The girls were so excited when the end of the school year came around and they got to have summer vacation, but they were also a bit sad. They were leaving great teachers, and wonderful friends behind.
I have heard that some kindergartens have a special graduation ceremony at the end of the year, but the kindergarten classes in Gwen's school in Oklahoma did not. They did have an award ceremony though, and while Gwen was disappointed that she didn't have perfect attendance, she did get an award for reading.
The kindergarten teachers started a program in January of 2012 to help the kids learn how to read, then progress into higher reading levels and harder books. They started sending home practice readers which the kids had to practice reading to the parents until they had it right, and then returned it to school and took a little test on it. The goal was to have each child read 20 books by the end of the school year.
Gwen accomplished the goal by Easter. She had already been reading the practice books, so she started bringing home level 1 reading books, and quickly progressed to level 2 (she started reading chapter books like the magic tree house series and captain underpants series and charlottes web and stuart little a couple months ago...they tested her and she's reading at a 3rd grade level). So we went to watch Gwen receive her award at school. She was so excited she was getting up on her knees and waving at us from where she was sitting.
Here's Gwen receiving her reading award from her teacher Mrs. Tooley (what a wonderful woman she was!! I just loved her!!). We were oh so proud of Gwen!!
So the following three videos after Gwen's awards ceremony are from Grace's preschool graduation. I was so excited to find out when we moved to Oklahoma that the school district there had a huge preschool program that they ran out of one of the elementary schools for all the 4 year old children living in the district, and I was so glad that right before we moved there they opened up more classrooms and hired more teachers because that allowed Grace to enter into the program (we missed the normal enrollment and registration that happened early on in the year). Mrs. Elliott and her assistant teacher Mrs. Olmstead were fabulous, caring teachers, and they put together a wonderful graduation.
This is part of the Dinosaur March song.
This is part of the Chewy Chewy Bubblegum song.
They did so many more cute songs like the dinosaur march and bubble gum, but I loved that they sang the Oklahoma song from the musical, and was surprised to see that Gracie remembered most of the words. It was very cute.
I was so proud when the program was over and they handed out little diplomas to the kids. They put them inside big binders that also held a bunch of artwork they did during the school year, a hand print from the beginning of the year and a handprint from the end of the year, a see how I've grown sheet showing weight and height from the beginning of the year and the end of the year, and so many other things. It's something I will treasure forever.
This is Grace and her friend Xoe, who also happened to be in her primary class at church. They were best friends, had play dates once or twice a week, and were so excited to share that moment together before both of our families moved to different states.
I love my girls and couldn't be a prouder momma!!
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