The Espinoza Family Blog

Today was Tuesday and that means Chapel at school. This weeks Chapel speaker was our own school Principal Mrs. B.

Principal Mrs. B taught on the school’s Spiritual theme this year, which is IMPACT: Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30

Principal Mrs. B used the illustration of a throne inside a heart. When we are still young, we all sit on that throne in our heart but as we grow, we may share the seat or place “things” on that seat. However to “love the Lord your God with all your heart“, we actually have to get off our throne and keep other “things” off and let God sit there.

Tuesdays also mean a “new” event takes place too… she gets to go to the library at school. Each and every Tuesday afternoon she gets to go and pick out a book,  after she returns the previous weeks book. She is super excited about this!

This week she picked out “The Berenstain Bears and the Blame Game”. We love these books and the life lessons they teach in each and everyone. I’ll have her read it several times before she returns it on Tuesday.

4 more early reader booklets or “shoe box” books.

She took a letter test today. Teacher Mrs. B said a letter out loud to the class and the class had to listen to the sound and then write it on their paper.

For the color words test, Teacher Mrs. B writes the words on the board and the class has to write the word on their paper. Afterward she talks about a item for them to draw on their paper as well.

Front: Phonics practice with the letter’s “L” and “H” and below
“I see the chalk” and “Look at the Bible” drawings.

Back: Phonics practice with letter “G” and “F”  and below
“What do you have? A dog” and “Do you like naps? No, I like to read.”

Geography lesson and learning the terms of the land/sea.

Math work was letter writing. A bit in a rush here but she still did a great job.
On the back of her math sheet is her homework for the day. She completes it at home each afternoon before doing anything else. After it is completed she places it in her envelope to hand back in to Teacher Mrs. B. Teacher Mrs. B then grades the work and returns it along with all the weeks turned in work on Fridays.

Isabel did my hair this afternoon and she took a picture for me so that I could see it too. Great job on my hair and taking the picture.

It feels good to sit down and type a few thoughts since it’s been awhile since I’ve posted school news or otherwise, except for the first day, of course. I am still deciding on how I’m going to be doing the school year this year. Should I do a post for each day or should I just do a post on Friday, or should I post highlights a few times a week? Does anyone really take the time to read and look over her work? Does anyone care? Another thing if I’m working, I won’t be able to post (and day’s could go by before anything actually gets put up) and scanning every page of her work is very time consuming (I haven’t finished Kindergarten!). Gino suggested just taking photos of everything like I did for Preschool but that just adds to the 35,000+ photos that I already have! So I’m not sure…

I do enjoy doing it for her (for us), she may not understand or realize it now that I’m doing this for her. When she’s grown she may find this all silly and wonder what in the world was I thinking. Typing about our lives, even if I don’t do it every day or for every outing or vacation is fun and maybe down the road it will be meaningful to her (or us) that I took the time to do something like this. I don’t know… so for now.

Today, I took Gino’s recommendation and took photos. It was faster then having to scan each and every little thing.

More of the early reader books she is required to read. Today she brought home 4 of them. She reads them to me and she does enjoy the silly little stories.

Making good choices always gets you where you are meant to be in life.

Her handwriting is gorgeous!

Learning the school’s theme verse for this year, for this coming Friday (Sept. 14th) . I don’t know why she has to learn it by Friday but we are working on it and I’ve posted it in her room too.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30 

We will do a 1/2 hour of homework after school each day. Teacher Mrs. B gives her work to do and then I have additional work from workbooks that I’ve purchased at the Goodwill and else where.

Today is the end of the first (1/2) week of school.

“Shoe box” booklets for today.
Isabel really likes the author of “Tad Cat Ran”!

Math work today was counting the birthdays (including Teacher Mrs. B) in class for each month. Can you guess whose is in February??

Number writing. Good practice!
Isabel is getting better at writing the numbers correctly (in the right direction).

Mini tests from earlier in the week.

Great job for the first few days in class!

A review test about the story of Creation from this weeks Bible lessons.

She really enjoyed school yesterday. The highlight was 3 recesses!

Hopefully as the year continues she’ll find other reasons to enjoy school too!

More “shoe box” booklets.

Writing practice with spelling too.
Teacher Mrs. B wrote the words on the board for them and Isabel had to write it on her paper. Later Mrs. B had them draw a picture to go with it.

Listen to the phonics sound mini-test.
Teacher Mrs. B gave a letter and Isabel had to remember how to write the said letter.

Phonics work with the letter “r”.
Below “I like the… bulletin board” (in class; which has a picture of a boat on it) and “Go…dog, dog, dog” (after the book “Go Dog! Go!)

First name practice. Fantastic!!

Today is the first day of school and the first day of First Grade!

I can’t believe that summer is over, school has begun and we have a First Grader!!! I’m sad to see her grow up but have enjoyed her each and every day that I’ve been given with her. She is such a blessing to us! I pray that as she continues to grow she will continue to grow closer to God as we build her foundation for a her future.

Impact: Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30

This year she’ll be going all day, no more half day’s for this kiddo. She’ll be packing a lunch or getting lunch from school. She’ll have 3 recesses (she really likes that!) and she’ll be learning all new things! I know she’s a bit nervous today but she knows some of the kids in her class previous from years at school and she’ll get to meet new ones as well. It’s going to be an exciting year ahead! God bless.

All packed and ready to go!
Same backpack as last year but she has a new purple lunch bag!
I love the lunch bag she picked out.

First day of FIRST GRADE!
When she grows up she wants to be a doctor (she’s been saying this for years!)

In her class, at her new desk.

There are 4 kids at each of the 6 tables but there are only 3 kids at her table (including Isabel). There are 19 kids in her class and 11 are girls.
Her new teacher is Teacher Mrs. B.

Her first day in class was a success! She enjoyed it!

Handwriting samples.

Front: the opening activity (seen in the photo above) was a maze.

Back: She finished the front and was able to do a little free time art!

I love the coloring she did on this! She took her time and colored very well. Great job!

Her first “shoe box” books.

These little books are intended to teach her how to read. However in Isabel’s case, she’s so beyond these books she calls them “baby books.” We did have a discussion about not calling the books “baby” because there are kids in her class that can NOT read or are just learning to read. So we will not be calling them “baby books” anymore out of respect for others.