Five for Friday {June 13}

Hello, hello!  Isn't today a glorious Friday?  My first Friday of summer break, and it's just plain wonderful!  

Freedom!  Relaxation!  JOY!

Of course I LOVE my job and my Kinder-babies, but summer is just pure bliss through and through.

I didn't do a Five for Friday last week, so I have a few school things to share and also a few non-school things.  Two weeks worth!

1. We spent lots of time as scientists during our last week of school.  We discussed habitats...

...and we made friends with some big, juicy earthworms!  Most all the kids LOVED them....and I ALWAYS love these slimy, wriggly guys!

Someday I'll have to write a post about all the fun things we do during "Worm Week", but not today... :)

2. We finished off our last week popping a balloon every day.  One of the activities was movie day, and the class enjoyed a special snack during a movie.

 3. Friday, June 6th was our last day of school.  Here are my kids, ready to go!  Last day of pre-school and 1st grade!

 We had a staff lunch after our half-day of school.  Love these ladies that I am lucky enough to work with!

 4. I went into school on Monday of this week to tie up a few loose ends and prepare my classroom for summer.  I'll be in many times over the summer, but there are several things that I have to do to "check out" at the end of the year.  I took care of those things and got my class list for next year!

Rowan came with me (wearing her bumblebee antennae...) and enjoyed reading book after book from my reading corner.  

5. The rest of our week consisted of a driveway bonfire with our awesome neighbors and our first s'mores of the summer, 

 driveway basketball, 

 planting flowers, 

 summer haircuts (4 inches off for Rowan!), 

 family bike rides, 

 and little league for Trey.

Loving every minute!!  

Happy weekend, friends!

Five for Friday {May 30}

It's a great Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs to share my Five for Friday.

We're still having lots of fun at school, but truth be told, we're all fading.  When Kindergarteners begin fading, you know you're in trouble.

Summer!  It's so close I feel like I can reach out and grab it!

I'm craving lazy days and oodles of time with my kids, but we're finishing off the year strong.  I know I'll miss my kindies like crazy when they leave me, so I'm soaking up their almost first-grader goodness with the time we have left.

1.  We're still starting every day by popping our countdown balloons.  This week we had a bubble party with the other Kindergarten class, we hung out with bare feet in the classroom, we chewed bubble gum, and we enjoyed some outside reading time.  

2. We planted seeds over a week ago and watching them grow has been such a disappointment!!  I'm not sure what we did wrong.  Maybe the seeds were old???  Only about one third of the class has a sprout.  Bummer. :(  

On a positive note, next week is Worm Week (LOVE!), so all will be forgotten with these boring old plants.

3.  We made these addition ladybugs this week.  A fun craftivity to go along with our BIG addition/subtraction review push to finish off the year!

4. We received our last pen pal letter for the year this week.  We have been so lucky this year to be class pen pals with two awesome classes.  My in real life bestie is a kindergarten teacher in Colorado, and one of my blogging besties teaches Kindergarten in Texas.....it's been so much fun for us to write back and forth and for my students to learn more about these very different places!  They were intrigued by the mountains in Colorado and the Spring dust storms in Texas!  So much fun!  

5. My students completed their final writing assessment this week.  This piece goes into their permanent file at school.  Both of these sweeties began the school year barely able to write their names.  They are going to first grade as writers!  So proud of how hard they've worked this year!

My weekend will be filled with baseball, planting flowers, and getting Memory Books put together!  Bring it on!  Hope yours is awesome as well!

Five for Friday {May 23}

Hey hey!  Happy Friday!  This week was my last full week of school, and we're still going strong.  We enjoyed some awesome weather this week, and we fit in lots of great learning and lots of fun too.  Let's get started on today's Five for Friday!

1. Tuesday was our Boys Only Lunch.  OH MY were my boys excited!!  They cheered and cheered when I passed out their invitations last week and couldn't wait for Tuesday's lunch to arrive!  

I invited parents and several were able to make it.  They ate lunch and the boys showed their parents all the fun things they do during choice time.  We all had a great time!!

 2. I pulled out some clay for science this week and the students made animals out of clay.  Snails, pigs, camels, and more!  We spent some time discussing similarities and differences between types of animals and this was a fun, hands-on way to explore those things.

3. We always color self-portraits in the first week of school and I display them in the classroom all year.  I took them down this week to pack into the bags I am preparing to send home on the last day of school.  Precious little babies from the beginning of the year!

4. Today marked 10 more days of school for us, so I got to school early to hang our balloons!  

 We popped our first balloon this morning and enjoyed a sidewalk chalk party with our 4th grade reading buddies this afternoon.

5. We completed our "When I grow up..." page for our memory books this week and this little guy just melted me!  When he grows up he wants to be a "teacher like Mrs. Sloothaak".  Love him.

Also BIG news from this week....my daugther graduated from pre-school!  This girl is SO ready for Kindergarten!  So proud of her!!

Enjoy your long weekend, friends!

Balloon activities -- our last 10 days of school!!

I have 12 days of school left.  It's just crazy and, even though I'm ready for it, I feel like it's snuck up on me a bit!

I wanted to pop in quickly tonight to share a MUST-DO for the end of the school year.  If you have time, this is quick and easy to put together, and SO MUCH FUN for your students!!

I posted last year about our balloon activities.  We popped a balloon each day for the last 10 days of school.  Inside each balloon was a slip of paper with a special activity or treat for that day written on it.

CLICK HERE TO READ THAT POST. 

IT WAS THE BEST.  One of the first grade teachers in my building told me that her students are asking if they'll be doing it again this year.  I love love love creating lasting memories for my students.  Love.

In case you want to make this happen for your class, I've included the activities that I will be using this year.  I also included a page of blank frames in case you want to add some of your own activities.  

CLICK HERE to grab this from Google Drive.

 

 

 

How many more days of school for you?  

What are your favorite ways to finish off the year with your class?

Last days of school countdown activity

Really quick post for me today!  I am enjoying my first Monday of Summer Break....LOVE!!!  I feel like summer should give me MORE time to post on my blog, but instead I have just been on the go, go, go with my fam and haven't wanted to take the time to sit at my computer.

BUT...I wanted to post this before I forget all about it!

I had the MOST FUN with my class at the end of the school year!  Each day, for the last 10 days of school, I had a special treat or activity planned for them.  They came into school every morning soooo excited to see what was planned for that day!  It was a blast!

I typed each activity up and folded them small enough to fit into a balloon.  I have clips hanging from my ceiling to display student work, so I clipped the balloons onto those.  The kids were so excited and very curious when they walked into the classroom and saw them for the first time!!  

I decided to plan my activities according to which day they would work best, so I labeled each balloon.  Each day, we popped the balloon for that day.

You can check out this post for photos of some of the activities we did.  Most of the photos I couldn't post because my little ones faces are in them.  Didn't think to be smart about taking those photos!

Here is the complete list that I did with my class this year:

- bubbles

- shaving cream

- pick your own seat

- sidewalk chalk party with our reading buddies

- bubble gum

- read-aloud story outside

- DEAR time outside

- movie with popcorn and movie candy

- smelly marker hand shapes

- 10 extra minutes of recess

I think my students would have a hard time choosing a favorite, but they really LOVED "pick your own seat" day.  Every so often throughout the day I would say "Pick your own seat!", and they'd scoot around the classroom finding a new place to sit.  So fun.

My favorite???  Well, they were all fun, but setting movie day for the day before the last day of school was like a stroke of planning genius.  My teaching partner and I each had a movie choice in our room, and the students from both classes got to choose which movie they wanted to watch.  And we got a much-needed break from busy bodies and noise...and time to staple and sign our report cards.  Win-win.

And, we had this...

Sooooo cute, right???  A parent donated the popcorn and cute little popcorn cups.  And some movie candy too.  The kids were practically speechless.

Anyway, I will most definitely plan a balloon countdown at the end of every year.  It added the perfect amount of fun to each day and gave us some moments to just celebrate our class and our time together.

Do you have a fun way to countdown the last days of school?  Or have you used this fun Pinterest idea in your room?

By the way....if you'd like to grab a copy of the activity slips that I stuffed into my balloons, click here!

Check out other fun end-of-the-year ideas by clicking here!

Five for Friday {May 31}

Well, I'm a day late, but I still wanted to share my FIVE for the week!  We are down to 3 days left, and life at school is b-u-s-y!  Lots of fun, a little bit of fighting (some of my sweeties just need a break from each other!!), and some great learning is still happening.

Here's what went on this week!

1.  The end of the year means loads of assessments!  The kiddos got comfy to complete their final writing assessments of the year.  So proud of my talented writers!!

2. WORMS!!  I LOVE teaching worms at the end of the school year.  The kids are CRAZY about the squirmy worms.  So much fun.  I took an idea from my bloggy friend, Nicole, and had them feel cooked spaghetti noodles without looking and then guess what they were feeling.  Lots of great predictions and a really fun way to introduce our worm study!

Eeeeee!  The worms!  We all LOVE them!!!  After lots of discussion about how to care for our worms respectfully, we enjoyed an abundance of time with them this week.  

3. The balloon-popping has been an absolute riot.  My students come in EVERY day soooooo excited to see what the activity or special treat for that day will be!  And then to hear their little conversations like "Pick your own seat day has been soooo fun!  Better than bubble gum day even!!" and "Every day gets more and more fun!!".  Makes my teacher heart feel all warm and fuzzy!  A couple of the fun things we did this week were:

Smelly Marker Hand Shapes

I have a "Star of the Day" program in my classroom.  Every day, the STAR gets to choose a Mr. Sketch scented marker and I draw a star on their hand.  The kids loooove this, so on this particular day everyone got to choose a color and special shape for their hand.

Sidewalk Chalk Party

We enjoyed this special activity with our 4th grade reading buddies during our last time together.  The sidewalk in front of our school looked so bright and colorful when we were done!

4. We took one final field trip for the year to the Outdoor Discovery Center near our school.  Outdoors + animals + a smart guide that shared LOTS of fun facts = an awesome way to spend one of our final afternoons together! 

 5. The town I grew up in hosts a 5k race each Spring to benefit the American Cancer Society.  I decided not to run it this year, but my son wanted to sign up for the 1-mile fun run.  A few minutes before race time, he was so excited to see his teacher show up to cheer him on!  What an awesome teacher he's been blessed with this year.

He ended up coming in 2nd place for his age group.  Way to go, Trey!  You persevered and met your goal!  We're so proud of you!!

  

One more weekend of report cards and schoolwork... I think I can, I think I can!