It has been quite the memorable school year with the shut down due to the pandemic, and the last couple of weeks of school were ones we will always remember!
We had our preschool graduation of my first year as teacher at Kid's Club. I thought about many options, but thought a drive-by one might be a good option with current circumstances, and it was a great ending to a great year! The last 2 months, I've been doing a video to keep the kids learning, where we do an easy craft with things the kids have around the house, math activities, science experiments, songs, books, some exercise or yoga. It's been fun! I also made packets for fun the kids could work on so they'd be ready for kindergarten. They weren't to turn in, but just so the younger kids could work on their "homework" while their older siblings did or when they were bored. This group of kids was such a special one! It was a privilege being with and learning with them, and working with Carol, Gloria, and Shannon this year! I got some sweet gifts from some of our students and my cow-workers. Lots of flowers and gift cards, too! I made a little slideshow we watched online and it was so fun looking back! <https://www.youtube.com/watchv=jnp6aEp1lMU&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2fescJW46zOeCWsnMsFvrNKQabkm__j3M38Y5v1zJ_V_i4UXMHzA85RVI> I loved every minute and hope they did too!
Emma is a middle school grad - peace out middle school and hello, high school! Talking about it, Emma only had to endure 2 years of middle school. Middle school has not been easy for her. She hasn't really made many close friends and gets tired of the immaturity and bad language and gossiping and everyone trying to outdo each other. She is an old soul and that gets tiring for her. But she has survived and thrived! Way to go, Em! I can't believe we will have a high schooler next year! She has loved her teachers though for the most part. They have a great staff at CMS! We got all the staff gift cards for the drink shop here. She checked in and out and got some of her work and art and a folder with awards. We are so proud of Emma! She finished off with a 4.0, Battle of the Books award, and the Principals award! ...... She also got a Cougar's shirt, bag with a gift card, candy, and other random things. They put signs on the lawn for all of the 8th graders, because I guess here, the middle school graduation is a big deal. They also made a DVD of the principal and student council president speeches and a slide show of all of the kids. So we watched that her last day and made poutine for dinner to celebrate. Phew! Glad that is done with.
We also had an elementary grad! Go Callahan! He has done well this school year. Slacked a little with the distance learning, but he got caught up. He got to go in and work with his teacher as he got a little confused with it all being online to do some things in person and on paper. He is a good student with a love of learning and school. His teacher, Mr. Kurtz, has been incredible! He has been here for about 20 years teaching and is now moving to St. George, so we are grateful Cal was able to have him. Cal made him a Yoda card that said "Great teacher you are!" since he's a huge Star Wars fan, with some Montana chocolates and an Amazon gift card.
Lucy finished up 3rd grade and is now on to fourth. She had Mrs. Ralph and oh, we loved her! She was so good for Lucy! She is on her way now to become a counselor, as she just finished up with her Masters degree, so we are lucky we got her, too! She told us that Lucy is so bright and sweet and a hard worker and she knows she will do well at anything. I also had her son, Bridger, in my preschool class and he was the cutest kid! Lucy made her teacher a picture and a fill in, Amazon gift card, and sunflowers.
Covey is done with 1st grade and will be a big second grader next year! He had Mrs. Staudinger. I got to volunteer in the class quite a bit and see her in action and she was so good with the kids! Covey loved her. She is so sweet. During this distance learning, she always send cute little treats and surprises for the kids, had fun Zoom meetings, and went the extra mile. She always tells me Cov is the model student and is her go to guy. Cov made her a picture and fill in, Amazon gift card, and daisies.
We also checked out the new addition to the school, it is pretty awesome! And the construction on all the schools is in full swing now. The school gave me a volunteer ice cream basket, that was so sweet! After that, we had lunch and went to the park. Cov and Hunter played laser tag, and Lucy and Elle had fun chasing and making up games. Sydnie loves tagging along too. Cal and Emma stayed home to hang out and play Roblox together (party poopers). We had popsicles when we got home and swung on the hammock, played with squirt guns, and watched a movie while Mom and Dad went to celebrate (we worked hard this school year too!) by running some errands in Billings and having Cafe Rio out on their patio (had the place to ourselves). The weekend before, we went to the Drive-in to watch Jumanji 2 and Emma picked Fudruckers to go out to dinner to celebrate our survival of this weird school year. Yay!
The last *real* day of school (the kids didn't really have much of any homework the final week...but I made them start on their summer work, which isn't a ton. We do 2-3 pages, both sides of reading/English/math/science work). And chores and then practicing. Really, there's not much difference between what we've been doing and summer, but it felt different. We cleaned all up and got ready for our last day of school party we have always done since Emma was in Kindergarten. All of the kids got to pick a friend to invite. We played with some new summer toys, did some squirt gun art, had hamburgers and hot dogs with fries and watermelon, played the taffy game (like charades, password, and catch phrase, but the kid's got a candy when they guessed right first), did some shadow stories, had snow cones, and a couple of the friends spent the night, so we had a movie and the girls did feet baths and painted nails. Emma had Anders, Cal had Nolan, Lucy had Summer and Cov had Bryce. Their friends are good kids and it was a blast being with them!
The kids were really so blessed with amazing teachers! It has definitely been a crazy year for us all, no? This Covid-19 school closure and distance learning has been different for sure. We have had great home school days and ones full of tears. We have had days where we really loved the flexibility and more family time and ones where we wished for more regular schedules. We have had fun days filled with peace and others where it seemed the kids were fighting like cats and dogs all day. Some days everyone worked hard and well to get things done quickly and others some of our kiddos just had no motivation. But overall it has been a good experience. Grateful for our sweet kids! Next year, we will have a high schooler, middle schooler, two elementary kiddos and one at home. Crazy! 🤯 "Come what may and love it " -Elder Joseph B. Worthlin 😊
No comments:
Post a Comment