End of Year Gifts

I'm I'm bad. I fell off the blogging wagon again. And this time I'm not going to promise that I will try to keep up because I now definitely know that it's a promise I can't keep. ><

However, I am back today to share what I'm doing for end of the year gifts this year! There are some lucky teachers out there that are already on their summer vacation. Lucky them! I'm on my last week (last day with kids is Thursday). So close yet so far! Anyways, this is my first and last year with this school (more about that in a different entry). I am going to miss my colleagues very much, especially the "lunch bunch" (as we call ourselves). Last year, I left my school with such short notice (two weeks before school started!) that I never gave my awesome colleagues there a good-bye gift. Well, this year I'm leaving with much more notice so I decided these well-deserved colleagues need a gift. After much research on Pinterest (love that site!) I came up with....

These cute beverage containers filled with some summer yums and relaxing time!

I found these awesome beverage containers in the "dollar" section of Target. (In quotes because these were $3 each not $1 each.) I literally then wandered around Target trying to find things to stuff into the containers. I had one of the containers open as my test one. After a good amount of wandering, I finally found everything I needed.

Below are the items in each container:

Missing: Mini hand sanitizer and an Eos lip balm.

The sunscreen, bug spray, and face masks went into the little blue bag before it went into the container. End result came out good! These containers are going to go to my grade-level team and the Kinder team (we all eat lunch together). 

My para (who is also the school librarian) also gets a similar gift except her goodies are inside this cute little tote bag (also found in the "dollar "section) AND she gets a mason jar with a straw (look for the pink!).

Now on to the students!

I typically buy my student books through Scholastic as their end of the year gift. I've always seen the idea of summer buckets floating around on Pinterest but never felt that it was totally necessary for my students. However, this year I'm teaching at a Title One school and I also had a good amount of money left to spend from the Parent Association so I decided that this would be the year to give it a try!

Got my buckets at the Dollar Tree.

And labeled them with a silver Sharpie. 

I'm actually not done with this particular project because I plan to assemble the buckets after school the day before school ends. It just seemed silly to assemble them at home and then have to carry 20 filled buckets to school. 

However, I did test assemble one at home just to see what it would look like...

Inside: spiral notebook, book from Scholastic, bubbles, crayons, glue stick, sunglasses
Not Pictured: pencils, eraser, stickers

You know how when you see one awesome idea and want to do it even though you already have an awesome idea? Well, I saw this super cute poem to the students on Ideas by Jivey so of course, I HAD to do it too! 

I printed the poem on half of cardstock, added a picture of me and that student, and laminated it. This will go in their report card envelope.

The kiddos are also going to get beach balls for signing on the last day of school.

And that's all folks! Hopefully you get some ideas of gifts for your colleagues and students from this post. I'd also love to hear what end of the year gifts you are giving this year! :D

Five for Funday?

So I had created the post and started uploading pictures Friday night...but am only just getting to the writing now...-_-||

I'm allowed to give myself a break because I've been sick for most of the week, right? :D

As I mentioned, I was sick from Tuesday and on. Had a fever Tuesday night and went home early on Wednesday to just rest. We had a field trip on Thursday so I had to be there, but basically went straight home and into bed after school. I was feeling better by Friday, but still have a persistent cough that still hasn't gone away. Great time to be sick, right? We still managed to get some stuff done though...

Our caterpillars have all now turned into chrysalises! The cool thing was that on Tuesday morning, all but one had already turned. The last one was hanging in the J-shape getting ready to turn. It was perfect timing because the kids got a chance to write about it in their observation books. By the time the day was over, that last caterpillar had turned into a chrysalis!

Our math topic was on measuring. First grade only talks about non-standard units of measuring so we used connecting cubes to measure the length and height of different objects in the classroom.

We made our Mother's Day gift too! (Happy Mother's Day, by the way!) 

Normally the kids would have drawn something to temporarily place in the middle, but with me being sick and all, we just never got to it.

Presents all nicely wrapped!

Open House is next (or this) Wed! Since our classroom theme this year is the Magnificent Monsters, I thought it would be cool to have monster boxes on our desks for Open House. My idea is to make them compliment boxes. As part of my scavenger hunt, students will be asked to write compliments to their classmates and drop it into their monster box. This is just an idea though, we'll see how far I get with it! Either way, we will have some nice monster boxes on our desks!

Boxes are all painted! We will be adding the eyes and teeth this week. Stay tuned to see how they turn out!

Last week was also Teacher Appreciation Week! I hope all of you felt extremely appreciated by everyone. Being sick was no fun, but I still felt the appreciation when I was at school!

Our parent association catered Thai food for lunch!

Just a glimpse of some of the gifts I got from students.

My grade level team and aide deserved some appreciation from me too!

Okay, I made it through. And Sunday isn't over yet! This week is going to be a busy one with my birthday and Open House happening on the same week! Spent some time during the weekend getting some Open House decorating started in the classroom. Hopefully this yucky cough and sore throat will go away soon. Guess I should rest up! See you again soon! :)

Five for Friday - Two Week's Worth

I missed last week's Five for Friday due to jetting off right after work for a baseball game that didn't end until 11pm! So I'm combining these past two weeks into this Five for Friday post. That's okay, right? ;)

Earth Day was last week! When Earth day comes around, I HAVE to make my coffee filter Earths. They always turn out some awesome! I love the fact that everyone's Earth looks different.

Writing template from A Cupcake for the Teacher

We have also been working on opinion writing. Last week, to follow the theme of Earth Day and recycling, we tried to convince our readers why they should recycle.  After going through the writing process, the kiddos got to "publish" their writing in their "published" book. Remember seeing those blank books in the Target dollar section? Yep, those are the books! We pick a final draft from each writing unit and put it in our "published" books. Also becomes the perfect writing portfolio too.

This week's opinion writing was about our favorite pizza. I love the reasons this student gives for liking pepperoni and bacon so I just had to share.

Template from There's No Place Like Second Grade

Oh, the logic of a first grader. Didn't burst her bubble about the truth behind bacon coming from pigs. She can learn about that at another time. 

Continuing on last week's activities...We read 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World. After reading, the students brainstormed their own ideas on things they can do to help the world. Then we made a book about it. One of the ideas listed in the book we read was to reuse recyclables. So it only made sense if our own books were made out of recyclables too, tissue boxes!

Want to learn how to make a tissue box book? Learn from Mary at Teacher Treasures!

We had some special guests arrive after school last Friday...painted lady caterpillars! These little critters have only been with us for a week and they have already grown so big! I hope they don't turn into chrysalises over the weekend!

Day of arrival

Four days later.

Six days later. They grow so fast!

We also started working on our Mother's Day gift this week. I absolutely loved how our toilet paper roll frames turned out last year so I'm doing it again this year! The students helped me with painting the toilet paper rolls. I need to spray paint the frames and cut the toilet paper rolls this weekend so that we can put it all together next week. 

I can't believe it's already May! This month is going to go by so fast! Not only that, Open House is in two weeks and I haven't even started planning for that yet! Feeling the stress level rising as I speak (type)! Friends who are on the same boat, we can do it! :D

Affiliate Post: 10 Earth Day Freebies on Educents!

Earth Day is April 22nd, how will you celebrate this year? Some activities I have written in my plans are to read about the earth and recycling, create an Earth day craft that will talk about ways to help save the Earth, and even write an opinion piece about whether to recycle or not! If you need some ideas for Earth Day activities, Educents has 10 different Earth Day freebies for you to try in your classroom! Check them out below!

10 Earth Day Freebies for Kids

1. Earth Day Sort - Help kids learn the difference between reducing, reusing, and recycling!
2. Happy Earth Day Writing Activity - Kids of all ages can reflect on ways their family, school, and themselves can help keep the Earth healthy. Also encourages handwriting practice!
3. Earth Day Coloring Pages - Creative kiddos can color the Earth with their colors of choice, or follow the color-by-code page to add critical thinking to art hour.
4. Earth Day Poof! Subtraction to 5 - This Earth Day themed game builds fluency with subtraction facts to 5. It can be played in a small group or as a partner game. It is a fun way to practice those facts!
5. Earth Day Word Search Freebie - Enjoy this Earth Day themed word search puzzle with 21 eco-friendly terms like atmosphere, compost, and recycle.
6. Earth Day Bookmarks - The perfect Earth Day treat for your students. Available in full-color and black-and-white.
7. Earth Day Survey and Graph - A fun and different way to practice graphing in your classroom while encouraging collaboration between students.
8. Spring Coloring Book - Let your little ones COLOR & SPELL Spring words.
9. Love the Earth Mystery Picture Graph - Students will love discovering the mystery picture by coloring in the correct squares on the alphanumeric grid using the coordinates given. This is a great addition to an Earth Day or recycling unit!
10. April 2015 Journal - A month of free journaling for learners age 8 to 100! Read about important historic, artistic, and current events that happened during the month of April - including J. Robert Oppenheimer's birthday and Earth Day on April 22nd. Then develop vocabulary and critical thinking skills.

Want to turn your Earth Day celebration into an educational experience? Discover new ways to learn about the amazing planet we live on (without breaking the bank!) -->  Earth Day learning resources.