The End of 1st Grade

It's been a busy few weeks, a busy few days. But the girls ended the 2010-2011 school year this afternoon.

Last night after bedtime prayers, Rachel started to cry. She was sad and expressed how much she was going to miss Mrs. Thompson, her wonderful 1st grade teacher. The tears resurfaced this morning before breakfast. Rachel again expressed how much she was going to miss her teacher and her friends.

She made it through the morning, packing up what was left of her belongings in her desk. Made the most adorable frog hats. Had a special time on the carpet where the teacher called each student up and asked what their favorite thing about 1st grade was and then she said something nice about each student and then presented them with a bag of Skittles. The note attached to the bag of Skittles said this:

"You've made it to the top of my chart and heart and now you're ready to Skittle Up to 2nd grade! Congratulations!"

Almost the entire school year, a behavior chart, called the Skittle Chart, has been in place. Depending on what color your clip landed on at the end of the day determined how many Skittles you got. However, due to nutritional rules set in place about a month ago, the reward of Skittles was tossed out the window. But the bag of Skittles and nice note accompanying it was a nice way to end the year.

The minimum day school bell rang and that symbolized the end of the day. Cheers and happy hollering could be heard throughout the school grounds. Rachel had made it through the day just fine, until Mrs. Thompson stood at the door, giving her 1st graders one last hug and goodbye. Once Rachel stepped away, she fell apart, sobbing. Thus resulted in the Mommy shedding some tears too.

Rachel has had a wonderful 1st grade school year. Despite having some really challenging classmates, that at times made learning difficult, she has had a great school year!

Her teacher was absolutely amazing! The challenges she faced on a daily basis were more than any one person should have to deal with, but she always handled the circumstances with such patience and calmness. However, I'm sure there was that underlying desire to want to beat the kid on more than one occasion. :) We tried to convince her move up to 2nd grade, but she's perfectly happy where she's at.

So today, we said goodbye to 1st grade, and thankful we've had such an amazing teacher, Mrs. Thompson!