Kindergarten graduation had to be split between two ceremonies Thursday, May 25, at Century School in Park Rapids.
This was to accommodate seven classrooms of 16 or 17 students each, ready to start first grade.
Principal Mike LeMier called it a day to celebrate all the hard work the kindergartners have done this year. “They’ve grown in their learning, and they have grown,” he said. “They are so much taller than they were when I saw these preschoolers last year at this time. It’s nothing short of incredible, the growth our kids have made in 171 short days.”
LeMier said he talked with the kindergartners this week about all the things they have learned this year. They told him they learned to read, how to count past 100, how to tie shoes, about playing games and making friends, going through the lunch line and being good students.
“Thank you, parents, guardians and families, for all the support, encouragement and nurturing you have given your kindergartners,” he said.
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Music teacher Kirsten Edevold led the children in the “We Are PR” school spirit chant, the song “On the Day I Was Born” with sign language, “I Like Me” and “Echo Canyon.”
As each student’s name was called, one classroom at a time, they walked forward wearing mortar board-style paper hats and collected their diplomas, along with a choice of a hug, a handshake or a high-five.
Whatever their choice, the next time most of these students walk in a graduation, it will be 2035.
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