End of the Year Fun + a Freebie

Hi guys! I'm still here! What a crazy year it's been. Life with a new baby is a LOT of work! Don't get me wrong, it's amazing and wonderful, and being a mommy is the best thing that's ever happened to me. But it's exhausting! When I planned my maternity leave, I thought, "Great! Now I'll have lots of time to work on my blog while I'm home with the baby!" Haha. I was lucky to get a shower and eat half a meal most days. Now that I've been back at work a few months, things have settled a bit as we've gotten comfortable with our routines and I finally feel like I can juggle both roles with ease (most of the time, anyway).

In case you're wondering...yes, school is STILL in session here in New York City. Only two days to go! Since the year is coming to an end, I wanted to share some of the fun end of the year activities I have planned. Hopefully you'll find these ideas useful and inspiring, even if you're on summer break and school is the last thing on your mind (I'm SO jealous of you, by the way).

Our school has started a tradition where each class has an award ceremony at the end of the year. Since our award ceremony isn't until Monday, I'm sharing some photos from last year. I plan to do pretty much the same thing this year. I went to Dollar Tree today to get all the supplies and decorations. We are doing a Hollywood red carpet theme!

The kids have also been working on their memory books this week. They will finish them and take them home next week. You can find my Memory Book in my TpT store. The book has 31 different pages and includes both a color and black and white version.

I also put together some really simple and quick last minute gifts for the kids. I got bubbles at the dollar store and put together these labels to fancy them up a little. Click on the image below for your free Gift Tags.

And that's the end of our year! In just a couple days, I'll be saying good-bye to my kiddies and sending them off to first grade! As my co-teacher said to the kids, "We are setting you free to fly...just as we did with our butterflies." I like that analogy. It's a bittersweet ending. Of course, I'm excited to spend the entire summer relaxing with my baby girl. But at the same time, I'm sad to say good-bye to my kids, and especially to my co-teacher. We found out that we'll be teaching in different rooms next year. When the year began, I was hesitant about sharing a classroom with another teacher, but it has been my best teaching experience yet. I SO wish we could stay together forever! I guess, as they say, all good things must come to an end. But I'm so happy to have had the experience, and I'm definitely excited for a new year in kindergarten :)

Enjoy your summer!