Best. PTO. Ever.

 I've just got to say it: Jefferson Academy has THE BEST PTO in the world.  I'm sure going to miss it.  I have taught at 5 different schools and no other PTO has even come close to comparing.  They go way above and beyond.  Teacher Appreciation week is always the best! Besides food and gifts galore, they always decorate our doors so fun.  Here was mine this year:

 And some other fun favorites that I had to share: (I figured some wonderful PTO moms would be looking for ideas sometime in the future...)

 My door was DEFINITELY one of my favorites, but I have to admit that I coveted Mr. Young's candy just a little bit (I like to chalk it up to my increased pregnancy appetite :) and couldn't help but notice that the packages were quickly emptied. So, a tip to any perusing PTO parents - if you know of a pregnant teacher I'm sure she would LOVE this door!

 So cute!

Aren't they clever and creative? I just love them! It's so fun to walk through the halls and see how different doors are decorated and the kids love it too.  And this was less than half of them!  (Although I did capture my personal favorites :) 

If you have decorated door pics, or other teacher appreciation ideas link them in the comments!  I would love to see!

It was the final countdown...

I know I'm WAY behind the times... but since I've been absent from the blogging world for 5 months I have to indulge a bit.  Over spring break I got to join my parents and 5 younger siblings on a cruise to the Caribbean.  We spent the first few days in Florida before departing and enjoyed a day at Disney World's Animal Kingdom.  We also visited the LDS temple on Sunday.

 My poor husband had to stay home to finish his final semester of graduate school :( and luckily the pregnancy symptoms weren't too bad the week of the cruise.

A cute neighbor of ours asked me to 'play Rapunzel' for her 6 year old daughter's birthday and even made the costume for me so here I am in all my Tangled glory.

As the final weeks of school wound down I found myself feeling increasingly sad about the year ending.  I'm changing schools this fall and going to be teaching 3rd grade part-time.  Each passing day was a reminder that I had one less day to spend with my favorite little first-grade kiddos. I will sure miss them.  Just like last year, we celebrated the countdown with a Balloon Popping Bonanza. Each day I let one student pop a balloon, and inside there was a note containing a fun activity for us to do.  Some of them included: picnic lunch, recess with teacher, water games outside, read-a-thon, painting day, sculpting day, and bubble gum day.  The last was definitely one of the favorites.  We did this fun writing activity and craft to go along with our bubble-gum-chewing-fun.  (I originally saw the idea on the Teacher Wife's blog, but I know she borrowed it from someone else).

 And then one of the BEST (I'm serious, it was a GOOD one!) teaching surprises ever happened... but you'll have to stay-tuned for that one :)

Sentimental + end of the year student gift freebie

Last Friday was our last day of school and I was torn between elation and devastation.  I just really love what I do.  Plus, I think the fact that my husband was leaving to Japan in a few days also put a damper on things.  Who am I supposed to enjoy summer with?  :(  sniff, sniff.  But we had a fun last week at school.  I got really attached to my kiddos this year and call me crazy, I've actually kind of been wishing we had school this week. 

 I was a bit of a procrastinator on student gifts and put it off until THE. very. last. moment. I made a trip to Ross and the Dollar store (LOVE them!) and found these goodies.  I decided to do separate boy and girl gifts because I couldn't walk away from the BIG pack of colorful, sparkly, smelly lip glosses hidden behind all the water toys.  I knew my girls would love them!  Then I came up with this gift tag:  (click the image to download a FREE generic version that doesn't say Mrs. Bell)

 I got a little lazy with the assembling, I mean come on, they're kids, it's a gift, who cares what it looks like!?  If I had cared a wee bit more I would have printed them in color and actually cut them in circles or something, but see as how I was cutting them THE morning of the last day of school I think they turned out okay. 

The girl gift contains two lip-glosses, a sour fairy pixie stick, and water balloons.  The boy gift contains goggles, a squirt gun, and water balloon. And guess how much each one cost?  My husband and I calculated just for fun - Only $0.80 a piece!  Pretty good deal, eh?

 

Now of course I got spoiled by my darling students and their wonderful parents since it was the last day of school and these were two of my FAVORITE gifts.  This book, Mrs. Bell's Adventures, details how my student (the author) and I travel in his time machine to each of the different civilizations that we learned about this year including Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Aztecs, and the Mayans.  It is SO CUTE!  (I wish there was a bazillion times underlining button).

 Here's the last page.  Adorable!  This same student gave me the cutest magnets ever for Valentines that were our inspiration for our Mother's Day gift. (See the magnets here)

 

 This was one of my other most favorite gifts.  You've probably seen them on Pinterest. A few teachers at my school have them and I had eyed them enviously a few times and crossed my fingers that one day a student would give me one.  Well my wish came true! I love it!  (And... I must say mine is the cutest one of all, shhhh, don't tell)!

I can't wait to see what fun things other teacher bloggers are doing/giving/receiving!

I've been doing some blog-hopping with my free time and I found some awesome Linky Parties and decided to link up.  Come check them out and link up too! (Click the images to go to the hosting site).

Oh and stay tuned - I've been working on a new unit for My Father's Dragon, and I can't wait to post it!

End of School Activities & Freebie

 If you saw my last post you know we've been doing a balloon-popping-countdown til summer.  The kids have been LOVING it.  One of the balloons last week said "Special Animal Visitor tomorrow."  I didn't really plan it out very well before hand, so the night before a special animal visitor was supposed to visit I was frantically racking my brain for possible visitors.

My husband and I have an adorable kitty, but she's pretty scared of new places and lots of hands.  My parents have a dog but he barks at people a lot...Then I thought of my sister-The animal-to-the-rescue sister.  They have llamas, horses, chickens, birds, bunnies (I think?) etc.  AND she has four kids (including a baby that is just a few weeks old).  Fortunately she was kind enough to let me come borrow their 8 week old chicks before school. And my adorable niece and nephew were anxious to help me catch them.

I was a little worried that the kids might be disappointed when they saw I had brought chickens for our "special visitor," especially after a boy in another class asked "are you really bringing a crocodile to school tomorrow!?". But my worries were unnecessary.  The kids LOVED the chicks. They were a bit of a distraction, but a LOT of fun.  I also ended up e-mailing all of my students' parents the night before and inviting them to bring any animals to visit as well so we ended up having a guinea pig, a dog, and two birds come to visit.  The kids were absolutely in heaven.

We've been doing lots of testing, along with lots of fun stuff for the end of school.  We've been working on these School Memory books from Cara Carroll @ The First Grade Parade (BEST TPT freebie EVER!).  We put a photo of each child on the front doors and glued additional doors to the outside to personalize each book.  The kids love them.   

 And to encourage summer reading I created this summer reading pledge.  Click the picture or HeRE to download it for free. (You can also find it on TPT for free)

 Also, a few weeks ago I created this Book of Sayings and Phrases student booklet.  Teaching Sayings & Phrases is a part of the CORE Knowledge Curriculum, but it could be incorporated in any classroom.  My kids love learning them.

 We talk about them, copy them in our books, write about them, and illustrate them.  Then I love hearing them using them afterwards.  Recently they were planning to surprise me when I entered the classroom and one girl said "Don't let the cat out of the bag guys!"  So cute. 

You can grab them on TN or TPT by clicking either of the images.

 

And last, but not least.... the winner of my Flat Stanley giveaway is LISA @ Learning is Something to Treasure!  I read my husband all of the entries and he randomly selected her.  Congratulations!  I'm e-mailing you the unit. 

(See previous post to check it out!)

Volunteer Gifts & My Little Ninjas

For the last few weeks I've been deliberating about what to do for my classroom volunteers.  I thought about mini first aid kits from the dollar store, and sure, they're practical, but where's the fun?

 

So I did some Pinterest perusing and was inspired to create these:  voila!  (PS - it's hard to see, but the baggie is full of smores goldfish, but I'm also using the regular cheddar ones and swedish fish too. The water bottle (dollar store find) has lemonade candies and lemonade flavor packets).  I think they turned out pretty cute.  :) You can click any of the images above to download the tag template for free. Also, after I had decided to do these I saw some great ideas on The Teacher Wife's blog - check them out.

  Now... the picture below is not for the faint-hearted I will tell you that much. I saw an idea like this on Pinterest months ago (I'm sure you've seen it - adorable!)... and I'm a little over-ambitious at times and couldn't shake the idea out of my brain.  So of course I had to try it and here it is!

    I just ordered prints and cards with this photo on the front from Walmart.  The occasional volunteers will get a print.  The regulars will get a card with a written message inside.

 Now who could these little ninjas be?  Surely not escaped from Flat Stanley's Japanese Ninja Surprise!?

 Oh look, there's more!  Aren't they cute? 

Oh boy, put on a mask and a whole different side comes out.  Check out some of their cute Ninja stories below.  (This page and mask are both in my Flat Stanley unit - see previous post to win it for free!)  You can click here to download the Ninja Adventure Writing Page for free.

 

 Also, I've seen this cute idea all over all of those fantastic teacher blogs out there, (sorry I don't know who to credit for the original idea) but I didn't jump on the bandwagon until there were just 8 days of school remaining for us.  The idea is each day you pop a balloon and inside there is a surprise note telling the class something fun they get to do that day. 

Mr. Smiley is now nose-less and my students were ecstatic to discover that their surprise fate for day #8 was..... (drum roll please.... ) An EXTRA recess!  They can't wait to see what tomorrow's balloon brings.  Thanks for whoever started this fantastic wildfire idea. :)  Obviously, I love it.

What fun things are you doing for your last few days of school?

PS - I just joined my first Linky party (I know, where have I been, right?) on Courtney's blog over at Swimming into Second. You should come join too!