1st Grade Here We Come!!

Yesterday was Rachel's last day of kindergarten. It's so hard to believe that this school year is over already. Time certainly does fly! Rachel's class put together a little program for all the parents to see yesterday afternoon. They recited a poem using the letters of KINDERGARTEN. It was really cute. There are some pictures of this in the slideshow. They also sang a song called "The Kindergarten Class" which is set to the tune of "The Adamms Family." They did such a good job on this too. My personal favorite was when they sang the theme song from the TV show "Growing Pains." Do you remember it? It starts out "Show me that smile again. Don't waste another minute on your crying. We're nowhere near the end. The best is ready to begin..." Is it coming back to you? The kids sang this so sweetly and had motions and everything for it. It was so cute! Mrs. Kembel put together a slideshow of pictures throughout the year and set it to music for all of us to watch. The songs were so sweet. She made all of the parents a copy too! What a super nice thing to do!! Rachel got her diploma and her report card, so she's officially headed to 1st grade! The kids find out who their teacher is for next year on the last day of class, so Rachel found out she will have Mrs. Wilson for 1st grade and we even got to meet her on our way out. We saw the room and everything, so Rachel knows who her teacher is and where her room is. I think that was huge for Rachel. She doesn't like the unknown. Now she can rest easy all summer knowing where she'll be for 1st grade. Rachel is a little sad because so far she only knows one other person who is in her class, but I'm sure she'll know others once we get to talk to everyone. And we've talked to her about the fact that she'll meet new people and make new friends.

Rachel brought home a couple of workbooks they could work on over the summer to help them remember stuff they've learned. One of the books was phonics stuff, and the other one was math. Well, Rachel had to start working on the workbooks almost immediately after she brought them home earlier this week. She was so funny about it. She's say "Mom, I've got to get this done!" Well, last night she finished the phonics workbook! I wonder how long it'll take her to do the math one? Rachel loves that kind of stuff, so I'm sure we'll go through that workbook and many more this summer.

Kindergarten has been such a good year for us. It was hard back in August to let our 4 year old go off to school with the "big" kids for 5 days a week, but she did great! We were so fortunate to have such a wonderful teacher who made me feel at ease the first time I met her. She genuinely loves the kids. She always made me feel welcome to stop by the class anytime - even unannounced! She was so good with Rachel's asthma - she'd call and/or write a note to let me know everytime Rachel had to use her inhaler at school. That way I knew exactly how she was doing with her asthma.

All that to say that kindergarten was a wonderful experience for us! I'm excited about what Rachel will learn in 1st grade and the new friends she'll make.

Here's a slideshow from the program yesterday.