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May is not my favorite month.  All year, we work so hard to build community together, with traditions, class meetings, intentional problem-solving, acknowledgements, leadership opportunities, working together, exploring together, maintaining the classroom together . . . the list goes on.  Montessori Elementary is a lot about learning to be together in a community. 

If we do it right, May is hard.  Over a period of a week or so, we dismantle our classroom--and our community--for the summer.  We pack away materials, swaddle the shelves in yards of industrial-size Saran Wrap, and prepare for the separation of summer.  We say goodbye to our third graders, our leaders, those who have been with our community the longest (most of whom have now spent one third of their short lives together in this classroom), and we ready ourselves to welcome new first graders to the community in the fall.  Some children are able to put into words their sadness and worry about beginning again.  "It won't be the same next year without the third graders."  "I don't know if I'm ready to be a third grader."  "I wonder which kindergarteners will be in our class next year."  "I'm going to miss this class."  "I'm nervous about being a fourth grader."  Other children tell us it is hard to say goodbye by acting out.  Either way, we hear the sound of the Velcro of our community ripping a little, as we prepare for summer.

Traditions help ease the transition, I think.  On The Last Day of School we celebrate together one last time.  Everyone is invited to wear pajamas to school.  The children bring non-electronic games, books, and pillows.  In our class, it is also Make Your Own Breakfast
day.

Each Cooperative Science Group works together one last time to make breakfast.  The children mix up pancakes.

They make scrambled eggs

and banana-orange yogurt smoothies,
sometimes with mint harvested from our school garden.

They whip cream for strawberries,

and then sit down at the table together.

This year, when the first group sat down to eat, I was surprised and touched to hear their third grade facilitator propose a toast in honor of a great year of working together as a science group.  Wow!

We ended the day with a couple of documentaries, including an episode from the Your Inner Fish PBS series and "First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird's Story," and an art activity.  Several children volunteered to become an "origami master" of a particular origami shape.  They then taught small groups of peers how to make the shape.

The surprise of the day was that one of our Gulf Fritillary butterflies finally emerged from its chrysalis.  Releasing it was a perfect metaphor for our end-of-year transition!  Cycles do what cycles do.  Enjoy your summer!