Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  Little bears are adorable, playing and fighting with one another, learning how to turn over logs and eat bugs, rolling and tumbling in their soft, pliable bodies.

Little Bear preschoolers are kind of the same, especially when they are graduating, heading over to the big school next year. At last Thursday’s graduation ceremony, 10 preschoolers put on their caps, for a few minutes, and received their official notice of completing their preschool work.

The children sat in a row and fidgeted but managed to sit still for their first graduation picture as parents hurriedly grabbed the shot. Then they presented their play about the giant turnip that wouldn’t come out of the ground. The costumes were hilarious and worn with dignity. The actors put their talent, and voices, into the performance.

Each graduate received a yearbook containing pictures of themselves in the last year. When the presentations of the diplomas and books was over, the children had a chance to tell everyone what they wanted to do when they grew up. The Class of 2029 has diverse interests and multiple dreams:

Phineas Wallace wants to be a secret agent; Dylan Karowe wants to be a karate master; Zaccary Stover Winter wants to be an engineer and a designer; Leila Tarleton wants to be a rock climber; Hollis Edmondson wants to be a mermaid in the ocean; Sebastion Hutchinson wants to be a scientist of bugs and worms; Theo Shakespear Kern wants to be a scientist, design planes and be a ball player; Kylie Harrington wants to be a dancer; Orion Andrews wants to be an astronaut; and Elsa Richardson wants to be a police officer.