Summer Blog Hop means End of the Year Summer Fun

I'm so excited to be participating in Britney's Summer Blog Hop. 

 

Partially because Britney is a doll, and partially because today is my first official day of summer.  For me, that means relaxing at the beach, staying up late and sleeping in, and enjoying summer because this is the first summer in about 8 years where I'll know what grade and school I'll be teaching at in the fall!!!

Our last day was Friday and we spent each day leading up to the last day , doing something special and fun. On Tuesday, it was Beach Blankets and Books Day. Kiddos read for over 2 hours, which made my heart full and lowered my anxiety because this teacher needed my room to be packed, like yesterday!

Wednesday was Board Game Day, which is always a favorite! Students brought in their favorite games to play with one another. Hungry, Hungry Hippos lasted about 10 minutes before I couldn't take that noisy game any longer! 

Word to the Wise: encourage quiet games unless you love headaches!

We cleaned on Thursday and had a mini graduation on Friday. We celebrated with donuts, juice, individualized awards from TpT, a red carpet, and cute graduation hats. 

I snagged a piece of butcher paper for our red carpet, played the graduation song from Vitamin C, and kiddos came down to claim their award. This is the first time I've done this and they were beyond excited. Even my ones who show no emotion couldn't contain their huge smiles!

To make the hats, I cut construction paper into a 9x9 square (use your school colors). Take a sentence strip, measure around the child's head, and staple twice. The strip, not the head!!! Place it on the construction paper and add 4 pieces of tape (like the photo above). You can have them decorate the strip with a cute phrase, but my markers were packed!

I get compliments every year from teachers who see the hats. At the end of the day, we walk out together, wearing our hats proudly and holding back tears.  Before we headed out, I made sure to e-mail a copy of my Summer Family Literacy Handbook to all my parents.  It has wonderful activities for them to do with their children, so they don't fall into the dreaded summer slump.  It's worth 10.00 in my TpT store but wanted to let you download it for free here!