Sam's "Graduation"

Sam's class at school has been working on an animal unit in science. While we were in OR their class took a trip to the zoo. We knew we would miss this so we went while they were off track in May. At the end of the unit their class had a project to come up with a "mixed" animal and had to come dressed to school like their made up animal and be prepared to tell three things about this animal. Sam chose to be a "dogen". He was half dog and half chicken. His facts were that dogs were mammals, mammals had live births, and chickens were birds. He had a great time.
At the end of the presentation the teacher stood up and said the kids had officially graduated from kindergarten and began presenting the kids with their certificates of advancement. I had no idea that this was happening and was glad I made it there that day! I was also happy to have had my camera in my purse!

The week before this presentation Sam had his yearly special ed testing. At three years old Sam was diagnosed with ADHD. This automatically qualified him for special ed in the public school system. Before we left OR last year he had all his initial testing and IEP completed so we would have it when he started school here. He has made amazing progress in the last 3 years. So much so that when he was tested this time around he did so well that he was officially kicked out of special ed services. His tests also came back showing that he is "gifted" according to this districts standards. Way to go Sam! He is looking forward to starting 1st grade at the end of this month.