Celebrations- Surviving readers' theater and an author celebration all in one day

Our end of year Readers' Theater version of Hattie and the Fox went off with, well, lots of excitement and energy, just like everything else in our class has gone this year. We had quite the turn out in the audience and for the most part the kids all remembered their lines and spend the play grinning wildly and delivering their two sentence line over and over again. Our cow remembered to moo and with prompting everyone was pretty much on cue. We used the ipad app Answers HD to program in one child's line so that when it was his turn to perform he just had to hit a button that said the line for him. After hitting the button he then repeated the line orally, which he did during the performance for the most part. Everyone was themselves during the play- I wish I could post pictures of the awesomeness on the blog because even the still pictures sum up the nature of the play and our class.

Our play was followed by a writing celebration with another class. We had reserved the multi-purpose room so that each child got to sit at one long table decorated with a "Meet the Author" table cloth and the stack of books the child had written throughout the year. The guests were asked to circulate throughout the room, stopping to read with each author. Minus a few behavior issues and children who were overwhelmed by the amount of adults and family members in the room it went well- and was certainly a moment where our kids got to shine.

I went home on quite a high that day, which I realize was rare this year. But that day, watching the students show off their hard work from the year, giggle with each other, and celebrate their accomplishments was a fabulous remember of why I do this job.