Gingerbread House Extravaganza 2011

After two weeks of reading every Gingerbread book we could get our hands on, connecting the Gingerbread to every area of academics, creating nearly every craft we could find connected to the gingerbread stories, and retelling the Gingerbread stories over and over, we celebrated with our annual Gingerbread house building extravaganza.  Here are just a few examples the fun we had:

Should I stick on my house or pop it in my mouth?'

So, you pick this up and stick it like this. Make sure you have a lot of frosting!

I'm ready to start decorating... I like the frosting.

Thank you for supporting students at Maxfield as they learn and celebrate their learning.

2011 Nettie & Friends Opening Reception at the Egg AND I East, Saint Paul

It was a dark and stormy night, and STILL friends came out to support Nettie & Friends and Maxfield School at the Opening Reception on Saturday, December 3, 2011.   Thank you all.  It was a fun evening. 
Remember, the sale continues through the month of December at the Egg And I.  Come on over for breakfast or lunch - - do some shopping -- do some good.

Ta Da! A Fireplace is built, the Nettie & Friends Sale is OPEN for business

With a bevy of devoted volunteers, we take a bare wall and build a fireplace in an afternoon.

Thank you for bringing tall ladders and a willing spirit to turn 

a wall into a warm inviting space for Nettie & Friends to 

show off their wares to sell to benefit Maxfield School in St. Paul.

We're ready for business! 

Thank you one and all for your support.

Thank you to the Egg and I for their willingness to host this annual event.

I hope to see you all at the Opening Reception.

Nettie

Fundraising Show and Sale to Support Maxfield School Opens in December

Getting Organized

Thank you to all of the 'friends' who joined us for breakfast on Saturday, October 29 at the Egg and I.  We gathered some unique and wonderful items for the sale and show in December.  

Wow.  There's a lot of talent out in the world.  Here's a sneak peak:

This is the cutest child's cooking set.  Oh, my.

There  are many other items, and as soon as I get photos, 

you can rest assured they will be posted here.

In the meantime, I spent part of my Sunday doing a little production work:

Reusable sandwich bags... yes, they are big enough for a couple of slices of bread.

They are colorful, fun and reusable.  They come in sandwich and snack sizes.

They are lined with rip-stop nylon you can wipe clean, or machine wash and dry.

S.P.A.R.C. at Maxfield

Special Projects Are Really Cool made its debut at Maxfield on Friday, September 30th.  Through your support, students were able to participate in special high interest activities for part of their school day.  The day was a huge success with both students and staff.  From an outdoor carnival to bass guitar lessons and making spring rolls to rolling beads, students had the opportunity to experience unique, fun and engaging activities.

Making ornaments...

Spring rolls...enough to share

Ooey gooey gleek...

Science... build it... chain reaction

Bass guitar lessons

Cookie decorating

Group Karaoke

Origami

Puzzles

Etching

 

and making beads to name a few...

There were many other activities included on this SPARC day.  We will be hosting more SPARC opportunities at Maxfield throughout the school year.  Thank you for making all of this, and so much more, possible at Maxfield School.

Building a Peaceful Community, One Stitch at a Time

Room 10 students celebrated their peaceful community by sewing a Peace Pillow to take home and share with their family.   Over the year, we have worked with students to build a classroom community where students care for themselves and each other in a peaceful way.  When this project was introduced as a possibility for celebrating our hard work growing together, it was best summed up by one student who responded "That's so awesome!"

Call us crazy, but with the help of volunteers, we set up sewing machines and got to work.  Students learned about how sewing machines work, taking turns, practicing patience and feeling pride in a finished project. 

Feedback from families when the pillows came home was wonderful.

It was an incredible finish to a fantastic year.

Thank you for making this project, and so many more,  possible for the students.

Maxfield's Mosaic Project is Underway

We've been talking about it.  We've been planning it.  Hurray! The mosaic project is underway.   Thank you to Lori Greene from Mosaic on a Stick for organizing, planning, instructing and working with us on the mosaic project to turn this air intake in our courtyard into something beautiful for our community.

Maxfield courtyard air intake

Butterfly panel in progress

 

Rabbit panel is progress

Yes, we are in the early stages of the project, but the work has been wonderful to share with students in Maxfield's Project Spirit after school program.  Watching young students work together with teen mentors was wonderful.  It was a bit of magic watching the teen mentors begin to develop their skill and craft with cutting tile, assisting younger students and have fun while working with the mosaic.  A big shout out to Mr. Lyles and Mr. Hill for their commitment and enthusiasm in organizing their students to 'make their mark' on Maxfield in a very positive manner.

Stay tuned for updates and opportunities to help with the project.

Celebrating Teamwork

In the Learning Center, we work with our students on being "bucket fillers" based on concepts in the book  Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids written by Carol McCloud,  illustrated by David Messing. 


We celebrated by going taking the city bus and going bowling in the Midway Center together.  What fun we had cheering each other on, encouraging our friends, laughing together, watching the bowling balls roll s-l-o-w-l-y down the lane crashing the pins around.  It was a wonderful day for all of us.

Picking up a spare

Working on my form.

Watching our friends and celebrating together.

I think it's a spare!

Thank you for working with us to provide these enrichment experiences and celebrations with our students.

Maxfield School Patrol Parade News

Maxfield School Patrol has a long history of 

participating in the annual School Patrol Parade and Picnic.  

With your help purchasing matching t-shirts, 

Maxfield School Patrol marched 

their way to a FIRST place trophy!  

From the School Patrol, a big Thank You to Nettie & Friends.  

(Sorry, no camera at the parade...)

And a shout out of thanks to local Midway business owners at

SHIRTZ for working with us to make this affordable.

http://www.shirtz.com

2011 MN Horse Expo with our students

 I'm ready for the MN Horse Expo at the State Fairgrounds!

Students from the Maxfield Learning Center went to

the MN Horse Expo to learn about horses.

Everyone had the opportunity to ride a horse and a pony.

Thank you for making this possible.

Horse owners welcomed us.

These cowpokes had the opportunity to get up close 

and personal with a horse that was taking a nap.

As you can tell, this horse was very gentle.

 We got to see his hooves up close. 

He kept nuzzling the boys.

This Clydesdale was ready to talk to us.

 Horse back riding for everyone (that's a parent in the background.)

We got to check out a horse's new shoe.  

Did you know horses have frogs on the bottom of their hoof?

This smile sums up our day. We had a blast.

Thank you for making this trip possible.

Thank you for helping us get "up close and personal"

with these wonderful animals... now, off to write 

our informational reports!