Winding Down

I can't believe the end of the year is less than a month away!  Friday we got a glimpse of the heat that is finally headed our way.  We've lucked out so far this year in that department.  It has been quite pleasant here in Maryland.  :)  I am very excited to start our end of the year fun activities!  Last year we "popped" our way through the last 15 days of school.  Finding that idea on Pinterest was a great way to spice up the end of the year.  See my post about the nifty activities we did here. 

Last year I made Summer Space Mission to help motivate my kiddos to keep their skills sharp during the summer.  I tweaked it this year to align it with the Common Core State Standards.  It's free this week in my TpT store!  Check out the preview below and see if it is something you can use for your kids!

Have a great week!  Let the countdown begin!

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.