All good things come to an end!

There are twenty-two days of school left.  22!  It seems like just yesterday I was meeting the ten-year-olds for the first time.  And now the mostly eleven-year-olds are leaving me and heading on to the big ole' middle school.  My babies are growing up!

I'm a sucker for end of the year ceremonies, and the next few weeks will be filled creating time capsules filled with letters to our older selves, pictures, elementary school memories and things that are important to us now.  We will write letters to old inspiring teachers, talk about the best books of fifth grade and create advice for my future class in Kansas City.  (Whatever grade they may be!)  I found an end of the year ceremony idea on Choice Literacy from Franki Sibberson that celebrates the literacy we have loved in Room 209.  Starting last Friday, each child received a day.  (The last day is reserved for me, obviously!)  On the child's day, they choose one book we have read together throughout the year to re-read.  It could be a passage from a chapter book, or a picture book we used throughout the year.  Here is what has been chosen so far:

25:  Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick: (second to last chapter)  I won't ruin it for you, but during this chapter, I couldn't read it aloud without crying... I mean, I was a blubbering mess as they stared up at me.  Maybe this was their attempt to see me cry again... harr harr! However the fifth grader who chose it so kindly offered to read it for me to the class to spare me the embarrassment.  Sweet, huh?

24:  Crow Call by Lois Lowry: One of our favorite memoir mentor texts.  This is one of those books I get more out of each time I read it.  The language is beautiful and the fifth graders especially like to see my giraffe interpretation Lois' dad does in the story.  

23:  Things That are Most in the World by Judi Barrett:  We created a similar book for our first grade buddies at the beginning of the year, and we still laugh out loud at some of the superlatives in this book.  

So what does tomorrow have in store?  Who knows, and that's what is so fun.  It has been awesome to rediscover the memories attached to some of the books that haven't been noticed or looked at since September.  And we all get excited as the child searches our library for their special choice. 

 It has been a great year of reading in Room 209, that's for sure.