School Days: 1st and 4th Grades Second Nine Weeks

I know, I know. It's March. And I'm just now getting around to posting about the boys' second nine weeks of school, which ended in December. Better late than never, right?

Both boys ended the quarter with straight A's again, earning Riley another spot on the Alpha Honor Roll. So proud of them.

In ELA, Riley learned about personal and subject pronouns, pronouns in compound subjects, pronouns and antecedents, correct I/me usage, homophones, and descriptive, comparative, and subject complement adjectives. They also read Number the Stars together as a class. In math, he learned about long division, factors and multiples, and equivalence and ordering of fractions. In science, he learned about electrical and thermal energy, circuits, light energy, prototypes and design process, plant structures and processes, and animal types and structures. And in social studies, he learned about states and capitals, the branches of government, the different regions of the US, and the 13 Colonies.

In ELA, Rory learned about short u, long i, and long a sounds, present tense verbs, contractions, plural nouns, commas in a series, and inflectional endings. In math, he learned about adding and subtracting using a number line, doubles facts, and making a ten, and fact families. In religion, he learned about Jesus's birthday, the rosary, and Advent.

First grade did a couple of fun art projects, one for Halloween and one for Christmas. They took a field trip to see a local production of The Sound of Music at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center on October 22. They got to dress up as their favorite book character for Halloween. (Rory chose Brother Bear just like Riley did in first grade!) Their class elf showed up the first week of December, and they named him Peppermint.

Fourth grade participated in the Saints Play Football Experience on October 22. Riley's class mass was on November 7. They had a science project due in early December: they each had to make a salt crystal ornament. Super cool! They also painted a Christmas ornament made out of clothespins and got to help some PK3 students decorate Christmas cookies.

Class pictures were on November 7. The whole school enjoyed a pajama day on December 11. First grade got a surprise visit from Santa on December 16.

The Christmas school mass and play and class Christmas parties were on December 20, and then they were out of school for two weeks.

And now the third quarter is almost done. We're in the home stretch for this school year!

National Champion LSU Tigers!

15-0. (Or, if you prefer, Fifteen and Eaux.) That's how LSU ended their latest season of college football: with a perfect record. It was incredible to watch over the course of four or so months.

The title game just so happened to be held in New Orleans this year. Purple and gold flooded the city even more so than usual, with a fair amount of orange from Clemson fans mixed in. (Very interesting that both teams in the final game were the Tigers, also both with stadiums called Death Valley.) Local artist Becky Fos painted the official poster, and she made appearances all over the city at area grocery stores signing free copies. We got one!

The game was played on Monday, January 13, but celebrations started days before then. Kenny joined some of the guys for an impromptu gathering of former Tiger Band members on Sunday afternoon. They met up at Lucy's, performed on Fulton Street, walked over to Harrah's, continued down Peters to Jackson Square, and finally made it into the Quarter, playing Tiger Band standards most of the way. All without official permits or road closures or police escorts. Kenny said it was pretty amazing to behold.

The next day, game day, the boys and Kenny went off to school and work decked out in their purple and gold. GW Fins decided to open up for a special lunch, so of course Nola and Nopsi reserved a table. Dana, Lizzie, Jeff, and I joined Nola, Nopsi, Lynne, and Uncle Dean for a fun and festive lunch. It was a great day to be a LSU Tiger.

We walked down Bourbon for a bit after lunch, soaking it all in (Nopsi even got picked for a street show!). It was hard not to be confident in our team going into the last game of the season, after all we had accomplished thus far. People were pretty positive LSU would come out on top. The mood downtown certainly reflected that, and I was so glad to be a part of it.

And come out on top we did. We got off to a slightly slow start, but then we put our heads down and never looked back. Final score: LSU 42, Clemson 25. We were National Champions once again!

GEAUX TIGERS!