The End is Nigh

End of the year.  Tomorrow is it.  Over by 12:30, and half days are always a blur.  It's a mixed bag of emotions.  I am ready for the break of course, but I really got to love my kids this year- and it's always nerve wracking beginning with a new group, even though it always turns into a big love fest in the end anyway.  So I sit here tonight thinking about ends and beginnings and how both of them can just be sort of sucky but glorious at the same time.  *big sigh*

A quick shout out to some info I ran across on Chickadee Jubilee, she has a wonderful post about this program called Tagxedo , where you can input words and it will collage them for you inside a shape.  She made gifts for her kids with descriptive words her students came up with.  Completely inspired to copy, I gave my kids a class list today- had them write their favorite colors by their name, and then a positive adjective next to each other name on the list.  Collected all of the lists, brought them home, picked out a shape (I liked the shooting star), found a color theme that matched their favorites and loaded in the adjectives. Presto change-o! Annnnd Print.  End of year keepsake ready.  If I have time I'll laminate them, otherwise I'll just put them in the report card folder.  Next year though (super teacher year)  maybe I'll have bought some frames ahead of time so I can give it to them framed. Bit pressed for time here at the last minute though.

Made some good dents in the mess today.  Sorted out quite a bit that belonged in recycling.  Got the back table cleared up.  If I can get in early tomorrow and attack my desk- I think I will be pretty golden there for my half day Monday plan.

Today we had a going away assembly for our assistant principal.  Each grade level was meant to bring something to present, so borrowing from Pinterest, Fablous Karen and I decided to go with the thumbprint tree idea.  I found an image of a leafless tree on the internet and then put it up on the promethean board and outlined the tree shape onto brown construction paper.  Then I cut it out and pasted it onto an Elmer's foam board.  Each class chose a different color to make their finger prints in.  We had each kid in second grade put their thumbprint either as leaves on the tree, clouds in the sky or grass on the ground.  Then we wrote the child's name next to their print, and put on a punny quote "Thanks for helping us through all of our seasons, Remember your roots!"  I added in a bit of detail with some markers like extra grass strands and flowers- just to use up some of the white space.  I should have taken a picture of it, but the thought escaped me at the time.  It's a cute keepsake though, and I decided I'd do a quick one with just my kids tomorrow.  I think it would make for a sweet tradition every year to have a class tree of leave thumbprints.

Discovered a die cutting machine in the teacher workroom.  It's amazing how oblivious I've been this year.  I was afraid to make color prints until April.  just learned how to use the poster maker probably around the same time.  I was shy about laminating until May.  Which is also when I finally used the book binding machine. And today I finally poked around the big huge gigantic machine with computer interface and discovered that it did all of the cutting for you and you didn't have to pump down on a handle!  It has moose templates! Score!  And it had a leafless tree!  So I cut one of those this afternoon for my thumbprint plan tomorrow.  I must promise myself to take better advantage of the resources I am offered next year.  I tell you, I am working in a wonderland and not even dipping my toes in the chocolate.  It's just sinful.