Five for Friday: Last day of school!

Today is bittersweet. It's the last day of school. 

I'm linking up with Kacey's Five For Friday to share some of the fun things that have been going on this week!

{one}

Wednesday we had our class celebration. I passed out awards and their summer packets! It was a fun celebration and they loved their awards and prizes from Fabulous in First!

{two}

Okay. This is the sweetest book! I love the author/illustrator team, and they put together a precious book. I read it to the kids and could not keep the tears away!

{three}

I used this fun build a teacher bundle from Melonheadz (its like paper dolls on the computer! so fun!) to make teacher presents for my teammates! Our literacy coach kindly did some detective work and gave each of my teammates a little break and asked the kiddos to describe their teacher. The kids did a great job keeping it a secret! Then I typed them up, added a picture of each teacher, and decoupaged it onto a 8X10 canvas! With all the changes our team is going through this year, I thought it would be a special way to remember this year. 

and a bonus, they were a hit! ;)

{four}

Is it bad I am so shocked that stuff is actually growing? On the edges are the massive sunflowers, in the middle are lima beans, and to the side is some watermelon! I wish we had more time to watch them keep growing and enjoy the produce! 

{five}

7 years, close to 140 students, 20 different teammates, 1 grade, 1 classroom, 1 school.

I know lots of people have spent a lot longer in one place. 

In the grand scheme 7 years of teaching is not that long, but it has been very special. 

Lots of challenges and joys. 

But now its time to say good bye to Room 105, and say hello to new adventures!

Hope you all have a great summer!

Favorite Memories in First Grade

We brainstormed a list of our favorite activities of first grade today.

I almost teared up as I wrote them down. We have had a lot of fun in first grade this year!

I love how they remembered things all the way from the beginning of the year.

As I was writing down all the fun things, I realized this could double as a really good incentive! 

I wrote down their favorite memories on index cards and when we are all making good choices, we will stop everything we are doing, pull one out and do it again! Of course not all field trips we can redo, but we can do some similar things--visit our school library and read some books, make our own puppets for a puppet show. 

This will help us through these next two and a half weeks of school! Our principal keeps telling us to stay one step ahead of this kids, and I think having this will help. :)

My real purpose for this brainstorm was to work on one more narrative piece of writing for the year. The kids chose their favorite memory, sketched some pictures of the beginning, middle, and end, and then jotted down some things to remember as they talked through their memory with a partner.

Hopefully we will finish it up tomorrow and have a fun end of the year bulletin board for the last couple weeks of school!

Beat the Summer Slide!

It's that time of year again. Finishing up end of year testing, celebrating the 10 months of learning that has taken place. 

And then you remember. Those 10 months of hard work, the huge growth you see as you test, will all start to slide away over the summer. Its so frustrating sometimes. And then it's hard to know what to do.

I've tried it all. 

The packets of work/activities that I am pretty sure the majority of them never get opened or touched. 

Reading challenges with all kinds of prizes. Only three kids return those.

Doing nothing at all. But some how that doesn't seem like the right thing either.

The last couple of years my team has gathered our first grade parents to give them some tips and ideas to help make summer practice fun. 

This year we did a mid year parent night as well. We focused on GAMES parents couple play to help reinforce skills while the kids just stay focused on the fun! We always gives tips about some great stuff to buy at the dollar tree to help support the learning. We pull the laminator into the library and then make some file folder games with the parents to take home.
We always talk about doing more parent nights, but the year always runs away form us. It is such a good way to connect with parents.

This year I am not sending home a huge packet. I'm going to send home a couple of things. Less copies, but ideas that will benefit my kids more.

Copies of Game Instructions:

Lots of fun activities using games they already have or cheap materials from the dollar tree. These first couple games were ones that we downloaded from Kelly's Kindergarten.

Jodi Southard's Summer Activities Calendar

What a great freebie!! Check it out here. I think it is great for those parents who want a little more focused practice!

Reading Information

I just hope my kids read lots over the summer. I am going to send home the kids current reading level with a list of books/series that might be of interest (our school is working on some lists, but you can find some online too! I am definitely sending home some decoding bookmarks and info for the parents too!  Grab that here!

Technology Tips

We always remind our parents to use RAZ kids over the summer. I will make a list of some of my favorite apps...

(find a full list here!) and send home this great website list from A Year of Many Firsts!

Journals

I plan on sending home either a writing journal we have already started or a new one to encourage writing over the summer. Even writing a couple sentences about what they did that day is better than no writing at all. Or they could use it to write letters back and forth with their parents.

Well, that is what I am trying this year! Hopefully with giving parents the right tools, we can work on beating the summer slide! What are you going to do this summer to beat the slide?

Finishing Well

I was looking back over my posts and realized that April has been a little sparse. Five For Friday keeps me motivated (most of the time), but in general I feel like most things start to fizzle out in April because the end of the year craziness is approaching. Let's keep it real. Some teachers seems to keep it all together all year long, but I am definitely not one of them! ;) I've had many moments this year that I have felt like I am hanging by a thread. Other moments where I am amazed at how things are clicking, and that, in spite of it all the kids are flourishing and growing. 

Those moments make it worth it.

Normally, by April, I'm already thinking how next year will be "different" I start doing a lot of end of the year reflecting on how I need to change things for next year to help things run more smoothly. My "next year" list starts forming, and growing. 

But this year I feel the need to make sure I am finishing well. I want my kids to enjoy every minute until the very end. I want to make the most of the time that's left to keep pushing my kids forward. I want to teach the content, but make sure we are having fun as well. 

It can be so hard though. Spring fever has hit my classroom. The weather is beautiful. Needs are great and it makes kids emotional. It can be exhausting to stay two steps ahead. Its hard to find the right balance. The balance between staying on schedule and taking advantage of spontaneous moments. Maintaining order, but letting loose sometimes. Sticking to the expectations or giving some extra motivation. It's HARD!

How do we finish well?

I would love some more ideas, but here is what we will be trying!

Popsicle (POP SEE KO. you know you say it like that too.) Fridays: Our team started this a lot earlier last year, but if the kids have had a good week, they get a popsicle at recess on Friday. Last year the kids that didn't had a little inside, practice time. We wanted to make sure we were rewarding kids that always tried their best, and hopefully motivate the others too.

Gardening: We are finishing up our unit on how the world works and moving into how we organize ourselves. We have a bunch of seeds we have started growing and some brand new raised beds that are needing to be filled. I thought we could bridge our units and figure out how the way we could work together to keep the garden thriving and manage chores and such. Plus the outside time will be a bonus.

Teamwork Time: That is coming back full force. The kids are having trouble getting along again so we are going to go above and beyond to make sure we stay friends to the end. ;) It will be fun to try out some of the same tasks now that they are almost second graders! 

Partner Reading: Once or twice a week we are going to make sure we are getting together with other classes to practice our reading. We have fourth grade buddies that we have met with all year. We can read with other first grade classes, read to kindergarteners, listen to second graders read to us. We have practiced reading all year long. Now it is time to show off to others what a great job we are doing. (Plus being able to chat briefly with another adult is a bonus! ;) )

Make it fun: Go Noodle and Kahoot. Learn while you play and move. At this stage you sometimes just have to fool those kids into learning!

Go Home: Really, at the end of the day. Sometimes the best way to finish well it to leave the mess behind and recharge doing whatever makes you most happy. 

So. I will finish well. I will give it my best. And on the days I am not to sure, I will reread this post and remember these ideas. ;) 

What would you add to the list?