I just got home from my last full day of school!
Only 3 1/2 hours separate this happy teacher from summmerrrr!
Actually, I'll be cleaning and packing my classroom until Friday,
but tomorrow is my last day with kiddos.
For this week's "Tried-It Tuesday,"
I'm going to share something
I've been trying for the last 26 days :)

Alphabet Summer Countdown
Now this was not my original idea.
About two months ago, I heard about it from
Collaboration Cuties and Ideas by Jivey


and my teaching partner, Rosie, and I decided we HAD to do it!
We came up with a schedule:
Each morning I had a student color a picture
to represent the daily celebration.
Here's our completed board:


Here's a re-cap of some of my favorite days:
H = Crazy Hat Day!

J = Jigsaw Day!
I = Imagination Day!
We spent the day exercising our imaginations :)
We did a lot of fun, creative writing/drawing
activities from this packet:


The kids LOVED it!
It was definitely one of their favorite days in the countdown :)
Snag yours for only $1 today!
Y = Yard Sale Day!
More of a ticket raffle than a yard sale, we placed prizes
(leftovers from our prize boxes and treasures bought with Scholastic Bonus points) on tables with plastic cups.

The students put their tickets in cups
for prizes they hoped to win:
Then we mixed up the tickets and drew out one name per prize.
The kiddos showing off their prizes!
All of the leftover tickets were placed in a huge bucket and
we drew one name for a Mega prize of books and games :)
I'm sad our countdown has come to an end - tomorrow is "Zoo Day"
Got an idea you've tried recently? Hop on over and share it with
Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper

Only 3 1/2 hours separate this happy teacher from summmerrrr!
Actually, I'll be cleaning and packing my classroom until Friday,
but tomorrow is my last day with kiddos.
For this week's "Tried-It Tuesday,"
I'm going to share something
I've been trying for the last 26 days :)

Alphabet Summer Countdown
Now this was not my original idea.
About two months ago, I heard about it from
Collaboration Cuties and Ideas by Jivey


and my teaching partner, Rosie, and I decided we HAD to do it!
We came up with a schedule:
Each morning I had a student color a picture
to represent the daily celebration.
Here's our completed board:


Here's a re-cap of some of my favorite days:
H = Crazy Hat Day!

J = Jigsaw Day!
I = Imagination Day!
We spent the day exercising our imaginations :)
We did a lot of fun, creative writing/drawing
activities from this packet:
The kids LOVED it!
It was definitely one of their favorite days in the countdown :)
Snag yours for only $1 today!
Y = Yard Sale Day!
More of a ticket raffle than a yard sale, we placed prizes
(leftovers from our prize boxes and treasures bought with Scholastic Bonus points) on tables with plastic cups.

The students put their tickets in cups
for prizes they hoped to win:
Then we mixed up the tickets and drew out one name per prize.
The kiddos showing off their prizes!
All of the leftover tickets were placed in a huge bucket and
we drew one name for a Mega prize of books and games :)
I'm sad our countdown has come to an end - tomorrow is "Zoo Day"
where each student will bring in a stuffed animal to celebrate the last day of school with!
Here's the little buddy I'm bringing in:Got an idea you've tried recently? Hop on over and share it with
Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper

FYI
This week's Tricks of the Trade Thursdays topic is...
How do you store your manipulatives?
How do you keep track of them?
How do you keep pieces from "wandering away"? :)
How do you keep track of them?
How do you keep pieces from "wandering away"? :)

I love the way you set up Y for Yard Sale day. I will have to keep that in mind next year when I do this. Enjoy your last day with your kiddos!
ReplyDeleteHunter's Tales from Teaching
I love the Alphabet countdown! It is such a good way to have something for students to do down to the very last day of school! I have 6th graders, I am positive I can adapt this for 6 periods a day. Brilliant idea!
ReplyDeleteLil Bit Country in the Classroom
What a cute idea to end the year with! I really like that Yard Sale day idea! I also really love the jigsaw day. I think I'll be trying this for the end of the year next year.
ReplyDeleteSara
Miss V's Busy Bees
ventrellasara@gmail.com
Oh my....that super fun!! Love the idea...and if you don't mind I am going to steal it for next year! :)
ReplyDeleteKatie
Mind Sparks
Great minds do think alike!! Wow! Our last day with students is exactly the same too! We have a half day with students tomorrow and teachers last day is Friday. I will be doing the happy dance with you:) I LOVE your bulletin board to accompany this! Great idea!! The yard sale is awesome and I love all the pictures you took! I pinned it to remind me for next year:)
ReplyDelete~Holly
Fourth Grade Flipper
We did this at the end of the year in my Primary Montessori room and the kids LOVED it! I kept it a secret with the exception of hat day. and we started each day with them guessing what it could be. This was great for little ones still trying to figure out the sounds letters make and they were so excited to find out what the next day would be! I decided to start the year with this same idea but we will be adding the kids names too. So, if it is A day we may eat apples but we will also investigate Austyn (a kiddo in our class). I'll end the year with the same!
ReplyDeleteMy grade level did the ABC Countdown, too. We are looking to change some of the days for next year. I found some great replacements from your list. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteForeman Teaches
What a beautiful bulletin board and clever way to get them excited about each day of the countdown. Saving this idea for next year and Teach Junkie's end of year round up posts {wink}
ReplyDelete-Leslie
TeachJunkie.com
KindergartenWorks.com