School's Out for Summer!

After 180 days of being a broken record of: stay seated, raise your hand, pay attention, push your patience button, toes and nose forward, keep your hands to yourself, write your name on your paper, give him/her an 'I feel' message, etc. the end has finally arrived! For weeks it seemed like this day would never arrive, especially as my class size ballooned up to 27 kiddos. But then, the last day of school just quietly arrived, almost as though it sneaked up on us.

I have three students in my class who are moving this summer, and another student whose parent will be homeschooling next year. I had a few little girls with mini meltdowns as they arrived at school in the morning or ate their last kindergarten lunch, but I thought the kids were excited for the most part. Then, the final announcements came on the intercom at the end of the day. One of my little boys started crying, so I gave him a hug, and when I looked up from the hug, it was like a floodgate had been opened. My parent volunteer (I've taught both of her children in the last two years) was crying, and I think at least half my class started at that point. Poor kiddos! They are now first graders though, and it will be hard for it to sink in that first day back when they walk down the hallway to give me a hug, but no longer get to spend the whole day with me, and have to walk past to first grade instead.

But on a positive note, I made some cutie volunteer thank you gifts and end of year goodies for my class.

I stole the saying for this gift from Pinterest (original idea here) , and then just kind of tweaked it based on what I found in my local stores the day before school ended (procrastination at its finest). I bought the sundae cup from Wal-mart for a $1 and the IBC root beer came in a 6-pack at Food Lion. For one of my parent volunteers that still comes even though his child went on to 1st grade, I tucked in a little Cold Stone Creamery gift card as well.

My friend from college and colleague my first year teaching posted an adorable s'more goodie package she gave her kids on the last day of school. I totally stole this idea from her (with her permission of course). The kids had fun assembling all the pieces in the bag and talking about all the different ways they could cook the s'more this summer. The s'more clipart came from Decorating from the Heart.

Now I will spend next week packing up my classroom and preparing for a summer full of flip flop tan lines, European vacation with my hubby, and no alarm clocks!