Last Day of School

The last day of school has come and gone! Yesterday, my students enjoyed a fun day of movies, popcorn and popsicles. Almost all of them said they were sad that school was ending, but about 75% of them are going to summer school, so they won't miss it for long.

Here is the last day of school class picture. They look so serious!

Movie time.

Can you tell they love pictures?

One of my 1st grade reading groups. Their reading skills improved drastically over the year. I didn't think there was much hope for them at first but they really impressed me. I am so grateful to have witnessed the success that comes along with daily reading. I let them know how proud I was of them and reminded them to continue reading each day this summer.

This video is of one of my first grade reading students, reading "The Fire Cat" during our reading center time. He is the youngest in the class (just turned 6). Everyone loves listening to him read, even the other students in my class tell him he is "so cute." I had to get this video of him reading on the last day of school.

Throughout the year, a few of my students talked about being in a hip hop dance group. They would always tell me that they would show me their dances during recess but when it came time to perform, they would get too shy. On the last day of school, I told them it was their last chance to dance for me. After a few minutes of me saying "1, 2, 3, GO" they finally danced for about half a minute. They said it was ok to share with you =)

My 2nd graders wrote me good-bye letters, most of which said "Do not forgot me, I will not forget you. Please come visit Okinawa again." I thought this letter was especially neat because of the last sentence.

She LIKED the work I gave, that makes me smile!

I tried to say goodbye at the end of the day but the students kept saying "I'll see you Friday for the promotion ceremony, so this is not goodbye." I guess I can put off goodbye for good, for one more day!

Today is Thursday and teacher cleaning day. Sarah and I have worked on our room all week, so we didn't have much to do today. I turned in my report cards and had the room done by 10 am. With only 1 hour left in the school day, I will check out with Mr. Elofson in a few minutes and then my time at this school will be completed. Lori signed all the teachers on base today so we could all eat lunch together. That was nice but now I'm feeling way too full and yucky after Subway and Baskin Robbins.

Mr. Elofson is letting me borrow the school van today, so I can return the mattress to the family that I borrowed it from in October. I'm also borrowing the school vacuum today, so I can finish packing my vacuum bags. I'm only using two out of six vacuum bags to bring my stuff home in! One jumbo bag for all my clothes and one for my bedding. A lot less than I used when coming here. I will weigh my luggage tonight to make sure I'm under the 50 pound weight limit.

Tomorrow is the promotion ceremony and the last time I will see my students. I will post pictures from that and the staff bbq on Saturday, so you are all up to date before I come home.

3 days until departure!

XOXO

Kristen