4 End of Year Countdown Ideas and celebrations in 1st grade

This week has been about celebrations and preparing for upcoming celebrations!  After all, the END is in sight, ladies and gents!!  Let’s chat about some reasons to celebrate with 4 end of year countdown ideas!

 

CELEBRATE SUMMER!

Tuesday marked our 10 day countdown to summer vacation.  For a few years now, we have been sending the school year off with a <<BANG>> and doing these balloon popping end of year countdown ideas.

We filled each balloon with a fun surprise for the kids.  The last 10 days of school, I do not do my typical behavior chart stickers and treasure box prizes.  We do more immediate rewards {can I get an Amen???} to help with all of the end-of-year crazies.  Each day is a new celebration and the kids get SOOOOO super excited to find out who will get to POP the balloon!

 ….and POP!

Here are the 10 surprises for our end of year countdown ideas that we put inside the balloons.  Click to download the FREEBIE! Then, just cut, add to a balloon, and blow it up and tie it off!

The kids have literally shrilled and screamed over these end of year countdown ideas every.day.  And I’m not gonna lie, while they are still ooooooober crazy, their behavior has been surprisingly good during our countdown.  They do NOT want to miss out on our fun!

CELEBRATE RETIREMENT!

Do you have a friend or colleague retiring this year? This teacher retirement printable is a hot item in my store at the end of the year!  These look great framed and displayed at a retirement celebration for teachers, administrators, and even school nurses or secretaries!

CELEBRATE LEARNING!

Last week we wrapped up our Cinderella Unit {insert sad face here} and started preparing for our Cinderella Fairytale Ball which is next week {insert happy face here!}  Last year was our first year to do this and it is…

SO.

MUCH.

FUN.

I’m sure you are thinking that the boys are not into it at all, and there have been a few {okay, a LOT of} “eewwwws” and gross faces, but they are just smiling the whole time and have had a blast!  And last year, ALL of my kids—even the boys talked about the Ball for the rest of the year!

To prepare for our Fairytale Ball Celebration, we have been talking about our formal etiquette and manners for eating and for greeting each other {bows and curtsies}.

We also brought in private dance instructors to teach our kids the waltz!

 

Goodness, we have so many first graders {175} that it’s hard to fit them all in one picture!!  The dance instructors did a fantastic job separating the boys and girls and teaching them each their steps.

Then, they practiced dancing with a partner to the fancy music.  I was too busy playing the “boy” dancer for a sweet girl to get any pictures of their partner dancing.  But I’m sure I’ll have PLENTY of pictures next Thursday, when we have our actual Fairytale Ball.

We will spend the next few days in our rooms practicing our skills so that our dancing will be perfect by Thursday for our 1st grade fairy tale ball.

With the end in sight, this week was full of celebrations…from little to big.  And they were each so special and memorable in their own way.  We have a lot of reasons to celebrate: the end of a unit, the end the year, and growing older.  

And it’s no secret: We are ALL ready for summer after all of these end of year celebration ideas!