Yesterday, I walked my Kindergarten students to the busses one last time. :( It was a bittersweet day, as it has been a whirlwind of a school year. My school plays an end of the year slideshow with everyone in the school pictured, which was very cool to see and my students loved when there was someone they knew on the big screen! We also ate lunch outside together, which was very cool to have that first and only meal I ate with them be the last one (as I was recess duty instead of lunch!) Then we came back in, cleared out our writing folders and I have to share some of the comments:
"Miss Lamski! Look at how I used to write and look at my book I wrote the other day! I am so big!"
"Woah! I draw much better pictures now."
"I spelled the wrong in all these books! What was I thinking?!"
"Maybe I should be a writer when I grow up. I like my stories. They are funny."
These were just some of the comments that my children were saying as they were reminiscing and looking at their writing from November-June. They are correct, their writing has improved tremendously since November and I have some very comical writers in my class. I will be curious to see how their writing progresses over the years - some were very serious, others made me laugh out loud when we would read them together. Some students spent much more time on their pictures than their writing and it was interesting to see the changes over the year.
After we cleared out our writing folders and chose one book for Miss Lamski to keep as an example to the incoming Kindergarten students, I had a surprise for them! (Not another ice cream shoppe like we did the day prior, even better!) I made autograph books for the kids to have each other sign. The only rule was you had to sign everyone's and let everyone sign yours. Some students just wrote their name, others drew a small picture next to their name, and a few students wrote sentences in their friends' books about the fun days they had or that they would miss each other. This was one of my teary-eyed moments, as I watched my classroom grow in front of my eyes. This school year was very difficult for them, having three teachers and they lacked a sense of community until just recently in May. As I watched them go around and ask other's for their autographs and write in other's books, I just had tears in my eyes. They have come such a long way! I wish we had more time together so they didn't have to be separated from their friends right after making them. The best though, was when a student came and asked me where my book was. I hadn't even thought to make myself one. I quickly grabbed one of the extras I had made, signed my name on the front and all 24 of my students took pride in signing their name (in their best writing) in my autograph book, as I wrote special notes to each of them in theirs. This was one of my favorite parts of yesterday, a memory I will definitely keep forever. I also plan on doing an autograph book each year, as it doesn't cost anything and is such a treasure to have.
As we finished our autographs, the Snow Cone truck was here. We walked outside and ate our snowcones before I dropped the students off at Art one last time. When they came back, I passed out their life skills awards (I chose one particular thing or life skill each student was good at and designed some awards individually.) I also took this opportunity to provide them with a Summer Work Packet, my letter to the students, a new pencil, eraser, 8 pack of crayons, report card, standardized testing scores, and a photo op with me! :) The students definitely enjoyed this part and after the first few students received an award, they would try to guess who the award would go to after I said the theme of the award. Most of the time, the students guessed correctly!
When the awards ended and everything was off my table, that is when the tears started streaming down my face. I took this opportunity to read my letter to my students, in case they were unable to read it with their parents after school. Out of the 24 students I had, eight of them were crying. I had tears of joy in my eyes, and my one student who rarely shows emotion and has the "i don't care about anything" attitude, just walked right up to me and hugged me so tight. At that particular moment in Kindergarten, everything that we had been through as a class and as individuals, was worth every second and every difficult day. We had a group hug and then walked to the busses one last time. It was the perfect day in Kindergarten, and as I placed my students on their respective bus, they looked older, more mature, and like the first grader they had become.
......xoKindrTeachr
