Fun in First

A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

End of the Year

Summer Learning Chain

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I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking towards the end of the school year.  I always like to send something home with my students to keep their little minds working over the summer.  I have sent home activity calendars in the past, but wanted to make it a little more exciting this year.
I came up with the idea of a Summer Learning Chain using Astrobrights colored paper.
I printed a list of summer activities onto different colors of paper.  I used a huge variety of colors including my favorites of Blast-Off Blue, Solar Yellow, and Fireball Fuschia.
Each page has a different activity.  This makes it easy to cut and stack the activities for each student.
After they are printed, I can stack up all of the papers and cut the activities into strips using the paper cutter.
After the strips are cut, I will place a stack into a baggie for each student.
The students will be able to take these home on the last day of school.  Throughout the summer, they can pull out a strip and complete the activity.
As they complete an activity, they can tape or glue the strip into a circle and create a chain of activities.
Students will be able to see how long they can make their learning chain.
You can easily make up your own activities, but if you would like to download my set of FREEBIE activities, click HERE.
What a fun, and colorful, learning activity for this summer!
 This is a sponsored post. I received payment, trade and/or products from Astrobrights in exchange for promoting.  However, all opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I love.


End of the Year Book

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The end is near!  Can you believe it?!
I made this End of the Year booklet that’s a perfect keepsake for your students to complete during the last week of school.
 
I included a version for Kindergarten, as well as two separate versions for 1st and 2nd grade.  (One very similar to the Kindergarten version, and one with more space to allow your students to do more writing.)
 
You can check out this booklet by clicking on the picture below.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/End-of-Year-Book-1856818
 


We’re Done!

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It’s officially summer break!  It’s Monday morning and I am not at work.  I got up early this morning, went on a run, watched the morning show, and drank coffee.  Pure joy!
I just wanted to do a quick update of how our school year ended.  Many of these pictures have been posted on my Facebook page or Instagram.
You can follow me here: {Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest}
The last week of school almost always involves very little sleep and lots of Walmart trips.  Please tell me that I’m not alone in this!
I spent two evenings ironing our end of the year t-shirts. {This is included in my End of Year packet.}
On the last day of school, I let the students go around and sign each other’s shirts.

 

I also put the character pinwheels along our sidewalk that morning.  I blogged about these here.  They looked so colorful and were a great way to brighten up the sidewalk.  It was REALLY windy though and some of them started to blow away.  I took them down before lunch so I didn’t have to chase any into the street.
We also completed Cara’s Memory Book.
I loved what she wrote for #5.  She is right too…she can definitely read fast like a cheetah!
On the last day, we had a classroom award ceremony.  We used Melissa’s Candy Bar Awards.
They were SO cute and easy!
Here are some of my firsties walking the red carpet to receive their award and character pinwheel.
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I will miss this class!  I had some amazing kiddos!!!
But, now I’m packed up and ready to enjoy summer.

End of the Year Gift Idea

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I know many of you will be finishing up this week.  We still have one more week.  The end is near.  Even though I am definitely ready for summer, it is always bittersweet to end another school year.
A couple of weeks ago, I was at Dollar Tree picking up some things for our Mother’s Day celebration.  I came across the pinwheels.  I have purchased these in the past and used them for reading.
This time I wanted to do something different with the pinwheels.  I decided to buy one for each of my students.  I wrote each child’s name on one of the petals.  Then on the remaining petals, I wrote character traits of that child.

I plan on putting these in the ground by the sidewalk outside of our door on the last day of school.  Then students will be able to take them home at the end of the day.  I think they’ll love reading about each other.  It’s a fun, feel good gift for your students.
 


End of Year Writing and Boggle Board

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We are starting to gear up for the end of the year.  Next week is our last five day week.  We don’t get out until June 1st, but we didn’t use our built in snow days this year, so we have one day off every week during the month of May.  I love 3 day weekends!
Last week, I had my 1st graders write to the Kindergarteners about their 1st grade experiences. 
I will be binding these into a book and letting the Kindergarten teacher’s read it to their classes.  You can click on the picture above to download.  I have included a graphic organizer, writing paper, and book cover for Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade.
We will be writing to the 2nd grade teachers next week.
Just click on the picture above to download.  Once again, I have included organizers, paper, and book covers for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students.
Something else I wanted to share was my new Boggle Board.  I’m sure you have seen these all over the place.  I have seen tons on Pinterest, but I had just been drawing a quick one on the board.  My students love doing these!  I try to make a game of it.  I have them try to “Beat the Teacher” where they have to come up with more words than me or they have to think of a word that I didn’t come up with.  You could also set a timer and see how many words they can think of in 10 minutes.  Now that I have my board set up in my classroom, I’m just going to have them work on it whenever they finish up work early.
You can click on the picture below to download the letters and recording sheet.
I also created this “number” version that I will use to change it up a little bit.  You can have students try and think of ways to get to a certain number by writing number sentences.
Now I’m off to work on my May Poems and Songs.  I hope to have them posted by the end of the weekend. 

Summer Activity Chart

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Here is a Summer Activity Chart that I will be sending home with my students on the last day of school.  It includes a simple activity to do for each day of summer vacation.  Click on the picture to download or download it for free at TpT.