• School Projects: Extra Curricular Fun with Art Displayed at the Pickens County Museum, Music, & Conducting Electricity!

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    Brina and Karlie at the Pickens County Museum!

    The girls have had a very busy 4th grade school year.  We are very proud of all that they have been able to learn and accomplish over the course of this school year.  While we know they work hard sometimes we as parents are blown away at the things they are able to do.  Yes, we realize they are growing up!

    It is exciting to see their talents and interests continue to develop and grow as they get older.  Neither Jake nor I would consider ourselves as artistic (I can barely draw stick figures, seriously, ask my family).  Yet Karlie had two pieces of her artwork selected to be part of her schools display at the Pickens County Museum for an entire month.  It is a big honor to have any pieces of your artwork up on display at our local museum.  We were proud of her!

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    Karlie all smiles as she stands next to her metal artwork piece which she named “Zip”.  She was 1 of only 2 selected out of the entire 4th grade selected for this piece.

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    Karlie’s “Zip” metal art!

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    Karlie’s self-portrait was selected for display at the Pickens County Museum.  Her art teacher selected the ones that would be on display in the Museum for the entire month.

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    Close up of her self-portrait.  She got her artist talents from her grandparents!

    Beginning in 4th grade the girls started learning how to play the recorder!  Karlie LOVED it and would go outside and practice on the deck.  She would play her special music for Skipper.  I forgot how shrill those instruments could be and when you have two kids that play them…..well let’s just say I requested that they practice outside for the animals.  I could still hear it inside, but it wasn’t as loud.  Also, they didn’t ever practice together because it was a little hard to actual work on skills.  I think Karlie really enjoyed the noise!

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    Making sure she has her hand in the right position.

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    Practicing on the back deck on a rainy afternoon!

    In science during their electricity unit they built items out of recycled goods that conducted electricity.  They had to put together a homemade lamp that could light a lightbulb.  Below are the two designs that the girls came up with for their lamps.  The teacher sent home the non-breakable pieces of the project.  It was a great hands on way to teach the kids about conducting electricity.

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    Brina’s electricity project.

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    Karlie’s electricity project!

  • School Projects: Science Current Event Articles

    School Projects - Science Extra Credit

    The kids recently did a school project for Science Extra Credit.  They had to compile a variety of science current event articles.  The articles were cut out of current local newspapers, Wall Street Journal,  magazines, and more.  They read the articles, glued them to construction paper, and wrote a summary about each one.

    The articles were on the following science categories – Animals, Electricity, Plants, Space, and Weather.  All the subjects are ones that the kids will be studying this year in school.  The kids had one week to put together all their articles for science extra credit.  The girls worked on their articles every day after homework, before school each morning, and even gave up some of their free time to do more articles.

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    We are so proud of how hard they worked all week.  By the end of the week they learned a lot about the various science subjects they will be studying in school.  They did more articles than we realized too.  Between the two girls these are the number of science articles they completed in one week:

    • Animals – 9
    • Electricity – 7
    • Plants – 8
    • Space -10
    • Weather – 8

    Way to go kids!  Thrilled that they love learning so much!  It will benefit them throughout the entire year!