Grade 5 Farewell!

Today, we had our Grade 5 Farewell. It was bittersweet; as these students were also my Kindergarteners! It was an excellent afternoon . . . full of visiting, pizza, lemonade, cake, and awesome t-shirts to sign! Congratulations to all of you for a fantastic year! Thank you to Alyssa for representing 5W as our class valedictorian. Here is her speech:

Hi, I’m Alyssa and I’m the valedictorian for Ms. Wasney’s Grade 5 class. I am here to talk to you about all of our opportunities and memories at Bird’s Hill School. There is a boy in our class named Austin. He means the whole world to my class and I. He has taught me to never give up when things get tough, he’s also taught me a lot of things about friendship and that it’s okay to be different. We were lucky to have the opportunities to work closely with Austin and to help him meet his goals. Our friend Hailey L is a one of a kind bundle of joy. She is always seen with a smile on her face even on a gloomy day! Hailey has been a very nice friend to all of us here in 5W. We are all looking forward to making many more new special memories with Hailey and Austin next year.

In Kindergarten, one of my favourite memories was walking to the East St. Paul fire hall and then getting stuck in the rain! In Grade 1, lots of us enjoyed being Hailey L’s buddy in Mrs. Grywinski’s class. In Grade 2, we all agree that having caterpillars in the classroom was amazing and so much fun to watch them grow and change into butterflies! When we were in Grade 3, we had a travel fair. Everyone got to choose a country to research. Then, we all made backboards with all of our facts and pictures. We even brought in food that went with our countries. We all loved that experience! I researched the country Italy. We also used marshmallows and toothpicks to learn about structures. It was fun to build  . . . . and to eat! The field trip to Stonewall Quarry in Grade 4 with Ms. Dodd’s class was the highlight of the year.

Did you know that some of us have had Ms. Wasney for 2 or 3 years?! For most of us, Ms. Wasney was our first teacher and now she is our last teacher at Bird’s Hill School. She has been the best teacher ever! We all really like her and her sneezes! She has the best sense of humour and is one of the best people at art. Some of us including me, had her in Kindergarten, Grade 3, and now in Grade 5!

This year, we even got to go to Lazer Runner and were surprised with ice cream cones at Skinner’s! It was the best field trip EVER!!!!

Over the years, we have all had opportunities to be in all sorts of different clubs, such as . . . chess club, WSO, MYRCA, SPIN Club, run clubs, gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, flag football, art, and many more! Thank you to Ms. Rand, Mrs. Ilchena, and all the other teachers that help with the sports clubs! Thank you to Mrs. Tresoor and Ms. Wasney for running the SPIN Club.

Each year, we have an Activity Day. Lots of us enjoyed playing at all the cool stations, and this year was the first year that we got to sign up for a station to run for the morning, then we got to participate in all the stations for the afternoon. Over the years, we have been lucky to have the opportunity to order hot lunch. Activity Day’s hot lunch is always a BBQ, and we even get to eat outside! Thanks to the very generous parent volunteers who arrange the monthly lunches for us!

The Patrols have got to go to Wheelies this year. We have all loved going there! The Peacemakers and the Patrols also recently went bowling. It was so much fun! Thank you to Mrs. Dyck for working with the Patrols and to Ms. Wasney for running the Peacemaker program.

In 2010, Mrs. Dehn came to Bird’s Hill to be our new principal. She has worked very hard to make our school one of the best places to learn and have lots of fun. She even took part in one of our Christmas concerts in the roll of Lady Dehn!

Each year, we have a Spirit Week and we get to do different things for each day. This year, Spirit Week was last week and we got to have backwards clothing and twin day, dress like book character or super hero day, neon clothing & crazy hair day, black & white clothing day, and Friday was jersey and hat day for our awesome activity day. All of us love participating in these fun-themed days!

On behalf of 5W, I would like to thank all the staff of Bird’s Hill for a fantastic final year at the school. We have many wonderful memories from our years here. We have learned so much! Thank you for giving us a start in our education!

I’d also like to thank all of our families for supporting us and helping us whenever we need it!