This time of the year is hands down the busiest for 5th grade teachers. It seems the to do list is ever growing and not getting any shorter. As a former lead 5th grade teacher, I am going to share a couple tips to help make promotion less stressful.

If you haven't already, meet with your principal and team to determine logistics like date/time/location. Then rally the troops. Send out an email and letter to parents to get help! Deligating is one of the easiest ways to lighten your load and make it less stressful. Assign a couple parents to decorations, refreshments, and set-up of chairs, etc.

Utilize your writing block for writing promotion speeches. I have EVERY 5th grader write a promotion speech. This is one of their last writing assignments of the year and counts as a grade. I have a resource that includes everything you need to teach this type of writing which you can find here.

Speech rehearsal is a great way to incorporate those listening and speaking standards that often get put on the back burner. Each student practices their speech and presents in front of their class. They receive a grade from me and their classmates vote on the top two. Then they hear the top two from the other classes and vote on who will present at the promotion ceremony. I try to include as many students as possible by having students translate, mc, etc.

As a team we usually pick 2 songs that the whole fifth grade songs during the ceremony. Trust me, this takes practice and if you aren't musically inclined like me, this does not come naturally, but the parents love it! Choose songs that are either timeless or current, but imply themes suggest a success, reaching goals, living dreams, etc.