End of School days

Lots of activities going on at the end of the school year. We can hardly find time to keep up with it all!

This will be a long post as I try to recount what all we’ve done, so be ready to sit back for a while!

First up? Our school’s second annual Vocabulary Parade!

The students each choose a word and then dress up in a way to represent the word.

Middle Man chose the word “popcorn.”

I’m pretty sure he chose “popcorn” so that he could eat the popcorn we popped as part of his costume.

Peanut chose “address.”

(Incidentally, her friend next to her chose the word Incognito)

She absolutely refused to wear “a dress” as part of her costume which to me would’ve made the whole thing complete but she was proud and happy with it as it was so I didn’t argue!

Here is our cute principal.....

I told her she looked fancy enough to head straight to the Kentucky Derby!

Take a look at some of the other cute and creative words our clever kids came up with.......

And then.......

My all-time favorite........

Don’t you just love it?!?

If you knew this kid and his personality you could appreciate this picture even more but his face pretty much tells it all!

He is quite a character!

Middle Man had a very special responsibility this week.....

.....Teacher for the Day!

He earned 125 AR points therefore qualifying him for the honor so he got to be the teacher for his class all day long. He said he even had to pull someone’s conduct card. (I think he especially liked that part!)

Another exceptionally exciting event this past week for my Kindergarteners was our Butterfly release!

A few weeks ago the UPS guy delivered our 5 teeny, tiny caterpillars to our classroom.

Each day we watched our caterpillars and I promise you, I think my students could literally have sat there for hours watching them crawl around. They were SO fascinated.

We were out of school for a few days at Easter for Easter holidays as well as a few bonus days for severe weather and flooding. When we returned, we had 3 caterpillars in cocoons and 2 more in the process.

Then Friday of last week we got to school and had a butterfly!

But wait...it gets even better...

That very same morning during breakfast and right before the Vocabulary Parade, we got to actually SEE a butterfly emerge from its cocoon.

It was the coolest thing! The children were beyond excited.

I’m so thankful we were able to catch it when it happened. It’s something that I’m sure they’ll never forget.

Over the weekend the other 3 emerged from their cocoons so on Monday morning we went outside with the class next door to release our 5 beautiful painted lady butterflies.

See how excited they are?!?

As each butterfly made it’s way out of the net container and flew off into the wide open space, they would jump and cheer.

Next up? Guitar Boy’s spring concert.

Guitar Boy normally plays alto or bari saxophone but the band director needed a tuba for the concert so Guitar Boy played tuba instead!

That’s him on the far right in the white shirt leaning on the tuba. HA.

This is Guitar Boy with his band director. He has learned so much from Mr. Rollins and we’re so grateful for all Mr. Rollins has done.

If I may take a moment to brag, I will.

Guitar Boy is extremely talented.

Like maybe even freakishly talented?

Freakish to me, at least!

I don’t say that just because I’m his Mom, although I am very proud of him, but he has at times shocked The Chef and me with how naturally he picks up things. For instance...

The tuba music he played for the spring concert? He sight-read it only the day before. And he doesn’t even really play the tuba! He’s only been a band student and been able to read music at all for 3 years yet he’s sight reading music for a concert on a horn that he just decided to learn to play one day.

We are excited about the high school that Guitar Boy will be attending next year. It is an excellent high school with an exceptional music program. Their bands have competed nationally and their marching band most recently marched in President Obama’s Inaugural Parade.

As it turns out, Mr. Rollins is good friends with the band director at the high school where Guitar Boy will attend next year.

Thank you, Mr. Rollins, for giving Guitar Boy such a solid start and we are looking forward to seeing how Guitar Boy’s talent will continue to develop!

Guitar Boy was quite the performer this week but another child of mine clearly was not.....

Here is Dogos at her end of the year Playschool program.

Now if you recall, at the Playschool Christmas program, she sang, and jingled, and sang her little heart out and The Boss was the one who sucked her thumb and didn’t sing a single note.

Needless to say and for some inexplicable reason, Dogos not only took a page from The Boss’s book but took it one step further and kept her back to the audience for the entire 20 minute performance.

Here she is during the “Hippopotamus song."

And during the “Puppy Song."

And during the “counting song."

And the grand finale, “I’m a Playschool Cutie” song.

She sure does have a cute ponytail, right?!?

ahem

After Dogos’ non-performance, I headed back to school for the remainder of our Field Day where Peanut and her friend, “Incognito” from the Vocabulary parade were 5th grade Field Day helpers!

They had a great time as helpers and truly did a wonderful job!

My class had so much fun at each station including the egg and spoon relay...

as well as the 50 yard dash..

I sure am gonna miss these sweet faces!

Only 5 days of school left. Hard to believe!

Finally, for those of you who are still reading and haven’t either fallen asleep or given up....

It was the Playschool End of the Year program for The Boss!

This particular program was noteworthy for several reasons...

First, it’s The Boss’s last program before heading to big school....Kindergarten!

Second, for the first time ever, Ever EVER, The Boss actually sang!

She sang AND did all the motions!

Third, Dogos’ teachers suggested that Dogos join the program for a 2nd time since she clearly was not in a performing mood the day before.

So we decided to give it a try.

Notice The Boss on the top row singing and doing motions.

Notice Dogos on the bottom row with her hand over her eyes.

And here is the “Hippopotamus song."

And here is the “My God is so Big” song.

And the “Little Red Box” song.

At one point she briefly pulled her shirt up completely over her face.

I SO wish I had something better than my iPhone to take pics that morning because the few moments when she would take her hands down the expression on her face was so overly dramatic that it was not to be believed.

So I guess in a way, she truly did perform, just not in the way her parents and teachers intended!

Now the next few pics are amusing to me for a few reasons..

The Boss is always saying that she doesn’t want to go to school because she has no friends and no one will play with her. This little girl here ran up and hugged The Boss SO tight.

No, friends, eh Boss?

The other thing that makes me laugh is, notice the white blur on the bottom left corner?

The white blur was Dogos running in front of me to jump in the picture. You can tell by the look on her face that she’s trying to transition from “performance mode” to regular old smiling Dogos.

There, that’s better!

Nice to see that smile again!

And look at that, Boss...even more friends!!

The Boss and Julia.

The Boss with Julia and her sister, Gracie.

So, these last 2 weeks have certainly been busy as we are closing out our time in West TN. We will miss our friends and the Playschool. Some friends we probably won’t see again but we’re looking forward to seeing Julia, Gracie and their family at a special family event of theirs in July. End of the year activities are fun yet exhausting and Grandma Sandy has been packing, packing, packing.

I may have even suffered a slight panic attack when I realized today that the movers will be here in eighteen days!!!

There’s lots to do and more to share but for now, I gotta find a box and pack some more!

Have a great Saturday!