Final photo blast

Click here for Andy's beautiful photos of our last days together, and click here for my slightly-less-fabulous photo set including graduation.

The graduates

We did it!

And just like that, our five weeks of Kindergarten Kickstart have come and gone. This past week ended up being a difficult one for a few reasons: one, the classroom atmosphere (and our level of control over behavior) changed when Taylor left, and two, we were trying to cram all of the activities we had planned before the session was over. Now we know just how important our 1:3 teacher-student ratio is, and I'm inclined to think that our cramming is just proof that we need more time. 19 days is great, but eight weeks would obviously be even better.

On Thursday morning, we practiced our songs for graduation and then visited the Main St. fire station. We saw the kitchen and bedroom, watched a firefighter slide down a pole and don a uniform, and walked through the fire truck. When we returned, the kids were WILD, so we had a quick snack and played outside until lunch time and quiet time.

I realized during the week that we might have been doing quiet time wrong. We've been very insistent that kids stay on their cots and read quietly if they aren't sleeping, but I think maybe we should have tried to help them all sleep. I found that rubbing A's back for five minutes put her right to sleep, and her afternoons went so much more smoothly when she had slept.

After quiet time, we welcomed Anna's friends from Duffy Elementary in West Hartford, who set up a school-supply-shopping activity in the FRC. The kids each got ten "dollars" to purchase supplies for their new backpacks.

Then, we gathered in the shade outside for a lovely little graduation with speeches from Anna and Jon, songs performed by the kids, and presentations of diplomas, backpacks, and Macdonough School t-shirts.

I, for one, can't contain my pride for all that the kids have accomplished in the past five weeks. They've improved number and letter skills, learned appropriate classroom behavior, practiced bucket-filling and sharing, tried dozens of fruits and vegetables, written their names successfully, increased gross motor skills and coordination from yoga and dancing, memorized entire songs, read dozens of books, and exercised their imaginations. I and my fellow Kickstart teachers have grown to love these kids, and we miss them already. Kindergarten Kickstart has been a magical summer and we can't wait to see our kids become exceptional kindergarten students at Macdonough School in just a few short weeks.

Tuesday and Wednesday

I can't express how proud I am of our munchkins. We've had a few visitors this week, and I've been reminded of how far the kids have come. Julie has finished post-testing the kids (and she even stayed to make ice cream with us yesterday afternoon!) and she was so impressed at the improvement they have shown.

We've been cramming in all of the fun activities that we ran out of time to do earlier in the summer. Today, we made grass seed caterpillars that the kids can take home to (hopefully) watch grass grow. We also had our very last sign language lesson today with Sim and Sam. We sang Wheels on the Bus and learned signs for "bus," "wheels," "town," "mom" and "dad," "door," and "baby."

Tomorrow is our graduation. All are invited to join us at Macdonough School at 2 pm to celebrate with our kindergarteners!