5th Grade School Work, Banning School Library Books, & a Trip to the Principal's Office

Most of his work is boring written stuff these days, so there isn't much to this post.

 I of course wanted to keep this fine demonstration of scholastic ability though, titled, "Isopod and Fish."  I think the title says it all.

 They made these for something...and then put them in frames to bring home.  Jacob's frame did not make it home in one piece.  Of course it didn't.

 This was given toward the middle of the first semester, before Jacob and his teacher's hate-fest reached its pinnacle.  More on that later...

 This is a test to see who has been paying attention through all the previous schoolwork posts:  What will a Jacob do when he is forced to color a large area???  Anyone??? That's right.  He will color it rainbow style.

 Ah, the cornucopia, it brings back memories doesn't it?  Does everything single grade, every single year, have to draw/paint/sculpt/whatever a cornucopia???  **It did get colored true to life colors though- no rainbow.  So there's that.

 The report card.  Yes, those are Cs you see there.  And yes that is one D you see.  Yes, 5th grade will be remembered as the year Jacob's preteen-monster-mood swings kicked in.

 His yearbook pic that I never order that I'm sure I will regret one day.

 This year, and EVERY year, for mother's day I told them both not to buy me anything.  Seriously.  All I ever want is someone to take care of the dishes for that entire day (the chore I hate the most) and a card or something telling me I'm loved.  That's it.  For real.  It isn't a trick. Maybe when I get older I will want gifts?  I don't know.  All I want right now is for SOMEONE TO DO THE STUPID DISHES FOR ONE DAY.  Thanks.

 This is my favorite Jacob schoolwork production so far.  In his whole 6 years of elementary school. Which may not be accurate as I have a HORRIBLE memory and have probably said that very same thing each year.  But I digress.  We read together every night, and I LOVE IT.  And he does too.  I hope he continues to do so.  And since we do read together every night, I don't allow him to check out books from the school library.  Which sounds crazy, I know, but it's one more thing for me to keep up with.  And if he loses it at school, which he will, then I have to pay for it.  This has caused quite the stir in the school amongst current and previous teachers, but I have to tell them every single year that unless they promise me in writing that they will pay for the books he loses-because he will- then they have to leave the reading of library books to me to handle at home.

ANYWAY, we were reading The 5th Wave (before the movie came out AND before we even knew it was going to be a movie, thank you very much).  As with everything that comes out of my mouth, I never really know if he is listening, retaining, caring, etc.  Unbeknownst to me, they had an assignment at school to do some kind of project on a character from a library book.  But of course he didn't have a school library book, BUT he was reading one at HOME.  So he picked the main character from our book, did the project with amazing attention to detail on the inside of the pocket thing he created, and got an A.  #happymom

 They legit did a "research paper" at school.  I put the quotation marks around that term because it was really just a 7 paragraph essay, but they had to do research, note cards, an outline, and then the paper.  AND they did it all AT SCHOOL (his principal is really big on not giving homework).  This made me a nervous wreck.  I just couldn't imagine it coming out looking anything like a paper, or proper essay.  But he did so good!!!  I was so impressed.

 Why does this say he has 5 siblings? Who are these people? Hallie, Abby, and Josh-bc he does call him his brother...but that's all I can come up with...

 Pretty good I thought.

 I think the hand got torn off accidentally.  Also, I think the face looks like Keith, haha.

 Some other project they did for a book they read in class where he had to draw a picture of the main idea of each chapter.  Then the little drawings flip up to show a summary of each chapter.  It was kind of cute.

In the beginning of the year his teacher took all their pics and posted them in the hallway with a little blurb from each student about what they hoped this year would be like.  Jacob wrote that he hoped the 5th grade would set a good example in the cafeteria for the younger kids.  What?

 And here's what we have all been waiting for:  the climax for what we will call "The Year When Jacob and His Teacher Mutually Hated Each Other."  

It had been going on pretty much since school started.  He didn't like her from the get-go.  She just rubbed him the wrong way.  And from what I could tell, the feeling was mutual.  His class would come into the lunch room and he would run in telling me, "I hate Mrs. Simpson."  And then she would come in and tell me, "I'm having a hard time with him today."  Suffice it to say, the main thing I learned this year is TO NEVER WORK WITH MY SON AGAIN. EVER.

Anyway, every year they have the beloved achievement testing, and the teachers ask for parents to send in snacks for the kids to have.  I sent in some stuff, along with other parents.  Once testing was over, they had stuff left over.  Well, their school also requires kids to pack a snack each day.  So every grade, K thru 5th, has a snack time that either comes before or after their lunch, depending on how early or late they go.  It's kind of goofy if you ask me, but considering my child is such a picky eater that his lunch consists of chips, crackers, pretzels, and some cookies, the snack thing works for Jacob.  BUT, the rule is you only eat one thing for snack.  The point of this rule is to keep kids from eating their whole lunch during snack.  And I would imagine that if you asked all the teachers, you would find that for the most part only the younger grade teachers really watch that-that the teachers of older grades feel like it is the students' own responsibility to figure out that if they eat their whole lunch for snack then they will be starving later on, and since all teachers have to much stupid crap to do already, who the heck wants to police 11 year old snack times???  (in fact I know it to be true because I asked around after this event).  

So, Jacob's main complaint of his teacher is that he believes her to be "sexist," his word.  He swears she gives preferrential treatment to the girls.  And other boys have told this to me as well; and the guidance counselor says she hears it frequently.  I've always told Jacob that I don't really care if she is or not, unless she is down right abusinve to him, I just consider it a lesson he has to learn - how to deal with jerks.  On this particular day, which was after testing had ended, snack time came and Jacob pulled out his snack I had packed.  Then he saw that a girl, one of the favorites, got up and got one of the leftover snacks I had brought.  This girl also had a snack that her mom had packed.  Upon seeing this, Jacob got up to get one of the leftover test snacks also.  And then he got fussed at.  For not asking before he got out of his chair.  So he apologized (he actually really did) and then asked if it was ok to get up and get a snack.  To which he was told no, he could not, because he already had a snack.  He quickly pointed out the girl who had gotten the extra, only to see that she had quickly scarfed her packed snack down already. So the teacehr said, no she only has one, and continued to fuss at Jacob.  At this point, Jacob was at his boiling point, so he yelled, "MY MOM BOUGHT THESE SO I CAN GET ONE IF I WANT!"  And then he was sent to the principal's office.  

I know it seems pretty harsh to send him over this, but these two had been going at it all year.  So I don't completely blame her.  And I don't blame Jacob either.  After working with her and being on the recieving end of things as a parent (she was very sporatic in terms of grading, sending info home, etc), I probably would have yelled at her too.  Jon and I didn't even really get onto him too harshly, even though we both got called up to the school.  We just calmly talked to him about how he had to show respect to his authority, even if he felt like they didn't deserve it, that this is a lesson he would be dealing with for the rest of his life, and that if he ever got sent to the office again his life would be over.  This was his one freebie. 

On to middle school! Yippee!!