End of the Year Excitement

Well, as usual the last few days of the semester proved extremely busy for our all stars. Here's a quick run down of some of the wonderful things that happened in December for us:

• Our Winter Showcase was a HUGE success! Our 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders along with our specialty performance clubs did a phenomenal job. I can't say enough how appreciative I am of parents and family for supporting your talented kids by helping backstage, sewing homemade Nutcracker costumes, and applauding for all the 300+ rock stars that performed that night! (You can click on the pictures to make them larger.)
  
  
  
  
  
• Polar Express day came to GFAA! On top of that, it was also college day! (So of course I made my own homemade Baylor pj pants- sic 'em!) The whole school looked fantastic decked out in their pajamas and college gear. We had a ridiculously adorable polar express parade courtesy of our kindergartners which ended with the everyone in the cafe. There we sang songs and told the story of the best train ever. Afterwards we surprised Mrs. Sterling and Mrs. Becker with their own jar of bells. Just like everything GFAA does, it was pretty magical!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The next to the last day before Winter break, we had the honor of hosting Texas Commissioner of Education Williams for a visit to Garner! We wanted to show him all that we had to offer as a GPISD School of Choice and I think we succeeded! All Star Dancers and Crew lined our red carpet at the school's entrance and welcomed the Commissioner in with choreography they learned mere minutes beforehand (pretty professional for ten-year-olds)! Once our fourth graders who were at lunch formally welcomed him to GFAA, our stage curtains opened to reveal the Showstoppers who performed "Start It Up." The group toured our Early Education wing, a 5th grade math classroom (where they were learning fractions through music notes!) and our media center. Everything ended with our performance kids dancing and singing Commissioner Williams all the way to his car. He seemed very impressed with all we were doing here and at one point even got his iPhone out and started filming our performances! The whole experience reminded me of how proud I am to be a part of this school.
  
  
  
  
  
• With all that craziness under our belt, you would think we would try to have a nice relaxing final day before break, right? Nope! Mrs. Becker discovered a contest where our school could win $15,000 (and you know how much we could do with that money here at Garner) so we put our submission video together in less than 24 hours! Click below to see all the different way we can rock "Jingle Bells" at GFAA and vote for us EVERYDAY! Voting ends January 11th!
  
  
  GFAA "Jingle Bells" - Help us win $15,000!
  
  
  Whoo! It was a crazy last few days, but well worth it. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Here's to an All Star 2013!