Our school system had an art exhibit at the mall, displaying artwork chosen from local schools. Both Molly and Leah had artwork chosen. Here’s Molly with her alicorn.
Leah had several pieces of artwork chosen. First, this design. It’s her name written by her in cursive mirrored.
Leah’s second piece chosen was more abstract.
For her third piece - a sunflower.
Leah got a new bike! We again went with a used bike from Race Pace. Now everyone in the family has a fancy Trek bike. It looks very big on her, but she handles it great.
For a Curriculum Extension Unit (CEU), some of the second graders created their own inventions. Leah invented the Sellers Scratcher, a back scratcher the she and I prototyped. Here she is making a commercial for it.
She got to show it off at the Evening of Excellence (more on that in a future post).
Molly and her friend Grace formed a team for the Maryland Engineering Challenges 2018 Theme Park Challenge. I served as their coach as they designed and build a roller coaster to compete against teams from across the state.
They cut their track out of cardboard using box cutters.
There was lots of planning and experimentation.
They built their cart out of cardboard, pencils, and fidget spinner bearings.
The track was held up by wooden supports. I cut wooden slats to their requested size, then helped them screw them onto the base.
We went to the Baltimore Museum of Industry to present our roller coaster to the judges. And the ride worked! (There was a time that I wasn’t sure we’d get the ride working.) Our ride was Green Eggs and Ham themed, and our team name was Green Eggs and Girls.
One of Leah’s end-of-year projects for 2nd grade was to create a bottle buddy. The kids created a buddy at home, while researching their famous person and writing a report at school.
Leah (with help from Jen) worked diligently on her buddy for weeks and did a great job. Here’s Leah’s completed bottle buddy of Serena Williams.
As a 5th grader, Molly was able to participate in Battle of the Books. Her team, The Little Librarians, read 13 books over 5 months. During the “battle” teams were asked detailed questions about the books, including quotes, plot details, and illustrations.
The competition was held at a county high school, where teams from lots of elementary schools answered incredibly detailed questions on the books they'd read. They began by parading into the gym.
Here are all the teams. They each had an adult coach, and each coach served as a monitor for a team (not their own team, in the interest of fairness).
Half-time. This competition was many hours long in a hot gym. Molly was exhausted.
Our principal was even a guest runner (carrying answers to the judges table).
Times up, hold up your answer sheet. Molly was the official scribe for the team.
Nice job to all the teams!
We have a Krispy Kreme near us! Krispy Kreme doughnuts are not found much around us (unlike Dunkin’ Donuts, which are everywhere). But we’ve got one now. It opened in Catonsville (a neighboring town) the same day that G’Mom and Grampa were flying home. So, Jen dropped them off at the airport super early (like 6), then got in line to get some opening day doughnuts for us. The girls approved.
For their first doughnuts from our new Krispy Kreme, Molly went for a chocolate iced cream filled, while Leah chose the strawberry iced with sprinkles.
The elementary school again held a fun Bingo night back in March. Jen got Bingo on the first card. Unfortunately, so did Leah’s friend and birthday buddy Grace. Sadly, Grace won the call off.
Jen didn’t win the call off for the outdoor prize package, but she did get a $25 Target gift card as a consolation prize.
These fifth graders enjoyed their last Bingo of elementary school.
Jen won again! This time, she won a raffle for 2 tickets to Luray Caverns.
I got to speak at STEAM Day (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) to all the fifth graders about software and my job. I spoke last year to both of the girls’ grades (though it was just STEM last year), so I had to do something even better this year.
We did some live coding to give them a feel of coding.
We also programmed a scene in QLab (both audio and lights) live.
The kids seemed to really enjoy it. It can be tough to get kids excited about programming in a talk, but it helps when you’ve got a fun application (sound, video, and light effects).
Back in April, we had a lovely Easter. The girls put out baskets for the Easter Bunny. Leah decided she needed to leave a note for the Easter Bunny with a very specific request. I think it was too specific, as the Easter Bunny did not grant it.
Their Easter baskets may not have had a narwhal squishy, but they both did get squishes (and lots of other goodies).
Leah’s gotten into string tricks, and loved this book and string to learn more.
After church, we went over to Grams’s house for some family time. This included the whole Sellers side, as well as G’Mom and Grampa who had come in town for Molly’s birthday. It was a beautiful day, so the girls and I headed outside for a little fun on a flat road.
Leah has had her Heelys for months, but struggled to use them and stopped trying soon after getting them. However, now that Molly had some too, Leah was determined to master the skill. She got it in no time, and the two of them rolled all over the place.
Molly praised the Lord for her new Heelys when she got to use them on Easter. At the end of Grams’s street, there’s a quiet, flat circle that was perfect for rolling around.
Leah warmed up enough to take off her jacket.
The girls were excited to wear the new dresses that Jen made them for Easter.
Not only did we celebrate Easter, we celebrated Molly’s birthday again. This began with presents.
No birthday celebration would be complete with a cupcake and an evil grin.
Also, Grams got a new dog. Her name is Roxanne.
And here’s the Sellers family.
And the Batson family.
