Before I go any further, it must be said…
Happy summertime to you! Our summer started yesterday and I’ve been spending lots of QT with my sweet boys since school let out. LOVE THEM TO BITS!!!
To say this past month has been busy would be the understatement of the year. Totally fast and furious…and now it’s all over. Another year come and gone. Hard to believe I just finished my 11th year in the classroom! I was really nervous to go back down to Kindergarten this past year, but truth be told…it was WONDERFUL. WAY better than I could’ve imagined. I’ll be staying put this upcoming year and I’m looking forward to spending another year in Kindergarten. And I already have a million and one ideas on what I want to do better/differently/etc. Before we get to all that, here’s a little recap on our busy month. Sorry I wasn’t around much to blog…life just gets in the way of all those other plans sometimes, y’know?! However, if you’re following me on Instagram {@thefirstgradeparade}, then you’re pretty up-to-date :)
The middle of the May was crazy busy with lots and LOTS of end of year assessments. I know y’all feel my pain, right?!
My kidlets graduated. And I cried. It was precious and perfect. And I’ve never taught at a school that did the whole kindergarten graduation thing, so that was a new experience for me. And let me tell you…I can’t wait for my boys to put on their caps and gowns. Well…yes, I really can wait, but…you get what I mean.
And we followed up graduation with a little graduation writing craftivity. We saved these for their writing portfolios and sent them home on the last day of school. Tear.
Things definitely got pretty busy during the month of May. I guess one of my sweeties could tell I was a little frazzled because this is the note he *passed* to me during Writer’s Workshop one day. HA!!!
We finished up the last Friday of the school year with a little ice cream day because, well, who doesn’t love ice cream?! Apparently, two of my sweeties didn’t like our ice cream in a bag at all. Meanwhile, I ate a whole bag all by myself. In their defense, I was a little heavy handed on the salt pour and some of it accidentally snuck into the milk bag instead of the ice bag. I don’t think I’d like salty ice cream either!! Whoops!
We got all of our fun little ice cream activities and printables from my Ice Cream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream Unit. {If you currently own this packet, be on the lookout for a facelift and a few new additions to the unit this summer!!}
Much of my free time last week was spent getting my kids’ end of year gifts ready to give them {along with taking care of lots of paperwork, too!}
Of course, the kids got their coveted slideshows to watch at home with the fam. I found these {FREE} darling printable gift tags at Bits of Everything. 
And then I gave each of them a crazy little summer treat ;) Crazy straws, Kool Aid packets, and sunglasses. Of course, I found this idea on Pinterest {well, more like, a HUNDRED of gifts just like this} all in various forms.
I used this printable and attached it to the back of the Kool Aid packets. Click on the pic to download {FREE}.
To go along with the “picture perfect” theme, I gave my room mom this DARLING frame I found at Hobby Lobby. Ummm…I also bought one for myself :) I had every intention of making her a little pot like I have in the past, but time got away from me and I hit the “easy” button instead…but heck if that’s not the cutest frame I’ve ever seen, so I’d have to say that it was a good trade off!
I put all their little gifts inside their writing portfolio binders and had them waiting on their desks when they came in on the last day of school. They were SO excited!!! Throughout the year, I collected lots of Writer’s Workshop writings from each of my kids and saved them to include in their portfolios. I also saved a few reading response activities and several writing craftivities. They SO loved their portfolios and I SO loved going back through their writing to see how much they’ve grown through the year. Truly AMAZING!
The last few days of school were spent making checklists, writing myself notes, and organizing my classroom for NEXT year. Yes folks. Mark this down as a first. I’m actually getting ready for next year NOW. What a novel concept :) I’m thinking about changing the layout of the classroom, but that will wait ‘til later. I’m adding a few new things to the walls after I walked in several times this year only to find that some of my bulletin boards had fallen off the walls. Can I just say that this whole hot glue/no staple thing is killin’ me?! HA! However, I have an idea that I’m **praying** works!!!! I’m sticking with the chevron décor I already have up, but I’m adding a chalkboard flair :)
My chalkboard organization labels will be in my shop tomorrow. If you’re looking for a little chevron action to add to your classroom décor, you can click on the pics below to preview what I have in my shop.
****If you already own this packet, be on the lookout for an update SOON! D’Nealian alphabet will be added as well as word cards to accompany the word wall headers.***
***If you own this packet, be on the lookout soon for an update. I will be adding 3D shape posters to this packet, SOON!***
You can also grab the ENTIRE chevron décor bundle HERE. Stay tuned for my chalkboard organization labels!!
Now back to the last week of school. It was pretty sad here on the home front. My boys were SO sad to say goodbye to their precious teachers. I kid you not when I say that they were both crying the morning of the last day. I guess they didn’t realize they wouldn’t be joining their teachers again next year and that made them both unbelievably sad. As a mom, that made me feel pretty dang good knowing they love their teachers as much as they do. I can definitely say that they were blessed with the best!!! Look at this precious card Landon wrote to his Pre-K teacher. He love, love, LOVES her and keeps asking if we can have her over to play :)
That was May in a nutshell.
Now that I **finally** feel settled into my new town and school, I’ll be lots more regular about updating this ol’ blog.
HAPPY SUMMER, sweet friends!!!! IT’s the most WONDERFUL time of the year!!!
