First, Chad was handed a pile of awards for being an awesome student in third grade. I love these pictures. So cute how he is so excited and then his friends are checking out his awards over his shoulder.
Kylie was given awards too, and also received a very special STAR testing award for the third year in a row for having the highest math score out of all of the kids at her grade level. She actually scored a perfect 600. Pretty amazing.
Next, Kylie participated in the school and district spelling bees. She ended up winning the spelling bee at Promenade, and then became the official spelling bee representative at the district level. We studied the word lists together over Christmas vacation and even watched a movie about a little girl that participated in a spelling bee and won. I really wanted her to see what it is like and to be as prepared as she could. I was actually surprised that she was willing to participate. Kylie can be extremely shy, and I didn't know if she was going to be able to get up and spell a word into a microphone in front of a live audience (with a spotlight on her too!)
She competed against other fourth and fifth graders, and many middle school kids that were in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade.
We went into the spelling bee wishing her good luck and hoped that she would enjoy the experience. We were so nervous for her. She went through several rounds, and before we knew it, Kylie was down to the final two contestants.
She and a fourth grade boy from Stokoe Elementary School were the last two spellers. They spelled extremely difficult words, from chrysanthemum to courageous to ambidextrous. And then, there was k-n-a-p-s-a-c-k. Except, Kylie forgot the K, and that was that. She knew she had lost--and she couldn't have been more thrilled. You could see the relief in her face as it ended that she didn't have to worry about it anymore and didn't have to continue to study in order to do well at the county competition, which she would have been required to participate in had she won. We took lots of pictures and were congratulated by school district and board of education officials. We were so proud and are glad she had the opportunity to do so well in such a unique competition. The following week, her name was even in the local newspaper. :)
Mrs. McCullough, Kylie's 5th grade teacher and Mrs. Copeland, our school principal.
Almost immediately after the spelling bee, it was time to get ready for the science fair. Kylie really wanted to participate, especially because the timing didn't work out for us to complete a project when she was in fourth grade. We spent a weekend as a family preparing the project and everyone got involved. David helped her the most and I think they really enjoyed the process. Our kids love to eat apples, and so we decided to figure out which apples brown the fastest after they are cut open, and which last the longest. Kylie planned on having me pack the kind that lasted the longest in their lunches following her experiment.
Waiting and watching the apples...
Recording and getting ready to share the information....
To our surprise, she ended up placing second in the school science fair and moved on to the district level again! It was a neat experience to see her project there with all of those from other schools in the district. She did a great job and learned a lot about how to conduct an experiment and all of the required components for reporting results.
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