5th grade graduation & last day of school

The kids had school all the way through June 3 this year. Needless to say, they were VERY excited about the last day of school. In fact, on the day AFTER the last day of school - the first day of summer vacation - James woke up at about 5:45am excited to squeeze all the fun possible out of the day. He wanted me to read him a chapter out of the chapter book that we're on (The Disappearance of Emily H., as featured on Ghostwriter), but I told him he had to give me until 6am.

Last day of school pics. Here's James on his last day of second grade. 

This was Amelie's last day of elementary school & last day at Ridgeway. Elementary school in Columbia just goes through the 5th grade and then middle school is 6th, 7th, and 8th. 

Quite the difference from her first day of Kindergarten & first day at Ridgeway (also the photo quality from Sam's phone has improved quite a bit, as you can see): 

We attended Amelie's 5th grade graduation ceremony in the morning. It was outdoor with a bring-your-own-lawn-chair situation due to COVID, but it was so pleasant that I hope they just continue that way. 

Everyone sung the school song & then the kids sang "This Land Is Your Land." 

Amelie's teacher took a family photo for us & my friend Shauna's farm venture provided the lovely bouquet. Some of the kids went home with their parents after the ceremony, but I thought Amelie would have more fun doing the last-day-of-school things and I had to go back at noon to pick James up anyway. 

Several of the online-only kids came to the ceremony as well so she got to catch up with them. Her teacher, Ms. Williams, said before they announced everyone's name that her class attended more than half the year online and once they finally got to come back (limited, masked) in-person that they were just so glad to see each other that they were all best friends, and that continued throughout the year - she'd never had a group of kids who all got along so well. It probably helps that the class size was so small, too, with just 14 students. 

They also came home with report cards, which looked different due to COVID as well - there were no academic evaluations, just teacher comments and the info that they'd been promoted to the next grade. 

I thought this selection of comments from James's were funny (just an excerpt): 

Trimester 1: "James is a joy to have in class. He shows good listening skills and uses his worktime appropriately." 

Trimester 2: "When prompted, James is willing to volunteer ideas and perspectives during classroom discussions." 

Trimester 3: "James needs to continue working on listening to directions and completing classwork." 

It seems like things might have gone downhill as they moved in-person 😂

I thought this was nice from Amelie's teacher (again, just a small excerpt - it was a whole page of typed comments for both kids): "Amelie is a really cool kid! She has very interesting thoughts and great ideas to share about a wide range of topics."