How Could It Be?

Anthony completed his last day of elementary school on Friday, June 12th! He attended Happy Valley Elementary Kindergarten through 4th grade and was moved to Wade King for his 5th grade year. He was among the first 5th grade class to graduate from Wade King!
I am so proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone and trying new things this year! He successfully completed the 5th Grade Strings Program playing Violin. This was an all-year commitment and he did wonderful! He also melted my heart the day he came home and said he had helped a couple Life Skills students on the playground, and in the following days he came home telling me that he would hang out and help and play with the Life Skills students at recess. I told him how in high school, during one of my class periods, I worked with the Life Skills students and I really enjoyed helping them too. I think this sparked an interest because the next week, he asked his teacher who then asked the Life Skills teacher if he might be able to help out with the students. She was delighted and from that day on, Anthony (and 3 of his friends) helped out and played with those children daily. He has such a big heart and I know he did a wonderful job working with the kids and also protecting them from other kids who were not so nice to them. He also volunteered at the beginning of the school year to lead the younger kids into the school and to their classes and also helped in the school office.
Wade King was the first school in the Bellingham School District to become an International Baccalaureate school. The IB program aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. All of the students were exposed to a second world language (Chinese). They were also exposed to a series of attributes and attitudes that included: Caring, Inquirer, Principled, Balanced, Risk-Taker, Knowledgeable, Open-Minded, Communicator, Thinker and Reflective. For their 5th Grade Memory Book, each 5th grade student chose an attribute or attitude that best fit them and then wrote a paragraph about it.
Here is Anthony's:

Tony Gregory

Caring

My attribute is caring because I like to help life skills students. I like to help the students because I get to help people that don't have as many abilities as I have. For instance, one of the students can't walk so we (Nick, Roland, Izzy, and Tony) push him. The names of the kids we help are Josue, Kailey, Aaron, Savannah, Sam, Brandon, Charmain, Hannah, Shane, Faith, Mariah, Coulter and Seamus. Mrs. Kovol is their teacher. All of the teachers are nice. It is very fun helping life skills students because they have very creative minds.

(So cute!! :)

On Thursday evening, the day before the last day of school, the school had a "World Tour" end-of-the-year celebration. They provided dinner and had live music from around the world and then performances by the students. Anthony learned how to play the African drums and the recorder in music during the last semester and he and his class performed a song on the drums and a few songs on their recorders. They did an amazing job, especially on the drums!

So, my baby boy is off to middle school! He'll be starting 6th grade at Fairhaven Middle School in September. I am really excited for him! I attended the parent night a few weeks ago and it was evident to me that the teachers and counselors were there to help the kids not only in their school work, but also to help them maneuver through their adolescent years and become the best they can be!