Kindergarten Graduation

Last Wednesday Rachel had her kindergarten graduation. She was in the very back row, third from the right for the songs they performed.

They sang a few songs, then the kids all got their diplomas. Here's Rachel with her teacher, Miss Kirby, receiving her diploma.

After getting their diplomas they sang one more song.
Then we all headed over to her classroom for a "reception" that included cookies and juice and pictures with Miss Kirby and with friends.

Rachel's current BFF, Alora. When Rachel tells you about Alora, however, she'll often say something like, "Yeah, she's my BFF. But I'm trying not to be too much because she's kind of bossy."

Ryan enjoyed the GF oreos I brought, anticipating that there would be treats he couldn't eat. He's good at the cookie goatee.

Rachel and Isabella, another one of her good friends.

Rachel, Alora, Isabella, and Isabel have been the four buddies that hang out together the most this year. But I've been happy to hear from Rachel when she's made sure to invite other kids to play with them, or when Alora just wanted to play with Rachel and no one else, Rachel stood up to her to say that other kids could play, too.

She's done great academically this year. On their report card they get a grade 1-4 on each standard, 1=falling far below, 2=approaching, 3=meets the standard, 4=exceeding the standard. She's gotten 4s on everything all year, except a few standards where they apparently didn't have time to test beyond the standard and just made sure that she could meet the standard. For instance, after the first quarter there was parent/teacher conferences and her teacher told me that she got a 3 on counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s up to 100, which was a standard they should be meeting by the end of the year, and Rachel was already meeting that standard, so she got a 3. Miss Kirby said, "I bet she can count by 2s, too and should probably have a 4, but with 20+ kids to test I didn't have time to check that."
Rachel's been reading like crazy all year, too. She started the year already reading chapter books, and was able to participate (after some pushing on my part) in the Accelerated Reading program to encourage her to push herself a bit. She started at the 2.8 reading level (equivalent of the 8th month of second grade). She loves reading and can spend hours reading after we visit the library. When we came home from kindergarten graduation she opened her bag of stuff she brought home from school for the year (a memory book, writing journal, etc.) and spent an hour looking through her stuff, then reading a book we'd gotten at the library recently.

The next day we went out for dinner to celebrate Rachel's kindergarten graduation and Grandma Knight's retirement from teaching.

It was great year and we're all happy to have it over and be enjoying summer now.  Six more weeks and Rachel will be back at school starting first grade. In the meantime, we've got swim lessons and lots of free time to enjoy.