BB Part 8 - 5th Grade Memories

Eep! I've only got a few more posts for my Blog Backlog series, I'm so excited to be able to share some great things and get all caught up on blogging. And now onto part 8 of the 10 part series.

Today I am sharing an awesome freebie from Teaching in Room 6. About a week before school was out she posted a 5th Grade Memories Glyph activity. Although the last few days of school are hectic and filled with activities, I knew this was something I needed to have ready in case of a lull. It so happened that this worked perfectly for a last day of school activity.

Usually, on the last day, the tables and chairs are moved, and we are working on the floor. And usually, the last day of school is crazy... I mean, the kids are crazy. This year I decided to keep our tables and chairs until the last minutes of the last day. What a great choice this was! My class was calm, and working. It also helped that they had this great activity to work on. The project includes math review which leads students to different things to draw. My kids were doing math, being creative, and focused on the last day of school.

On the last day of school I give my students a book of their poetry and art that I have saved during the year.  I had the kids glue their 5th Grade Memories page in as a memento.

Go and download this awesome freebie to use next year (3rd and 4th grade are included)! If you didn't already know, TpT now saves all the freebies you've downloaded so, if you're like me and forget, you can find them all in one convenient place!

End-of-the-year Awards

I know many teachers give fun awards to all of their students at the end of the year, and I know mine aren't very novel, but I have been giving these awards since my first year of teaching. I was inspired by my 7th/8th grade journalism teacher who gave us these, and I'm sure if I dug through some boxes of old stuff I bet I could find mine too! They are really simple, just use the diecut machine on cardstock for the  ribbon shape and then glitter glue around it. I put a pin on the back so they can wear them on the last day of school. I try to make the awards fun and meaningful to each student and I have the class guess who the award goes to when I hand them out. Most of the time they know right away! Some might be a bit more difficult. The student who got the Pen Pal award was shy and didn't speak much. But she when she needed to talk to me about something important she would discretely leave a note on my desk and I would leave her a note in return.

I have had several former students say that they still have their awards. This year I had the sister of a former student and she said he has his hanging up on his wall at home. <3