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First with Franklin

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

10 Day Countdown, Baby!

I.  Am.  So.  Excited!  We are down to our last few days of school and I'm pumped!  I blogged about such a fun idea to countdown the end of the year and we are finally ready to get it started.  My fellow first grade teacher and I decided on the list of ideas we wanted to use and I typed up a list of them.  Then we cut them apart, rolled them up and stuffed them inside of balloons.  We wrote the countdown number on each balloon and hung them along the top of our white boards.   I hope the kids totally freak out (in a good way) when they walk in and see this:





You can get them here if you are interested.  

Here is what we have planned:

10- Ink pen day.  *We purchased some super cool ink pens for students to use all day long.

9- 1st graders are so bright, we have to wear shades!  *We purchased some cute sunglasses for each student from the party favor aisle at Walmart.  We are taking a field trip this day, so students will get to wear them.  :)

8- Rearrange our room *Students will get to move their desks in any arrangement they want to.  This is going to be hard for me to give up control, so I hope they like it!

7- Mystery Reader *We have a local author who has agreed to come and visit our class.

6- Kickball Day  *Our classes will play a game of kickball against each other.

5- Nature Walk *We will arm students with baggies, magnifying glasses, clipboards, pencils, and iPods (for cameras) and let them explore.  It's always exciting to see things from their perspectives.

4-   Bubble Gum Day *Students will get to chew gum and blow bubbles.  We are using The Teacher Wife's super cute printables and having the students write the steps to blowing a bubble.  I'm really excited about these!  Click here to check out her cute downloads. 

3- Lunch in the classroom *Students will get to come to the classroom to enjoy extra snacks and a relaxing environment during lunch.  (This is a much sought after reward during the year.)

2-  Beach Day *We borrowed a bunch of beach towels for kids to sit on during the day and bought leis for each child.  We plan on rocking out to some Beach Boys music, too.

1- Extra recess day *This is the day when we have to clear out and clean up our classrooms.  So, we decided we would let students have two recesses and we would each monitor one.  That way, we each get 30 minutes in our classroom to work uninterrupted.  Yeah!

Last Day!  *Our school has a picnic day each year and students get to play on inflatables and hang out.  This year our students play in the morning and we have to fill up the afternoon with something... so movie day!

What are your final countdown plans???

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17 comments:

  1. I love this idea! Gives them something to look forward to on those last days!
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

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  2. This is fabulous - what a great 10 day "hook." I pinned ya on my school board and am showing my team tomorrow. I am jumpin' on board for sure!!! I am following you - I can't wait to see more of your ideas :) Come for a quick visit if you find a moment.

    Kelley Dolling
    Teacher Idea Factory

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  3. Love it! Thanks for sharing!

    learnplayandhavefun.blogspot.com

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  4. WOW! This is so cool! Not sure I can pull it together fast enough this year. Our 10 day count starts Monday - last day 18th.

    Pinning so I'll remember next year! :-)

    Crystal

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  5. Thanks for the comments everyones- the kids have LOVED it so far! Although on Friday, we had sunglasses and they were all falling apart! (I promised them I would find something to replaced them.) We had our field trip and the kids had a blast. Can't wait to see the room arrangement they come up with tomorrow!

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  6. Okay, Erin. After I said I was saving it for next year, I got busy that afternoon and went for it. Kristi and I are having a blast with it - and the kids are LOVING it!

    We changed/added a couple of things...

    Mystery Reader - we didn't have time to come up with one so we are having it be the other first grade class. They will be pumped to get read with a buddy from the other class.

    Read Outside - we are in a serious AR competition right now and it is our last week to do it so we will be doing that on Thursday.

    Eat w/ teacher outside - we had to add the outside because we let the kiddos eat with us every other Friday in the room.

    Thanks so much for sharing the idea. Today was Ink Pen Day - what a hit!

    Crystal

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    Replies
    1. I'm so glad they are loving it! Our kids come in every morning begging to pop the balloons! Tomorrow is Kickball Day! :)

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  7. I do something similar. Come link up at my linky party. I'm your newest follower.

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  8. This is absolutely adorable! We are down to 5 1/2 days, but we will for sure be doing this next year!!!
    Katie & Lisen
    wearesecondgradesmartypants.blogspot.com

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  9. I love your ideas! I am going to use some of these :)

    My students love "Bubble Gum and Books!" Each student gets to choose one special piece of bubble gum then we take our books outside for reading. After about 15 minutes of reading outside we have a bubblygum blowing contest :) FUN!!! :)

    http://wishfulteaching.blogspot.com/

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  10. Great ideas! Thanks for sharing! I'm your newest follower :)

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  11. What a great idea to have a countdown! Some teachers do the abcs, but I'd like to do something different in first grade! I'm thrilled to find your blog and am your newest follower.

    Christine
    Hoppingintofirstgrade@blogspot.com

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  12. Great ideas,your students are never going to forget that!Would love to see photos.

    Lusine
    Enjoy Teaching English

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  13. LOVE IT......I'm starting tomorrow!!!! 7 days to go...thanks for the GREAT idea!!!!

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  14. Holy Moly, Erin! I LOVE this idea!!!

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  15. I just found this-- I am so excited! My kids are going to be ecstatic about some of these!

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