Do I really have to say goodbye?

Well, I guess it's not goodbye.  It's really see you later....for most of my students...it's see you in August!  Here's the thing (pardon me while I get sappy).....I'm never going to have this set of kids again.  Next year, my sophomores are moving up to Mrs. Higdon's class (unless I capture them coming down the hall on the first day of school and keep them in my room forever...lol), and my freshmen will no longer be the newbies of the school.  I'll have a whole new set of newbies to love on.  My classroom assistant, Ms. Danielle is moving on to other adventures (insert tears), and Katie-John is graduating!!!!  Seriously....I can't deal with this.  It's just another sign that my school babies (okay they are almost adults) are growing up.  Another year down in the books.  We made so many memories.  We had so many amazing days, great times, laughs, etc. Yes, we had some hard days.  We even shed a few tears.  Growing up is hard.  We lost a dear sweet classmate and the kids and myself are forever changed by the positive impact he had in our lives.  CBI trips to Diamond Lakes, SkyZone, out to eat and so much more.  We had an amazing Christmas Play.  Ice cream sundaes with our moms, and donuts with our dads.  We dressed up...showed school spirit...played in the water on field day....marched the halls in support of down syndrome....participated in the No R Word bulletin board contest.  The list goes on and on and on.  I have been truly blessed this year with an amazing and supportive school, peer tutors who went above and beyond DAILY, students who have forever left an impression in my heart, parents who gladly joined my team and helped me, staff who were literally my left and sometimes right arms, and a school year I will never forget.  Thank you guys!  Have an amazing summer.  Feel free to text me or send me a fun picture.  I'll see you in August!

Class picture on the last day of school.

We like to have fun!

Can you believe this girl is graduating?

Cameron put this on my board yesterday.  He loves to keep up with events on my board.  What's that quote....Don't be sad that it's over, but instead be happy that it happened.  I'll work on that.  Thanks for a great year!

Don't Forget About Dads

We know Father's Day isn't until the middle of June, but we didn't forget to take the time to celebrate with them.  Okay, maybe we just wanted a good excuse to eat donuts.  Just kidding....donuts and dads are awesome.....especially together.  We had a great turn out and everyone enjoyed getting to show their dad a little extra love.  I hope all the dads enjoyed it, too!

Sometimes Moms have to be Dads and Dads have to be Moms.  We are just grateful to have lots of love!

Grandads make great Dads, too!

Field Day

When a teacher says,"Let's have a field day!", she is sure to have a lot of excited kids.  In the words of Alyssa as she jumped up and down, "Yes, I love field day!"  We must have done something right because it rained everyday last week except for field day.  We had so much fun playing lots of water games, listening to music, dancing, and of course.....eating hot dogs!  Check out our fun!

Learning Celebrations

I cannot express to you how fun it was during learning celebrations.  Our certificates were not your typical "Math", "Reading", "Writing".  They were more than that.  We had the "Curious George Award" for the students who ask the most questions.  The "Van Gogh" award for our budding artists. The "Flying High" award for the students who are always going above and beyond, and so much more.  Seeing the kids faces light up when they heard their names called was priceless.  I loved going through and choosing the recipients, but it was so hard not to give a million awards to every kid.  I feel like they deserve so much for all of their hard work this year.  Of course, we snapped a few pictures of our fun celebration.