Does This Look Like First Grade to You?
Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 9:23PM 
Christian's class is reading A Bear Called Paddington. His teacher is also making sure they get to experience some of the adventures that Paddington has in his stories. One such adventure (I gather, I haven't read it-can you believe that?!) is a sandcastle competition. The classmates drew names in order to create teams, then worked to design their sandcastle in class (after some standardized testing they had all last week...what fun to follow a couple of hours of hard work each day!), brought in supplies, and headed to a playground in order to execute the architectural plans they had laid out on paper.
It was a little hard to tell what they thought of playing in the sand working together to build their sandcastles instead of sitting in the classroom for the last two hours of school.
The sand area was big enough for all of the teams, as well as the younger siblings of the students to have a space to dig and build, too.
An almost finished castle...
Christian was on a team with another boy as well as a girl. They designed what they called a dungeon, and they named it "The Dark Castle".
By the time they had set the characters and smaller details up around it, I found myself thinking of both Skeletor's castle (please tell me you remember Skeletor) as well as Prince Humperdinck's "Pit of Despair" in The Princess Bride. If you have only seen the movie (which I do think is excellent-one of my all-time favorites) then you must also read the book. That is an order, and I am not a bossy person in general.
They had to speak with the judge (Christian's teacher's best friend and Expert Sandcastle Judger) about their work.
This interview was followed by more climbing...
and some very cute cupcakes (what is wrong with me that I didn't take a picture of those); then the bell rang.
Wait! There was no bell, since we were at a playground!
I don't remember doing anything like this in school! Christian has had a great year, and I can't believe that it's almost over.
I also can't believe that that means he will soon be a second grader. You look at those feet and tell me that he's not still my baby! I won't believe you.
I won't!
Christian
Reader Comments (10)
I want to go to that school!
although, not sure I would be able to climb that whole thing!! Brave kids!
I do not know of this "Skeletor" you speak of. :)
a) Skeletor was He-Man Master of the Universe's nemesis.
b) PW needs to have a photo contest theme of "toes" so that you can win it.
c) I heart Christian's teacher.
Mindee-your comments made my morning.
Wait! It's already noon! Shoot! My day is flying by.
Your son obviously has a great teacher... And that class totally deserved such a fun project after a week of standardized tests. :)
Marla @ www.asthefarmturns.wordpress.com
What a neat way to study a book! I love it! Those toes are defiinitely baby toes. Don't you worry!
Oh Christina! How precious were those toes at the end!! I can't believe my oldest (yet little one) will be in kindergarten next year!! I am already dreading the school bus ride. I am sure there will be tears....from Mommy. I had to giggle a bit when I read "Skeletor" -- you're showing your age, which in my case is okay because it must be about the same!! I never had any He-Man figurines, but I went through a She-Rah phase.....ahem. I think that's all we need to say about that! :-)
It is fun to see what some teachers will do to get their kids excited about learning, isn't it? Christian will remember this for years to come. How fun for him!
Hope you have a great rest of the week!
Love love love the feet picture!!!!
The picture of Christian's feet are priceless and they made me feel relaxed for some reason. This is a possible picture contest entry!!! SERIOUSLY!
I want to get on that blue climby thingy!