N's teacher this year, Ms. Abraham, was amazing. He had a fantastic year and learned so much, and she was warm, loving, encouraging and affirming of all of her students. Here is her final email to parents this year:

Dear Rising First Grade Families!​

I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation for an incredible 2017-18 school year. 

I am deeply proud of the learning, positive attitude and strong efforts the class possessed this year. They learned how to be students and how to excel at it. They also learned that each of them brought something different, important and special to the classroom. And that by learning and growing together we could do incredible things.

As I reflect on these last 10 months I feel grateful for so much. I want to thank you for your support and partnership this year because it makes all the difference. Thank you for chaperoning field trips, sharing about your jobs, coming to read, cooking with the kids, taking things home to cut/glue, coming to school to help, fulfilling every ask–whether it was a stereo, glitter or cherries! EVERY single family helped in some way–in giving of your time, energy and resources. Thank you for making the year so special for our class. 

I want to thank Tim and Tatiana, our thoughtful room parents for helping families come closer together and for always checking in and asking me how they could help. 

I also want to especially thank Mr. Marcey for being a skillful colleague, a supportive friend and a true side-by-side partner. It was a dream-like scenario working with an aspiring teacher. Mr. Marcey will be assuming his own classroom as a kindergarten teacher next year in Washington state! And I know they are going to embrace and love him just as we do. (I'm hoping our classes can be pen pals;)Kindergarten is an extraordinary year. As Salley Wood told me today she still remembers her K teacher and I remember mine! So I count it as a privilege and a blessing to be able to sow a small seed into their precious lives.

Continue to celebrate your child's hard work and success in school. This is the first major step in their educational journey and they did exceedingly well. Encourage them to keep diving into great books, strengthen number sense and problem-solving skills, think critically about the world around them and stay curious! 

Lastly, every morning I asked students the question, "Why did you come to school today?" The response was always "so we can learn" and then "so that we can be anything we want to be and so that all our dreams can come true." Then I would ask one child each day what they want to be and they would respond and then we would talk about how school and all the things we're learning about in kindergarten helps us get there. So my last gift to them is a photo reminder to "dream big."

It was an honor to be your child's kindergarten teacher and I look forward to hearing about the great things they continue to do.

With love and appreciation,

Ms. Abraham

She also made adorable goodbye packages for the kids, and this was in it:

And tonight he went to a retirement party for Ms. Ghamarian, his pre-K teacher, who was also wonderful: