It goes without saying, the end of the year is CR A Z Y. The kids are off the chart excited (the diplomatic way of saying WILD). There are grades and assessments to complete. There are records and other paper work to be tended to. There is a classroom to clean out, organize, and shutdown for the summer. Plus, there are all those special, fun days that you put off until all the major testing is over. Whew...I've been on summer break for about a week and I'm still breaking out in a little sweat thinking about the last few weeks of school. ;) After 16 year is the classroom, there are a couple of tips I have for ending the school year with your sanity intact. First, start working on all your extra stuff early. Do not wait until the last minute to try to organize field day, put together end of the year gifts for your students, do grades, and finish permanent record cards. Take care of as many details as you can before you hit the last couple of weeks. My second tip is to keep your students busy, busy, busy. You may have already covered all of your essential standards. Your students may be struggling to fully focus. But, you need to keep them moving ahead in their learning. Plus, from my experience, students behave much better when they are engaged and have tasks to complete. Here are some fun end of the year/summer inspired activities we did during the last weeks of school... I love having student work on display. I have a spot in the hallway where I hang student work and I also put display pieces in my classroom. At the end of the year, it can get a little too hectic to change out student work, so I put together a simple summer writing craftivity that took little to no time to prep. Students wrote about their plans or things they would like to do this summer. They really got into this assignment. In the end, we had a colorful display to remind us that summer break was just around the corner. If you would like to use this writing craftivity with your students, you can click on the picture below for more details. We also worked on some (hot off the press) literacy and math centers. For the past couple of years, I've intended to round out my literacy and math centers with sets that are end of the year and summer inspired. However, since the end of the year is the way it is...I have ran out of steam before I completed my project. But, this year was different. I stayed up late several nights and managed to finish up these long awaited resources. To tell you the truth, it was pretty fun putting these sets together. They served as a great review of many skills we practiced during the year. I could really see how far my young learners have come. Pictured below are a couple of the literacy centers students worked with during the final weeks. These literacy centers (and nine others-there is a bonus 11th center as well) are part of my Excellent Endings {10 Literacy Centers for the End of the Year} packet. The centers in Excellent Endings include work with adjectives, synonyms/antonyms, syllables, pronouns, verbs, sight words, vowel teams, contractions, and more. You can click here if you'd like more details. We also kept busy with the companion set of math centers, Excellent Endings {10 Math Centers for the End of the Year}. Pictured below are a couple of centers from this packet. There are a total of eleven math centers in my Excellent Endings {10 Math Centers for the End of the Year}. (This packet also includes a bonus 11th center.) The centers in Excellent Endings include practice with fact families, place value, geometry, time to the half hour, double digit addition/subtraction, fractions, and more. You can click here if you'd like more details. These end of the year literacy and math centers offered a good deal of flexibility and quality skill practice during the last weeks of school. In addition to our center work, another end of the year project I love is my Graduation Glyph. We've made these glyphs for the past few years and they always turn out so cute. Like with all glyphs, students answer questions to determine details about their project. We used our glyphs for some data collection to help complete our end of the year memory booklets. When we finished, students autographed each others' booklets. (They loved this part.) If you would like more info about my Graduation Glyph {A Fun End of the Year Craftivity and Memory Booklet}, just click here. Besides keeping my kids occupied, (like I mentioned before) there are quiet a few responsibilities that get added to teachers' plates at the end of the year. One responsibility we have at our school is to put together a little something for our classes during Awards Day. This year we had the option of doing awards with our students in our own classrooms, instead of in the auditorium with the entire grade. We opted for doing awards in our classes and I went to work making some new superlative awards for my almost second graders. It was nice to reflect back on the year and about my students' accomplishments, personalities, and interests. All the students loved hearing about their special awards and why they are so deserving. We had a great time. I created the awards in full color and in ink saver, backline. I went back and forth on which version to use. In the end, I decided to go with the ink saver on some bright and colorful paper. My End of the Year Student Awards are also available at my store. They are editable and include girl and boy versions of all of the awards. You can click on the picture below for more information. Student awards and end of the year gifts are definitely tasks that you can get an early start on. For this year's gifts, I gave each student a book and personalized bookmark. Scholastic books is a great resource when you are trying to outfit your entire class with the same book. I was so excited to see this Ready Freddy Second Grade Rules on sale for $1. #score Many of my firsties were pretty proud to be leaving for the summer with their very own chapter book. If you would like a free (and editable) copy of the bookmarks I gave to my students, you can click here. I hope some of these ideas and resources are a help to you as you wrap up your school year. If you get an early start on some of your extra responsibilities and keep your students involved with meaningful activities, the end of the year will way less stressful. Thanks for stopping by.

One of my favorite parts of the school day is reading aloud to my students. It allows me to share my LOVE of reading and instill a love of books in my students. It is a time where we can connect, share experiences, and build a classroom community. I pause often throughout the reading to ask […]

Starting centers at the beginning of the year takes time and patience. Here's the 6-step process I use to introduce our Kindergarten centers routine.

Can I just say I have one of the most creative colleagues ever!! You guys remember Jayme right? She made the cute farm games at the begi...

I have updated this link with a freebie! Click here to get there. "No, David" is one of our favorite books to begin the year or use anytime we need a little review of what our classroom expectations are. One corner of our classroom is devoted to David and our school rules. We read the book several times then the students chose one rule they thought was especially important to them and they typed their rule during Computer Lab time. Then each student created a picture of David and they turned out AMAZING! We had so much fun with David this year that we decided to use iMovie to create a short video of David following the rules and showed the video to the entire school. How FUN! If you would like to view the video you can see it on my classroom webpage. The poster shown above was printed at Staples. I used PhotoShop to edit the title to fit our lesson and class.

Head back to school with The Kissing Hand book by Audrey Penn. Pair it with activities and crafts to go along with the theme of the book or even buy Chester

Woot woot! This post was featured on the TpT blog! You can see it here. Never underestimate the importance of teaching routines. In every classroom and every grade level... but ESPECIALLY in Kindergaten. And in Kindergarten,

Colorful and attractive bulletin boards can grab the attention of the students. With these bulletin board ideas, your students are bound to be more enthusiastic about a new beginning in the new year.

Pre-K & Preschool activities for the first days of school. Find more Beginning of School Activities for Pre-K In the beginning of the year, we spend a

Explore oliverdec's 2 photos on Flickr!

Need a fun first day activity to break the ice and get students connecting? Try hexagonal identity one-pagers.

Let me just start by saying that I absolutely love my little town. There is a certain charm that comes with living in a small, tight knit community. It’s been a HUGE adjustment getting used to being so far away from so many things…mainly the mall and Starbuck’s. The downside to living out this far …

Want something to send home to your parents in the beginning of the year?? I store this in my communication folder in a plastic sleeve and store all the notes I get from parents behind this…. Come on over HERE to snag a copy. Would you like to have your printables ... Read More about Parent Survey for Beginning of Year

Did you know that STEM activities are a great way to build classroom community and teamwork at the beginning of the year? Unfortunately, STEM challenges can tend to be used as a classroom competition where students and groups are competing against each other. While classroom comp

I have had a few people message me about the Seven Up Back to School thing we did for our dinner. Here is the link with the download. AND here is a cute pic of it … Then I saw in the New Era a FHE lesson that was also using an UP theme. So we are planning on doing it this coming Monday. You can find it in the Sep issue. It’s an object lesson with egg, salt and water. You put the egg in the water and talk about being weighed down. Then by adding a few grains of salt that egg actually lifts. Of course you point out the salt in your life that can lift you out of despair. Great lesson! I wish I could link it but the current lesson is still the August one online. Anyway, hope that helps you that have asked.

Plus follow-up activities and a free printable list.

How do you start your morning each day? Do you walk into your classroom, drop your bags, and make a beeline for the copy machine so you can get your

A through Z Countdown to Summer This A through Z Countdown to Summer is a great activity to help me get through the last 26 days of school! This activity consists of 26 fun, low maintenance activities that correlates with each letter of the alphabet. Each daily activity requires little to no prep work for me!! Many of these end of school countdowns that I have found online require a lot of prep work, notes home, reminders, etc. I did not want that! These daily activities are simple activities that provide a fun brain break for the students! Here is a look into each day's activities: Here is the poster I display the letter of the day on. Here is a look into C's activity! This is what the letter activity cards look like: I begin this activity 26 school days before the end of the year. I start with the letter A and do a letter each day until the last day of school. Each day I surprise my students on what the letter activity for the day is going to be. They love to guess what activity they will get to do for each letter! I roll up each activity card and place it in a balloon labeled with that letter. At the end of the day we pop the balloon and see what fun activity we get to do for the last hour of the day. I save the activity for the end of the day because the students are usually checked out by then. Plus I use it as a behavior management tool. If I have students that are not behaving during the day I have them miss out on the fun end of the day letter activity. Click HERE to download my A through Z Countdown to Summer activity from my TpT store! I pair this activity with this activity..... End of School Alphabet Countdown Booklet This activity is a great end of the school year concept review! It's perfect to use for any grade! I begin this activity 26 school days before the last day of school. Each day I have the students think of the concepts they have learned throughout the school year that begins with the letter of the day. For example, on the first day of the activity the students think of all the things they learned throughout the year that begins with the letter A. Some examples are: addition, antonyms, etc. I like to have the students work on this activity independently first. Then, after some time I allow the students to work with their group. Finally, we share and discuss what everyone put together as a class. As we share, I use it as a great review opportunity. The students will amaze you on how much they remember and what they can think of for each letter! Here is an example of how many things we think of for each letter! If you don't want to make the entire booklet for this activity you could always use the one page A though Z worksheet instead! Click HERE to download my End of School Alphabet Countdown Booklet from my TpT Store! Autograph Booklet At the end of the school year we always have a yearbook signing party. It never fails I have tons of students who do not purchase a yearbook each year. So I put together this autograph booklet for the students to sign during the yearbook signing party. Since it's only one page I make one for each of my students...even if they bought a yearbook. I made it just one page (copied front to back) because let's face it the last thing I want to do at the end of the year is make tons of copies. LOL! Also it never fails we are always running low on paper at the end of the school year. This booklet works out perfect and there is always plenty of room for all the student's signatures. You also can have the students spend some time coloring it! :) Here is the front of the booklet. There is a spot for the student's name, the school, and year. I have made this page specific for each grade level. Plenty of room for autographs! The back of the booklet is reserved for the teachers to sign and write a message to the students. Click HERE to download my Autograph Booklet from my TpT Store! Summer Reading Challenge I give this Summer Reading Challenge to my students on the last day of school. I have them complete it with their families over the summer to keep their reading skills up. Those students who complete the reading challenge over the summer and return it to me on the first day of the new school year get a reward! Here is the note I send home to my parents explaining the Summer Reading Challenge and why it's important for their child to read over the summer. Here is the summer reading challenge. I have the parents initial in each box as their child completes the activity. Click HERE to download my Summer Reading Challenge from my TpT Store! Memory Binders/Student Portfolios I keep a memory binder/portfolio for each of my students throughout the school year. I keep writing activities, special work, assessments, etc. in the binder. I use these monthly dividers to organize all the paperwork inside each binder. I run the dividers on cardstock paper and allow the students to color it how they wish! At the end of the school year the students get to take their binders home as a parent gift! It's a great way to showcase each student's progress throughout the year to their parents! Click HERE to download my Monthly Dividers for End of Year Memory Binders and/or Portfolios from my TpT Store!

Math About Me is a fun getting to know you activity where students describe themselves using math!

Teachers: Take note!

There are 5 mistakes Pre-K teachers typically make in the first week of school. After years of trial and error, I now avoid doing these five things.

I am hearing from so many teacher friends who are hard at work preparing for the start of the 2013-2014 school year. I must admit I a...

 What a CRAZY week and weekend!!! We are finished with our state testing and school fair. Yahoo!!! This past week consisted of ...

This week was our first week back and, boy am I tired! My class is great though...very inquisitive and eager to learn. They take their work seriously and are actively working most of the day. Who could ask for more?? We did quite a few things this week, but I want to share with you one "get to know you" project we did that really came out great. I seriously can't stop staring at it! I saw this pin on Pinterest. I love how it looks and thought it would make a great welcome sign. Now, on the pin, the hands seemed to be just colored in. I wanted something a bit more. So we started with creating Circle Maps about ourselves. What made us special? What are some things that have shaped us? Where did you go in your life? etc....Most of the kids finished these Circle Maps in class on the first day of school. I then asked the students to trace their hands and arms on a piece of 11 x 17" piece of paper. They then had to draw, write, decorate, etc...the traced in hand with items from the Circle Map. The goal was to teach their fellow classmates about themselves in a visual way, without giving away too much information (ie: I didn't want them to write paragraphs.) That is pretty much how far we got in class. So, the first homework assignment the students had to finish the project at home. I gave them this sheet so that they could be a bit more focused on their project and add a bit if they wanted. (but if you are going copy-less, just forgo this. They can write the information on a sheet of paper instead.) The next day, the hands came back to school...and they were great! I had the kids get into groups and share what they decided to put on their hands and why. The kids learned a lot about each other in that 15 minute session! You can see some of them used words as well as pictures to tell about themselves. I love the one directly in the center of this picture! Others just used pictures, like the one in the middle here. When I went to put them around a piece of poster board, like in the original pin, they didn't fit :( I think if I had used a smaller piece of paper to trace their hands to begin with they might have. Oh well! I decided to put them up as if the hands were all in a line, raising up.....and it came out great! I overlapped the hands, so I was able to get 5 or 6 on one piece of large construction paper. I then mounted them on my wall. I love it! All in all, this was a fun little project that served as a great way for the kids to get to know each other and make a nice display! What is something you do during the first week of school to help the kids get to know each other and for you to learn a little about them? Follow me on Snapchat for even more teaching ideas!

What’s on your mind? Is a terrific way to get to know your students + these make an easy and awesome bulletin board too! Great activity for the first week of school and a nice ice breaker for students to get to know their new classmates. What’s On Your Mind Activity From: TeachWithMe.com Would you ... Read More about What’s On Your Mind?

Name posters are an easy art project for the first day of school and also double as classroom decor!

One of my favorite things about back to school, is knowing that I get to meet and love on a brand new bunch of kids for the school year. I’m sure you feel the same way, and have your lesson planner packed to the max with different “get-to-know-you activities.” I want to share with you […]

 What a CRAZY week and weekend!!! We are finished with our state testing and school fair. Yahoo!!! This past week consisted of finishing up state testing, teaching students a dance for the fair performance, painting a picture for the fair silent auction, (see picture below), making over 50 candy apples for the sweets booth, and practicing for the teacher fair performance! Yes, I am one of 11 teachers who actually dances in front of the parents and students at the fair!!! I think the best part of dancing would be attending all practices after school!!!  enjoying the fair candy apples for the sweet booth silent auction: each student painted a different picture on the canvas End-of-the-Year Linky Party With state testing & the fair behind me, I can start preparing for the end of the year. I am linking up with Clutter-Free Classroom and sharing my end-of-the-year ideas. I can't believe May is right around the corner!! Where did the school year go? I still need to put together portfolios and make a power point presentation. I love making a power point from all of the pictures I take during the school year. I must admit that it takes over a week to construct because I always find a way to mess up something! It never fails that every year I make some kind of mistake!!! For the portfolios, I save the students' work all year and use sheet protectors in binders. I like to put the work in order from the first to last day for the parents. I put all work in sheet protectors. The parents appreciate the organization of the work so much because it saves them the time of doing it over the summer. Also, students complete a summer writing activity. This writing activity is my favorite one of the year. The creativity that flows from the students' brains is amazing! Students are asked to write about a summer trip they have taken already or plan on taking. After editing the rough draft, students write the final copy of the essay on sunglasses. Students glue glasses on large white construction paper and draw a picture around the glasses. I was amazed the first time I did this with my class. I did not instruct them to draw a person. The end results were more than I imagined! summer writing summer writing end-of-the-year presentation set up Click (HERE) to grab your sunglasses template. What a post! Please check out Clutter-Free Classroom Project and join the End-of-the-Year Linky Party! With much appreciation,

For many years I have used the following poems at the end of the school year. I print out the following poem for each student and place it in a frame as a student gift. We have our spring program the week before school ends and I take a picture with each student to use […]

The days before my first day ever teaching, I remember other teachers telling me not to smile till December so that the kids new the drill and that I didn't mean business. I remember them saying that the first day is filled with nothing but drills and procedures because we are training our students. I have a bone to pick with that. We don't train our kids, we teach them and remind them. Far to often I see on Facebook that Sammy's daughter came back home on the color red, on her first day of Kin

Hi friends! I wanted to share one of the most used resources that I have ever made. If you don't have students that interrupt, share your secrets in the comments! Interrupting, especially in first grade, is always an issue. Kindergarten is not a requirement in many states, so it is possible that a child's first full time experience could be in first grade. This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase. This allows me to keep my teeny little blog up and running. Interrupting is a true problem in a primary classroom. Students need to practice deciding when is it ok to interrupt the teacher. When is my problem a problem I can solve? How can I solve my problem? This activity is made to have students working together in small groups. They are to sort the scenario cards into two piles. You can decide which are ok in your personal classroom. I have included 48 scenarios. Is it ok or not ok to interrupt. I have included letters to add to an anchor chart for: Interrupt? Yes No Ok to interrupt Not ok to interrupt Students will then decide how to problem solve the ones that are NOT ok to you as a teacher. I have my students come up with two ways. I placed these signs on my table during guided reading and my students will then ask a friend for help or look at the anchor chart to see if what they need is something important enough to interrupt. Sometimes I think I want these in my real life to show my husband - just me?lol I love how these were used in a sensory bin for an additional layer to the lesson. You could very easily do this in a small group at your guided reading table as a lesson, instead of working whole group. That way you can focus in on students who may need to go over these routines a bit more. Working together really helps the children to understand that they CAN help each other out in so many situation. It allows them to become independent problem solvers. I am sure to save the lesson for January when we come back from winter break because many need a refresher. Their answers are always so much better once we come back. I feel this review about my resource on so many levels. I used to feel like I was going to jump out of the window with interruptions, but I don't any longer. Here are some of the books that I use throughout the first month of school to get the conversation going about interrupting and tattling. They are all fantastic. I wish there were more! If you know of more, leave a comment below. I love adding to my collection. Click on the picture of the book to be taken to the book title directly.

In order to get ahead of the game, I decided to redesign our fall and spring checklists for Pre-K. Our old format led parents to believe we just filled in the information ourselves and didn't ask the students the information. So this time I chose to include the words "I can." Hopefully that will let them know that their child identified the information. If you would like a copy, click here. Spring Checklist Fall Checklist We use work sampling online to assess our students. If you are not familiar with this format, it has 54 standards that have to be evaluated on students over a 18 week period. I always find myself stressed at the end looking for documentation for these checklist items. We do all of the things more than once but each student cannot have the same documentation for the same area. It has to be child specific. So in order to keep me on top of things I took the standards and broke them down for the beginning of the year. I am hoping this will help me gather data on all students through pictures, work samples, or matrices in that month. Of course, I will gather documentation on these more than once but this will help me make sure I have at least one form of documentation by rating time.

A David Goes to School Printable that is perfect for the beginning of the school year in the Pre-K, Kindergarten and Grade 1 classrooms.