Tatie spent the last week of school working on a class project.  They created a museum for their class room.  Each child paired up and presented either a display on native Americans or a display on early pioneers.  Tatie and her friend Kennedi were tasked with discovering all they could about the Plains Indians.  She worked very hard on her project and learned a lot.  It was fun to walk through the classroom and see all the creative costumes and props the children had made.  Here is Tatie showing off her hard work.

The Monday before the last day of school I received a secret note from Tatie’s teacher saying that she was going to be receiving an award on the last day of school and they were requesting my attendance at the ceremony.  It was all to be hush hush so that the kids were surprised.  So on the last day of school I made my way up to the school at 10am prepared for the typical classroom awards where everyone in the class receives some kind of certificate.  But that is not what awaited me that morning at her school.  When I arrived I was quickly ushered into the gym where there were a few other parents waiting as well.  At first this annoyed me, being that this went from a “classroom” thing to a whole school thing.  And the last thing I wanted to do mid move was sit there and wait for every child in the school to receive their certificate.  The room was decorated with a podium, black backdrop, greenery, two red carpets leading from the stands to the podium in V shape.  and two spot lights trained on the red carpets.  This I had assumed was left over decoration from the fifth grade graduation a few nights before.  I was VERY WRONG! 

At the moment the loud speaker came on a hush fell over the some 50 parents sitting uncomfortably in the stands.  The gingerly sounding woman on the speaker formally requested that grades 2-4 begin to make their way to the gymnasium in 5 mins.  “That’s odd.” I thought.  “Why are they waiting 5 minutes? ”  Immediately a woman dressed in only what can be described as a little black dress and deep purple chiffon scarf walked into the gym and over to a sound system.  And that’s when things began to get strange.  Instead of the typical “Testing… Check… One… two… three… check.” you would hear during this time, we were met with loud hip hop music!   And then the lights went out! The spot lights were turned on and the double doors at either side of the gym were thrown open!   As each class danced their way into the gym thats when I knew this was not going to be your run of the mill end of school awards ceremony.  Because you see, each teacher was dressed in either an old prom dress, an old brides maid dress, or the proverbial little black dress with BOA and each and every one wore a princess crown proudly atop her head!   And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, in boogies the only two men in the group (the principal and art teacher) wearing TUXEDOS!  My jaw was on the floor.  What proceeded from that moment on was “The Camden Oscars” where each teacher was called to the floor under the spotlights to her own “theme song”  dancing and singing.  And then 6 to 8 awards were given for that class.  The whole crowd was encouraged to dance, sing, clap, and WOOP where they wanted.  Tatie received the award for Outstanding achievement in Mathematics!  I was so proud.  I have never had so much fun at a school awards program.  In fact I can’t wait for next years!  Congratulations TATIE!!!!