The Lorax: The Graduation Edition!

My class graduated last week, and it was such a special day that I would love to share with you!

This year my kids really developed a love for all things Lorax (by Dr. Seuss); books, movie, soundtrack, pictures... everything! So when we sat down as a class to figure out what we should do for graduation, they wanted to have a Lorax graduation! (I was A-OK with that!!)

First we decided what songs to sing. We decided that our "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" song would be perfect as well as two graduation songs that my class sang last year.

We worked on, "We Are Here to Graduate", to the tune of London Bridge. This is what we sing as we walk into graduation.

"We are here to graduate, graduate, graduate.
We are here to graduate, on this special day."

Then we learned "I'm a Little Graduate", to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot".

"I'm a little graduate, Aren't you proud of me?

I know my numbers and ABC's.

I made lots of friends and had fun too,

Now, I'm off to the big kid school!"

We practiced "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" that I found here. 

"Reduce Reuse Recycle

Are words that we all know

We have to save our planet

So we can live and grow

We might be only children

We have to try, you’ll see

We will save our planet

It starts with you and me!"

Then we needed to talk about a performance to do. Since we were going with a Lorax theme, what better thing to do than tell the story of The Lorax? I shortened the story and assigned each child 2-3 sentences as a part to memorize. We worked on it every day for 3 weeks and I know all my awesome parents worked with their children at home.

To go with their part of the story, I bought tracing paper and traced some of the illustrations from the Book. I turned them into a coloring page that the children colored. At our ceremony, when it was their turn to speak, they held up their illustration too! Their parents LOVED it!! 

I decided to turn the pages into a class book, so after graduation, I went back and wrote their spoken part on the page that they colored. It is something that I will treasure forever because I know how hard they all worked on their parts and I know that future classes of any age will love to see it.

I made little goodie bags with their names on them filled with necklaces, graduation bubbles and assorted candy that I handed to each child when they got called for their diploma. As soon as the ceremony was over it was so cute to see them tearing through their bags. They were so happy!

It was such an amazing afternoon and I was so, so, SO proud of my kids and all the hard work that they did. This was the order that we followed for our graduation ceremony.

"We Are Here to Graduate"

School Owner and Director Speeches

My speech. =]

Our Retelling of The Lorax

"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"

Graduate: Diplomas!

"I'm a Little Graduate"

End!

Next week: Summer Camp!!