Rev's Back to School Night for First Grade

The boys and I went together (Tamara and her family were invited also, but we didn't see them) to Rev's back to school night at his new school: Provost Elementary in Provo. Tamara and I both moved to Provo in July and so Rev could no longer attend Hillcrest Elementary in Orem where he went for a few months of Kindergarten after returning from Japan.

Provost has a student/teacher ratio of 21:1, one of the best in the state. It is also not a busing school (all the students have to walk or ride a bike or get dropped off). I think there are three first grade teachers.

I considered enrolling Rev in one of the three language immersion schools in the Provo School District for either Spanish, French, or Chinese but because he is behind the curve of other kids his age with his English reading and writing (he attended less than half the school year for kindergarten because we were living in Japan prior), I decided that he should probably focus on getting his English on grade level first before starting another new language. He was kicking trash with his Japanese before we left. It's so sad that that experience was taken away from him.

Now he gets to walk with his friends or ride his bike with them to school every day, and he is absolutely stoked about it!

So Rev and Xander and Dasch and I all went to meet Mrs. Cannon, Rev's new teacher at 5PM. I was able to snap a few shots so family and friends can see what his classroom will be like, and where he will be playing at recess, etc...

When we told Mrs. Cannon that Rev had lived in Japan she was very excited and started asking him questions like, "Nihongo hanashimasu-ka?" "Nihongo wakarimasu-ka?" Apparently Mrs. Cannon lived in Japan for 18 months when she served her LDS mission there. She is so excited to have Rev help her teach the rest of the class about Japan and Japanese language and culture this year. Rev was a little too shy to answer her questions, but I hold hope that he will keep his Japanese safely tucked away in the back of his brain.

This is a picture of Mrs. Cannon showing Rev the "magic" closet where all the kids will hang their jackets and backpacks and other stuff, if you look closely you can see his nametag next to his hook:

This is Rev at his desk in Mrs. Cannon's class. He got to pick his desk out and since he was the first one there, he could choose any desk he wanted! She had him write his name on a sticky note, and color a fish that she could hang up with his name on it also.

Here is a picture of Rev's classroom from the door:

What you can't see is the electronic whiteboard, and the three iMac computers in the front of the classroom. Really cool how technology enabled the classrooms are in this school. The teacher even gave me a PIN code for Rev to memorize to use when he buys lunch at school, since they discourage cash. Wow, I bet this helps discourage bullies!

Here is one of the playgrounds at the school. We were walking over to it when the sprinklers turned on and we almost got drenched but we ran super fast and made it out safe and dry.

We left our car there at the school and walked home on the trail that makes a shortcut right from our neighborhood to the school so Rev won't have to walk or ride on State Street to get to school. Our neighbor and my friend from years ago Jeremy Jackson showed us where the trail is on google maps a couple sundays ago in church, and we explored it on our way home.

When we got home, Perry and Tabitha and Finn and Owen pulled up just as we were walking up the driveway. We invited them to stay for dinner. I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes and corn, and we snacked on Mike & Ike's that Grandma Doodies left behind and some cheezits.

While dinner was cooking we caught Finn and Dasch singing ring around the rosie and falling down together: