Tears and Cheers

Well we've done it - We have finished another year. This one was extremely close to my heart as it was my last year at Apollo Beach. My husband and I have decided to relocate back home to Ohio and I will be leaving the school I've been teaching at for 6 years! It's bittersweet, as I am so excited to start this new adventure but hate to leave the students, parents, and staff I have grown so close to. Here is how I closed out the year:

Throughout the week we worked on our end of the year memory books. I used pages from Lisa Frase's. Find it here for free! 

I also allowed the students to take over as teacher's for the day! Each student was given 20 minutes to teach small groups a lesson of the choice. I don't remember where I got this idea, so if it was from you, please message me so I can give you credit for it. Click here to get the documents to do it in your class!


Monday: Reading Camp out. Students brought in tents, flashlights, books, sleeping bags, stuffed animals, and dressed in pajamas. We camped out around the room and read our favorite books.

Tuesday: Minute to Win It - thanks to the ideas of over at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits, I was able to set this activity up pretty quickly. We also had snowcones and a dance party out on the courts as a reward from admin for us winning the National School of Character title.

Wednesday: Board Game Day - Students brought in board games to play during "down time"

Thursday: Water Day and End of the Party and Awards:  We have stations set up around the campus for students to make a "splash." Stations included : bubbles, snowcones, chalk, sponge races, shaving cream fight, sponge volleyball, water balloon toss, and kiddy pool bottle cap hunt.

After students dried off, we had our end of the year party and I distributed the candy awards, also found at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits.

Friday was our last day, we watched a movie and had popcorn, as I distributed report cards, portfolios, and end of the year gifts. For the students: I got each a book, a bookmark with a poem on it, slideshow of our year together, and a candy that says Owl miss you.