School and the City

We are almost at our finish line - the last week of school! Over the past few years I've tried to be more intentional when it comes to planning for the last week of school. Here's a quick roundup of all of my favorite ideas. These ideas were all used with my former third grade students, but could definitely work for surrounding grade levels too! Engage your students in these fun activities - and still have time to work on packing up your classroom while students are lost in independent learning! Art Day Like many teachers, I love having themed days during the last week of school. Art day is absolutely, hands down my favorite! It's so much fun and full of cross-curricular activities that you and your students will love. Read more about Art Day here . Movie Day This theme is popular for the last day of school, however, I've found that most students don't have the ability (or desire) to sit quietly and watch movies all d...

We've talked a lot about distance learning, remote teaching, whatever you call it. I've shared many ideas regarding distance learning , including specific ideas for using choice boards , recording video minilessons , and celebrating the last week of school . There's something else that's weighing heavy on my heart that we need to talk about and we need to remember: packing up a classroom during this pandemic. For most of us, our classrooms stood frozen in time. My whiteboard said "March 16, 2020," because when students left school the week before, that's when they planned on returning. By 5:00 on March 12, Atlanta schools had been closed indefinitely. If only, IF ONLY, we had had a few more hours notice. We could have sent students home with supplies for learning and some personal belongings. Instead, we had no time to prepare and hoped for the best for the next few weeks at home. March 13th had already been a scheduled teache...

Remote learning isn't going to stop us from having a little fun during our last week of school. The kids are already missing out on so much - field day, yearbook signings, all the themed days... ugh! Breaks my heart. Here's what I have planned in an attempt to make our last week of school still somewhat special and memorable: We aren't supposed to be giving any assignments during this last week of school; it's to be used for students to make up any missed work. So instead of assignments, I'm giving them some optional activities like my End of Year Newspaper Writing Activity . Because I can't print them for the kids, I created a digital version! You can use it with Google Classroom or Seesaw. I'm sure there are other options out there, but those are the two I'm familiar with! Check it out here on TPT. Themed Days During the Last Week of School I hate that we'll be missing out on our typical, last-w...

We're missing out on one of the most special times of the year for students... the end of the year, which usually includes field day and an end of year party! Our administration encouraged us to start thinking about how to host a virtual celebration for students. We'll be having our virtual party on the last day of school. Here's the plan... My team and I decided to create a little "party in a bag." You see, I'll be heading into my classroom in a few days to pack up for the summer. That will include bagging up students' belongings for them to come and pick up. The "party in a bag" will go INSIDE the bag of students' belongings, which they will pick up during the last week of school. My class is going to have a virtual luau. I made this decision based on what I could find on Amazon. I needed stuff that was cheap and could be shipped quickly since I don't have much time to prepare. What's in the bag? Ins...

It's that time of year, y'all! *finally* Time for students to reflect on their year of experiences while you start packing up your classroom. Whew! Exciting, but hectic!  One of my favorite projects for the last week or two of school is this  newspaper creative writing task .  It's a meaningful, creative writing activity for the end of the year! Students use all those writing skills they learned throughout the year to write about how they feel about the end of the year, their favorite memories, and advice for next year's students. We all have standards that state something about "using standard conventions of English" and "with the support of an adult, publish a writing piece." This is a great end-of-year assessment tool to see how much your students have grown in their writing abilities. Copy one of the pages as a work sample, if you need one! Most importantly, it's also a fun way for our students to "publis...

I was inspired by Cult of Pedagogy to keep my classroom a rigorous, engaging, meaningful classroom environment EVEN on the last week of school. We usually do theme days during the last week. I stuck with the idea of theme days, but put a little more effort into them so that students' time was valued AND I was still able to wrk on packing up my classroom. One of our theme days was Art Day , and I think it was one of my favorites!! I decided to do the most structured activity first before students got too fatigued. This is a project that third grade has done for years, so I adopted it from my wonderful teammates! First, students trace their hand. I modeled to show them how I wanted it to look so that their hand and wrist took up a large amount of space on the page. Next, students created a border of some kind. Then, they decorated the border and their hand. Some designs were realistic, while others were more abstract. Last, they filled in the white space with writing all...

I did it! I survived my fifth year teaching, and I can genuinely say that I did my best to make every last moment count. I was totally inspired (and convicted) by The Cult of Pedagogy's article about the last week of school: What To Do On Lame Duck School Days . In her post, Jennifer provides a categorized list of low-prep, medium-prep, and high-prep ideas for the last week of school, standardized testing days, or really any time that you are tempted to show a movie. Of course, videos have their time and place. And the last day of school - at my school at least - is always "movie day." Jennifer's article got me thinking: How can I do better? I wanted my students to feel challenged - even on the last day of school - and get excited about learning something new. I wanted them to put into practice all of those skills they mastered throughout the year one last time before the potential summer slide. I wanted my students to have something meaningful to say when th...

I did it! I survived my fourth year - and I can't believe it's already been that long. It may be a little late, but I loved my gifts for my students and room mom this year, so I thought I'd so you real quick! For my students, I bought the giant bubble wands from Walmart that lots of other teachers buy. It's a great deal! I download a free tag from A Little Red Bird Teaches   and ta-da, it was done! I did pitchers for my room moms again this year. This time, I filled them with Lifesavers and made the tag to match. You can download the editable tag here . If you're still in school, hang in there! You've got this!! Pin me!

I have a case of the Sunday night blues tonight, and it's not for the reason you'd think. The school year is over here, and tomorrow I have to drive to my school for the last time to get my room checked and to turn in my keys. Y'all. I'm SAD. I mean, let's be real. Teaching is definitely NOT always sunshine and bunnies and rainbows. (In the world of education, those things would be the equivalent of well-behaved kids, huge academic growth in all students, supportive and happy parents, plus simply the ability to impact young little lives in a positive way every day.) But sometimes, that's exactly what it is. Isn't it crazy how we count down the days to the end of the year, and then when the last day FINALLY gets here, it seems like it's arrived much too soon? I think as teachers, we often get caught up in the little stuff: a student with a behavior problem, poorly-designed curriculum, a snarky email from a parent, or only having 20 minutes t...