Celebrating the Kiddos

In these last few days we have left for our school year, we have had many little celebrations. Today we made a snack and little books with our Pre-K reading buddies. Didn't exactly come out the way I had envisioned, but they certainly didn't care. I forgot I had my party hat on when we went to lunch though-everyone was wishing me a happy birthday!

Our awards program is on Monday (yes, we are going to school on Monday, make-up day for our wintry weather). In addition to the awards that the school provides (I had 9 students with perfect attendance for the year-I think that's a new record!)--I made each student one of these "The Top 10 Things We Love About.....".

I make a slideshow every year and this year decided to do it with group pics/friends and then 3 slides showcasing each child. I listened to tons of different songs (seriously, just choosing the music took me like 2 hours!) and ended up with this one. I think it's perfect for my little dreamers! They sing along with wild abandon.

After reading so many articles on how to promote summer reading I broke down and spent too much money at Scholastic's Dollar sale. I bought each student at least 2 books on their level and wrote them a note telling them how proud I was of their effort this year.

And lastly, I have taken a day to take each table of students outside to eat with them at lunch. Do you know how lunch usually flies by? It doesn't so much when you are sitting outside, listening to the birds and enjoying conversations about the Frozen movie or sibling rivalry. Teachers will walk by and ask "oooh, what did you do to earn lunch with the teacher?" and the kids will just look at me. We are doing it "just because". I want to enjoy these last few days with them. It's a tradition I want to start next year, maybe every Friday, at random, including everyone. Today one of them asked me why I wasn't married and I had to laugh! I said I hadn't met my Prince Charming yet. And the reply was "well, Miss Trayers you better hurry up, aren't you always saying that you're old!"---LOL!  We have had some very interesting conversations! :)

It has been a very enjoyable week with them. Next week we are doing a dinosaur unit where I get to do fun activities with them which are not necessary curriculum based, but just because-looking forward to that too. :)