Love! Love! Love!

I LOVE my NEW blog design!!! Megan from A Bird in Hand Designs did a wonderful job with my new design! If you are ready to add some color and life to your blog, go check out her site.

Megan was so easy to work with and was open to any changes that I wanted. She got my fabulous new design up and running within the week! Thanks so much Megan! You ROCK!!

My Last Week of School

My last week of school was 2 weeks ago. We had 3 half-days to end our school year. LOVE that!! The week before was spent doing end of the year common assessments, given by our school district 3 weeks late! Yay us! First grade, for some crazy reason, was the only grade level that ended up having to take these LONG tests. So surviving the last few days of school was a must!

Our half-days are 8:10 - 11:50 and include a 15 minute recess & a 30 minute lunch (more like brunch since it's at 10:30). If you're lucky enough to have a prep on one of those days, that's another 50 minutes. So you can tell that there isn't much time in the day to do a lot. 

Monday was our Relax & Read Day. The students brought in pillows or blankets to get cozy while kicking' back to read. They sat with their book boxes and a friend, if they wanted, and just enjoyed reading! When told they could take off their shoes, you would've thought they won the lottery! Haha! It was awesome to see everyone engaged and having fun.

Some of my girls all cuddled up.

 These 2 were taking turns reading to each other. When one struggled with a word, the other gave strategies to help him out. (Made me so happy to see that!)

 Is this not the cutest thing?! The boy in the middle read aloud a science book while the others listened.

I wish I would've videoed this one. The boy holding the book is an amazing reader! He was reading all about poisonous animals, stopping every so often when the others asked questions. They were eagerly listening and he was patiently answering their questions or showing them the answers in the text. I kept overhearing "Wow! I didn't know that!" or "That's so cool!"

This boy, who was retained last year, had a year filled with tremendous growth! He went from not knowing many sounds/letters to fluently reading at grade level. His confidence grew and he turned into a kid who loved school. As he read, he kept saying out loud "I'm reading all these books! Mrs. Tompkins, I need more books to read. I just keep finishing them all!"

Tuesday was Game Day. The students brought in games that they could play with each other. There was such a variety that there was something for everyone!

Wednesday was Movie Day and the last day of school.  I brought the movie and the kids brought snacks to share with everyone. 

SUMMER'S HERE!

Aaaaah, summer! Probably my most favorite time of the year! I started summer break 2 weeks ago, and it has been wonderful so far. I love being able to decompress from the stress of the school year, especially ALL the end-of-the-year craziness. I'm sorry for those of you that are still in school...yikes! But don't feel bad because I will be back to school earlier this year...the second week in August. UGH!! 

Since I didn't post much this year (mostly because this was probably THE hardest year of my career), I will be posting some random school things to share over the next few weeks. Think of it as "Throwback Thursday" even if it's Saturday or Monday! :) 

Here's my "End of the Year" gift that I gave my class this year:

Inside the cute summer cup--bubbles, crazy straw, bubble gum, and fruit snacks in summer shapes. Everything was from the Dollar Store except the fruit snacks, they were from Target.

I made the simple tag myself.

I put it all in a clear party bag, finished off with some curly ribbon. So easy! I'm all for quick & simple. Best of all the kids LOVED it!