End of the Weirdest School Year Ever

What a school year! From 9 weeks at home virtually to going in person with masks and new procedures, 2020-21 was a different experience, to say the least: 

• The kids got used to the social distancing and limitations quicker than we thought they would. 
• They were champion maskers, although Owen had to circle back home more than once for the all-important mask in the morning. They wore them all day, every day, except while eating at lunch or snack time.
• Hadley had all five 3rd grade teachers at one point or another, as kids filtered back in to school and classes were shuffled around to even the numbers of at-home and in-person students. 
• Owen had to stay home for potential exposure to COVID, but a negative test result the next day allowed him to go back the following day.
• No candy was allowed with Valentines.
• Recess was split by classes and the playground was segmented into zones to minimize student mingling.
• No parents were allowed to help in the classrooms or visit for lunch.
• End-of-school parties and celebrations were virtual for the parents.

Hadley had her 2nd grade teacher (Mrs. Cashion) for most of 3rd grade, as she looped up with them. We loved her, and she broke protocol and hugged Hadley on the last day of school. It brought a tear to my eye to think of these teachers with the struggles they had on a daily basis, and not being able to hug their students! This is Hadley's class' Celebration of Learning - each kid get academic and/or attendance awards as earned, and then an award voted on by their classmates.

Owen's class awards were bittersweet, as they were his last in elementary school! His teacher had a slide show of the kids throughout the year, and I snagged a pic of the screen when Owen showed up. He managed to keep the same teacher (Mrs. Reese) all year, and she was great! The 5th grade did their Celebration of Learning awards all together in the gym-itorium and each class posed together at the end. (O is in front in dark shirt.)

Hadley received the 110% (voted on by classmates) and Exemplary Performance (Honor Roll) awards. Owen got History Buff (voted on by classmates), Exemplary Performance, and the Hall of Fame Award for getting 100 on 3+ math tests. The State of Texas made them take the STAAR tests this spring, even after the year they had!, and I have to brag that they both did extremely well and Owen got a perfect score in math! He claims to not like math, but he can do it!

And Owen gets a special comparison of his first and last days of elementary school. He's grown quite a bit in these six years, no?

At least 5th grade got to have parties this year, both at school and at the neighborhood pool.

And the other end-of-year tradition - going through all the papers brought home through the year and deciding what to recycle or keep! Woohoo!