Celebration!

We had our last day of tutoring two weeks ago, and our celebration day was last week.

Erick was able to get a prize from the prize box for reading another twenty books. He seemed a little discouraged by the choices that were left in the box (many kids have been earning prizes!). I held up a rubber popper and asked him if he knew how to make it jump.
Erick shook his head, so I turned it inside out and placed it back on the table.
"Now you have to wait for a little bit," I said.
After a couple seconds, the popper flipped and surprised quite a few of us by flying up close to the ceiling and landing on the floor.
"I want it! I want it!" Erick yelled, his face completely alight. Scooping up the popper, he pocketed it immediately. And so it was that Erick's final reading prize was the most powerful rubber popper I have ever encountered.

When it was time to give out certificates, Erick was quite embarrassed, but I also think he was also rather proud of his accomplishments. I congratulated him on finishing all the boxes of sight words while he ducked his head and blushed. I also gave him a copy of Frog and Toad are Friends--this is the last book that were we reading together and we didn't have a chance to finish it.

All the reading students and tutors ate strawberries, cherries, and grapes, and we handed out certificates of achievement to each student. Each tutor gave words of encouragement to their students and the students had words of gratitude for their tutors. Most simply said, "Thank you for reading with me each week."

It was a sweet time, and I will definitely miss Erick next year.

I like to think that our picture together reflects how sad he is about our time being over, but I think he might just be hamming it up for the camera.