Wednesday, July 16, 2008
End-of-Year Clean-Out
With the end of the school year comes the time to clean out school desks and backpacks. Before MacKenzie could empty out her desk of all her books and school supplies, she needed to purge her backpack of extraneous stuff so she’d have room in it to bring other items home.
I chided her all year for how large, unwieldy and heavy her backpack was. Every few weeks, I’d encourage her to cull down her goodies a bit. She’d often tell me that she needed all three journals with her in case she wanted to ______ (fill in the blank from: draw, write a story, get someone’s address), or that she forgot she had three full water bottles in there for when she got thirsty (because one water bottle would never be enough).
However, two days before school let out, I made her EMPTY her backpack to make room for her desk items. Her booty included -- among other things -- a small tree stump, two tree branches, two large pieces of bark, a plastic Easter egg, sunscreen, lip vasoline (that had been previously lost), several rubber-bands, a bottle of glue (that she didn’t want to leave in her desk for the girl who sat next to her to snatch and empty on her jacket again), numerous important pieces of paper in various stages of crumple, two half-empty water bottles, two leisure reading books, six bookmarks, a “best friends” journal, a bouncy ball, a Doritos bag and crumbs (not in the bag), several pipe cleaners, a paper towel, a flattened crayon box, and enough broken crayons to send back to the factory to make two complete new box sets. It’s amazing she had enough room left over to stuff her agenda and homework in there!
Her back’s going to really enjoy having the summer off and not having to lug around that Pandora’s Box that she calls a backpack!
When she brought home her end-of-year supplies, she had several pencils that she intended to continue using. Note that five of them are stubs barely large enough to use, while the other two were unsharpened. What a dichotomy!
Here she is with her teacher -- Mrs. Distel. Mrs. Distel was a wonderful teacher who really taught MacKenzie a lot this year (as evident by her regularly making Honor Roll), although MacKenzie often claimed she was mean -- because she assigned “too much” homework. I was really impressed with her -- very personable, helpful and kind ... wonderful qualities for a 4th grade teacher!
Fifth grade, here she comes!
I chided her all year for how large, unwieldy and heavy her backpack was. Every few weeks, I’d encourage her to cull down her goodies a bit. She’d often tell me that she needed all three journals with her in case she wanted to ______ (fill in the blank from: draw, write a story, get someone’s address), or that she forgot she had three full water bottles in there for when she got thirsty (because one water bottle would never be enough).However, two days before school let out, I made her EMPTY her backpack to make room for her desk items. Her booty included -- among other things -- a small tree stump, two tree branches, two large pieces of bark, a plastic Easter egg, sunscreen, lip vasoline (that had been previously lost), several rubber-bands, a bottle of glue (that she didn’t want to leave in her desk for the girl who sat next to her to snatch and empty on her jacket again), numerous important pieces of paper in various stages of crumple, two half-empty water bottles, two leisure reading books, six bookmarks, a “best friends” journal, a bouncy ball, a Doritos bag and crumbs (not in the bag), several pipe cleaners, a paper towel, a flattened crayon box, and enough broken crayons to send back to the factory to make two complete new box sets. It’s amazing she had enough room left over to stuff her agenda and homework in there!
Her back’s going to really enjoy having the summer off and not having to lug around that Pandora’s Box that she calls a backpack!When she brought home her end-of-year supplies, she had several pencils that she intended to continue using. Note that five of them are stubs barely large enough to use, while the other two were unsharpened. What a dichotomy!
Here she is with her teacher -- Mrs. Distel. Mrs. Distel was a wonderful teacher who really taught MacKenzie a lot this year (as evident by her regularly making Honor Roll), although MacKenzie often claimed she was mean -- because she assigned “too much” homework. I was really impressed with her -- very personable, helpful and kind ... wonderful qualities for a 4th grade teacher!Fifth grade, here she comes!
Labels: MacKenzie
