Balloon Popping Bash - Manic Monday!

I am, probably like most of you, looking forward to summer and am itching to get a jumpstart on having some fun! As I was perusing Pinterest not too long ago, I came across Krista's post over at Stellar Students about an activity she does for the final 15 days of school.  She came across the idea on Ms. Gray's post on Here We Go Loopty Loo.  Basically, you "pop" your way through the last 15 days of school.  Little pieces of paper hold the secret special activity that you will complete the next day.  One balloon is popped each afternoon for the following day's activities.  Krista hung the balloons from the ceiling as you can see below.  Unfortunately we are not allowed to hang anything from the ceiling so I plan to pin mine to the bulletin board.  I am so excited I found this idea!

I made a couple of freebies to help my team and I prepare for the activities.  The first is a letter to explain the activity to our parents and alert them to check the students' home folders each night because they may need to bring in an item or two to be prepared.  The second two are the letters I plan to send home the day before we do the relay race day and beach day.  They explain to the parents what the students will need the following day.  The last three pages are the activities that I plan to use the last 15 days.  I cut them up and put them in the balloons.  They are all ready to be popped!  We will pop our first balloon this Thursday!  The countdown begins Friday!  The kids and I are so excited!

If you'd like a copy of the packet, click here!

Here are the activities I plan to do on some of the various days!
For craft day, I am going to make this really cool snake craft out of paper plates.  I found the idea at Crafts and Art for Children.  We are also going to read one of the Jimmy's Boa books.  

For the paper airplanes, I think I am just going to let them be creative.  This video may help start them off.

For Beach Day, students are going to bring in beach towels.  We are going to do our 100 Book Challenge on the beach towels (outside if weather permits) and we are going to play Beach Blanket Bingo (that's just a fancy way of saying bingo on beach towels).

For relay races day I usually borrow a couple of items from our gym teacher.  I was going to do about 5 races.  Here are the ones I plan to do.

Hula Hoop Relay and Wacky Waiter Relay from Disney's Family Fun website.
Balloon Relay, Animal Relays (they race to the different cones moving like various animals), and finally the ball hopping relay (students put the playground ball between their knees and hop to the cone and back.
I plan to do each relay through twice.  It will be a good practice for Field Day!

Mystery Guest Reader - Depending on the day we pop that balloon, I will try to get the nurse, or a 2nd grade teacher, or a past teacher to come share their favorite story.  Basically whoever they will think is cool and I can talk into doing it.  :)

For Croon a Tune - I made a playlist called Karoake in YouTube that we are going to sing along to.  I had to watch a billion to find fun songs that were totally appropriate.  Sometimes I wish they made a radio version and a classroom version of certain songs.  One word can make the song off limits.  

For Watermelon Day, I found many cute activities on The Lemonade Stand.  Students estimate the weight and circumference, etc.  They also get to enjoy yummy watermelon slices!

~Abby

Graphics by Scrappin Doodles fonts by Kevin and Amanda.

My Summer Bucket List

I was just at talking at lunch today about all of the things I would like to accomplish this summer, and then I saw the Summer Bucket List Linky Party that April posted over at A Modern Teacher.  It encouraged me to put all those ideas in one place.  

I want to make these for my classroom:

I saw them on The Boutons and I've had my heart set on making them ever since.  My school is pretty ancient and we have old wooden seats.  These are going to brighten my room right up.  (I think I'm most excited about actually picking out the fabric.)

Then I saw this table at Rehder Rainforest and really wanted one of these for my back room where the students do their center work.  (This might be aggressive for me, but I want to try!)

I have dreams about making about a billion and one resources for the classroom as well, but we shall see.  I'd really like to get some of the things together from the camping uint that Ms. Carol put together over at The First Grade Parade.  The "We are Happy Campers" display is to die for.  So stinking cute.  I want to do it for Back to School night.

I would like to make these for my house....

I found those on Lemonade Making Mama.  To go along with that, I need desperately to print out some new pictures.  I can't remember the last time I actually ordered prints.

For me, I just want to spend some qt with my dogs, read many books, and have time outside in the sun.

Aren't they handsome?  They are very excited for summer break, too!  Head over to A Modern Teacher if you want to link up!

~Abby

 

Teacher Appreciation Week

Our PTA apparently knows how much we all love food at our school.  My GOD have I felt appreciated this week.  I have had a full belly each day to prove it.  Monday started out with a ridiculous breakfast spread.  Tuesday they managed to top that with an omelette bar, complete with two chefs!  Today you would not have believed the amount of dishes and desserts we had to choose from.  Tomorrow will surely be my favorite though.... dessert AND candy buffet.  Woot! Woot!  They also made this fantastic bulletin board.  The entire week has been a Hollywood theme.  I couldn't get over how stinking cool it was.  It is a little hard to see all of the details, but it has all of our names and a bunch of other creative details.

Another thing I am so thankful for this week is my new blog button that Leslie, over at Kindergarten Works, made me!  I was so happy I came across the Free Blog Button post on Teaching Blog Addict.  Thank you so much, Leslie!  Check out her awesome handiwork!  Be sure to grab it from my page if you'd like.  I'm a newbie and would love all the help I can get spreading my blog around.  

I hope everyone is having a great Teacher Appreciation Week!

~Abby