Our beloved principal is retiring after 33 YEARS!!!! Can you even imagine that?!! 33 years of working with teachers, students, families, admin…unbelievable!
Because his “reign” is up, the teachers at our school worked together to plan a royal event (a.k.a. = crazy assembly!) to honor him. Using The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown as inspiration, each class wrote their own version of the important book, dedicating it to our principal.
The students worked hard to make an invitation for this royal event for over 600 students in the school….and believe it or not, they finished them in just 40 minutes! Teamwork!
The king and the queen then placed the invitations on a silver platter and delivered them to all the classrooms.
We wish that we had more pictures to show you of the royal event…but we were at the front of the assesmbly the entire time! At the royal event, our principal walked down the red carpet and was escorted by two students. We played Marche Royal, Fanfares for the Royal Tournament (both songs by Jean Baptiste Lully), and Te Deum Prelude by Marc-Antoine Charpentier as he was walking down the red carpet. (That’s what came up on YouTube when we searched for royal music!)
Two students held a banner that said, “You may now rise for the King!” and all students rose when he passed by. All classes presented their own version of The Important Book to the King while he was sitting on his throne. The 2nd graders did Black Eyed Peas I’ve Gotta Feeling and changed the words…I’ve gotta feeling, that Mr. Z’s gonna have some free time, that Mr. Z’s gonna have some free time, that Mr. Z’s gonna have some free, free time…”
In addition to writing our version of The Important Book, my class also made portraits of our principal. Look how cute they turned out! They look EXACTLY like him! 
This is the template our students used for The Important Book:
Is there a V.I.P. retiring at your school? Do you have a special parent helper you would like to thank? I would love to know what ideas you could share!
9 Responses
Congrats on being out for the summer both of you!! I shudder to think what my room will look like when I pack it up…it won't be pretty! Your pets are gorgeous, your ideas are so creative, and I can't wait to read your blog all summer!! :)
Kristen
Congrats to being off for the summer! We had to pack up our entire classroom as well since we are switching classrooms and I am getting my own classroom. Co-worker and I had to go through everything and figure out what was hers and what was mine.
Hope you can relax and enjoy! Thanks for all of your ideas as well :-)
Primary Connections
Nugget seriously does look so much like Loralei! That's crazy! They could be siblings!
Amanda
You should have seen my room! Oh.My.Word! I moved from first grade to second grade and my helpers did a great job helping! I walked in to my new room and the floor was covered with books, crayons, pillows, rulers….it looked like my closets exploded!
Thanks for such a sweet post! I am so glad that you are on summer vacation and can enjoy some free time :)
Curls and a Smile
Have a great summer! I look forward to reading about your guided groups. The Common Core State Standards really encourage differentiation…which is made possible via grouping.
First Grade Factory
yay for summer!!!!
btw, you were the first comment on my back to school post– you won the unit! i just can't find your email anywhere… will you email me at: theteacherwife(at)gmail(dot)com.
thanks! :)
enjoy the sun!!!
I cried over your principal's retirement party.
What a precious way to honor a man who has dedicated his entire life to education and he is very important… Thank you for sharing such a meaningful event for the whole school. My room looks much worse than yours and I have purged but I have so much stuff and so little space!
This section made me laugh.
Now I am exhausted and need to go to my last day and say goodbye to my class.
Fran@kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com
I love your blog! I think we (Natalie and I) would totally get along and be friends with you gals! Let's get together! :)
-Rachelle
whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com
What a great idea for your principal. I laughed when I saw the pictures of your boxes. Don't you just love taking home boxes upon boxes of school stuff to work on, just to take them back a month or two later.