Moving on up!

Today was the last day of school for this kiddos and the last day of elementary school for Lex!! They had their end of year ceremony and 5th grade graduation. It was so sweet. He has such a wonderful class! It makes me sad that they’ll be separated into different teams in the middle school.

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5th graders enter the gym to great applause. Everyone else (all the classes, plus 5th grade parents and families) were already seated.

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There were a lot of awards to sit through. Fortunately everything moved along pretty quickly.

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Lex won an award for “Most Improved Musician.”

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As he walked back to his seat, his classmates all called his name and put out their hands for high-fives. It was soooo sweet! I didn’t see them do that for anyone else. They all knew about his musical challenges and I think they were proud to see him rewarded for his success. I love his class.

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Where there are words, Lex will read them. :)

When I asked Lex later if he was surprised to win a prize and he said, “Not really.” I laughed at his honest, then he clarified, “I was surprised that it was a music award though.” I love his confidence!

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These two teachers are retiring after 25 and 30 years in the district. They got many standing ovations. Mrs. Torrey, in the white sweater, is Lex’s teacher this year, and Mrs. Shattie , in the blue dress, was his teacher in 3rd grade. Both are excellent, caring teachers and will be missed by many in the district!

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Each kid got a little “diploma” saying they successfully completed 5th grade.

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Good bye elementary school!! I’ll have to dig up his “first day of school” photo and compare them. Later.

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When Lex said, “Mom, will you take a picture of us?” I said, “Oh yes, of course!!” :)

Oh yeah, this little lady moved up to 4th grade today. She is exited. The 4th grade works on an “open-classroom, co-teaching” model in which two fourth grade teachers (in years past they were in individual classrooms) co-teach, sharing the class and work-load. One is an accomplished math teacher and the other a recognized ELA teacher, and they have very compatible personalities. We attended an open house last week to learn more about the model and how well it works for them last year, their first year co-teaching. Eve is pretty excited that all of her friends will be in her class.

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She wanted to make sure Daisy was in the picture with her. :)

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Eve got very excited that Daisy looked at the camera too. :)

Welcome to Middle School!

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I love these two sillies!

We had open house at the middle school last night. We learned what team Lex is on an who else is on his team too. It was so fun. Lex was a rock star! He was so confident and so happy to be there. When we walked into the classroom a boy who was on the FLL team with him for the past few years, said hi to Lex and Lex said hi back and I think he felt super cool and happy that an 8th grader he’s friendly with was there to greet him. He spoke in the group, played the game with the team (and although parents were invited to join in, Lex told me not too!), and so was happy. After the team meeting we hung out in the school for awhile, saying hi to people and checking things out. He showed us the gym and cafeteria, and the band room. I mentioned buying a lock for his locker and he told me no one uses locks anyway. Like a cool middle-schooler! :)

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They gave out team t-shirts and he put his right on! He has some growing to do still! He even wore it to bed last night. :) I think he’s excited!

I really think that extra trip to HMMS helped and, even if he won’t admit it, I think it gave him a lot more confidence tonight. There were definitely nervous looking kids there, but he was not one of them! He was even walking though the halls and jumping up to slap door frames! Like a cool middle-schooler. :)

Today is 5th grade graduation. Break out the tissues!