May--Rachel

May was super busy for Rachel. She started off on the first Saturday with the State Mathleague Competition. We drove up with our neighbor/friend Melissa Hager, whose son Lucas was also in the state competition.

 They took math tests all morning while Melissa and I and another mom drove around Phoenix passing the time.

 Her friend, Cameron, qualified for Nationals in Texas, which was pretty cool. Rachel came in somewhere around 20th in the state, which is pretty darn good. I was proud of her for participating in the competition, since at the beginning of the year she joined Math Club on the condition that she would not do any of the competitions. What great strides she made!

The 4th grade does a Living Wax Museum. The kids have to research a famous person that has ties to Arizona. Rachel chose Sandra Day O'Connor.

 Ryan and Megan came with me and got a kick out of pushing the kids' buttons. We would push them and they would recite the speech they had prepared about the person they had researched.

 This semester in ELP (the gifted program that Rachel attends about once a week) they've been focusing on building bridges, both in real life, and on a computer simulation.

Rachel teamed up with her friend Rachel and the bridge they built got 2nd place overall for the strongest bridge in the class.

Rachel's card she made for me for Mother's Day:

 Pretty flowers, pretty words...

 She signed it, "I 💛 U with most* of my heart!"
Then below: *when you're angry I don't.
Such love. And honesty. Haha!

Rachel was invited to apply for National Elementary Honor Society, which involved getting a letter of recommendation, recommendations from teachers, and filling out an application including activities and service she has been involved it. She got selected as one of 12 students in her grade of 170ish students to be inducted into the NEHS. We attended her induction ceremony where she was happy to see some of her friends, especially Madisyn, one of her best friends that has been in her class the last couple of years.

 They had a swearing in of sorts, and were welcomed into the Honor Society by the principal.

 They are supposed to be a student-run group that does service in the community and school as they develop leadership skills at the same time.

 Hopefully it'll be a good experience for her.

She closed out the year with a mellow last week of school, enjoying time with friends and her classmates and teacher, who have all been fabulous this year. Rachel was happy to find out that Daryne will be in her class next year (with Mrs. Chamberlain who she loved as her 3rd grade teacher), but bummed that Madisyn will be in Mrs. Curtin's class (who she loved as her 2nd grade teacher) without her. At least they'll still see each other at recess and NEHS stuff.