AR Awards Ceremony

The last week of school I received an invitation to come and see Palmer get an award in the AR (Advanced Reading) Awards Ceremony. I didn't know which award he had gotten, but I knew the award that he had been working his heart and soul out for the entire year. He wanted to earn first place in his class in points for the most books read. He read and read and read the entire year. He ended up earning 161 points. His teacher told me he was 1000% of his goal. I was so proud of him. Above he is wearing a medal the kids all got for earning their goals in the DIBELS (I think that is what it is) testing.
I love that first graders still like getting their pictures taken. In a few years I am sure that most of the kids will be rolling their eyes in the pictures :)
We were pretty far back, so most of my far away shots of him getting the award for 1st place in AR points for his class, are blurry. He was so proud of this award that he wore the medal around all day, sneaked it to school the next day and wore it, and then wore it to his cousins house that night (at which he nailed said cousin in the back with it and lost it for the rest of the night).
In their class Palmer earned the first place medal and his buddy Cemryn earned 2nd. Those two are so funny. They are so competitive with each other, which has pushed Palmer farther than he would have gone on his own. The funny thing is that they best buddies at the same time.


The next award that he got was for getting 85% accuracy on the tests that he took (comprehension of the books he was reading). He also wore this award around all day. He was jingling all over the place (they were real medals, not plastic. I think this fact also thrilled Palmer as most of the medals he gets are plastic).
Palmer's cousin Savanna is in his class and they are the best of friends (more like siblings actually). They both earned the accuracy award together. He will miss her a lot when we move. It has been fun to have them in the same class for the past two years.
Palmer and Cemryn.

As the year has been ending I have been feeling such a sense of loss as I realized that we are leaving the school year behind. It has been perfect as far as I am concerned. Palmer has had great friends, a great teacher, and great experiences as have my other boys. It is always hard to start over and hope that your experience is as good.