Fall Festival at Fox

Replenished hearts and some dancing and fab costumes and face painting... dolphins of course!

Friday Football at Fox

After school for the Green Eagles - a winning team not least because of the coach and one sharp goal multiple scorer from our family.

Chalk Walk

I think there's a connecting concept somewhere in this but the kids just like getting out of the classroom (all 551 of them) and getting messy and colorful with chalk and a bit of a Mandala vibe.

Last Day of School

That's a wrap for 3rd Grade and Kindergarten.

A magic year all round.

Robot Cat on Floyd

Talent show preparations... though the prototype required box shortening to allow the robot cat access to its knees and a return to a standing/dancing position.

In the higher grade, a synchronized dance routine to Taio Cruz' Dynamite, accompanied by a singer and gymnasts went down smoothly after some considered choreography by M.

PS: Robot cats often need rockets too.

Easy Dunker 2, Strawberry Street Festival

They queued for over an hour, more than once, to be dunked in a freezing tub of water with floating band aids aka plasters, tissues and at least one person's scab. It was the hit of the fair!

More hearts at Fox

It was time for a freshen up and so the kids added some more to the mesh fence and a few faded ones aged-out with a snip or two...

Partial Abstraction, VMFA Studio School

Finally a class that went well - 3 hours for 12 weeks is proving a challenge but this was taking two objects, tracing them out repetitively and then adding on some unifying colour or tone - I loved the process and the gentle shell pink and soft green fake-leafed outcome.

Mr Fox on Floyd

Mr Fox is the class 'toy' who travels home with a new pupil each week in his very own red briefcase.

This was a busy weekend that started with some time on his home-made computer, a Birthday party, a theatre trip, some house-viewing (of course!) and tire swing practice. His 3rd Grade biographer did a great job in his journal, though his Kindergarten-carer was a bit put out.

Valentines

J decided to collect the shells on Texas Beach, then she drilled holes in them with additional power-tool support from P and finally they were strung up by me.

A hard night's work for 24 lovely Kindergarteners and we even got a thank you note!

Studio School, VMFA

So back to school with the lovely Matt Lively of RVA mural fame and some great company along the way.

Reductive architectural drawing & collage had me struggling but copying photographer,  Sally Mann (she's from Virginia!) and doing blind-contours got me hooked.

Project Time, RVA

The 3/4 guitar purchased with advice from the boyfriend of a Girls Rock! camp leader and a token from Granny F.

The case made the perfect setting for the African Savanna ecosystem project, with a meerkat popping out of his egg box mound and just joining the scene - a mangey lion on the horizon. We're not quite straight on the predators & consumers bit but it was fun, apart from the not-so-neat labels.

Valentine History Centre, Downtown

We got to ride in a yellow school bus!!! Iconic stuff of movies and in reality suspension-free, seatbeltless and cumbersome transporters of Americas' children by lost drivers, in this instance... Got downtown in one rattled, grinning piece.

Indoors fab native American artifacts from a rough hewn canoe for 10, to gorgeous small carved wooden animals to a real deer skin camouflage, that J got to stroke and tales of a that first Virginian (Pocahontas) who left for England and never got to come back... concern furrowed the teacher's brow.

Careers Day 2014

What if your dad could teach your friends to make computers talk across a network and say anything they fancied or take surreptitious photos or even guess a decent password...

Perhaps they too might be excited about a hackable future that allows them the privacy and freedom to be their fabulous selves.

Halloween Parade at Fox

The youngest classes get to walk the school perimeter with onlooking older ones clapping and cheering, though sadly M's class were kept indoors for lessons and this was the only time it will happen... the rare apple blossom and her ladybug teacher and friends.

Back home the pumpkin trawl was lit up for the night ahead.

Heart Fence at Fox

Pinterest and someone in Brooklyn inspired this communal bit of loveliness at the Fall Festival, with a cowboy, fox, Grim Reaper, Dracula and numerous others.

Lots of yarn aka wool-winding and then unravelling and some serious focus required from those who stuck the course - age was not the barrier, some (unsavoury) fluffy wool additions - that the kids loved and no-one stopped weaving 'till dark!

Last Game, Soccer at Fox

The end of the season for the almost all female Red Fire Cracker Dragons team, with the best British coach ever. High fiving at the close the game and then it was time for medals and sugar in various forms

Chalk Walk on Hanover

In Guatemala they make paths of flowers and here in RVA the staff translated the concept into chalks... It was a sweet moment to see the city from a  different angle and get some fresh air with friends.

No comment on the chaotic management or risk assessment issues. I think it was meant to link to the middle school then down to VCU.

Walk-to-School Day, International

Last year... without the police outriders this time but glorious autumn sunshine and ever enthusiastic staff, with gala-worthy chanting from the Vice Principal!

Ugh to the co-ordination to get out of the door earlier.

Granny Graffiti at Fox

Sadly no actual grannies but plenty of youthful and not so youthful volunteers to weave yarn aka wool through the wire mesh fencing at school into blocky hearts, renamed Minecraft ones.

So this is the test run for the Fall Festival's participatory art project... mmm it's not as simple as it looks. Next yarn-balling for 50+ folk to get involved.