Time for me to jump on board as well...

Ok, I have been reading trying to learn all about the changes that are happening with the end of google reader.  As a newish blogger, I am not sure I completely understand it all, but I am happy with my new subscription to Bloglovin'!  Honestly, I didn't use google reader before so I don't know what I will be missing but so far I am enjoying Bloglovin'.  

I will be working on getting some cute buttons that I have found out there to add to my blog soon, but for today I think I will stick with the basic button and go with the program.  I hope you will all follow me and we can just get on with our blogging, sharing and collaborating!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5294869/?claim=kpazfyfqags">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Thanks everyone!!

Kick off summer with a fun Giveaway!

Head on over to Mind Sparks for a fun give-away that runs until Saturday, June 29th!  Katie is celebrating getting 100 followers in her Teachers Pay Teacher store and the prizes she is giving away are AWESOME! 

There are prizes for clip art, K-2 teachers, 3-5 teachers, and middle and high school teachers!! 

Enter today for the K-2 Prize Pack to win 18 awesome products, including my Writing Center Daily Menus.

Congrats Katie and good luck all!! 

Last week of school = Camping and S'mores!

The last week of school is always crazy for me and the kids.  The weather is beautiful, the pools are open and keeping the kids focused can be a challenge.  This year my team planned a camp like activity for the last week of school.  We each planned an activity to do with a class and then created a schedule that rotated each class through to each teacher.  It was super fun.  In my rotation we used water colors to create murals, they worked in 4 teams per rotation created awesome murals!  After murals dried each teacher got 4 big murals that we used to help us cover empty bulletin boards which made our classrooms look bright and cheery instead of packed up!  

The other roations included Father's Day pet rock creations, volcano experiements, and stain "glass" creations

On the last full day of school we had kids bring in flashlights and we had a big camp out.  I had three tents set up in my classroom and kids created their own campfires using toilet paper tubes and construction paper. 

I found an awesome youtube video of a camp fire that I had playing on the board while they worked.  When they were finished we turned out the lights and they used thier flashlights to read by the campfires. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1nu_8IQd78

After they read we talked about smores!  They shared their experiences with making and eating smores and then I told then that we were going to make smores in our classroom.  They were beyond excited.  We watched a video on making smores in the microwave.  It is a great little youtube video that was perfect for my kids to watch and they write about making smores. 

After we made and ate our smores, the kids wrote the steps to making smores.  It was a perfect conclusion to all our camping fun!  I found this wonderful smores writing paper and some fun camping ideas at Rulin' the Roost!  Be sure the check them out!

Happy Summer to all my awesome teacher friends!!

Thanking volunteers

Hi there!  I can not believe it has been a month since I blogged!  I am so sorry but life just got in the way!  My son graduated high school, YAY, and we had tons of fun with prom, graduation and parties galore!

Anyway, it is the end of the year and for me that means time to thank those wonderful volunteers.  I feel very fortunate to have some wonderful parent volunteers each year.  I have no doubt that my first year teaching would have been hectic and filled with late nights at school if it were not for those amazing parents who came in faithfully each week and copied, laminated, cut and organized for me. 

As the school year is coming to a close it is time to put together a token of appreciate for all their hard work.  I thought I would share a few ideas with you with the different ways I have thanked them in the past. 

These insulated coffee mugs came from the Dollar Tree!  They had a color your own insert so I used the school mascot and wrote a little thank you note along the bottom and created my own custom mug for $1!  I filled the mugs with some candy just for fun!

Below is another fun idea.  Take a picture of the children who have parents that volunteer and make a card on the computer using that image.  That way the "thanks" is from you and the child because parents are really volunteering for their children and I think it is nice for the children to acknowledge that and thank their parents!

This quick and easy "Thank you" come from a cute pin I found on pinterest!  Just buy some 100 Grand bars and wrap them with a cute bow and either write a card or create a card like this creative person did. 

During the summer, my husband and I are swim team reps and we are always looking for ways to thank parents for their many volunteer hours.  Since our mascot is a dolphin, I used foam core to create this dolphin and took pictures of the kids holding the dolphin.  I snapped pictures all season long to make sure I got as many kids as I could and then we put all the pictures together in a slide show just for parents and they loved it!!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful end of the school year!  I am looking forward to having some extra time to spend with my family and much neglected friends!