The Life of Ally: Last days of 4th grade

Well there she is on her last day of 4th grade. She is now officially a 5th grader.

It seems so much older 5th grade. It's when I met my best friend Michelle, who still after all these years, 34 years later is still my BFF. Becky and I talk about how we remember 5th grade, the teacher, what we learned, projects we did. So it feels very much like Ally is leaning childhood. But we have known it was going to happen sometime. And she is ready. And it's not like we have a choice. So forward we go. But not without a summary of the last few weeks of school.

Outside school on the last day. She was so embarrassed to have her picture taken there, but she did it. Yes her blue hair has already faded to a pinky-purplish color. She wishes it was still blue, and we might go back for more color. But she says she is still happy she did it.

After school we continued our tradition of a swim play date with friends. Becky and I drive girls to the pool for a swim and snack on the rooftop patio and then back to our place for some hangout time until parents come pick them up.

Willow, Catalina, Ellie and Ally. Such a fun group of girls.

enjoying the sun and snack

Ally told me on Sunday night "I don't think we will learn much this week" and she was right, the last 5 days of school were filled with movies, field day, pajama day and the 4th grade showcase and concert. Fun all of it, but frankly not much was taught or learned.

In her pajamas for school.

A close up on her ponytail. I used a lock of the colored hair to wrap around the pony. So pretty.

Tuesday after school there was a potluck snack picnic with the 2nd grade. There are a bunch of kids with siblings in each grade so the homeroom parents organized a play date at the park near school. One mom brought a cake to celebrate the end of school. We brought drinks and papergoods and it was a fun time.

Ally with her friends, Camilla, Willow, Catalina and Charlotte.

The 4th grade showcase:

Ally and several friends wrote a song to sing to their teacher who is retiring after this year. They performed it in front of the entire school at an all school assembly and then also performed it for the 4th grade parents at the showcase.

Ally's copy of the lyrics are below.

Ally. Maya, Catalina, Augustina and Katerina sang, Else played violin and Alma the viola, Lizzie played bongos and Charlotte piano. It was a tear jerker.

The class also sang some songs and played a few songs on the recorder.

Ally's projects were on display.

Each student chose a region of the country, Ally picked the Northeast. She couldn't really explain why she chose that, but she did the research and made the poster in classtime at school. I am actually impressed with how much she learned.

The other projects were related to non-fiction books the students read.

Ally made a collage of pictures of Laurie Hernandez, the Olympic gymnast and winner of Dancing with the Stars.

She wrote an autobiography. I read it too. Good book.

For her Spanish selection Ally chose a biography of Malala, the Afghan girl who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to make education accessible to girls in Afghanistan. Ally drew the sketches.

Below are pictures from Field Day. I usually stop by for 30 minutes or so, but this year I volunteered to help out. Ally was not happy about that, but in the end it all worked out ok. And I didn't embarrass her.

Fill the bucket race.

Her teammates, Catalina, Becker, Camilla, Ellie and Ally.

The next event wa say relay race to gather tennis balls, each of which had a letter on it, and when all were picked up the team had to make as many words as they could. Ally was with Olive and Antonio.

The water based sledding race was next. But Electric Slide came on the speaker and Ally's teacher, Mr. Hernandez led the class in the entire dance. It was a riot. I will say Ally was a half hearted participant in that one.