Greetings: before graduation

Supplement

To describe grades in preschool, some schools give the class or grade names such as himawari-gumi ("sunflower class") or tsubasa-gumi ("wings class"). They may use "san" instead of "gumi", for example himawari-san or tsubasa-san, or a combination of the two, as in himawari-gumi-san or tsubasa-gumi-san. Although it depends on the school, younger classes may be given names with the -chan suffix, such as zero-chan for age 0-1, issai-chan for age 1-2, and nisai-chan for age 2-3. Kindergarten children, or children 3 years of age and older, are often referred to by their level in a three-year system: nensho-san for first-year students (age 3-4), nenchu-san for second-year students (age 4-5) and nencho-san for third-year students (age 5-6). For classes of children under 3 years of age, -chan tends to be added to the name, with –san used for classes of children over 3 years of age.
In the phrase「たくましくなったな〜」（takumashiku natta naa, or "my child has grown up a lot"), the「な〜」(naa) part is used to show emotion or emphasis. If you wish to say the same thing in a more straightfoward way,「たくましくなったと思おもいます」(takumashiku natta to omoimasu, or "I think my child has grown up a lot") can be used instead.
In Japanese, (笑わらい) (the Japanese kanji meaning "smile" or "laugh") is often interjected into written Japanese after jokes or something humorous. It is used in much the same way as an emoticon such as a smiley face or the acronym LOL would be used in an email message, to indicate that you are "laughing" or "smiling" at something. Some parents use (笑わらい）in renrakucho messages, but to see how your school feels about the use of (笑わらい) in written messages, you may want to wait and see if the teachers use it in their messages to you.