Our final celebrations for fifth grade are scaled well. For example today each child received a wonderful Memory Book created by parents. Students enjoyed reading the book and collecting autographs. The principal gave a short speech and the children sang a song for a colleague who is getting married soon--again a good scale for ten and eleven year olds. All of this happened in our school courtyard which looks more beautiful than ever these days.
The rest of the day was spent finalizing clean-up and of course, meeting next year's class. Like last year we introduced the students to fifth grade as a team of teachers and then we broke into homerooms to take questions and get to know next year's students a bit more. Students were excited about the transition, but also clearly a bit sad to be leaving the teachers they've grown so fond of in fourth grade, a bittersweet day.
The highlight of the day was when the school secretary pitched in to correct a mistake in the Memory Book. Without even asking, she made a correction for approximately 75 books--an amazing gift to all of us. And another highlight was the wonderful, personalized song another colleague wrote for the students to perform for the teacher getting married. That was a very special moment.
On Monday we have our final day--a day filled with celebrations big and small, and again, well scaled for the ages of the children we teach.
Note: The children's singing brings such joy that I had to add it to this post.
