really neat to hear him speak and listen to some of his amazing stories. He had a good sense of humor and held the audiences attention well. It was an awesome time and I am thankfully for my friend Jennifer who shared the information about this special event with us so we could go. We got there an hour early and they opened the doors early. Within the first 10 minutes of opening the doors the auditorium was full and people were sitting in classrooms around campus. After hearing Buzz Aldrin speak that night Karlie was even more excited and now she wants to be one of the astronauts that go to Mars! You never really know what the future holds……
We arrived early and while the girls were very excited they also were very patient waiting for the event to start. This was after an hour of waiting, they still have smiles! So thankful we got to go to this event! They loved it!!!
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin speaking! The picture is of a flight he took with his Dad.
Buzz Aldrin speaking at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. Thankful for an opportunity to hear him speak. He had great stories and a fun sense of humor too!
Such a cool picture! Great stories too about his mission with Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins!
A picture of the plaque that was welded to the lunar module and left on the moon! “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon.” July 1969 “We came in peace for all mankind” with the signatures of President Richard Nixon, Mike Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin
Creativity & Honey Pot Awards
Brina’s was picked by her teacher for the Creativity award!
Brina recently earned the “creativity” character trait award at school. One of the perks of winning the award is she got to go on a trip to Fatz Cafe during the school lunch and celebrate. She was so excited!
Brina’s honey pot prize!
Every week kids will be entered into the honey pot drawing for doing great things and getting noticed by school faculty. At the end of the week they draw one name from each grade and recently Brina was the lucky winner. Each winner gets a cup full of goodies.
Brina also got a coupon for a free Kid’s Meal from Fatz for winning the “creativity” award!
Peace Center – “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”
Play at the Peace Center – “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”
The girls went to a play at the Peace Center with their class called “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”. I was able to go along with them as a chaperone with Brina’s class. The play was about various songs and activities from both the North and South during the time of the Civil War. The girls are currently studying about the Civil War so this was good timing. The kids enjoyed hearing the stories behind the songs as well. Thankful for an opportunity to go with the girls on this trip and see this play.
Brina was my school bus buddy! I went with her class as a chaperone, but her class was on the bus with Karlie’s class too so I got to see both kiddos.
Karlie having fun chatting on the bus ride to the Peace Center
STEM Event at Roper Mountain Science Center
Jake & Brina working on her model!
Karlie’s creation is done, now it’s ready to see if it will survive the test! She’s proud of her creation and confident it will pass the testing….
Brina adding the finishing touches on her creation!
All ready for testing! Proud of her cool design.
Karlie watching carefully as they get ready to drop the big board on her creation. The goal was to make a creation out of the bag of goodies that they give you that will not change its shape once the board has been dropped on it (including none of the balloons popping). She did it!!!Brina putting her creation on the testing platform, she was concerned about her balloons popping, but it passed with flying colors! Way to go Brina!
Jake was a pro in no time at riding the Segway!
Brina riding a Segway all by herself, she did well!
Karlie learning how to ride the Segway! She’s getting the hang of it!
Karlie watching the show at the Planetarium
American Revolution – Cowpens Battlefield
For the last few weeks we have been studying the American Revolution with the girls. It has been a fun unit to study and they have learned a lot about our country and pieces of our history during this section. As we were studying this unit I decided to check and see if there were any American Revolution battle re-enactments in our area. I found the Cowpens Battlefield was having its annual celebration this January in memory of the American Revolution battle that took place.
We decided to surprise the girls and take them to the Cowpens Battlefield for the celebration weekend. They were so excited, had a lot of fun, and they learned a lot of neat information about our country’s history. We watched them shoot off cannons, muskets, calvary demonstrations, walked the battlefield while listening to historical information both on the American Patriot and British side, talked with various “characters” regarding their roles in the battle, listened to the army band, and much more.
What a fun trip. I even learned a lot on this adventure too!!! Thankful for an opportunity to experience a piece of history first hand.
Guns blasting off, muskets and other rifles. The men on the left are American Militia men and the ones on the right are the Scottish Highlanders that fought with the British during the American Revolution.
They fired two canons the “Grasshopper” (the girls favorite) and twelve pound Mountain “Howitzer” (it was called a 12 pound mountain Howitzer because it was the size of shell it could launch)! The picture is of the bigger canon, the “Howitzer” firing.
The girls checking out the canons up close. This one is the “Grasshopper” canon.
The calvary did demonstrations on horseback. One of the girls favorite parts, mainly because they loved watching the horses!
Getting ready to run through the practice course.
The girls thought the kids that got to put on the cabbages for the soldiers to hit in practice were very lucky (guess it looked like a fun job)!
Demonstrating how a soldier would practice using cabbages.
They wanted a picture next to the horses after the discussion and demonstration.
After the walk through the battlefield where we learned key pieces of history both from the American Patriots and British Red Coats sides we got to meet some of the army’s band players.
Brina with a big smile along our walk through the woods.
Karlie giggling as she peeks out from behind the tree on the trail.
Brina writing her name with a quill pen, a lot harder than she thought it would be.
Karlie writing with ink and a quill. A little harder to control, but it was legible.
Plaque with the American leaders at the battle at Cowpens.
One of their favorite parts of the event, learning how to shoot a musket (complete with the instructions and commands soldiers would hear on the battlefield).
Listening to the soldier give commands.
Karlie putting her “powder” in her gun, Brina is already done loading her gun.
Checking to make sure their guns were ready (there was a specific command for this step too).
Waiting for the next order!
It was a lot of fun watching them go through the steps. It was almost an hour long drill and they got the steps down by the end!
STEM Robotics Competition
The “Crosswell Flares” logo and design the kids came up with for this year.
The girls STEM Robotics Team – The Crosswell Flares – did a great job this weekend! It was their first year in the competition and a long day (left the house at 7 am and wasn’t back home until around 7 pm that night), but all their hard work paid off they got 2 Trophies!!! The girls had a blast, learned a lot, and met a lot of people from various schools in the area!
The tagline they came up with was “Keep your flame in the game” which was on the back of their shirts along with the list of team members.
With so many people around the robot table during the competition this was the best picture we could get that day. This is their robot going through the course. They were able to accomplish all their missions that they had programmed and practiced.
The team getting ready to start the competition!
Brina very excited about her “swag bag”! As part of the competition each team made swag bags for their team members then they would have the opportunities to trade items with other teams. It stimulated a lot of interaction among the various teams. They were actually judged on this piece of the competition as well.
Karlie showing off her swag bag! Their team actually won a trophy for this part of the competition which included their sportsmanship and values.
They won 2 trophies! It was a long day and a lot of work, but they did fantastic! The kids were troopers! This was the teams first year competing against 17 teams (most of which have been competing for several years). Proud of all the kids and coaches for all the hard work. Good Job!!!
Loom Bracelet Craze
The girls have a loom bracelet set and over the past few weeks there has been loom bracelets popping up everywhere in our house, car, backpacks and random places. In one day they went from making no loom bracelets to do several in a day. Not to mention, the little individual bands have been sprinkled like confetti around the house.
The girls are learning that these are not only fun making they are a blast trading with friends, giving them away to friends, or teaching their friends how to make them. They go to school with a certain amount of bracelets and come home with a different amount and a variety of other colors. They’ll even make custom-colored and various size bracelets for friends too. Yes, they even made one for Mom and Dad (we were recipients of the first couple they made)!
It’s neat to see them making these and sharing them with others. The nice part about them being easy to weave together is they can make several in one day. Since starting making the loom bands they have discovered a number of different patterns, shapes, sizes, and neat designs. So even though they learned how to make them one way they have adapted to learn a variety of ways to make the bracelets.
A pile of bracelets put on their bar stool the night before so they could put them on before school at breakfast time.
A common sight laying around our house the past few months!
Brina ready for school with a stack of bracelets on her arm.
The bracelets Brina made
Karlie ready to go to school with an armful of bracelets
Karlie’s bracelets she made in one night.
Native American & Hagood Mill History Experience
One sweet Native American that took several minutes with the girls explaining all the details of her outfit from the otters, knots on her blanket, family crest, leather, beads and so much more. Very fascinating!
The girls have been learning about the Native American Indians in their Social Studies class at school. It has been a lot of fun discovering neat details specifically about the Native Americans located in South Carolina. They have even done extra credit activities such as building a Wattle & Daub and Longhouse which were used by the Native Americans in SC as well.
Hagood Mill
While I was online I discovered that Hagood Mill in Pickens, South Carolina was doing a Native American celebration. We decided it would be a great opportunity for the girls to learn more and experience first hand a little piece of the Native American culture as well as the mill history in SC. The only problem is we already had multiple events already on the schedule for that Saturday! Thankfully, the event was only a few miles away and we were still able to squeeze in most of the events.
Cherokee “Duck & Dive” War Dance from their war in SC. The “Duck & Dive” was named after the way they fought with the the English ducking and diving as the muskets would be fired then re-loaded.
Karlie and Brina standing on one of the mill stone that used to be used in South Carolina’s old mills
The girls have been working very hard in their school activities, but it is always a lot of fun when we find extra ways to help them have a more interactive experience because it helps the information come alive for them (and makes it stick). This was a great event and will be very valuable as they continue to study the Native Americans at school. We talked to a lot of different people, watched demonstrations, Native American dances, items they used, and a lot more.
Putting their hand prints on the white horse, they loved this activity
Rainbow hand print horse, very colorful. The horse was a good sport! 🙂
Native American meal cooked over a fire, complete with mushroom soup, fish, venison, chicken, potatoes, and corn. It looked smelled delicious!
Lunch Box Notes
Brina and Karlie lunch containers with a note
Every once in awhile I write to a note and stick it in the girls school lunch boxes. They always like finding their notes and over the months I notice they keep a stash of notes inside one of the pockets of their lunch boxes. The fun part is coming up with something different to do for each note. For this note I wrote their names in bold marker colors and attached them with Disney princess tape to the outside of their lunch containers.
Brina’s Note
Most time the notes are the same or similar with only slight variants. The notes for this particular day both read: “Have a great day at school! Learn a lot and have fun! I look forward to seeing you soon! Love, Mom XOXO”
Karlie’s Note
What are some creative ways you leave notes for your kids or spouse to brighten up their day?
