End of Year Celebration, Pt. 2

It's Thursday, which means it's one more day of students left for me!!  For those of you already out of school, I am jealous.  For those of you who still have time left at school, I feel your pain.  I know there are some places here in the Northeast that still have 11 days left!!!

Today we had our End of Year celebration where my students and their families got to have a picnic lunch, watch an end of the year slideshow, and were given awards.  If you read my post yesterday, you know that I used Michelles Oakes's wonderful Dollar Store Superlatives as their individual awards this year.

I was able to match up most of the awards perfectly, though some I had to improvise because my Dollar Deals didn't have the same exact items that Michelle was able to find.  My team mate Heather found this amazing packet while scrolling through Pinterest.  We were able to purchase the copy, plus 2 extra licenses for the other kindergarten classes, for a grand total of $12.  We each pitched in $4 and were able to have this amazingly wonderful awards packet that can be used again and again through the years to come.  You should really check out Michelle's hard work and creativity!!

Since my students are OBSESSED with the TMNT, I substituted a sports item for a TMNT ball to hand out to my 'Sports Star'.  It was a BIG hit!  I admit I wanted to choose Michaelangelo, but this kinder's favorite was Rafe!!  :-)

Found this little craftivity for my 'Awesome Artist'.  I think she really enjoyed getting it!!

Instead of a highlighter for my 'Handwriting Hero', I got her some notepads so she could continue to practice her handwriting over the summer.

My Dollar Deals had ZERO items related to cheering (no pom-poms or megaphone), so instead I picked her up a hula-hoop and made sure to tell everyone that she 'jumps through hoops' to make her friends feel good!

Instead of a friendship bracelet, I picked up this little 3D puzzle that my 'Fantastic Friend' could work on with some of his best buds.

Instead of a bag of toy bugs, I found this neat little 'Backyard Bug Kit' where my 'Science Star' could investigate the bugs in his yard.

I found a TMNT glow stick for my 'Glowing Example', and it was the envy of the rest of my littles!!

For my friend who earned the 'You Stick To It' award I found some glow in the dark tattoos! How fun!!!


For the rest of the awards I was able to find the examples given by Michelle.  I think that the grown ups and kinders really enjoyed these awards, and Michelle did a really awesome job!!  So glad my team mate found them!!

The other gift I gave to my littles today was one of the $1.00 books from the last Scholastic order, titled The Last Day of Kindergarten.  Follow the link or the picture to get a copy of your own from Amazon.

On the inside of each book I glued a poem I wrote for them, as well as a 'silly' class picture.

Honest to goodness, I teared up some when I was reading this poem aloud to the class!!  Every year I cry a little on the last day of school.  One would think that after nine years, I would be able to keep it together!!  :-)

After I gave them their books, they were able to share their memory books with their families.  We worked REALLY hard to get them all completed in time for our ceremony today, and I couldn't be prouder of the awesome job they have done with their writing and their sounding out of words.  Here are some of the pages we did this week to finish up the book!!

One of the pages we worked on was about our friends, and the page after that is for all of our friends to sign their names!!

Since we are an all-day kindergarten program, my littles get to go to specials.  They chose their favorite and wrote about why they liked it the best.

The also wrote about their favorite thing to do at school during the day.  Most of them wrote about recess or their friends.

They also wrote about their favorite classroom jobs.  Most of them chose Line Leader.  I guess they all want to be first!!  :-)

They wrote about their very favorite kindergarten story, and we had read A LOT of stories this year!!!  I was surprised that more of them didn't choose Pete the Cat, since they are a bit obsessed with that guy.

At our school, every student in the building is offered breakfast free of charge if they are interested in eating it.  My kinders wrote about their favorite school breakfast.  How awesome is the inventive spelling they're using!!??  I love how far they've come with stretching out their words to write down the sounds they hear!!

Since we're at school all day, they get to eat lunch in the cafeteria.  They wrote about their favorite lunch choice, and not surprisingly the choices they wrote about the most were pizza and chicken nuggets!!  I had some die-hard packers who chose 'Goldfish' and 'Mom's lunch'.  How sweet!!  :-)

During the afternoon we head out to the playground for recess, and that is definitely one of their favorite parts of the day, as well it should be!!  It's when they get the chance to run around, yell, and just enjoy being a kid!!

They chose something they learned how to do this year, and I was proud that so many of them chose 'read', 'sound out my words', or 'my letter sounds'!!  One sweetie even chose 'tie my shoes'!!  :-)

We have had SO VERY MANY awesome days in kindergarten, from assemblies to field trips to field day and working with our 5th grade buddies.  They chose their very favorite day and wrote about it.  This friend wrote about making ice cream with our Buddies (not sure where the neon pink floor came from though....wish my room was that bright!!)  :-)

One of the final pages of our book was for them to say what they would miss most about kindergarten.  I was truly touched that so many of them chose to write about missing me!!  :-(   I will definitely miss them too!!!  And don't you love my Rapunzel hair!!??

Walking around the room and listening to my kiddos read their memory books to their grown-ups was such an amazing feeling for me.  I was so very proud of how far they have come this year, and I know that I am giving the new first grade teachers some AMAZING readers and writers!!  

If you're interested in using this Kindergarten Memory Book with your littles this year, or if you just want to pick up a copy to use with your littles next year, just click on the link to hop over to my TPT store and pick up a copy for yourself!!

Tomorrow is my very last day with my kinders.  I am going to enjoy them as much as possible tomorrow while cleaning and packing up the classroom.  If tomorrow's your last day with your kiddos, have a great summer vacation!!  (If you still have a few weeks left, feel free to laugh at me while I am starting school WAY earlier than you!!)  :-)