End of the Year Craziness

Before I found out that I was moving grades, I planned on posting about the end of the year and the craziness that surrounds it. Needless to say, the news of moving was so large that it overtook everything else. However, I felt the end of the year would be a good place to start now.

The end of the year always brings lots of interesting things - last minute conferences, excited kids, field day, crazy schedules, and a little bit of packing. I found out this year that it can also bring a few other things. On the last day of school, I had three different parents email or call to thank me for helping their child over the course of the year. I had students coming back from their dismissal lines for a second hug and others crying about leaving. One or two even joked that they weren't going to leave. It truly was a different ending this year. I have loved my kiddos this year and I'm certainly going to miss them.

One of my favorite moments at the end of the year was Awards Day. I decided to give each child a unique award in my classroom after the official Awards Ceremony. I've wanted to do this in the past, but never found the time to create them. This year, I made sure I found the time. Before handing out the awards, I showed them the class video that I made - complete with songs and pictures to store the year's memories. (On the last day, they received a copy on DVD with their report card. They were thrilled!) We had a good time handing out the awards and students were guessing the recipients as I read out the award. Often times, they were right! It really made for a fun-filled day of memories.

You can find a copy of these animal awards to download yourself in my TPT store. I printed them out, filled them in, and then glued them to scrapbook paper to add a little more color to them. The kids loved them!