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Traditions

Sandy and her husband.
Easter is one of my favorite holidays. We have a tradition in my family on Easter; the family gathers together at a local park for a day of food and fun. To the best of my knowledge, this tradition was started when I was around 2 or 3, so it has been about 50 years or most of my life. There have been many changes in our family dynamics over the years, but this tradition has survived and for that, I am very grateful.
 
Sandy and her daughter and parents.

We have been very lucky over the years and the weather this year did not disappoint, it was so beautiful. This wonderful weather has been great for the many sports and activities we have participated in over the years. I can remember many years ago when they had a roller skating rink and us kids would go skating. We have played softball, tennis, horseshoes, ladder ball, washers, frisbee, hopscotch, and we added pickleball this year. We jumped rope one year and everyone was so sore the next day!

We have an Easter egg hunt every year, and the kids always enjoy hunting eggs. We have had years where we only had one or two kids and we have had years where there were many! This year we had 15!

Group of kids at Easter.

Traditions are important to me and I do my best to make sure our family traditions continue for our future generations! What traditions are important to you? Do you have traditions that you use in the classroom?

Here are some classroom traditions that I found through a Google Search:
  • Making hot chocolate after lunch on the first really cold day
  • Decorating sugar cookies and watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the original) the last day before Christmas break
  • Doing an "awards" presentation for all of my grade 8 students on the last day of school
  • Birthday snacks
  • Flipping on the monkey bars at the end of each day of state testing
  • Making time capsules on the first day of school and opening them on the last day
  • Any students that have not had a discipline referral all year get to bust a piñata on the second to last day of school
  • Pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving
There are many other great ideas available through a search on the Internet!


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Comments 1

Guest
Guest - Jessica Conrad on Sunday, 28 April 2019 12:37

I have so many fond memories of my elementary classroom/school traditions. Looking back it helped mark the passing of time and there were things to look forward to as we became "big kids." Science fair, field days, certain important field trips. However, I'm thinking very hard on those days, and I don't remember any of our "peers from the special education room" being included in any meaningful way, except in the audience, and only sometimes. I'm glad to see that in most schools that has changed, because you're right, the traditions matter!

My favorite speech room tradition was graduation from speech, each graduating student could design their last day in speech. We did cupcake parties, game days, and launched rocket ships, or just gave a quiet high five and wished them well, it changed with every kid, but it was a great way to validate and celebrate each kid in the way of their choosing.

I have so many fond memories of my elementary classroom/school traditions. Looking back it helped mark the passing of time and there were things to look forward to as we became "big kids." Science fair, field days, certain important field trips. However, I'm thinking very hard on those days, and I don't remember any of our "peers from the special education room" being included in any meaningful way, except in the audience, and only sometimes. I'm glad to see that in most schools that has changed, because you're right, the traditions matter! My favorite speech room tradition was graduation from speech, each graduating student could design their last day in speech. We did cupcake parties, game days, and launched rocket ships, or just gave a quiet high five and wished them well, it changed with every kid, but it was a great way to validate and celebrate each kid in the way of their choosing.
Guest
Thursday, 28 March 2024

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