Forever First Grade: 16 more days...

This time of year is always bittersweet. We have 16 school days left with the kiddos, and though that equates to about three more weeks, we are definitely in the final push. I have only one DRA left to do, my DSAs (word study assessments) are done, the kids have completed their self portraits and letters to their second grade teachers... all that stuff that goes along to their second grade teacher. Of course, we are still working... we just planted seeds, are deep into close reading, are writing memoirs, and are learning addition and subtraction strategies to take us into more difficult skills. (You know how it is... if we don't do meaningful work right up until the end, the natives will go wild! Lol). I am starting to feel sentimental about my kids moving on, even though this has been one of my more challenging classes. I found this great project on Pinterest that I just finished and framed to send home to parents:

I wish you could see my kids' faces, they are just precious. My two little future CIA Agents (they actually said "Good guy spy for the president"... but I couldn't fit that on the chalkboard) are just peeking over the chalkboard, all secretive. So cute. It was not my original idea... it came from Pinterest, where it links back to this blog post on We Are Teachers:

You just take pictures and then plug them into one of the (free) pre-made collages on PicMonkey. I tried my version in black and white, but I liked it better in color with the polka dot background (which I added later in Power Point). Then I went to the Dollar Store and bought cutie patootie color frames (pink, green, and blue) for them. I am going to tie them up with a ribbon and add a poem to thank the parents for their help and getting to spend my days with their little loves.

One more little way I am going to make the end of the year special is by changing my SMARTboard attendance to a graduation theme once June rolls around. I just posted these. Happy end of the year!