Wrapping Up Your Year with Candy Awards!

Hey friends! It's Kim here from For a Love of Teaching! It's that time of year again! Time to wrap up the school year and start thinking about end-of-year awards for students! Today I'm sharing with you some of my favorite (non-academic) awards that I give to my students each year.  I made candy awards several years ago, and they instantly became one of my best sellers. My students LOVE getting these awards each year, and I LOVE giving them out. They are so much fun! 

These awards make it soooo easy to PRINT & GO! There's 56 candy awards to choose from. No need to worry about finding the perfect award, because there's definitely one for every student!

I usually end up spending around $20.00 on these awards, but in my opinion it’s money well spent when you see their faces! I included planning sheets to use when purchasing the candy. Download the planning sheets for free here, or click on the image below.

It’s also good to have a backup plan in case you can’t find some of the candy at your local stores.  In the past, CVS or Walgreens has been the best place for me to purchase the candy.  They both have a wide variety to choose from.  If I know it’s a candy that may not be easy to find I pick another one for that student to have has a back up (just in case!) 

The best part about these awards is that they are printer friendly. I tried hard to keep the color to a minimum, but still added just the right amount so that they POP - to make them special.

The names have been covered, because I don't want my students to see which awards they are getting - just in case they see this! :)

After many requests, I made these awards editable. I'm so glad I did, because it made my life easier, too! 

On my blog, I included directions on how to edit these awards. You can click here, or on the image below to read more about them!

I have Superlative Awards for sale in my store, too! They are also a fun way to award students at the end of the year. Click here, or the image below to get them 20% off right now!!!

I hope you have a great ending to your school year!!! 

Ending Your Year with Student Awards!

2 more days... 2 more days!  Friday is the last day of school.  I know we all say that we are going to miss our students every year.  I actually truly am going to REALLY miss my class this year!    Last year was a creeper... it seemed to last forever. This year has flown by!  This group of kids is so sweet... even the difficult ones are so darn cute you can't help but turn the other way and let out a little chuckle before you reprimand whatever they were up to!  We are going to complete this quick and easy activity tomorrow between awards, cleaning up, and finishing up some other projects!

You can grab up this FREE printable by clicking HERE... I have included sheets for Kindergarten through Sixth grade.

I'm sending them off with my summer fun awards... each award can be paired with an item that is found right now at Dollar Tree or any other dollar store.  

A dollar a kid.... can't beat that!  Each award has a little saying to go with it that fits the personality of the child.

You can grab up my Summer Fun Awards by clicking HERE or on the picture above!  They also come in an editable form and in black/white... all in the same purchase!

I hope you have a great ending to your school year!

Ending Your Year in Style with a Class Celebration!

It's hard for me to believe that today is May 19, friends! Coincidentally, that means I only have 19 more days with my precious second graders. Today I want to show you some fun end of the year activities that I am doing to "wrap up" my year with my class.

I just created an End of The Year, Friend Scavenger Hunt which is FREE, yep, F.R.E.E. on TpT! All you have to do is download it, print, laminate if you choose to do so, hang the cards and have your students go hunting!

I hang the cards in places in my room where my students have to really go hunting for them. That is half the fun! The other fun part is that this scavenger hunt is all about connecting with friends. Students will go hunting to ask friends certain questions in order to write their name on their board!

You can choose to print the board in black and white or use the colored version shown here. When I print colored versions of materials, I typically like to stick them in these sleeves so that they can be used over and over again! Ink ain't free, if you know what I'm sayin'.

The other activity I would like to show you for wrapping up your year are creating these countdown chains with your students. Yes, this was a little time consuming and took about 40 minutes for each student to create one, but our room is so colorful, happy, and we feel like such a family when everyone gets to cut a link off each day!

I created a pack that goes along with the classic classroom countdown chain, whether it's a single chain or having your students make their own. You can find it here, called End of The Year Countdown and its filled with a variety of end of the year countdown resources. Some of the items I love the most in this pack are the sticky notes template, journal prompts, and last day of school crowns!

This week I will be putting my End of the Year Countdown pack on sale! If you try it, I would love, love, love to know what you think!

I hope you enjoyed these end of the year ideas and here's a huge round of applause to all of your amazing teachers out there!!!

Ending Your Year in Style with a Class Celebration!

Do you have a celebration or graduation for your students? I know many schools are going away from a big celebration in kindergarten, but I always like to do something special in my classroom. I think it makes it more special when it is just the kids from your class and their families anyways.
My room is always jam packed full of family members for our Kindergarten Celebration every year so I created a resource to help you plan a celebration of your own.

 Here is what's included:

The classroom celebration usually lasts about an hour, and to be honest most of that is our photo slideshow.  Here is a rough idea of what my celebration includes:

Like I said before we hold the celebration in our classroom.  I move all the furniture to one end of the room and have our custodian bring in LOTS of chairs.  My kiddos sit in front of the room on chairs in a nice long line with their proud little smiles as their families arrive.  Then I give a quick welcome, and our principal usually tries to pop in at this time too.Next, I have each student read their response to one of our end of the year writing prompts. I usually chose their favorite memory because it it short and sweet.

Then we read our Kindergarten poem. Each student gets a letter and some students team up and share a letter to read. After that we sing "The Kindergarten Class" to the tune of The Addams Family, which is quick and easy to remember, and watching the kids try to snap always cracks me up :)

Finally I give out personalized student awards and present them to each child. {Great photo op for parents} We finish by watching a slideshow with pictures from our year together, and songs to make the parents cry. The kiddos sing "First Grade, First Grade" to the tune of New York, New York complete with the most ridiculous kick line you've ever seen that usually ends with the kids rolling on the floor laughing.It's my kind of celebration, nothing too serious or formal, with a lot of laughs just like our classroom every day.

After our celebration in the classroom we always head outside to the nearby park for a little picnic :) Usually we have between 3-5 kindergarten classes in my building and we all have our celebrations in our own classrooms but then team up for the picnic.  We've done our picnic a few different ways. We have done a potluck where each family brings something to share and we assign each class something different (main dish/side dish/ snacks/ drinks/ desserts). We've also had each family bring a picnic lunch for themselves and then we provided a dessert and/or popsicles for a special treat.  This is a lot easier to manage because we don't have to worry about plates, silverware, cups, tables etc. If you are short on time, or just too exhausted to worry about managing all the extras, this is the way to go! Here is the note we send to families:

After our picnic lunch we have a mini field day where each teacher plans a game for students and the classes get to rotate to each activity for a little organized fun. Some examples of our rotations include a pinata, water balloon toss, red light green light, relay races, parachute games, minute to win it games, three legged race, tug of war, freeze tag, etc. If you have parents willing to lead games too you can add even more activities and divide into smaller groups, so don't be afraid to ask!

Now if you are super close to the end of the year and don't feel like you have time to plan a big celebration, you can always do a quick awards ceremony and picnic with your families.  I just uploaded these Student Awards to my TPT store and they include color/black & white versions as well as EDITABLE versions for you to create your own!

Personalized awards are always a sweet keepsake for kids and their families. No matter what your end of the year plans, I hope you find time to enjoy your kiddos before sending them off to first!

Celebrating America with Tickled Pink in Primary

Happy Armed Forces Day!! I have a handful of family members that have or are currently serving in the military. Today's the day to honor everyone that serves in the military and to thank them for their service and for protecting our country. THANK YOU!!

We are out of school before Memorial Day rolls around, but a fun and very simple craft you could make for any patriotic holiday would be sparklers!

 Supplies needed:
-tissue paper
-paper straws (Target or Michaels)
-tape
-scissors

First, cut a small portion of red and white tissue paper, you don't need a whole sheet. Then start to roll it around the paper straw.

Take the tissue paper off of the straw and tape one end together. You may need to pinch the tissue paper to make it small enough so it will eventually fit into the straw.

 Next, cut slits almost all the way down the tissue paper.

 Finally, push the small end of our "sparkler" into the straw and secure it with tape if needed.

Celebrating America {with Lauren from Mrs. Thompson's Treasures}

Our first three children were born overseas and lived abroad for the first few years of their lives. I appreciate that they are able to experience different cultures of the world, but there is no place like home! I love that we have many holidays around the year to celebrate our wonderful country. It gives us so many chances to teach our kids about America and the men and women who make it great!

I love this cute and simple craft using construction paper, q-tips, and white paint.
{Found on Housing a Forest}

 

Another fun activity to do with your students is to use strawberries, blueberries, and marshmallows to make patriotic kabobs! This is great for fine motor skills practice and patterns! And it makes a tasty snack too :-)

 

{Pic from Sadie423}

 

I also love to teach kids about the important symbols of the United States. I created this fun and FREE emergent reader that you can use to introduce your students to some of these symbols!

 

For older kids, here is a fun Flag Mystery Picture Graph (also FREE)! You can pair this activity with a writing prompt about Memorial Day or 4th of July.

 

 

 

Celebrating America! [ with Stephanie from Mrs. D's Corner ]

It's no secret that I am an Air Force Sister and Daughter. My dad served in the AF and my brother recently just finished up his 4 years, so when the additional opportunity (I say additional because our troops should be celebrated and praised EVERY day) comes for us to give our thanks and remember, I go all out.

When my brother went through Basic, I had my students create cards and write letters for me to send to him. I have always taught 2- or 3-week units about our past, present, and future soldiers on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day. These days are so much more important than an extra weekend day or a BBQ, and it's important to me that I share this with my students. So much so that we started our remembrance celebrations this week.

I saw this pin on Pinterest and decided that this was how we would start off our unit. First, let me show you what we made, and then I'll show you how!

Isn't it just the most adorable poppy craft you've ever seen? And it's super simple! All you need to make these adorable poppies is paper plates, black construction paper, and red paint. It's the simplest craftivity, so let me know you how:

Obviously, you start with a paper plate.

Then (and it's hard to see the pencil lines), you draw lines on the paper plate to create the petals.

Once your student cuts on the lines, it will look something like this. It's okay if it's a little off-sided (unless you have OCD like me... but I keep telling myself it's okay!).

I cut random sized rectangles of black construction paper out for my students ahead of time.

Have your students rip the black construction paper into pieces. It doesn't matter how big or small the pieces are.

Time to paint!

Have your friends paint the entire plate red.

I used our special glitter glue to put some glue in the center of each plate. Students then add their ripped up black construction paper pieces.

Once it dries, you end up with this :) I used them to create a mini bulletin display outside of our classroom, that way the entire school can enjoy what we made for Memorial Day.

How do you celebrate Memorial Day?