5th grade end of year celebrations ~

5th grade graduation/recognition reception night

What a fun and busy time of year.  Preparing for my daughter's 5th grade graduation.  I did this 2 years ago with my oldest daughter, so I'm more prepared this time around.  First off, let's start with the theme that the kids picked to help celebrate leaving elementary school and moving onto middle school.    

Theme:  Kid President!  

I think when the teachers told the 10 parents that showed up for the meeting to put all this together what the theme was, that we all kind of had a blank look.  Well if you don't know who Kid President is, he is a little black kid who does motivational speeches online. He's very cute and funny!  There are tons of YouTube videos out there to check out on the Internet.  Click Kid President here to check it out!

Well we ended up running with the theme and doing RED, WHITE & BLUE decorations, cakes & all.

Needless to say, we needed 3 volunteer coordinators to put together each of the different activities.  Since I did the reception 2 years ago, I decided I would do it again.  My hand shot up and that was that, I was the coordinator for that part.  

Here are the pictures of what we did.  With the crazy weather we've been having we ended up keeping it inside.  We had 3 sections set up.  

1st section was for the 5th graders - 3 tables with cakes and drinks pre-poured for 72 students.  When I do this again in two years, we will have some cookies at the 1st section as well.  Some of the students didn't want a cupcake and instead went to the other tables and took 4 or 5 cookies instead.

1st table before the 3 cupcake cakes below,
 were separated and put onto plates.

Kid President!

Picture of 5th graders
on the playground!

American Flag cake with Roadrunner mascot!

2nd table had the cakes on it before the program started, for parents to have the opportunity to take pictures.  The 3 cakes above are 24 cupcakes that make for easy separation when serving later.  Instead of having to cut a cake, lot less mess.  You can get these from most stores that make cakes.  We went with Target as theirs are moist, delicious and the best price overall. 

72 pre-poured drinks so the graduates can come through and grab their drink without having someone having to serve them.

2nd & 3rd sections were for the parents and siblings - 2 tables each.  One with trays of cookies and the other with pre-poured drinks.

We decorated the tables with simple red, white & blue decorations for the evening.  Every table had either a red, blue or white with stars tablecloth on it.  Some had fun red, white and blue garland and others didn't.  Last of all are the two decorations below that were at the tables.  Simple and neat ideas!

Red Solo cup with sand in the bottom to hold the flag!
(Very simple to do.)

Red, White & Blue colored rice with led lighted candle.
One of the other Mom's made these and they turned out great.  Use food coloring to dye the rice, let dry and then layer. 

 Farewell week hallway decorations ~

The Mom in charge of this one did a great job as well.  I went up and helped decorate, but not in charge of the whole shebang. 

Awesome eagle emblem, not for sure where it came from but I think it's been around for a while at the school.  The mini flags were bought at the Dollar Store and put up here and there.

These are pool noodles cut up and made into firecrackers, BOOM!  Aren't they awesome.   We couldn't find any white noodles so that's where the white crepe paper around them comes in to hold them together.  Along with being hot glued together as well.  

This flag has been around as well but worked great with our theme.  Pulled out of the 5th grade storage closet.

Several of these banners were in the 5th grade
closet as well, so up they went! 

With Liberty and Justice for ALL!

Red, white and blue garland and lanterns, from the Dollar Store.

One of the mom's took red, white and blue crepe paper and sewed them together and then frayed it (she has too much time on her hands).  I do have to say it looks AWESOME!  We tied white curling ribbon onto red, white and blue balloons to hang all over the hallway as well.  

One of the teachers took pictures of all the kids & then cut and pasted the hats on to the pictures.  They also printed off a KID PRESIDENT saying to put by each 5th graders picture (check out some of the sayings below).

Statue of Liberty ~ this was a treasure out of the 5th grade closet that we used as decoration.  It's been around awhile but still works.  We threw some decorations on her and called it a day.

Kickball Game & Clap-Out~

On the last day of school the 5th graders have a kickball game against each other.  Boys vs. girls and the 4 classes play off against each other.  This year it was a very HOT and muggy day.  It was supposed to be from 10:30-11:30am.  I got up to the school at 11am and they were headed inside already, that's how HOT it was.  I helped clean up the mess that was left behind.   

My daughter out on the kickball field posing like she is running to a base.  Gotta love her!

Headed inside to cool off after a sweaty kickball game.

Everyone in the building lines the hallways, teachers/staff, students and 5th grade parents.  Then the 5th grade students & teachers walk through all the hallways as we are clapping and cheering for them.  They made it through grade school now onto middle school. 

This concludes the festivities for the week and ends the school year with a bang!

Starting a new chapter of their lives!