The End of the Year is all About Growth.

The end of the school year is filled with documentation, testing, and data. My days are like yours, filled with assessment, celebrations, and sadly anxiety and disappointment of students missing that grade-level score. I know the data is important, but I love to cast that aside for a few days and celebrate each and every child's individual growth.

To begin this mini-unit I love to begin with one of my favorite children's songs by Hap Palmer. This sweet song is also a great way to tie celebrating growth of self to other things that might be happening in your classroom such as plants, butterflies, farm, jungle, etc.

I ask my students to bring in pictures of themselves as babies. The kids LOVE this. Each day we look at the pictures brought in and talk about the changes. When I first hold up the picture, we sing from the Hap Palmer song... "_______ started out as a tiny little babe. _____ grew a little more ..." The kids are so excited to sing about each other in this way.

As the pictures come in I put the baby picture and a current picture on a some sort of bulletin display. If by chance a student can't find a baby picture (and you know that will happen), I simply have them draw one. They seem to be just as happy!