12 1/2 days, Be kind, & Teacher Appreciation

Hello! I hope you are enjoying your weekend! I know I am loving mine! I got to stay home with my girls on Friday, due to a lack of babysitters! So I started my weekend Thursday night and am absolutely loving that I still have tomorrow off! We were told at our last staff meeting that we should minimize drawing our kiddos attention to the fact that we only have 12 1/2 days left of school. We are not supposed to be doing any kind of countdown at school so that the kiddos don't realize that we only have 12 1/2 days left before summer. We are supposed to do only educational activities for the last 12 1/2 days of school...are you getting my theme here??? WE ONLY HAVE 12 1/2 DAYS UNTIL SCHOOL IS OUT!!!! I always hate those end of year pep talks about learning until the last minute! Of course we are still teaching, but come on, the kids are starting to check out mentally and we have to do some fun things to keep their attention! Is anyone else jumping through hoops to keep their little darlings engaged in some type of learning?? Katie is currently internet-less (hmmm is that a word?) so I am posting about a really neat idea that she did this week. I actually walked in on the tail end of it and ended up standing and watching because I was so enthralled! Then I had to have her tell me what she did so that I could do it in my classroom. Katie said she actually found the original idea on a blog or website, but doesn't remember where. So if you know where this idea started from let us know so that we can give them credit! Katie took the original idea and added to it to make it more personal for her second graders. We have really been having a tough time with helping our kiddos understand that they need to be kind and how hurtful words can be. This idea REALLY hit home with our kids! Katie gave each of her kiddos a piece of blank paper and asked them to draw a picture of someone who was very important on the paper. She didn't tell them why there were drawing the picture, but really stressed that it needed to be someone important to them.

Then she had the class sit in a circle and they went around and said something hurtful. The kids really said some mean things like, you are ugly, no one likes you, you are dumb, etc. Each time someone said something hurtful everyone put a fold in their picture. After they were done they then went around and apologized for what they had said. Each time an apology was said everyone unfolded their picture one fold. When finished they had a picture with a lot of lines in it. Then Katie talked about how words hurt and change you and that even when you apologize you have still changed the person that you hurt. The kiddos looked at their pictures and were able to see that their was no way to make their picture look like it had before the hurtful comments. It was a really powerful visual and I can't wait to do this with my kiddos on Monday. If you are having some kindness issues in your class and decide to try this out we would love to hear how it worked for you!!! TPT is throwing a Teacher Appreciation Sale starting tomorrow and running through the 8th. We are participating and you can get 30% off of our items if you use the code on the banner!!

We have some fun items on there if you get a chance to check it out!!! I know we will be doing some shopping of our own! Here are some of the items we have in our store. End of Year Fun

Graduation Certificates and Awards

Inference Island

Summer is Coming End of Year Math and Literacy Centers

Nate the Great Series Activities

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