Spring Performance

Last Friday, Alex and his first grade class delighted their fans with a wonderful, hour long performance, filled with singing, dancing, and poetry reading.  The performance was just about flawless and by the end, the audience was both smiling and crying as the first graders sang with all of their heart!  Alex, of course, had many admirers in the audience, with both sets of grandparents, his auntie, uncle, and Tad, and of course his mom and dad! (Check out the cool scenery behind the kids... Joe and another dad spent a couple of hours the night before, hanging the backdrops and making sure the auditorium looked perfect!)

Alex, the sun, is in the back row (tall kid!) third from the left.

The students have been working diligently on their performance since January, and it is quite amazing that they were able to memorize all of these songs.  Alex did awesome and Joe and I could not be any prouder of him.  Each student wrote a poem to recite that evening.  Alex's was about Spring.  He did great and wasn't at all nervous to speak in front of the packed auditorium!

Here is the poem that he wrote and read:

I am spring.

I am the wooden nest box getting filled with a family of birds.

I am Target Field happy that my seats have lots of Twins fans sitting in them.

I am the big, brown bear finally coming out of my cave.

I am the black and white soccer ball being kicked into the goal.

I am the big trees sprouting beautiful flowers that will become delicious fruits.

 I am the giant picnic blanket that has lots of food on me.

I am the Canada goose coming back from migration.

I am the small fish finally breathing in the cool water.

I am spring.

 by Alex

I might be a tiny bit biased, but I think it's the most beautiful poem I've ever heard!!

It was so great to see all of the children take the performance so seriously.  Everyone did their part and really put their heart and soul into it.  Each student got a special "extra" part, and Alex got to hold up a flag for a song where they sang in six different languages.  The video of his special song is at the bottom of the post!

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My heart overflows with love and pride for my sweet Alex.  I am so extremely proud of him.  My heart also overflows with gratitude for his wonderful teacher, who went above and beyond the call of duty to put this fantastic evening together, and who worked tirelessly (and patiently) with them for over three months to put on this show with so many special and memorable moments.  Since the performance was on the weekend of Mother's Day, the kids did a special song dedicated to all of their moms and there was an incredible slide show with all of the children and their mothers, it was a tear jerker to be sure!  The whole evening was something I will not soon forget.