End of the Year Activities

For weeks, The Lime was coming home from school singing little songs about a spider and the jungle. I cleaned his backpack out one afternoon and found a strip of paper on it with what appeared to be a part to a play.

The Lime's class and two other first grade classes had been practicing Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock. Even though he landed a speaking part in the play about America, he somehow landed another speaking part (and just like Doodlebug's birthday video, I thought I uploaded it but can't find it anywhere).

We went over his lines a few times at home but must have worked his tail off at school because he knew them like the back of his hand.

The classes were divided into different characters; The Lime was an explorer.

He's the cute kid in the back row with glasses

The little girl who played Anansi did an excellent job. She also happened to be the girl The Lime had a little crush on last year.

All of the time and effort that was put into the play paid off because it was cute, entertaining, and everyone did superb!

The Lime with his cute little friends

That same week, The Lime brought another paper home letting us know he'd be getting an award for the third trimester! He didn't receive anything last year and was bummed he didn't get anything for the first two trimesters of this year. So you can imagine how excited he was that he was finally going to be recognized for all his hard work.

Looking at his work from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, there's a HUGE difference. His writing is smaller and more legible, his context is more detailed, his ability to sound out words and not rely on us just telling him has improved leaps and bounds. He definitely earned his Super Star award and we couldn't have been more proud of him.

Later that afternoon, The Lime had his last class party which appropriately was a water party. They played different water games and relays and everyone was soaked by the end of the day.

The Lime was so excited, he couldn't stay seated (he's in the white/orange shirt)

Once again, really excited that his friend got the water poured on him

There's a little girl across the street who happened to be in The Lime's class this year. They became quick friends and The Lime wanted to spend every minute with her (at school and at home). Unfortunately, she also had a really good girl friend who wanted the same amount of attention from her. It wasn't a surprise that the other friend poured her cup of water on The Lime's head and he got to chase her.

Doodlebug wanted nothing to do with the games but had a grand time playing by himself.

The Lime and his friend won one of the relays (even though the girls next to them said they won...I saw the buckets, the boys won). The cups had holes in them and they had to try and take the cup of water from one bucket to another. They worked great together and were feelin' the love!

For the last relay, the team members sat in a line. The person in the front filled their cup with water, poured it over their head into the next person's cup and so on. By the time the water got to The Lime, there wasn't much left and the boys behind him were getting frustrated (as noted in the picture below). I reminded them it was just a game and to have fun! The Lime was clearly having a blast.

Before we knew it, it was the last day of school. The night before, I was in the middle of writing The Lime's teacher a note when he walked into my room and asked if I could follow him into his. As soon as he got in bed, he started to cry and said he didn't want first grade to end because he'd miss his teacher too much. I started to cry and told him I was sad, too.

In the note I was writing, I told his teacher that one of the reasons we didn't send The Lime to preschool was because I wanted to spend as much time with him before he really had to go to school. I told her it still made me a little sad to lose 6+ hours a day with him but it made things easier knowing he was going to be with her all day.

I gathered myself and told The Lime we needed to think of all the good things about this year and remember we can always say hi to his teacher next year. He calmed down and was able to get some sleep before the big day. He said he was feeling better when he woke up and ended up having a great last day. I was the one that lost it when we said goodbye to his teacher (super embarrassing!). We just loved her so much, as she was the perfect match for The Lime, and we were going to miss her.

The Lime took some photos with his friends and classmates and we officially said "adios" to the first grade!