3 Day Weekend!

You know what's awesome?
A long weekend right before the last week of school!
Even though there are a total of 21 kids currently attending...
21 kids in grades 2-6 altogether...
So we've pooled the kids in one room and we all rotate through fun lessons.

Today is the perfect day to get a few things started for next year, and to get started on cards for my kids.

They're pretty simple, but I've written a personalized message inside each one.

I think the kids will love reading them.

I'll just add them in with their report cards and then we'll be outta here!

If you'd like a copy, I uploaded them to Google Docs, so feel free...

Since it's the crazy-hot summertime here in Kuwait, I've been keeping cool with these two yummy treats:

Starbucks Iced Green Tea at home
It's super easy to make and just as delicious as the real thing

and Breakfast Strawberry Ice Cream

Yep, ice cream for breakfast :)

Wrapping It Up

This has felt like the longest.week.ever.
I've been sick, but I'm SUPER lucky because my class has been awesome.
Like, hands down, the most awesome ever for the last two or three weeks.
At times, even better than in September!
So that's been amazing.
Today was Lollipop Day in our Countdown to Summer, which was delicious.
And tomorrow is Thursday so I have extra reason to celebrate.
And as I've mentioned, we have a lot of students stop coming to school before the actual end of school.
Honestly, it's kind of great.

It definitely means we put a rush on assessment for the fourth quarter...
But we were able to finish our Birthday books this week and they all look great!
{Much cuter than the bland ditty pictured above...}
This unit has got to be my most favourite of all the things I've created.
The kids LOVED seeing "Social Studies" in our schedule because they knew we'd be learning about birthdays and working in the books.

Since tomorrow may be the last day I see some of my students, we're having our party/awards day!

This year, I asked my class to make awards for one another. 

Since we're Bucket Fillers, they also LOVED this project. 

It was super simple {except for the cutting - note to self for next year} and I'm really looking forward to their presentations tomorrow!

I also have all of my awards ready to go and am really Really looking forward to giving these out!

If you're looking for something simple to give out for your end of the year, I have a set for kindergarten through grade six, plus an editable version so you can add your own cute fonts for a personal message. 

Find them here.

Weekend...!

- Amanda

Curbing the Chaos

It's finally countdown time!
School ends June 12 for us, so it's still pretty much "forever" away.
I decided to go ahead and use the ABC-a-day countdown.
(A is Animal Day; B, Bubble Gum; C is Candy Day)
I'm hoping it will help with all the wiggles and giggles...
As there have been many.
Oh-so-many...

And I fear my EA has had it up to here with some of the silliness.
Honestly, I'm just trying to keep my cool.
You know, give the kiddies some space.
Space that's really just a disguise for me to sort through my own reactions...
Space to harness in all of my own whine-y "Why in the world would you do that?"s.
That kind of space.

To get them excited about it, I made these little calendar cards to decorate our door...

Which my kids promptly destroyed by colouring with their "Come on, lady, it's May" attitude.

The word lackadaisical comes to mind.
But they're up, displayed, and they'll be a good reminder for parents.
So now, to keep them motivated and on track, my beloved clip chart comes in to play.

{Hahaha, I chuckle as I throw my head back and give a wistful wave of my hand. Oh, September, with all of your clips on Amazing!}

The deal is that each kid has to be on the green level or above if they are going to participate.
Because it's not September anymore...and maybe five kids make it Amazing by the end of these days.
Perhaps a little cruel, sure.
But at this point, I'm a bit tired of repeating myself.
And by "a bit" I mean "a ton."
I'm a ton tired of repeating myself.
So we'll see how it goes!
I know we won't get all the way to Z anyway, since kids will stop coming to school by the end of May.
Looking forward to a bit of extra fun each day at any rate :)

- Amanda

Award Updates

Well, I get the Busy Bee award tonight! 
I've been very busy-bee-like updating my K-6 end of year awards.
They were, well, not as pretty as I remembered when I first made them. 
Or maybe it's because I have a clipart/font problem.
Anyway, feel free to browse by clicking the images!
They're only 2 smackaroonies.
{Which is less than a dinar where I'm living and only $2 where I'm from.}

Yes, the preview images on TpT all say "Grade Two." 

...That's because while I worked hard to update each grade file, I am far too lazy to make separate image files for each.

Now I'm off to get the Soundest Sleeper award.

Good night, all!

Early dismissal...sort of

So I had all kinds of posts planned about the fun stuff we're doing at the end of the year in 2C, but then my entire class stopped coming to school! And not just my class, every class in the school! Since Sunday we have had a total of 20 to 30 students in all of elementary! I know!

 I did expect to have a lot fewer students, but I didn't expect to only have one or two show up each day this week... School is officially out Wednesday the 12th!!! Since the government schools let out here last Thursday, most kids in our private school couldn't be bothered to finish off the school year. Man, things are just so different in Kuwait.

Trust, I'm not really upset. It's been a long year and I'm super pumped to be going home in about a week. But I have to say its a bit disappointing. I didn't get that whole "Have a great summer! Can't wait to see you in September!" with my students. At any rate, it's a great chance to totally organize my things from this year, pack 'em up, and prepare for next year with my team.

 Don't forget to enter my giveaway for your choice of classroom theme pack if you win!
- Amanda

A success and an "urgh"

First up, let me get to the success. I am super proud of my students today. Yes, it's the end of the year but I have to say I've had more difficult times with my class so I'm not really complaining about behaviour. I started introducing my class to multiplication word problems as bell work that we worked through together in January. And then February got crazy busy with our International Week, etc., and we put it aside. I switched to editing paragraphs I'd typed out after that, then moved to the printing books, then another thing, and as you can see, multiplication got left behind. 


Until this week, that is! I put a word problem up and the first day, they struggled with remembering the concept. The second day, a few more light bulbs. The third day, a LOT more light bulbs. Today, the fourth day, even my lowest students were successfully able to write their very own multiplication story! For ESL kids, I am very impressed. I got the template from another blogger {I cannot for the life of me find who, even though she very cleverly put her copyright in the document} and just changed the title. Since our Ontario curriculum really only calls for us to introduce it, I couldn't be happier that they {mostly} understand the basics.

"Hessa has six toys. She shares with Aaliya. How many toys will each person get? Each person get three. 3x2=6"

Majed has tewelve toys he shares with Khaled and Talal. How many Toys will each Person get? 3x4=backward 12 {!}"

"Sheikha has 6 cherries. She shares with loulwah. How many berries will each person get? 2x3=6"

Well done, grade two!

And now, the sad. I really truly definitely loved my stars background from Shabby Blogs. I loved the colours, I loved the style, and I loved the simplicity. This is the second time, though, that they have had a malware threat of some type that has directly affected my blog since I use their code. I am so sad. But, I did find a cute {and free!} template at June Lily. I like but, it's just not...the same...you know?

- Amanda

If You're a Kid...

My class L.O.V.E.S. this dance video. I've used it all year whenever I felt like they needed a little break to move around. Since it's the end of the year, it may be just the thing to help you get through!

Have a great week.
- Amanda

Class Awards

A few weeks ago I made and printed a set of classroom awards for my students. I put them up in my TpT store and they have been downloaded like crazy! Here is the original file I made for my grade 2s:

You can head to my shop to find the sets for kindergarten through grade six. Enjoy! Many many thanks to all of the clip artists I borrowed images and papers from - credits are on the last page :)

Also, I was told today that the art my class made for the Spring concert auction {see this post} sold for 100KD! That's about $360 CAD - pretty amazing! 

- Amanda