14 Packing Up Tips + Huge Giveaway

Good endings make for good beginnings - even in the classroom.

The amazing Elementary Entourage bloggers have been sharing their top tips for packing up your classrooms so that you can have a great ending... and a wonderful beginning in the fall!

 Just in case you missed any of those posts -  here is a brief summary and links to their tips for you.

Mrs. Plemons shares her tips on cleaning up and organizing all those learning resources - 

so everything is set for your new year!

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Mrs. Daily has tips on storing your teaching resources so they survive for years!

She also has some creative ideas for gifts to your parent helpers.

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Keri has tons of ideas to end the year well and get organized for the next year!

Just look at those checklists she has created!  And she is sharing them with us!

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Stephanie has 2 great tips with creative ideas for you!

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Kelsey has great tips for packing up!  

She has great ideas for transforming filing cabinet chaos into digital order!  and some good ideas on what to do with those bulletin boards!

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Hannah preps her student binder for next year - now!

And the Friendly Teacher is being friendly and sharing her binder pages with us - for free!

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Amber has 4 tips to save your sanity at this time of year.... 

and checklists!  Did I say I love checklists?!

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Katie shares real life at this time of year and her 'holy grail summer tip'!

Use your cell phone to keep your 'Summer Look Out List'!

Smart and easy!

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Haley shared how she uses her summer to reflect on the effectiveness of her curriculum and what changes can be made to make it more effective for her students.

She also has great ideas to inspire her students to read over the summer.

She is sharing - freebie!

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Be sure to read Lauren's 4 declutter tips on getting your chaos under control!

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 Laura shares her brilliant and beautiful ideas to get all those little hands helping with the end-of-the-year clean up and organizing tasks.

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Be sure to check out Amy, Laura, and Lisa's 3 tips for you!

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 Kim has done the work for us and made 'The Ultimate End-of-the-Year Teacher Checklist'!

Ultimate Check list and freebie!

<< Click Here to Read it All >>

 Amna has some great ideas to keep those students engaged to the very end - 

freeing you up to pack it up!

Be sure to get her freebie download for classmate compliments.

<< Click Here to Read it All >>

My tip for you - after you have followed all these great tips....

the 3 R's of Summer:

Relax

Refresh

Reflect

Be sure to enter the Giveaway - just imagine how sweet those cards would make summer!

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Tips For Packing Up Your Classroom {with Core Inspiration}

Packing up an elementary school classroom for the summer brings a variety of emotions. While it’s exciting to gift, recycle, purge, and tidy the contents of your classroom with thoughts of a fresh new year on the horizon, its also quite a bit of work.

Rather than inefficiently working through the process before and after school, get your packin’ up done during school hours with the assistance of the most eager helpers in the world….your students. With a solid packin’ up strategy and a few helpful tools, you can make the most all those extra helping hands and be ready for summer when the last school bell rings (or pretty close to it).  

Student Portfolios

During the last days of the school year, every teacher has a moment when they think, “Maybe I should just take all this work I’ve been filing for student portfolios and send it home in the weekly folder.” Yes…so tempting. Then you realize you kept those unique art projects and written works for a reason…so your students can reflect on and celebrate the growth they’ve made this year.

Schedule a time when every student in class sorts through their personal portfolio. Make sure they have room to spread out. Give them the challenge of putting their work in chronological order and have them answer a few reflection questions along the way.

Projects and Art Work

Which of these projects are you most proud of?

What makes you proud of this project?

Which project would you like to improve?

What would you do to improve this project?

What can you do next year to make your “wall worthy” projects even more impressive than this year’s projects.

Writing Portfolio

Explain three or more skills you learned this year as a writer.

What part of writing is most challenging for you?

What part of writing comes most naturally to you?

Which writing piece are you most proud of?

Why are you proud of this piece?

Which writing piece would you like to improve?

What would you do to improve this piece?

What can you do this summer and next school year to grow as a writer?

What do you hope to learn as a writer next year?

Then, have them tuck their work inside an oversized envelope, a binder, a folder, or a box to take home and share with their family. Now your student files are empty and you can check something off your packin’ up list. Interested in prepping this quickly? Download my Editable Student Portfolio Toolkit. 

Tidy Up Team

Make a list of all the tidy up jobs in the classroom your students can do without teacher assistance. Take the tasks on that list and type up direct instructions for exactly how you want the job completed so you don’t have to go back and redo it. Print your instructions on cards or as a list that students can refer to any time they have a spare moment during the last two weeks of school. Watch your long list of tidy up to dos downsize dramatically.

I prefer the card approach in my second grade classroom because I always seem to have an eager helper that isn’t so detail oriented. Any jobs that aren’t completed to packin’ up standards can be placed back in the to do pocket for another helper to pick up. If you are interested in using the same approach, swing by my Teachers Pay Teachers Store for your set of Editable Tidy Up Team Cards.

Class Auction

During the process of tidying up each year, you will come across classroom resources that are outdated or not as precious as they once were. Gather those goodies up and host your very own class auction. Your students will happily take them off your hands and their parents will be thrilled with the new collection of treasures their child brings home (okay that second part probably isn’t true).

May your end of year packin’ run smoothly so you can spend a few extra moments of your afternoon enjoying the summer sun. You’re almost there! If you’ve tried any of the tips above, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

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Packin' Up! Tips from The Learning Chambers + HUGE GIVEAWAY

Hey friends!  We are so close to the end!  I have 10 more days!  How many days do you have left?  I am super excited about today's post because this year I am packing up my WHOLE room.  After eight years at the same school, I am moving to a new school and to a new position teaching 3rd - 5th graders.  I am thrilled to share some packing up tips that will help whether you are moving rooms or staying in the same room.

Y'all!!  I know this is so hard but trust me on this one....if you haven't used it or needed it the last year or two...then get rid of it!  My teammate, Kristen, from a few years ago stressed this to me and you know what...she was so right!!  I'm not lying, it was hard to get rid of some of the stuff but trust me my room is even more organized than before.  It feels good and it makes packing up so so much easier.

This year we had several brand new teachers on our campus and I was so happy to pass some things on to them.  I was blessed to have some teachers help me when I was starting out.  It felt good to pay it forward.  Let me know how the purging goes for you.  I promise it will only hurt a little but the end result is so worth it!

The end of the year is one of my favorite times of the year because my kids are so independent.  I love watching how much they have grown.  I do several end of the year projects with my kids.  This year we are ending the year learning about geometry.  I wanted to do a simple yet fun project to show off all that my kids have learned about 3D shapes.

I had my kids work with a partner to create a 3D shape.  I gave them straws, washi tape, and fuzzy sticks (Is that what they call them now??).  

I had them create their own 3D shape and I asked them to write about their shapes.  I also wanted them to identify the number of faces, edges, and vertices of their shape.  Lastly, we drew some examples of our 3D shape in real-life.  The rest was really up to them.  I think they turned out pretty great!!

The best part is that while my kids are independently working on this project, I can finish some testing or work on some packing.  It's a huge time saver, especially at the end of the year!

I hope that these two tips will help make your end of the year packing a little bit easier!  I still have a lot of packing to do, but you know what...it will get done!  I have to always tell myself that.  Happy end of the school year, friends!!

Want to make the summer even more sweeter?!?!  Make sure you enter our HUGE end of the year giveaway!  You can win a TpT Gift Card, a Target Gift Card, AND an Amazon Gift Card.  That would really make your summer super sweet!

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Good luck!  Fingers crossed for you!

Spring into... Keeping up with Kindergarten (with Enchanted Kinder Garden)

Is it feeling like spring where you are? I sure hope so! We only have a few weeks left in school, 8 to be exact, and I'm already planning for the end of the year. I thought that you would like to as well.

One of my absolute favorite resources for the end of the year and prepping for summer is my EOY pack.

It's a summer review that's individualized specifically for each one of my students.

I usually make a list of each skill and then jot kids names down. I try to think of their weakest areas or areas that they could use just a little bit more work. Each pack that I send home is specifically for each of those kids. For example, if they soar in math, but lack a little with reading cvc words, I make sure that I include all of the cvc pages. This includes beginning, middle, and ending sound practice. It will help them in the long run when they've been able to practice in the summer.

I tried to make this as parent friendly as possible by including a letter explaining to them what it is and how I want them to use it. There is a summer book list included that provides suggestions of books that would be great to check out at the library. Parents usually aren't sure what to do in the summer with their children and I tried to help out as much as possible. The transition from kindergarten to 1st grade is a HUGE bridge to hurdle and this helps a little.

If you'd like a detailed list of what's included, just click on any image above.

Here's a little secret! We're giving away our best sellers this month! There is a K-2 resource set and a 3-5 resource set. How awesome is that? Make sure to come back and see who's giving what away tomorrow and each day until the middle of the month! Happy April!

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