Last Week of School Activities

I am officially on summer vacation now that district math curriculum mapping work is done! But before I jump into my summer blogging series that I'm really excited about, I thought I'd flash back a little here and show you some of our end of the year fun! Our last week of school was short and sweet! With only one full day and two half days, we tried to squeeze in all of the activities we could! Here's a peek at our last week!

The kids had a blast lookin through all of the projects from the year as we filled up our pizza boxes with all of their keepsakes! 

The parents loved the finished projects too!

The kiddos had been working hard on a little memory book from Michaela Peterson.
We mounted the book pieces on polka dot paper. They turned out super cute!

In order to get them excited about reviewing for third grade, the class also decorated the cover and previewed their summer practice books by Amy Lemons. 

When they bring it back completed in the fall, I will give them a special certificate and treat! Suggestions?

I always like to give my new class a letter of some kind on the first day of school that was written by the expert second graders. 

My experts published their Words of Wisdom . It's a freebie from Lucky Little Learners.

After the first full day, we wiped down the room and organized like crazy. Then we stacked up all of the tables and chairs so carpets could be cleaned. This left two half days with no pencil/paper tasks which was lots of fun. It also gave us a huge space for other great activities!

I have taken a zillion photos of the class in action. This year, rather than sending home a DVD, I uploaded them all to Photobucket and shared the link with parents so they could save or print them. We gathered together to watch the 45 minute slideshow on the SMARTBoard. The kids had forgotten about the fun we had at the start of the year, so they really enjoyed it!

A few kindergarten siblings had spent their PBIS coupons to visit our classroom for the day. They were a delight. I checked out a microphone and they performed their nursery rhymes for us. 

Too cute!

On the last day, I gave the kids their special mini-frame word clouds. 

They loved them even more than I thought they would!

Since we had all that open carpet space, we sat in circle and played a few rounds of hot potato by passing around a beach towel.

My Teamie had reserved the Kona Ice truck for all of the second graders. 

We all gathered on the playground and enjoyed the special last day treat!

Our room parents organized a Hula Hoop contest for the kiddos afterward. 

This was so much fun and I will definitely do it again next year! 

It was a rush at dismissal so I was happy there was no time for a long, drawn-out, sappy, teary goodbye (by me). It was hugs or high fives and a see ya later! 

The staff all went out to wave off the buses and then relaxed and enjoyed a fabulous BBQ potluck luncheon.

It was a great last week with my oh so sweet class! :) I am really going to miss seeing them every day.

 HURRY UP SUMMER!
You all know that I am a summertime girl and how much I love the beach and lounging at the pool! Well, the weather has not exactly cooperated during my first week off for my favorite summer fun activities to start yet. But that's OK (for a few more days only) because I've jumped into some big home organizing projects I never have time for during the school year. During cleaning breaks or if I see the sun peek out, I've also been doodling away on the patio creating a few new fonts I think you will love for your littles.

Check back soon to see the reveal and to kick off a summer of blogging fun!

What have you been doing with your summer so far?
I hope that it is off to a great start!
:)

Unique End of the Year Gift for the Class Ideas

There are so many great ideas out there for end of the year gifts! I wanted to give my students a little piece of the classroom in our black and bright theme to take along with them and something from the heart. In addition to giving them their pizza box keepsake projects, I am making my students each a little word cloud in a frame with special character traits I have observed in each of them.

I purchased a set of wedding table seating frames from the Dollar Tree. It was hard to find a class set of larger frames that all matched and I was very impressed with the nice quality of these tiny frames! Smaller frames means that this saved on ink as well.

I thought the kiddos could keep them on their dresser or night stand. They seem to like little things so I hope they will love them! I am pretty sure the parents will!

You can find the template I used in Powerpoint here. You can edit all of it and change up the fonts too for more of a subway art look, if this is something you might like to try!

I will pair up the frame with some Smarties candies for a crowd pleaser! 

I created this sign to staple to the top of the gift baggie. I plan to copy it on bright papers.

 You can download an editable copy from my Dropbox here.

My room parents have been so helpful this year. I bought them each a bangle bracelet from Alex and Ani. We have a shop at our local outdoor mall, so these are all the rage right now. I picked the one that symbolizes community. This is my newest obsession too and ironically, I spent the gift card they gave me on my own collection!

If you are looking for more super cute and easy end of the year ideas either for your last days or to save for the next time around, you can check some of them out on my Pinterest board!

Follow Creative Lesson Cafe's board End of the Year on Pinterest.

A Colorful Classroom Display for Counting Down the Last Week of School

Are you counting down the days until school is out? If so, you'll want to check out our cute classroom display!

When my crafty room mom helped me assemble this, we decided to mount it on bright paper to make it stand out from the whiteboard. It reminded me of a kite, so I went with that idea and the links are now the kite tail!

See my magnet men? They are holding it up because it's a little too heavy to stay up with tape. I put tiny magnets inside some of the links.

Each day my WOW work winner will get to remove one of our links.

 We are super excited to reach the end of the rainbow!

My sweet friend Jaime at Bright Concepts for Teachers shared this cute idea and countdown printable! Just print the sign, trace a blank pattern of the cloud for the back, staple the edges around most of it, stuff tissue in and finish stapling. There are signs for different grade levels too.

As I am tearing down the classroom and undecorating, this display really brightens up the room!

How do you count down to the last day?