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!)