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!

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!

Students Appreciating Teachers

Last week my first grade team was trying to think of ideas for the last week of school when I had the idea that we should swap students and make a thank you gift for one another with each others' students. 

 It was fun for the kids to experience the other teachers and they were ecstatic about creating a secret gift for their teacher.  I came up with this little booklet and each student made a tissue paper flower then we put them together into a bouquet.

To make the flowers thread a pipe-cleaner through the bottom of several layers of tissue paper cut in various sizes of circles, we used 5, then thread a button through the pipe-cleaner.  Take the pipe-cleaner back through the button then twist the pipe-cleaner ends together to make a stem.

 Each page inside the book contains this simple poem and the students wrote 3 reasons why they love their teacher.  Their reasons, like "you plan really fun fieldtrips, you always help me, you teach us everything" were super sweet and thoughtful. Click any of the images to download the book for FREE. Enjoy!

 This is the gift my students made for me - SO cute.  They each wrote a letter to me on the back of their apple.  They were really sweet. :)