SCHOOL PROGRESS REPORT

School is almost out - and Bella has been ready for it to be over for about two weeks now - and her parents sat down with her teachers yesterday for a progress report/update. All is well and good, and there was much laughter between them all. We thought we would share some of the written comments from Bella's Early Childhood progress report:

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
"Bella has refined her small motor skills by using care and precision during food preparation. On her leader day, Bella prepared the snack of the day independently! She used a knife to carefully cut strawberries in half. Each piece of strawberry was almost the same size and cut exactly in the middle."

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL
"Cheerful, energetic and outgoing, Bella strikes up conversations easily with peers and adults alike. When wanting to have a playdate with Jacob, Bella determinedly asked Jacob's dad everyday when she saw him: "Josef, can me and Jacob have a playdate today?" Bella remained persistent with her goal until she had her playdate!"

WORK HABITS
"A self-directed student, Bella engages purposefully with activities in all curriculum areas. She always takes time to organize her space before she begins to work and cleans up carefully when she is finished. Bella demonstrates strong focus in her completion of all self-chosen activities."

SCIENCE/CULTURAL
"Bella draws upon previous knowledge to make connections with new observations. When participating in a sink and float exercise using salt water, Bella recalled a similar experiment that she had explored without using any salt. "I think the penny will sink in the salt water, because it sinks in the regular water, too!"

FINE ARTS
"Bella enjoys creating dramatic play scenarios with her peers. She usually leads the scenario as her peers follow her imagination. She plays "family" with a baby doll. Bella and a peer pretend to change the baby's diaper as well as take the baby to the store."

Nice!

SPIN ART SHARING

For Christmas - five months ago - Bella got a spin art set from Uncle Reid and Aunt Claire. She loved it, and almost used all the little square papers that came with the set the first day she played with it. I was pretty amazed at the variety of artwork possible by spinning a paper on a base and dripping or squirting paint on it as it spun. So was Bella.

Anyway, I saved all those miniature paintings - naturally - with the aim of photographing them and sharing them with Bella's many art fans out there. Alas - naturally - I never took the time to do that. This morning, right before she left for school, she asked where her paintings were. I had no idea what she was talking about, but Jen helped her get the stack of spin art paintings down from a shelf. She had not seen or held them in probably four months, mind you. But she wanted to take them to school today. I suggested she not do that as she might lose them - and I still needed to document them!

Unmoved by my half-hearted suggestion, Bella took them to school, showed them to her teacher, Catherine, and then went into the classroom, and began placing one painting in each of her classmates' cubbies. She even took one or two out and replaced them with different paintings perhaps more suitable to that friend's taste. Go figure, but it was a sweet, sweet gesture. And is sure to spread the mystery and wonder that is "Bella" around the school community.