Light Frame Giveaway

Aloha Friends!! I hope the end of the year activities have your students engaged and happy. Or not!

Well your students might not be fully engaged, but the end of the year chaos is a promise of the quiet summer months ahead. My students are in full chaos mode right now! They are writing animal reports and have tons of school wide activities and celebrations that are keeping their enthusiasm high.

I recently received a cool new toy for my classroom from Green Light Innovations.  This fun Light Frame can be used in so many ways in your classroom or around the school.

You can use the neon markers that come with it to create your own design and the lighting options are really fun too.

I posted this in the classroom on Friday and the kids were mesmerized by it, lol.  It definitely got their attention and they read every word that was on the board.  It is super easy to clean too.  I created a board for my kids who met their math facts goal.  I'm sure they will love it when they see it tomorrow.

Green Light Innovations is giving away 20 of these Light Frames to teachers!  Just check out their link to enter and submit a picture of your classroom.  It's that easy!

Click Here---> Light Frame Giveaway

You could end up starting the new year with a great way to grab your student's attention.

Good Luck!!

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End Of The Year Countdown

Aloha busy teachers everywhere! (unless you are done already)  The end of the year countdown has begun for many of us.  My last day of school is June 3rd.  Between now and then I have plenty of things to do.

This week I am doing final assessments.  For Wonders I am using the Benchmark Assessment 2 to assess all students.  I just chose two tests and plan to give them separately over two days.

There are other components, but I just wanted a simple comprehension test to use.

For writing I have the students use a prompt that they had at the beginning of the year.

My Best Day Ever

It's always fun to have students write and then compare it to what they wrote at the beginning of the year.  Parents love it too!

We use the Go Math program so I am giving the End Of The Year test as well.

I pretty much know all of my students grades, but it's nice to have that evidence to show how far they have come over the year.

For our final day next Tuesday I am planning our class auction and a Luau! Check out this post from last year to see what we will be doing---> End Of Year Luau

The last day of school is on a Wednesday and it's just a half day.  We will be cleaning and packing up the room.  This year I will be handing out report cards along with a Summer Review booklet.

I created this little booklet with 20 days worth of math and language review skills.  In order to get the kids to return them to me in the fall, I am offering a little incentive.  Most likely it will be a fun pencil, stickers and a lollipop.  I won't tell them exactly what it is, just that there will be a prize for finishing.  We all love surprises right?

My fabulous parent volunteer copied them all off for me and put each of the booklets together.  You don't have to put them in a booklet, but it makes it easier to carry around for little hands and less likely it will fall apart.  Here is a video of how to do it.  If you have ever used A-Z Readers then it should be a breeze.

Do you send anything home over the summer?  I know some schools have school wide programs. Our school also has a summer reading program.  Just like the local library there are incentives and rewards for reading all summer.

Speaking of reading all summer Scholastic has a great program as well.

Click on the picture above to see all of the amazing resources that are available, including book lists, games and lots of incentives!

So what is your final countdown and how much "teacher stuff" do you have to do before you are officially on vacation?

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Super Hero Cash

Aloha friends!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  It has been a gorgeous day here and I have spent all morning working in my overgrown jungle of a yard!!

The countdown has begun to the last few weeks of school
and I am at 18 more days!!!

These last few weeks are some of the craziest and busiest! Our class is getting ready for May Day which is on the 22nd.  After that I need to do final assessments and then I am planning an end of the year Luau for my class.

In the craziness of the end of the year my class is keeping on track with the help of our Beach Bucks.

My kids are earning money daily, but some of them are paying fines for excessive talking or unfinished work.  This Friday we had $200 in the Raffle Bucket!!  My lucky winner was so excited to win all that money!

If you would like to learn more about how I use Beach Bucks click {HERE}.

I recently received a request from a teacher to edit my Beach Bucks using a Super Hero theme for her classroom use.  I had a bit of time this week and I came up with this set!!  I love it!

It really makes me want to change my classroom for next year!!  I'm not sure how much I will be reading in my hammock with all the ideas brewing in my head!!  

If you would like to learn more you can check it out in my TpT shop.

How is the end of the year unfolding for you and how many days do you have left?

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End Of The Year Writing

Aloha friends!  It's here...the end of the year.  6 days and counting.  This week marks the end of our last full week of school.  With all of our May Day festivities I didn't quite get a chance to finish our assessments.

I went through the great 2nd Grade Blog Hop last week and got so many great ideas!  I wanted my students to write something they would enjoy and put their best effort into.  I really loved Mrs. Olson's Lucky Little Learners "Words Of Wisdom Freebie".   Such a fun idea!  However for my assessment I wanted a more complete writing sample so I made this.

I made it double sided and told my students they would be writing a letter to next years second graders telling them all about second grade.  I told them to include what they would learn, what the teacher likes and doesn't like and anything they enjoyed.

I could not believe how hard the kids worked on these.  Every student wrote quite a bit.  Several students needed another sheet of paper!

These first two are so funny because right before the lesson I confiscated a toy from a student who is constantly bringing in toys to play with!  My drawer is full of his items. He will be happy on the last day of school when he gets to go home with a bag full of toys!

I guess I have been a drill sergeant lately!

I am so proud of this students writing.  His spelling has improved tremendously.  He wanted to stay in at recess to finish this letter!

This little guy did not like writing because he said he could never think of anything to write.  When he did write his stories were fantastic!  He filled up both sides of this paper.

This student struggles so much with writing.  Her language and grammar are often difficult to understand.  I had to laugh at how mean I am when you don't "lisen".  It reminds me of this meme.

Everyone is a little squirrely with vacation right around the corner.  I am doing my best to stay calm and sweet, but somedays it can be tough!

I really loved all the letters they wrote and was amazed at their spelling and neat handwriting.  I think they want to impress the first graders more than me!

I plan to make a copy and place their originals in with their report cards.

I made this template editable for you to be able to use it in your class.  Just open it up in Powerpoint and click on the text.  The font I used is KG What The Teacher Wants.

Click {HERE} to download from Google Docs.

Is your class getting a little antsy?  I would love to hear how you are keeping calm these last few days.

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A Memorable May Day

Aloha my friends!  I hope you hopped through my last post and got some amazing ideas for the end of the year!  I am still trying to decide which writing activity to use with my students this coming week.

If you have followed my blog for awhile them you may be familiar with our May Day program. Schools all over Hawaii celebrate May Day with song and dance to represent our unique cultures.  Our school takes it up a notch and we really go all out every year.  It is kind of a big deal at our school.

I admit I have a love/hate relationship with May Day.  It's so much work and preparation for weeks in advance, but I love the outcome!

It is held outside on our field. Teachers, parents and community members set it all up.  The flowers, plants and decorations are all donated by the community.

This is the stage for the Royal Court.  In a traditional May Day the court has a King and Queen, princes and princesses to represent the Hawaiian Islands.

The program begins with our principal welcoming everyone.

The conch shell blows to signal the arrival of the Royal Court.

The 6th graders each have a part in the court.  Each color represents an island. This is the island princess and prince of Kaho'olawe.

These are the king's guards getting ready for the arrival of the King and Queen.

The ladies in waiting.

The arrival of the King and Queen.

The parents of the King and Queen arrive to adorn them with flower leis.

The crown that the Queen is wearing is made of flowers!

Once the court is seated the performances begin.

Kindergarten and preschool did a Globetrotter routine. Very cute!

The first grade did a Tahitian dance and it was just beautiful and adorable.  I may have had tears in my eyes at the cuteness of it!

Aren't they just precious?!

Third grade performed a dance from Ghana.

The first graders took us on a trip to Samoa.

Fourth grade girls performed a Carnival dance from Brazil.

The boys then took the stage and showed us their Capoeira skills.

Here are my talented second graders.  They were super cute and their performance was top notch!

Once all the grades have performed the princesses perform a hula,

 as well as the princes.

The finale is the Queen and all of her ladies in waiting performing the final hula.

I forgot to mention that the teachers perform too! We did a disco routine to a medley of songs since this year marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of our school.  I don't have a picture, but there is a video floating around on Facebook that I will post on my page.

Post by Surfin' Through Second.

You can see just by the pictures that this is a huge school event that unites our community and makes the parents, kids and staff proud of our school.

Our Mardi Gras routine was so cute and the kids loved it.  I loved their costumes! But let me tell you, sewing costumes and rehearsing for the last few weeks with my second graders has kept me very busy!!

Now that May Day is done I am on auto-pilot for the rest of the year.  I am not running off any copies of anything!  

We are working on some fun plays this week.  We will be reading and maybe performing (depending on time) Spiderella,  The Three Little Elephants and Pinnochio.

12 Fabulously Funny Fairy Tale Plays: Humorous Takes on Favorite Tales That Boost Reading Skills, Build Fluency & Keep Your Class Chuckling With Lots of Read-Aloud Fun!

These have been perfect to get my class engaged and reading.  I have two boys that are so into their parts.  They have been asking to read it every day!  I will definitely be filming them when they are ready!

I hope your end of the year activities are wrapping up nicely and that you don't have too many days left! Mahalo for stopping by!

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