June 27-29

Last week of school! And still more birthdays to celebrate! And more math story problems to do in order for every student to be in a math problem by the end of the year! Again, it all got done. And we fit in a nice treat with a visit from a Core French DaVinci class who came and presented their French play to us.

We finally put together all the French "sons" pages we have been making this spring into a book.

And we bound the copies of the class storybook, which the kids had time to read and colour.

And we organized and tidied and put away our classroom together! I also got help from the kids sorting and filing everyone's work into folders. The kids really enjoyed this work. I made lists of jobs to do on the board and they signed up for the ones they wanted. Kids emptied the pencil boxes, removed the taped circles on boxes and tables, took down work from bulletin boards, removed the words from the word wall, organized math materials, sorted their classmates' work...it was a great help, and the kids carried out their tasks very responsibly.

During snack, I asked them what their favourite things were that we did this year, and what things they thought could be improved for next year. I ask my students for this feedback every year, and I explained to them that it helps me get better and better as a teacher.

On the last day of school, (most of) the kids had a chance to visit the classroom they will be in next year. Since some of the teachers for next year still need to be hired, some kids just got to see who will be in their class next year. We hosted a visit to our classroom from the current kindergarteners who will be in my class next year. Usually these visits all happen at the same time, but this year the kindergarteners visited and sat on the carpet with my students in the room, sitting at the tables. It was really interesting, because after making introductions I invited questions from the kindies about grade 1 (in English), and then my students raised their hands to answer in French! It was so rewarding for me to see how far my students have come in their ability to express themselves in French. And also it was interesting to hear what my students thought were the important things to tell about being in this classroom (they talked a lot about recess, heure de jeux, and the prizes for speaking French!).

The day ended with a farewell assembly with the whole school in the gym, but just beforehand we had a closing circle in our classroom. I congratulated the kids on all the amazing hard work they had done this year, and I thanked them for being my students. I told them that I had a gift for each of them, a little pebble made out of clay with the word "merci" stamped on it. I explained that I had carved the word "merci" into a stiff piece of clay, and made my own stamp that way. I said that if they wanted they could just keep it, but that if they ever really wanted to thank someone, later on in their lives, they could pass it on to that person, and that person might pass it on too. Then I went around the circle and thanked each student individually and gave them their pebble, a token of thanks.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU PARENTS FOR A WONDERFUL YEAR!