Teaching with Mel D

End of the Year Ideas Summer Linky Party- Week 1

Some of my blogging BFF’s from Freebie-licious and I are doing weekly Summer linky parties. We hope you will stay tuned & gain lots of ideas for next school year! 
I posted a few sneak peek pictures on my last blog post. We had a totally peaced out partaaay! I had the BEST class this year & they worked so hard…plus they filled our classroom bucket full of nuggets which means….partaaay! If you don’t follow me on INSTAGRAM, you should. I post pics immediately on there & I am kind of addicted….really? Like I need another thing to be addicted too! JEEZ! 
Here is how it started……………

Well, it started last year when I changed my classroom from a Dr. Seuss theme to a peace/hippie theme. My little nuggets, even the boys, slowly became obsessed with peace signs, tie dye, flower power…yo! Seriously, I should have been born during the 60’s. I’ve always been a closet hippie since high school…don’t laugh. My husband and I still have t-shirts from Grateful Dead shows from the 90’s! We used to travel to see the shows…I think I liked the parking lot shopping the best. 

Our classroom bucket was completely filled towards the end of the year…hmm…funny how that happened. Anyway, I had loads of help from some A.W.E.S.O.M.E mom’s with a butt load of energy. I needed that because O.M.G. I was soflippintired! 

I told my nuggets we would have a BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS peace out partaaaay & they know I can throw quite a party. They were given an AR classroom goal & they achieved it & beyond. After all the testing..tests..tests…tests…bubbles..bubbles…fill in the bubble….THEY TOTALLY DESERVED an EOY celebration. 

 Here is one of the awesome mom’s I was talking about. I took a pic with each child & they also took one solo. Before you ask, the tapestry came from a hippie store in Chicago, the peace lights came from BIG LOTS & the VW van prop came from EBAY.

 This was our last photo that we did………:o( The mom’s that were there were in tears :o(

The headband she is wearing was made by her mom for all the girls to wear if they chose to…it was so cute! 

 This photo was completely last minute but didn’t it turn out so cute!!!! 

 The shirts…..the shirts…oh.my.word the shirts. This was done last minute as well & they turned out so incredible! These mother’s that tie dyed for me should go into business! They did girly colors for the girls & used primary for the boys. 

We had some yummy tie dye cupcakes & I totally bribed our janitor to get on the roof to take the following pic. How could we not do a human peace sign???

 Now for our activities during our all day peace party. We had the classroom set up in stations just like we do for Daily 5 so they were used to rotating through the classroom a certain way. 

Hand print craft each student got to take home! So groovy!

 This object of this game was to knock down the recycled soup cans covered with peace sign tape. Nothing got into the classroom unless it went with the theme….ha! The ball was even decorated with peace sign duct tape! 

Minute to win it games………….I know there are no peace signs…I let this one go…ha!


This was a keepsake that each student got to make. One of those wonderful mom’s handmade each color! Homemade colored sand can be found here. The kids LOVED this!!!!! 
 

  Seriously….our water bottles even was peace themed! Our tie dye cupcakes! Look at the peace signs!!!!

 I did my best to braid my hair…little bit uneven & it definitely looks like I have too much blush on the right side….but I was totally hippied out!

Here they are bowling! We collected 2 liter bottles & of course wrapped them with peace sign duct tape for some indoor bowling fun! 

  

One of the mom’s was killing me with this pool idea. I kept imagining half my classroom with a pool….well, this was tiny. We shredded some colored paper & buried peace sign sunglasses, necklaces & tattoos. They went through this station & went straight to get their face painted. 

Here is a minute to win it type game where you drop clothespins into the jar….notice all the peace signs???
 

Now for some outdoor rotations! We needed to get the wiggles out!

 Pillow sack races….did I mention the pillow cases were tie-dyed?? Of course they were, duh!

 Stilts??? Is that what their called???
 Jumping off those cupcakes :o)
 They loved the homemade bubbles!!!!
 Hula hoop contest!

I had to sneak in a pic of our janitor on the roof taking our pic! He’s so awesome! After we were done playing outside we ended our day with some more indoor stations. We borrowed several games of Twister. 
 We took turns singing using the karaoke machine.

 This was a total group effort using toilet paper! They really had fun with this but I know they were so tired at this point.

 IDK how the parents pulled this one off but they did. I am so nosy I usually find out about EVERYTHING. I am one of those that used to open up presents before Christmas, wear them to school, & wrap them back up….not kidding. Well, these wonderful moms made this & then had the kids sign it during library. It is in our peace themed basement this summer so I can enjoy it.

 We had our peace party on the Friday before Memorial Day. We were rained out for our field day so our red carpet awards & field day took place on the same day, the last day.

 Each student received a special award from me….you can find them by clicking HERE or on any red carpet pic. I had a podium set up with a microphone & I gave a little speech about each student before I presented them with their award. It was really fun & I had a hard time not crying.

  

 The red carpet came from Party City. The stars were made on our risograph machine & the kids cut them out. They had no idea why they were cutting them out at the time…ha!

 Some of them danced, some of them put their heads down, I even had one do cartwheels all the way down….lol.

 We also fit in making our summer journals. I have them posted free in my TPT STORE.  
I buy cases of notebooks during the back to school sales for as little as a penny-10 cents each. I do various things with the journals throughout the year.



 I wish I would have had enough energy at the EOY to redo all my library bins BUT I did quite a bit…..chalkboard style! I started replacing all my bins from IKEA with bins from Big Lots. Here is a pic of my library before I left. 

And here is some more containers from Big Lots……ugh! Will redecorating ever get old? NOT!

If you are a blogger & would like to link up to week one of our summer linky series please grab the button on top or below and link back. 

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Comments

    • I use my CD books so much! They are truly a lifesaver! I leave them for subs, I use them when I am just done talking & the kids use them daily during Daily 5. Great model of fluency & my students LOVE them! I use my Scholastic points every month!

  11. Thanks for the comments ladies. My little ones had such a fabulous time. I'm all about creating memories for them. I miss them already :o(

  15. entertainment is the part of life. if you want to enjoy your life. you need must enjoy it. we are provide you to chat in online, join with dance club, music, Hollywood Disco, TV show, bar and grill.
    Party ideas

  16. I love your peace party ideas. I am also a deadhead and love the ideas. I teach 4th grade and we are organizing an EOY party and will definitely use your ideas. Thanks so much for sharing!!!

    Donna

  26. I am totally in love with these colorful summer party photos. Everything is superbly arranged. The summer season is back again with full party swing. I am also planning an early summer bash and would like to host it at outdoor New York venues. I might use this colorful theme for my party.

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