gran guest post: school visit

Last week my folks got to visit Aiden's classroom for Grandfriend's Day and Aiden showed off his works, but this week it was even more exciting!  My folks were presenting about their South America trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.   Aiden bounced out of school telling me about how "GranGran and PopPop came to talk to all my friends and show them pictures!"

Here is a guest post from my mom:

Jeff and I were guest speakers in Aiden’s Wee Threes Montessori Class. Talk about Halloween season being scary! We came Monday because they were too busy with other excitement last week (firemen and their robots were visiting!) We were told an exact time to come and had to wait in the hall until that time. I felt like we were doing a sample lesson for a job. I tied the talk to prior knowledge (Their Continents’ Song); had an introduction and proposed learning outcome (child will be able to say the word “middle” of the earth to the location of equator and Ecuador; had visual aids (globe, toy top, scrapbook story of photos, and poster of Ecuador photos); and had follow-up questions and visuals to evaluate and reinforce learning (showing t-shirts with turtles and “ Equator Belts” I made from ribbon for the children to wear around their “middles” to take home). I was putting my best foot forward. I think the kids liked it, but mostly they were anxious to talk about their Halloween costumes that our photos reminded them of. The kids were very good, and I couldn’t believe how well they sat and listened. It was good to have 10 pages of colorful animals to share. The only hitch came with the “Equator Belts” which I had measured around Aiden’s waist which Lauren assured me was probably the biggest in the class. Well, Aiden may be the tallest, but he is not the widest. Even with Velcro strips that allowed some variance in width, we had a couple of children with some tight fits. The teacher seemed pleased. We are now professional grandparents who actually can do ok as a grown-up “show-and- tell” team. Anyone else hiring?

Here are photos Mrs. Healey sent us from Grandfriend's Day - It was also Hat Day (or better known as crooked hat day since all the kids put on their own hats):