End of the Year luau party and awards for 1st grade students
Today was our class end of the year luau party and awards!
Last year I kept with our classroom theme and did a western end of year awards party.
But this year, we decided to brighten things up with an end of the year luau party with umbrellas, lemonade, and leis! 🙂
end of the year party set up
Here’s our first grade awards party setup…before cookies were added and lemonade was mixed and poured! I had back to back specials (planning periods) in the morning, so I got set up and took pics before our afternoon party!
Even Jingle the elf celebrated with a graduation cap!
When I think about partying with my first graders I always think of simple and CHEAP. Let’s face it: I’m not a rich teacher {who is??}…so I have to be resourceful.
So, I think space fillers!
Space Filler #1: Don’t stack the cups…set them all out and add a few drink umbrellas and lemons for decoration.
Anytime fresh food can be used as decorations, it’s a plus visually and for the pocketbook! I had 40+ cups set out and only used 3 whole lemons for the cup decor and 1 lemon sliced up in the lemonade. Lots of bang for the buck right there!
The one thing I did “buy” were the grass arm bands from Hobby Lobby. There were 4 in a pack for $4.99. I got it for less than $3 with my handy-dandy coupon! It took 2 of them to tape around my drink dispenser so you could even split it with a teammate and it’d be even cheaper! I also loved that they were the *perfect* length. I didn’t have to cut anything! Then I just untaped and packed away to reuse another time!
I bought a pack of 144 umbrellas for 6 buckaroos on Amazon. I just used a few here and there so that’s a long life that pack will have!
Space Filler #2: I brought over the countdown chalkboard we’ve been using and Jingle’s palm tree to take up a bit more space! And I had one lei left over that perfectly fit around my cookie platter!
end of the year luau party gifts: Leis
Space Filler #3: These lei’s were so fun and colorful! And in a random pile they added a punch of color and took up a good about of space! Hobby Lobby was my friend again here. (But Oriental Trading has some leis that are solid colors and cheaper though, if you’re really looking to go cheap.)
A quick label on these made them the perfect gift at our end of the year luau party!
End of the Year Awards Writing
We had a great parent turnout this afternoon and the kids really enjoyed our celebrations! Of course, I didn’t get any pics of our actual ceremony and celebrations because we were too busy celebrating! 🙂 But for the 2nd year, I had the kids write their own awards. I loved reading their awards and the kids just beamed with pride! And I’m kicking myself for not taking pics of their finished awards. We copied them on card stock and the kiddos did such a great job cutting them out! They turned out so cute!
P.S. Our last day with Jingle the elf will be tomorrow (kids still come on Monday though!) We are ending our celebration with Jingle with a Summer blockbuster party. Movie theater and popcorn and drinks! Each teacher on our team plays a movie in their room, and our kiddos get to choose which movie they want to watch! So much fun and a perfect ending to our year!
