That's a Wrap and Some Little Freebies

Whoot. I'm Out! I link with Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday to give you five little tidbits from our last week, and some freebies.

1.  My class is really into dragons... well, along with monsters as my regular readers know. We sing and read Puff the Magic Dragon and do various dragon things throughout the year. DH Jonathan was just in a dragonish mood a while ago and drew up this dragon for me. I used it several ways in our last weeks– as a counting mat, and with words to a dragon poem for the kids to put in their poetry notebooks. I thought some of you might like it for those or other reasons. You can download it by clicking on the image.

2.  I took adorable photos like this one of each kid.... well, the real ones weren't weirdly blurry, of course... the joys of posting on the internet.

I found the talk bubble mini bulletin board at the Target Dollar Spot. Oh, yeah! I wanted to highlight the photos and not just send them home loose, so I glued them to the front of my goodbye cards which I write for each student.

Jonathan worked up the word bubble phrase in big fat letters so I could cut out the words in one clump as opposed to each letter individually. You may have it if you like. The downloadable freebie has "I am a kindergartner" thru "I am a fifth grader" so it can be used by teachers in preschool on up. Just click on the photo above to get it.


3.  I have a very precisely planned last half day with my kiddos. There is our end-of-year assembly, the backpacking of special things that can only go home on the last day, and then the completely unpredictable last minute "thing" that pops up no matter how much you plan, which I've come to count on (this time, a gigantic double chocolate milk spill... no, we don't usually drink chocolate milk but the lunch lady kindly gave us the leftover cartons.) If all goes as planned (rarely) I have a special craft activity in my back pocket, and this year we actually got to do it, in spite of the chocolate milk.

I told the kids we were going to make popsicle bookmarks and that I was going to take a bite of each one. Hee. The kids colored and cut two of them. Then we glued in the popsicle stick. I used one of those flower shaped paper punches to take a bite. I found the downloadable years ago at Lisa Storms' site. You can have them for free, too, by clicking on the image above.

4.  On the first day of the year I have the kiddos draw a self portrait and write their name. On the last day I have them do it again (and no, they don't see the one they did at the beginning of the year before hand). As they are writing their last day letters to me– sob– I paste the first and last day into a construction paper folder. I use this folder to send home their work from our Writers' Wall where we collect and display their best piece from each writing unit. I took some shots of the folders before sending them home. Fun to see growth, eh?

Sure can see growth, can't you?

They got the idea of adding details to drawings, I think?

And adding dialogue.

And she's pointing, right? I think she's pointing. Surely, she is pointing...

When I look at them I smile... okay, I chuckle. I must work in a kindergarten class... or a looloo bin... Ah. I love my job. I'm gonna MISS my little loonies.

5.  I had one more... but I can't find it... on my camera... or in my bag... or in my brain. I really am pooped. You know that old saying, "There's no tired like the end of year teacher tired." I guess that's me. I'll tell you next time.  For now... have a GREAT SUMMER!!!!

Scoot on back to Kacey and see what the rest of your teacher friends are up to.