6th Grade Dance and Bridge Ceremony

 At JFK they make a really big deal about 6th grade graduation.  Here they just have one transition from 6th grade which is elementary into 7th grade which is high school and goes from 7th until 12th.  No middle school here.
The entire month of June they had things leading up to the final two big events. The 6th Grade Dance and the Bridge Ceremony.
I was on the committee to help plan for this big events.  I hadn't specifically signed up to work a station at the dance but just assumed I'd go to lend a hand.  A few days before the dance I asked Josie if she thought she would have a bit better time if I weren't there. She thought for a minute and said, "yeah, I think I would have a bit better time."  It was nice, it wasn't mean.  She

knew I was a little sad.  She said she wanted us (me, her and Mogli) to walk to the dance together and that I could chaperone field trips and things in the future but this she wanted to do solo. It was a mature conversation and I knew the time was coming.... She is nearly a teenager!!
Per her request we all walked to the dance together.  She said she didn't know what to expect.  She figured she would just hang out with her friends by the food table.  Haha!!
A few hours later her friend dropped her off at our house and she was BEAMING.  She had the "best time EVER!!"  We asked if she danced and she said, "yeah, everyone just jumped and shook"  Haha!  She couldn't stop talking about the music and the food and the photo booth and the blacklights and the glow in the dark face paints and decorations. 

So, event #1 a huge success.
The following week on the last day of school was the talent show (she sang in an acapella group) and then the big Bridge Ceremony.  At the school there is a symbolic glass bridge that connects the

Elementary school with the High School.  No one is allowed to use it during the year.  The 5 classes of 5th grade took turns and by class with their homeroom teacher mid bridge started out with their elementary teachers on the elementary side speaking to each student individually as they passed from one teacher to the next, finally at the start of the bridge, the elementary school principal, mid bridge (so that the parents could see who were watching from below) and then onto the high school side where they were greeted and welcomed by the German and American High school principals.  I have to say, it was extremely

well done and very fun to be part of such a long standing tradition at the school.  They were each handed a large sunflower and their report card mid bridge.  Each student then exited the high school building to their waiting parents.  Josie came out beaming again.  What a year! What a future for this one! 

She tested into German level D2 which means she is just one level below a double mother tongue speaker of German.  She really amazes me.  Because of her testing into D2 next year any of her academic classes could be taught in German.  Social Studies or Math or Physics.  To get to this level of academic language in a second language normally takes 3-5 years (from what I have studied) and she has done it (beautifully but not without tears) in less than 2!

We are SO SO proud.  After the ceremony Marty, Mogli, Josie and I (Benjamin was at a friend's house) walked to her favorite restaurant for some yummy Vietnamese food. 
On to High School!!