Closing Out The School Year..With some fun!

I thought the day would never come. Here in North Georgia, we finally made it through the last day of school. We attend for half a day on the last day of school and I absolutely LOVE it. Something about knowing that there are only four hours to go when I get to work in the morning makes the day seem a bit sweeter. There were tears and sadness that quickly turned into cheers and happiness as the kids boarded those buses on the way home today. Teachers were crying, kids were crying and then it happened...silence. The race was on...who could hit the door first? It was me!!.

We have spent our last week together as third graders having as much fun as possible. I wanted the kids to remember their third grade years with some fond memories so I planned out a week full of fun activities. I thought here would be a great place to share some of those ideas. Maybe you can bring some fun into your last weeks as well.

Day One- Creative Classroom Crafts

Since this was a Monday, I decided to start with something low key and easy to prep. A while back ago, I was trolling TPT for some fun ideas when I ran across the neatest end-of-year memory project I have ever seen! Mr. Hughes, a fantastic seller on TPT has created a series of projects called 3-D Dodecahedrons. He has them for all sorts of applications and they run about five bucks a set. I couldn't pass up the project so I snapped it up as fast as I could key in my password. I did splurge and print the sets on cardstock, which I would recommend because it helps with assembly. We took all day on Monday to create these awesome projects and display them in our classroom. You can find the link to the product here.

The kids LOVED them and they were so fun to make! Here are a few shots of how they turned out.

Pardon the clutter...I was packing up stuff for the floor crew to come in. :-)

Day Two-Outdoor Sports Day

Bring on the sunblock because we set our sights on being outdoors ALL day long. We made it most of the day but the temps got a little too high and my little girls started sweating and it was just terrible. They were like wilted flowers. My kids all brought in their sports equipment/outdoor games/etc and we headed for the ball field out back. Bubbles, soccer, football, kickball, and several other sports were represented. We even held a kickball tourney against one of the other classes. By the end of the day, we were all worn out and my classroom smelled like a men's locker room but it was fun!

After the wilting girls decided we just had to go inside, we set out to make a fun little craftivity to decorate our desks during our class party..and we ended up with Perry the Platypus! And friends! I drew out the template and the kids went to town with paper bags. We also used all the junk paper from our desks to stuff them. Score! Two tasks in one!

 Day Three-Game Day

This day was the easiest and by far the quietest. On this day, the kids got to bring in their games (electronic or board games) and play ALL day. Well, maybe not all day. We had our school talent show in the afternoon. I was actually really surprised at the number of kids that had multiple portable gaming systems at their disposal. I never had one as a child...and my own daughter doesn't have one. Personally, I'm not a fan of video games myself, I find more value in a good book. But overall, this day was a HUGE hit with the kids.

Day Four- Classroom Competition Day

We spent an entire day competing against each other in all sorts of competitions. Many of them were academic games with a Jeopardy theme, going through some of our curriculum highlights from the year. You can find some of what we used here. We also headed outside for relay games and other races. The highlight of the day was when we had a Minute to Win It competition. If you are not familiar with the game, you must check out NBC's website and see all of the awesomeness that you can bring in with nominal materials.

There are even videos on the site for directions. We just played them in class!

These are a few that we did together..the kids worked in teams to compete for small prizes from the prize bin.

Chocolate Unicorn- (requires 21 cookies/snack cakes for 3 teams) Hilarious!

Face the Cookie- Kids have to move a cookie from their forehead to their mouth using only facial muscles. Again...HILARIOUS!

Hanky Race- Requires 3 boxes of tissues and masking tape if you are running 3 teams. Tissue boxes are taped around students waists.

Junk in Your Trunk- Reuses empty tissue boxes from Hanky race and ping pong balls.Students have to try to bounce the ping pong balls out of the tissue boxes using their backsides. The kids rolled with laughter.

Nose Dive- Requires cotton balls, vaseline and three containers. Kids have vaselined noses and have to transport cotton balls into their container the fastest. Here we are playing!

Dizzy Mummy- Requires three rolls of toilet paper. They loved this one!

Day Five- Movie Day

It was a long week...it was a half day. We also scheduled our classroom party for today as well. To rest up for our imminent summer vacation, we settled in with blankets and pillows and watched a good movie. But not before we celebrated with our Red Carpet Celebration. Each month, two students from each class get chosen for good deeds, attitudes, etc. and they get to walk the red carpet in front of the whole school whilst being cheered for. 

Overall, the week was a success. My kids and I had a blast together and they will most definitely remember being wrapped in toilet paper and trying to eat a cookie off of their forehead in the third grade. As a teacher, it is times like these that I remember. Not benchmarking, not behavior problems, not even state testing. Making memories is what really matters and I feel like we might have made a few this week. For those of you still in the swing of things, take the time to have some fun with your kids. Before too long, you'll be getting graduation invitations from them.

Have a great summer!

Randi