End of 2022-2023 School Year

 Below are some pictures of things from the last couple weeks of school:

At the "Fine Arts Extravaganza" the week before school is out Gabriel's class did a wax museum.  Each student researched a different person from history and then dressed up and prepared to present about that person's life.  As people were wandering the book fair they could go and push a paper "button" behind each student to start their talk about their person.  Gabriel picked Leonardo DaVinci and did a great job researching and writing his paper.

Next the elementary students did some songs that they had been working on in music this spring.  In one of the songs someone is supposed to sing in a very low voice, which is hard to find with elementary students.  The music teacher had her husband sing while sitting down next to her and Gabriel got a microphone and lip synced the words.  He did such a great job that some parents were confused as to how Gabriel was singing in such a deep voice!

There was plenty of field trip fun too.  Gabriel's teacher and student teacher put his class in the school van and took them out for bowling and pizza.  Afterwards they went to the park to play for a bit.

On another day close to the end of school they loaded up the school van and went to tour a historic home.  They had planned to eat lunch at a park but the weather was bad, so they went to a classmates house and ate and hung out there for a while (that is one brave mom).

Corban's class went to Crab Orchard and enjoyed learning about early settler life.  Corban especially liked making butter, shooting a real bow and arrow, and playing a game called "graces" where you use sticks to throw a hoop to a partner and they try to catch it.

Just a random shot of Corban being a cool guy

The end of the year also brought the end of the year scout ceremony where they move up to the next den.  Corban was really excited to move from being a wolf to a bear (with the hat and neckerchief to prove it)

Two days before school got out they had "end of the year chapel."  They have this every year but honestly it had never occurred to me to go.  This year Corban specifically asked me to come because they were going to perform with chimes, something that this amazing teacher has been working on with them.  So Corban's class did that and each student in Gabriel's class shared a poem that they had written.  If I'd realized that it was such a personal thing I would have been going to this every year.  We'll certainly be there next year since they always pray for the 5th graders and their families as they transition to middle school (yikes!)

And below is the last day of school.  After the half day we met a few friends for pizza at Benny Marzanos.

The day after school gets out is always Awards Day.  I love how personal the entire thing is.  Corban's teacher gave him an award for being inventive and creative, and also an academic award for having a high 'A' average in all subjects.  Only one other person in his class got this award and he was very proud of it.  He wanted to put both of them on the refrigerator when we got home.

Gabriel's teacher gave him several awards, including one for reading and another for being someone who could probably teach the class.  The one that he was most proud of though was an award for being an epithetic friend toward all of his classmates.  One thing that his teacher did this year was assign them various class members to play with at recess sometimes.  Some of the kids got really annoyed at this, but Gabriel always got excited to play with a classmate he didn't know well and found some common ground on which to play.  I was especially proud of how he helped some of the more reserved kids get excited to play something with him.

Gabriel and Mrs. Mashburn

Corban and Mrs Carr (I am so sad that we don't have another second grader for her to teach because she is just the perfect balance of discipline, love, and grace).

On to the 3rd and 5th grade!