5 for...What Day Is It?!?

We know we're in June...the sixth month of the year...

Right?

 We're pretty sure we're well within the 5 for Friday "Slacker Grace Period", so we're linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching once again.

 Things were moving along at warp speed for us, and then just like  getting clotheslined in a vicious game of Red Rover, it was 

LIGHTS OUT.

Over. 

School's GONE

and 

Summer's ON!!

 

Cheers! 
We got these as an end of year gift. Best gift ever! 
They're from Pier 1 Imports. Run...

A lot of people have asked what we're most looking forward to about summer?

Ummm...Everything that has nothing to do with school?

No, seriously...

Do you really want to know?

The thing we are most looking forward to about summer is...

NOT packing school lunches every.single.stinking.day.

Seriously.

To end our school year, we decided to go with the theme of 
"Being Tired" for the last full week of school. 
It seemed most fitting.

So, we had Sleepover Week!

This is one of the kiddos' favorite weeks of school...Probably because they get to wear pajamas and lay around on the floor all week they get to hammer in all those first grade skills for one last week of hard, hard work.  

They each brought a bedtime buddy to school on Monday who slept over for the entire week at school.

We cautioned them not to bring someone they would miss at home come bedtime. We are willing to do a lot of things for our class, but meeting parents at school around bedtime to gather their beloved snuggle buddies is not one of them.

On Tuesday, they brought their favorite bedtime book and a snack that a bear would eat. This kept things pretty healthy. Bears don't eat donuts. Or, brownies. Or, cupcakes. Well, unless they raid your picnic, camper or local trash can, but our bears would never cause that type of mischief. So, we ended up with snacks like raspberries, blueberries, teddy grahams, and goldfish crackers. They enjoyed their stories, snacks and snuggle buddies.

 Wednesday was Teddy Bear Picnic Day. They brought their picnic baskets and blankets and we lunched and lounged in the grass together. A few of our girls took to the concept immediately and chose to use the cucumbers from their lunch for relaxation purposes. 

 

Thursday was PJ Day! They were allowed to wear their pajamas to school (no slippers) and bring a blanket or beach towel and pillow. We learned on the floor that day. Crazy fun for them and it is absolutely amazing how well they work with the threat possibility of being sent back to their seats if they cannot handle the floor. Amazing...

 

We also had our school wide Reading Celebration that day in our Multipurpose Room. Each year, those kids who have met our reading goal for the school year are invited to a special movie. 

All sleepovers have a movie, right? 

After the class had their sleepover and all had left for the day, their buddies went crazy at their own sleepover! 
So much for that "our bears won't cause mischief theory"...
Our class was greeted to a stern warning in the form of a poorly printed red sign on our classroom door which read, 
"Beware of Bears and other Bedtime Buddies!" 
There were construction paper paw prints on the door too.

When they entered, they were shocked to find their buddies had their own sleepover during the night! They giggled and giggled to find what their buddies had been up to. Some were reading. Others were taking a dive in our sticker tub. Once they gathered and cleaned up after their buddies (no maid service in our class), they wrote about it...Of course. :)

It was a fun, exhausting week.
And, just as suspected we were tired...
And, still are...

 

Father's Day was our last gift making session for first grade. 

We just cannot send them into summer without recognizing good old Dad.

 

This year, we made key chains out of Shrinky Dinks.

Super easy!

You can cut any shape out of the Shrinky Dink film, but we used our Sizzix machine to cut a scallop shaped tag for each student. 

We used the rough style of Shrinky Dinks, so the kids used colored pencils to draw and write on them. If you use the slick style, they can use permanent markers, such as Sharpies. 

We followed the package directions and baked them at 325 degrees. 

They curl up mid cooking and give you a mini teacher heart attack  because you have NO time to redo these gifts if those curls don't settle down, 
but then they must sense your anxiety because they flatten back out and life is once again restored.
Amazing...

We grabbed a package of rings and clips from the craft store and attached the finished projects.

They decorated their own gift bags too by drawing a picture of Dad and themselves, and gluing it to a colored construction paper background. They glued it to the front of a good old brown lunch bag and attached a handle to it with 2 pieces of construction paper, one thinner than the other and glued down the middle. 

We gave them all the lunch bags we didn't need anymore because did we happen to mention we don't have to pack any school lunches for 104 days of summer? 
We're kind of excited about it...

 

We are official Middle School Moms... 

All of our boys graduated from 5th Grade this past week.

 

 

Help!!

In an effort to relax and get into the full swing of summer, the two of us handle things just a little differently.

Here's how Christy relaxes...

She heads to the Lake.

And, here's how Tammy relaxes...

She got a puppy.

Meet Jack...

Her new summer "job". 

He's crate training and learning that 4:15am is not an appropriate time to wake up for the day...especially in the summer.
So much for relaxing...But, he's worth it.

Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to read more fabulous 5 for Fridays...or whatever day it is...

May Mystery Box Winner and Goodies Revealed!

Our lucky winner was Katie Klohn!   Friday morning May’s Mystery Box arrived on her doorstep.  The box for May was hosted by Katie Knight from Teacher to the Core.   Included in the Mystery box was over $30 of digital units and a treasure trove of goodies to make summer days sweeter! Take a peek inside and get excited because June’s Mystery box is being photographed right now and will be announced soon!

The May Box Included:

~ The best teacher scissors ever

(razor sharp and ready to rock that stack of lamination)

~ Flair pens and notepad

(perfect “love letter” material or if you are still teaching like we are...great for sending an SOS to the teacher next door… either way! )

~ Pina Colada Lolipop

(‘cause Momma needs a drink and can’t have it right now.)

~ Pretty printed duct tape

(who needs black duct tape?)

~ Extra Large Zebra Zipping Beach Tote

(pack it and play all day... we are counting down to summer)

~ Grey and yellow Chevron Dish gloves

(pretty girls do dishes and look pretty doing them!)

~ Mr. Sketch Smelly markers

(yum)

~ Cupcake Day Crayola Crayons

(yum)

~ Jelly Belly beans

(yum…. never shop for the Mystery Box when you are hungry)

~ Polka Dot Labels

(glorious)

 Also included was:

Chicka Chicka Vowel Vowel is Katie’s CVC vowel study unit {CVC labeling, vowel mystery pictures, and Palm Tree Chicka Name art!}

 

Take Personal Narrative to a whole new level with Lisa’s writing unit!

The Main Idea is so fun to teach using Kate’s unit.

Want to Spin a Graph?  Your students will scream “Yes, we want to spin a graph!” Casey has made this unit for you!

Can you say clip art goddess?  Nikki is at it again creating and making us smile!  She sent over one of her magical sets to our lucky winner!

Also included in the May Mystery box was Christy and Tammy’s unit The Savanna Habitat. 

Was May’s box amazing or what???

Get ready to win June’s box!!!!!

It’s coming soon!

Really Soon!

We can’t wait!

Stuck on Safari!

We've been lost on Safari for over a week the past few weeks! 

So sorry, but the blog service is terrible in those parts. 

Which loosely translates to ~ 

Holy Cow, can we be any busier at the moment?!? 

If you've been following us for awhile, you know we've been exploring all of the habitats since January. However, around this time each year, we stay a little longer in the Savanna to dive into our Social Studies learning all about Africa. As part of our learning, we run a week's worth of Africa Centers. 

We make African masks with colored pasta and a mix of beans. We squeeze a mini lesson on symmetry and patterning in there too. 

 

We add raffia "hair", an Africa acrostic poem to the backs, and hang them from our ceiling for Open House.

We paint African Animal T-Shirts.

 

Which we wore on our field trip to the zoo. 

The meerkats really took notice. 

 

Mr. Elephant raised his trunk over them.

The lady lions were totally gossiping about us.

The Macaws...

Well, we weren't too sure how they felt about them (or what exactly they were doing), so we quickly moved along before the G rated field trip turned 50 Shades of Grey...

The reptiles seemed a bit miffed that they were left out of our animal shirt choices. 

But...

The elephants reminded them that life is always better with friends. 

 But, of all the amazing animals, we think this guy loved them the best. He or she (we didn't check) was one of two baby giraffes at our local zoo.

Do you have any idea how cute baby giraffes are in real life? 

The End.

Not really...

 

We learned how to draw giraffes back in the real world class from our Savanna Habitat Unit, which were also on display for 

Open House....

 Once they were all watercolored. :)

We also made rainsticks.

 We order the tubes from Uline and use cut pieces of tissue paper (African colors, of course) and watered down glue. You can also use starch, but we never have it. 

We don't iron, so why would we ever need starch? 

We just don't iron have been lost on Safari...Remember?

 They use sponge brushes and GASP!

Stand on their chairs...

Please do not report us to the Chair Standing Squad. 

The tubes are tall.

They are not. 

We tell them if they fall, tip, teeter, or tot they're off. 

For good. 

In our nice voice. :)

And, for the record, 

no child has ever fallen in the 16 years we've been allowing this. 

They don't dare. 

It's a humongous privledge!

 Once dry and done, we fill them with packing peanuts and rice.

We seal the ends by hot gluing felt circles on each end and wrap them with twine.

 We also make a little tag for each one and throw a few pony beads on for OCD purposes fun!

These also go out on their desks for Open House.

Are you catching a theme here?
Africa Learning

Open House

It's not summer for us, in case you were a little confused...

Did you really think we were on a real Safari?

Oh, no...Just in our minds. 

Nope, nuh-uh, no summer for us. 

Just school. 

Yep, uh-huh, good 'ol schooly school...

And, we are A OK with this. 

Really.

 Because, we're getting closer...

And, we're no longer lost on Safari...

But, we still won't need starch. 

We really don't iron.