Goodbye Class of 2011-2012

Wednesday was our last day of school.  This has been such a challenging school year that really tested my nerves and skills as a teacher.  I was very happy to have almost all my students pass the C.R.C.T. (just my one E.S.O.L child did not pass...but she has only been speaking English for a year and a half and was expected to pass all of the tests! Umm...yeah ok...passing the English/Language arts section alone was pretty amazing...)  I am happy to see this group move on to fifth grade!

Before I let them go for the summer, we marked the day with a few special events.  I found 350 and 500 piece puzzles at the dollar store, so we had a little puzzle competition.  (Kids today just don't do puzzles anymore!  I remember as kid being excited to go picked out a new 1,000 piece puzzle to complete as a family...maybe I was just a big geek though!)  We also watched the movie Tale of Despereaux.  (Thank you Netflix for having it for instant download!)

I ended the day by giving them the special end of the year gifts.  First I gave them a personalized water bottle with a special little tag on it...

I adapted these from B. jane brewing... and Lorraine from Fabulous Fourth Grade Froggies's Classroom DIY post.  (If you haven't already noticed my little OCD self has to have things match, and the phrase "Don't Reinvent the Wheel" just doesn't make any sense to me!)  Attached to the back of the tag with two little mini glue-dots is a packet of Kool-Aid.  If you would like a some simple directions and a copy of my tag, click on the picture below...

Then I gave them a little something else...

This gift was inspired by Teresa at Confessions of a Teaching Junkie.  I used the Just One Word like she did...

but since we have learned hoe to use this resource this year (and they love it)...I challenged my students to use a thesaurus to help them find better descriptors for their classmates.  They have been eager to find out what words their classmates used to describe them.  (What was more funny to me was the word they picked to describe themselves!)

I presented each student with their framed word art...and they were thrilled!  I wasn't prepared for just how excited they would really be...just look at them...

I was so excited that they were excited! 

Quickly came the end of the day in which we must say our goodbyes (including some sad goodbyes to student who would not be returning to the school) and lots of hugs!  So long Fourth Grade class of 2011-12...you will be missed!

An update for this post explaining a little more about these name clouds can be found here.