more school fun - IB Art Show

The senior students that took IB Art in 11th and 12th grades showcase their work from the past two years in the IB Art Show set up in the school's atrium each year. I really enjoy seeing the students' work. It's great to see how talented these young adults are and how each person's personality shines through in their set of work. This year's show was exceptional.

I want one of these necklaces that she made!

The stories and personal meanings integrated into this piece below were really fantastic. The artist created this about his two closest friends.

This girl's entire collection was book-themed. I loved it!

She was so cute when she told me about it and borrowed the books to go with her pieces.

student notes, awwww

The elementary school celebrated Kindness Week and in the library we read/discussed Peter Reynolds' books THE DOT and ISH. The students then could draw their own dot, ish, dot-ish drawing to hang up. I'm pretty in love with 3-rd grader Isabella's ISH drawing  : )  ...she made me look quite hip!

The elementary school had Young Author's Day last week, where all students shared their own published books. Family members came for the morning and it was a wonderful event of sharing student work. Afterwards, a first-grade teacher emailed me the following page from one of her student's books... awwww!

A few more notes from students that make my days in Italy even brighter!

Even a couple 'mailed' to me in these amazing handmade envelopes! Second graders were working on letter writing and brainstormed various people they could write a letter two. I received these two lovely letters... and wrote back!

Aaaaand then one of my own notes. I'm a BIG post-it / scrap paper user for reminders and things... as well as a list-maker. Coming back to this note at the end of a school day made me giggle:

fav. student moments as of late

Sidetracking from my family's visit and travels for a bit...

The students have been cracking me up lately! I love the small, unexpected moments that make me laugh with them... kids are pretty awesome.

One elementary boy told me that he had eaten Korean soup over the Winter Break... and it had red broth the color of my hair. The noodles were "the curly-kind noodles"... just like my hair. So... when he was eating his soup, he kept thinking that he was "eating Ms. Stacia's hair!" Hahaha.

...It reminded me of the child in Vietnam when I first arrived, who called my hair, Noodle Hair.

And it does seem fitting... especially in one of my favorite photos (taken by my friend Marc Hughes from Denver at a past Crawfish Broil get-together). Marc took a great photo of me and my good friend, Andy Lynes... and then I cartoonized this bit of it:

Yes, I can see the "curly-kind noodles!"

ALSO - a favorite moment of my first week of 2014 back in school... an Italian kindergartener, who is pretty fluent in English as well, made me laugh out loud at this one:

We were reading a story and the end had a comment about mustard. (Mo Willems' book, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!) Most of the students did not know what mustard was... so I said,

"Come si dice 'mustard' in Italiano?" (How do you say 'mustard' in Italian?)

"...Senape..."

And we discussed a bit about what it is like... most of the kids got it by then...

One boy pipes up --> "Ms. Stacia! ...I am an EXXXXSSSPERT in Italian! ...Because I was born in Italy!"

The way he said it... and with such enthusiasm... AND the fact that he used the word expert to describe his level of proficiency in his first language... made me crack up. I loved it. Kids are awesome.