Kindness Week

It's been a rough one in Vegas this past week.

However, it was also kindness week.

Here were some of our activities:

We made a kindness chain.  I modeled a sentence stem:

 
Gave them the time and space to discuss kindness:

Then hung it outside our door.

We took those same ideas to create leaves, which went on our school kindness tree:

(Our art teacher made this because she's amazing.)

We read:

We made:

They wrote compliments to one another to be bucket fillers:

I took home enough to make each kid a compliment from me:

We dedicated an entire bulletin board to our bucket filling:

It will stay up for about a month.

We watched this {Respect Rap} and made posters for Friday's respect march and pep assembly.

We all wore blue on Friday.  Not only did it symbolize our grief over the last weekend's events, it also serves as a stand up to bullies color and helped our school feel unified.  This was a district wide spirit day.

Keep Calm and Read On

I'm spending as much time as possible relaxing today in preparation for reading week.

For those not in Elementary, it's a rather chaotic week that requires a lot of caffeine and patience.  

For starters, it's a spirit week all week.  While I love dress up days, they are often accompanied by additional quirky student behaviors (which when combined with spring fever, leads to lots of head aches and write ups).

Monday: Crazy Hair Day
Tuesday: Oh the Places You'll Go! (College shirts day)
Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday, full of mismatched ensembles
Thursday: Dr. Seuss day, it's time to find a tutu.
Friday: I forget the technical theme, but it's pajamas.  Enough said!

 We also have two assemblies, one on Monday and one on Tuesday.  I also have two guest readers on Thursday, one of them being my boss's boss.  No pressure there!  There's a school wide reading competition for the highest percentage on AR tests, book bingo, drop everything and read, buddy reading with other classes, a story writing contest (by pod), and read around the pod (where we visit other classrooms).

Oh, and we're taking a field trip on Tuesday.

In addition to all of that, I have Battle of the Books, new teacher meetings, a post observation conference, a grade level meeting to plan the pep assembly skits, and fifth grade is responsible for First Friday treats (which means a Costco run on Thursday).

Oh yeah, I'll also be teaching. 

Sigh.  It's time for a nap.

Skidding

The end of the school year does not come to a graceful stop.  Instead, much like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland, the end of May into June is a whirlwind of heightened emotions, long hours, crying students, a never ending to do list, and triple checking lists to make sure every task was accomplished.  

Then, it's over.

If you're wondering what it's like to teach in May, {this video} does a fairly good job at capturing how it feels to be in a fifth grade classroom.

My students are officially on summer break.  I am a few hours away from that joy as well.  My brain, however, decided that 2:38 am was a good time to start the day, so here I am.

Let's recap, shall we?  Since there's a lot that's happened, I'll stick to one topic:

ABC Count Down

The last twenty six days of the school year are devoted to an ABC countdown with each day having a different spirit concept.  In theory, this is wonderful and helps the kids finish the year strong.  However, we also were standardized testing until the end of May and it's incredibly difficult to keep kids motivated on spirit days.  I failed spectacularly at taking pictures this year, so I'll just describe our spirit days.


A: Art day. My students had a math test and I told them their art was fraction models.  They didn't find it funny.  I on the other hand, found it quite amusing.  I gave them some doodle time once their tests were all turned in.

B: Beach towel day.  Students brought in towels (I forgot) and we read outside in the court yard once standardized testing was done.

C: Crazy hair day.  No dye and nothing to distract from testing.  I let my hair dry naturally so participation was easy.

D: Disney day.  I'm sure I was some sort of Disney princess.

E: Exercise day.  We laid on the ground and did some stretches.  We also worked on calming breathing exercises before taking the SBAC.  I walked around in circles for hours "actively monitoring" testing, which means I make sure they're on task, but can't look at the specific questions that are asked because it's confidential.  I also try to win the fitbit step challenge of the day with my coworkers.

F: Fruit day.  Some of my students brought in snacks to share.  B brought me flowers and pineapple (since this was also teacher appreciation week).  Happy coincidence that it was fruit day!  Because I still had a lot of math concepts to teach before the math SBACs (we took ours in three parts: ELA, math, and science while spacing them out three weeks apart), I used this to teach about surveys (favorite fruit), organizing data, and making graphs to represent the data.  Since it was derived from our classroom, the students were super engaged.  They also generated questions that could be answered by the class data, which helped them practice thinking critically.  I paired them up and had them share their questions before analyzing if the question was answered explicitly by the data, inferred by the data, or not supported by the data.

G: Geography day.  This happened to coincide with a digital field trip from {Discovery Education}, so we visited Indiana and learned about cars.

For our first digital field trip, this went fairly well.  We missed the first twenty minutes (because they were out at recess) and this was geared toward high school students, but it was still a fun experience.  We made connections to perseverance and the scientific inquiry process, so they were still able to get something out of it.

H: Hat day! This also coincided with a visit from {Dr. Frey}, a field trip to the {Springs Preserve} for their {Butterfly Habitat} AND May the Fourth (Star Wars Day), so I had to plan accordingly.

Luckily, B's new BB8 hat did just the trick! 

(Naturally, Waffles is in the picture!)

Students learned about life cycles, so this was a perfect tie in with standards.

I: Inside out day.  One students wore a shirt from the movie, while others wore their clothes inside out.  I accepted both for spirit day points on {class dojo}.

J: Joke day.  They brought a joke to share.  Their jokes were not that amusing.  My jokes are rarely child-friendly. 

K: Kickback day.  My first of several opportunities to wear yoga pants to work.

L: Lollypop day.  Students could enjoy a sucker during independent reading time (if they brought their own).

M: Movie day (?).  Again, this was weeks ago and a lot has happened.  If it wasn't movie day, it should have been.

N: Neon day.  Another year has come and gone where I realize that I own nothing neon.

O: Octopus day.  This day, by far, makes the least sense.  We are a landlocked state.  We are in the middle of the desert. Yet, we use this day to discover the {Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus}:

Except this creature isn't real, so instead we have the life chat that not everything you read on the internet is true.

Next year I vote this is orange day. It would be much easier.
 

P: Pajama day in all its glory.

Q: Quiet day.  This coincided with testing, so it was a breeze.

R: Red & read day.  This one was pretty straight forward and a great opportunity for me to rock a red Gryffindor shirt. 

S: Superhero day.  I failed in my attempt to ban Superman shirts.

T: Team day? (This was only a week ago and clearly not a memorable one.)

U: As much as we tried to convince the students that they were to wear their underwear outside their pants like Captain Underpants, the true spirit day was uniforms.  Some of my students came in their boy scout uniforms, some dressed as doctors, and most rocked sports attire.  My request to come as Batman was denied.

V: Video day.  We Facetimed with a teacher who is in the hospital.  Her students loved it.  Mine shared their Vokis that they made on the American Revolution.

W: Watermelon day.  If they wanted to, students brought in pieces to share.

X: x-change autographs.  We took all the fifth graders to the courtyard and gave them twenty minutes to sign yearbooks and t-shirts.

Y: year-end clean up!  They took all their stuff home and I took down everything on the walls.  My classroom is being painted, so everything has to be cleaned and put away.  My room is also being used for summer school, which means everything of value (all my books) that can't be locked away must come home to the garage.  B's been awesome at helping.

Z: We spent the day at the pool, then had a BBQ so I'm not quite sure what the official spirit day was for yesterday.  I shall call it zzzz for naps day!  (Although I had no nap and probably could have used one.)



When I wasn't handing out spirit day points and remembering the ABC count down, the end of the year also brought:

*Teachers vs. Students Kickball: (I did not strike out and the teachers won.  Success all around)

*Assemblies

*Hosting a bridal shower

*Hosting 3 baby showers

*End of the Year Staff Party (we had a taco truck and a fiesta)

*Observations (because there's no better time than the end of the year!)

*Grade level trivia with iPads and Kahoot (more on that later!)

*parent/teacher conferences

*report cards and awards 

*Fifth grade promotion ceremony
 
*Fifth grade pool party and BBQ lunch

*meetings.  Lots of meetings.

*Skyping with the Chief of Staff for Arkansas's governor

*Dunk Tank:

 

Oh yes, and finishing my grad school class.  45 non-contract hours in 3 weeks.  That was rough to say the least.  But I'm done (for now) because there is literally no incentive for me to take any additional courses (but more on that later).

On non-teaching related things, some of my bridesmaids and I planned the bridal shower and ordered invites, B and I escaped to Arizona, we took in a 51's game with friends, we puppy sat for a week, and had our AC start acting up (thank you home warranty), and I had car issues.  Fun times!

No wonder I'm exhausted!  

All that stand between me and summer break is finishing the last dozen items on our end of the year check list and officially signing out.  T-8 hours until break! 

 

Everything else

Yesterday I {shared all about Reading Week}.   I was exhausted. I still am exhausted.

Let's examine why:

1) The students have spring fever, big time.  This need for a break manifests itself in lots of interesting ways.  This week I dealt with theft (including the school police), citations, suspensions, bullying issues, depressed students, parents, vomiting, and more.  Some days, I taught from the doorway of my classroom, privately solving behavior problems in the pod while simultaneously trying to teach multiplying fractions.  I'm the queen of multi-tasking y'all.

2) I overheard a horrific car accident while at the gas station Tuesday morning.  Six cars were involved, I think a pedestrian was hit, and crunching metal is a sound I never want to hear again.  I called the police and waited for ambulances to arrive.  I got to work thirty minutes later than I planned to and just in time for a meeting I'd forgotten about.  I had fifteen minutes between the meeting and crosswalk duty to turn on my computer and set up for the day. Tuesday morning was rough.

3) The pets were naughty.  Last week went amazing with Waffles.  She didn't get into anything when we let her roam during the day.  This week was a different story.

Monday she helped herself to some files:

Including her adoption paperwork.  I guess she's ours forever.

Tuesday included altering a dining room table chair:

At least it's an old chair? 

She's just one this month, so she's not quite ready for all that freedom.  She didn't do it to be  mean. She did it because she missed us, was lonely, and I'm sure the cats were playing without her. We'll try again in a few months.

Crooksie snuck into the pantry, ripped open a bag of dog food, and helped herself to extra food.  She's not enjoying the kitty diet very much.

4) Grad School.  I'm taking a one credit course right now and assignments are due every few days.  Between now and May, I'm finishing up course work to be at masters +32 (yay) and earn a pay raise (maybe? That's still being negotiated.)

Wednesday night I spent writing a four page analysis of the text complexity of the chosen article.  I had to watch videos, read thirty something pages, and address all sorts of questions regarding the validity of the article and if it would be appropriate for close reads and thoughtful discussion by students.  Long story short, it was appropriate.  

The topic?  Dino poop.  Snag it {here} fellow teachers! It comes from the 4-5 tool kit and is free for classroom use.

5)  In addition to all the prep for reading week, we had Harney Middle School registration.  This meant we lost our prep on Thursday, but were given prep during the assembly later that day.

6) I was observed for math.  Not only was it the fourth time rescheduling (our principal is a very busy woman!), but it was after an assembly, at the end of the day (we normally do math first thing), on a Thursday, during reading week.  Naturally, as soon as my principal left, they got the concept.  Those glorious brain fireworks and light bulbs started going off...ninety seconds after she left. 

7) It was also fifth grade's turn for First Friday treats.  Each month a specific grade level does treats for the school.  I came up with the "March Munchie Madness" theme.  Ms. C took the lead on shopping (thank you teamwork), Mrs. J helped me decorate, and Mrs. H took care of clean up.  I made fake snack brackets to give everyone something fun and different to do.  We used popcorn bags that we found in our supply closet (score!) and picked up different flavors of chex mix, popcorn, m & ms, marshmellows, and cheese-its.  Perfect snack foods to munch on.  Last year we did St. Patrick's day, but since we're having a potluck on the 16th (because we have monthly potlucks), we went with something different.  I sent out an email asking for college shirts to use as decoration and we used black butcher paper to define the space:

It must have went over really well because there were no left overs!

8) Both {Jamberry} and {Younique} launched new products, so I did my best to share this info with my Facebook groups.  There's a lot of (unfair) pressure to hit certain quotas at times, especially with the launch of new goodies.  I didn't meet these goals.  But, I am excited for what came out!

 I mean, how cute are these new nail wraps?

Dinosaurs? Yes please! I can match the Dino Poop article that I'll read with my students next week.

On the make up side...tinted flavored lip balms? New foundation brush? Yes please!

But...I'm in a sales rut. I've accepted that I won't be one of those direct sales people that makes thousands of extra dollars each month, quits her real job, and wins cruises around the world.  I'm not able to devote that much time to these hobbies, but more importantly... I don't want to. I don't want to be that pushy sales woman that tells people they need this new make up product because really the underlying message is that they aren't pretty enough and need help.  I'm not that person.  I'm much more laid back about the products. Right or wrong (probably wrong in the marketing world), here's my philosophy: I like them, I use them, and if you have questions, I'm here. Want to try something? Sure, why not? I like to try before I buy too! No judgment. I may not make a lot of money with this attitude, but I also won't lose friends and will still be me.  That matters.

9) I'm behind on grading.  No, scratch that. I let a week's worth of assignments pile up because I was overwhelmed by student behaviors and now I'm paying the consequence.  Eight different tests or quizzes to grade.  That's 264 pieces of paper to look at, score, record on a spread sheet, and enter into the grade book before passing back to students. Not fun.  Progress reports go home soon, so I should be all caught up so grades reflect all the work. That's fair to families, but it's a lot of work.  In case you're a loyal reader (or new, welcome!) and aren't in education, know this:  I tend to work an extra 15 hours a week, unpaid, grading and prepping lessons.  Every single week.  There's not enough time during the daily fifty minute prep (when it's not held up by SPED meetings, grade level meetings, surprise meetings, parent meetings, or any of the other events that happen often) to get everything done.  So please stop blaming teachers for all sorts of problems.  We're doing our best. I'm doing my best. 

10) Meetings.  There were meetings with admin.  Meetings with special education (SPED) because a behavior plan needed to be tweaked.  Three of my students are now on individual behavior incentive plans.  Last month it was one.  January? None.  But..the plans are helping those students make strong behavior choices and that's ultimately the end goal.  Meetings with parents. Meetings with the police.  Meetings with the grade level.  Meetings with other teachers that I'm mentoring.  Meetings about being certified.  Meeting with coaches.  Meetings with students about cheating.  Meetings about upcoming meetings.

All my meetings were important. I get that. They just all happened to at the same time.

11) Sinus infection.  Because items 1-10 weren't enough of a struggle, my allergies became a full blown sinus infection.  On the bright side, I used the new online telemedicine option.  I called in, a doctor called me back within an hour, we had a nice chat about my mucus situation, and he confirmed I have a sinus infection.  Considering I have several a year, for as long as I can remember, I'm pretty good at self-diagnosing this.  Thirty minutes later, CVS called to let me know my antibiotics were ready for pick up.  I didn't need to go to the doctor. I didn't need to take a sick day.  Technology for the win!

Plus, Waffles brought me a toy to snuggle with:

To be fair, she tried to share with the cats first. 

But...I'm trying to focus on the positives.  We were pleased with our tax return.  B enjoys gambling (he grew up in Vegas, what do I expect?) and did well this week.  Because we're a team, we've talked about limits and what we're comfortable spending monthly.  It's not my favorite activity, but he enjoys it.  This week he hit a royal and came home with enough cash to buy a new water softener.  Thanks babe!  I've got two weddings this month, get to see my best friend, have found some cute things on Etsy, get to see my family soon, and have bridal appointments over spring break.  There's a lot happening...and that's a good thing.


Nine days until field day.  Ten days until spring break. I can do this.
  

Recapping Reading Week

In college, reading week was this glorious time before finals where I had no responsibilities (other than a few hours at a desk job) but to read and study for finals.

As a teacher, the concept of "reading week" is an entirely different beast.

To start with, we have a week of spirit days.   Now don't misunderstand me, I love spirit days.  I don't love the spirited attitudes that accompany these dress up days.  Because of the surplus of extra fun activities, many students (not just my own rambunctious class) were extra off task and defiant.  It made for a long and exhausting week.

Our school tends to take celebrations to the extreme, and that's okay.  The kids need to have fun in elementary school.  Our reading week activities include:

Book bingo (We get blank boards and a list of titles the week before reading week.  I had students help me fill it out.  Three books were called each morning during announcements.)

Mystery Readers (Students have to guess which staff member is reading the poem or short story aloud over the intercom.  Students submit their guesses on blue colored slips of paper.  One winner from each grade level with the correct guess wins a prize, which is usually a left over poster from the book fair.)

Spirit days (Not only did I give students points on class dojo for participating, but they got pink colored slips of paper to submit.  Once again, one winner from each grade level was chosen for a prize.)

Assemblies (Each grade level got at least one.  Ours featured a local published author who did an amazing job interacting with the kids.)

Lunch with someone you love (families are invited to bring students lunch and eat together in the courtyard.)

Guest readers (Everyone from high school students to the air force to news anchors to families came in to read picture books to the classes.  We had our principal and a fellow teacher's husband (he's in the air force) come read to us Friday afternoon.)

Read around the pod (teachers switch classrooms and read to one another).

Book picnic (Students brought blankets or towels and we read outside on Friday afternoon.  It was mid seventies and gorgeous.) 

No wonder I'm exhausted!  

Our spirit days included:

Monday: Ties & tutus day.  I borrowed an electric blue one from a friend and rocked it with jeans and an eagles shirt (our school mascot).  I had twenty minutes of playground duty, so not only did I start my day with already hitting my 10,000 steps (thanks fitbit!) but I got lots of compliments.  I should wear tutus more often!

Tuesday: Dr. Seuss day.  I snagged a solid red shirt from Target, wore jeans and the electric blue tutu again.  I didn't want to ruin my shirt, so I attached a paper plate from my classroom (a Christmas one no less!) to a lanyard.  With the help of a black sharpie, I became Thing 1.

I also had crosswalk duty.  I got a lot of questions asking if it was spirit day... I didn't really know how to respond to that one.  Do I normally look ridiculous and wear tutus on normal Tuesdays?

Wednesday: Disney day.  (Also, Marvel and Star Wars day!) This was the day Ms. C and I had our Disney themed lip sync battle for students who met their reading goals.

Can you guess which Disney princess I was?

Would it help if I said I carried around a dinglehopper (fork), yellow fish, and red lobster?

Thursday: Dress as your future self day.  Not only did I rock a Hogwarts alum shirt that I snagged at Target, but I also completely dressed another teacher.  She wanted to be Wonder Woman, so I lent her a cape, crown, shirt, and the blue tutu.  (Yes, I do just have those things laying around.)

Friday: Pajama day.  I rocked black yoga pants and an oversized pink shirt that said "I was made for taking naps."  (Another stellar Target find!)

I really failed at taking pictures this year!  

To make things fun for teachers, we were entered in a raffle for free books each time we participated.  While I didn't win, I really like and respect the intermediate teacher who did. 

Reading week was great, our librarian put a lot of hard work into every detail, but I'm really glad it's over.  It's time to get back on track with learning.

 

The last week

We had Monday off for parent teacher conferences, which left only four days to attempt to manage students' behavior choices.  The excitement over the holidays was adorable...and loud.

We had a spirit week, which always adds to silliness in the classroom.  I reward students who participate with bonus class dojo points and let them do a fashion show. I also take a group selfie and post it to our class blog (but won't post here due to students' privacy).  That always gets them super excited.

Our spirit days:

Tuesday: Wear white or snowflakes.  I completely forgot...so good thing a coworker snagged some foam snowflakes at the dollar spot and I got crafty.

My students said I was channeling Queen Elsa, so I went with it.

Wednesday brought dress like a present day.  It was really, really difficult not to joke about this being inappropriate (cue Justin Timberlake).  I wore a green dress accented with a red belt and a red bow in my hair.  Halfway through the day, I discovered there were lots of bite marks in my belt...not sure which pet is to blame.  

Thursday was Santa hat or winter hat day.  I let my students wear hats inside, which was a special treat.  I had a tough choice to make that day:

Friday was pajama day, which is always a favorite.  I rocked Batman pajama pants with a Cardinals hoodie, much to the delight of my students.  They are very vocal about their passion for their football teams...none of which are my team.

Friday started with this treat on their desks: 

There are fruit snacks attached (I couldn't find holiday pencils) and the pass is good for one night of no math homework (much to the delight of my students).

The last week was also devoted to a Reading Rangers challenge (my favorite of the year).  The school was split into two teams (red and green) with a different leader (principal or assistant principal).  Whichever team read and passed more AR quizzes got to throw marshmellows at the losing team's leader.  I created a large paper book for my door and whenever my students passed a quiz, they wrote their name on the sheet.  For the first time in three years, the assistant principal's team won (my team) and I got to pick three students to throw marshmellows at our principal.  It was such a glorious bonding moment.  I'm blessed to have such amazing admin that aren't afraid to make fools of themselves in the name of student achievement. 

Some of the kinder classes decorated gingerbread houses and wrote letters to Santa.  Another fifth grade classroom displayed a fake fire on the smartboard during reading time and played holiday tunes (stealing that idea for next year).  Others did a book swap, classroom secret santas, and a hot chocolate party.

What fun traditions does your school have for the last week of school?

 

Typical Thursday

My desire to go to bed at five o'clock this evening should be a pretty good indication of how things are going at work.  

(I know I've shared this image before...but it's still true.  It's also tomorrow's morning meme.)

I got a new student this week.  She's number thirty four (one already moved back to Mexico, so she replaces the empty desk).  She's from a neighboring school and it appears her family moved, so luckily for me, she's already familiar with our school's Reading Rangers program.

I'm juggling planning social studies units with reading plans.  I'm making some major tweaks to last year's region works, but I will happily share (on TpT) once they're done!  I'm almost done with my beginning of the year tasks (setting up Class Dojo, getting everyone benchmarked, establishing procedures, setting up progress monitoring schedules, and so on and so forth).  I'm hoping this weekend, when I'm not doing exciting wedding planning things, will provide a lot of time to catch up and get a little bit ahead (crazy concept, I know!).  B is on call (extra money for the wedding), so I'll do my part in finishing up products.

I'm all caught up on my grading (for now), sent some positive emails to parents to try to build up that community, and tried to catch my breath.  

Our year is off to a rocky start.  One of my students had her iPhone stolen from her desk.  Granted, it wasn't supposed to be in her desk and she was showing it off to her peers.  It's unclear when the phone went missing because she claims to have noticed it gone right after lunch, but didn't tell me until the end of the day...on a Friday.  I took witness statements and handed those over to administration (who in turn handed them over to school police), we advised them to file additional reports.  Not the best way to start the school year.  I feel so frustrated and violated because it happened in my classroom.  It also brings back unpleasant memories of some of the issues we dealt with last year.  

We also had another bombshell dropped on us today.  It's not a secret the district is having money woes.  The funds are there, they are just being extremely mismanaged.  (Yes, still irritated that I got a pay cut, but new teachers got a $4,000 hiring bonus because the school district's focus is on "recruiting new talent" apparently with no regard to retaining the talent they already have.)  Apparently, sometime before mid December, I have to attend an evening or Saturday clinic put on by the Teacher's Health Trust in order to keep my insurance for next year.  The insurance that's included in my contract as part of my benefits plan.  I don't know how they can mandate that we give up additional time outside of contract hours for what will clearly be a less than helpful training, but we shall see.

For the past few days, we've been in a school wide reading competition.  Our students have been reading up a frenzy and the teachers were evenly split between the red reading team and the blue rangers team.

I take spirit days very, very seriously.  Scarves, a red Gryffindor shirt, hair bows, a belt, and an Arizona Cardinals snuggie were all part of my attire at some point today.  Twenty four of my students participated in today's red challenge.

After reading all morning (and practicing our grade level chant), we headed outside for the kick off.  We had a dozen or so cheerleaders from UNLV, district employees, an author, and all of first through fifth grade outside.  

Naturally, we seized the opportunity to snap some selfies!  Kyla is one of my bridesmaids and I'm so glad she left our previous school and joined me at school two.  We took a big leap of faith together!

They announced winners of the reading competitions and all the teachers were strongly encouraged to do the Nae Nae.  Yup, I danced the nae nae in front of about a thousand people today.  You know, just your typical Thursday as an elementary school teacher. 

Luckily, tomorrow is Friday. I don't intend for there to be any dancing...but you never know with fifth grade.

ABCs, part two

The cuteness of my school continues.

As I previously shared, we are in the middle of an ABC themed count down until the end of the school year.

My students hare having a wonderful time with the spirit days.

Inside out day!  We wore our clothes inside out.

Joke day!  They shared all their silly jokes with one another.

Kickback day!  Also known as the teachers get to wear yoga pants and it's amazing.

Lollipop day.  They could bring in suckers and eat them during independent reading.

Mismatch day.  I had an important meeting after school that day (more on that later), so I needed to look presentable.  I did wear brown flats with a black sweater, which felt mismatched.  

Neon day.  Surprisingly this was mostly students participating.  As an adult, I do not own a lot of neon items.  I am also completely okay with this.

Octopus day.  They read fun facts about octopi.  That was really it.

Pajama day.  This day was glorious.

Quiet day.  Another glorious day that coincided with online standardized testing (Discovery Education, not SBAC.)

Red and read day.  Wear red, read a lot,

The next two weeks will bring the remaining letters of S-Z.

What fun traditions does your school have for the end of the year? 

ABCs

Once again I find myself appreciating the cute, fun culture of my new school. With the school year winding down, we are doing an ABC count down until the end of the year.  Each day is a different themed spirit day!

Here's a recap of what we've done and what's coming up next week!

A day: Art Day

To be fair, we started calling the day ancient day because none of the computers wanted to connect to the server!  

I talked to my students about how book covers sometimes change over time.  We looked at examples (Hatchet, the River) and non-examples (Number the Stars).  

We talked about the different emotions that were evoked by the illustrations and which book cover would be the most appealing to read.  

I then had them redesign the covers of their favorite novels.  They had such a great time with our craft project and it was nice to be able to integrate reading and art!



B day: Beach Day

Students brought in beach towels and we enjoyed reading outside!  Granted, it's close to 100 degrees outside, so our reading time didn't last too long.

My students were super excited about my towel choice:

 

C day: Crazy Hair Day 

I babysat my nephew and niece the night before, so it was rough getting up this morning so I passed on the spirit day.  I also had an IEP, so that was my excuse with my colleagues. A few of my students really went all out and it was great to see how excited they were!

Next week will bring...

Disney Day
Exercise Day
Fruit Day
Geography Day
Hat Day

I'm not sure what I'll do for Disney day yet.  We'll be doing some brain breaks and stretching for exercise day.  Fruit day may involve a potluck.  Geography day will not only include learning about the Southern Region, but also Google Earth explorations as well!  Hat day is self explanatory and perhaps the day my boys are most excited about!

What fun end of year activities does your school do?