LAKEVILLE — Fifth graders at George R. Austin Elementary School are excited to make the jump to sixth grade, but not quite as excited as they are about summer. 

Students celebrated the last day of school on Thursday, June 20 with outdoor games and snacks to beat the heat such as ice cream novelties.

The farewell event was put on by the the school’s Parent Teacher Organization, said George R. Austin Elementary School principal Elizabeth Sullivan.  

Kurban Gandzyuk had found refuge from the sun on a bench. He couldn’t wait for sixth grade, he said, as he licked a lime-green ice cream pop.   

“I’m really excited. I think I’ll like it,” he said, adding that the only part of elementary school he will miss was recess. 

Kurban was particularly excited because next year he will be on the same bus as his best friend Naaman, who’s a seventh grader, he said. 

Graduating fifth graders will attend Freetown Lakeville Middle School in the fall, which includes grades six, seven and eight. 

Freetown and Lakeville have their own elementary schools, but the middle school serves both towns, as its name implies. 

Layden Carviero said he looks forward to next year for the same reason as his friend Kurban. One of his friends lives in Freetown and is going into seventh grade, he said.

“Now I’ll get to see him, and I’m excited about that,” he said.

He is also eager to “meet a bunch of new teachers,” and have different teachers for each subject, he said. 

Layden felt differently about the increase in workload that sixth grade will bring, however. “I’m not too excited about that part,” he admitted.

And as for whether or not his enthusiasm for sixth grade trumps his excitement for summer, his answer was a definitive “no”. 

Others were already feeling butterflies.

“I’m a little nervous,” fifth grader Emilee Place divulged. “That building is huge, and I’m scared I’m going to get lost in there.”

“There are so many clubs, rooms, teachers,” she said, exasperated as she listed all of the areas of the new building she will soon come to know. 

Layden Carviero also found himself exasperated, as he thought through all the years of the school that lay ahead of him, only to come to a daunting realization. “And then I’ll have to go to work.”

“Uh oh, I don’t want to do that,” he said.