VIDEO: Point Road School Claps it Out

It was a day for tears on Thursday as students bid farewell to another school year.

The fourth grade class, which will move on to in the fall, was treated to whole morning of festivites to commemorate their five years at the elementary school. There was a breakfast and awards ceremony, a slide show featuring great shots collected from parents of each and every child, and then there was the "clap out."

At the close of the school's half day, students emerged from classrooms and lined the hallways to clap and cheer as the fourth grade processed past, with Principal Pamela Albert Devine leading the way.

I was moved to see how emotional some of the students - and at least one teacher - was as they filed past. I found myself tearing up, and I don't even know anyone in the fourth grade.

The fourth grade then exited the building to the applause of lots of friends and family than lined the walkway in front of the school.

When things began to settle down, I ran to fetch my third grader from the other side of the building and found him teary-eyed as well.

"Is everything okay?" I asked him.

He told me, "I wish I didn't have to stop going to school."

After a little more probing, he said that he's really going to miss his third grade teacher.

"He's just so nice," he told me as we walked the mile back to our car, his hand in mine. "He made it the best year."

It made me want to clap.