Five For Friday, End of Year Activities, and a Summer Countdown Bucket FREEBIE

Today was our last full day of school!

Sigh!!!  I'm a little teary eyed.  I absolutely LOVED my sweet

group of third graders.   We had such a fabulous year, and I will truly miss them.  

The end of the year is always a bit sentimental for me.  We spend so much time with these kiddos and learn so much about them that it can be hard to let them go.  I wanted to make these last few days of the school year memorable for my students.  

So I couldn't wait to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and share my Five For Friday on our end of year activities at school this past week.

1. Shaving Cream Fun

After the students cleaned out their desks and turned in all their textbooks, they had a little fun with shaving cream.  They could write letters, words, and draw funny pictures on their desk.  It was also a perfect way to deep clean their student desks!

2. Bucket of Sand

On our last full day of school, I treated my students to a "sandy dessert".  It was a great way to send the boys and girls off into summer and many students said it was the best school treat EVER.   I found this awesome idea from The Teaching Heart Blog
Click HERE to check out the recipe and find out more.

3. Carnival Day

The third grade classes always have a Carnival Day.  The students earn tickets to use during the carnival for completing homework, respectful behavior and etc.  Then on the next to last "full" day of school students are able to use those tickets at the carnival.  There are so many fun games and prizes.  We have parent volunteers that work at each game or activity.  This year we also had an inflatable obstacle course.  I was so busy having fun that I didn't take ANY pictures.

4.  Student Awards

My students had so much fun trying to nominate students for the end of year awards.  These were awarded on the last "full" day of school.  Before the awards began, students were trying to guess who might have gotten what award.

5. Countdown Bucket- FREEBIE

I used a "Countdown Bucket" in my classroom this year.  This bucket included short activities that students could participate in at the end of each day or a time that was appropriate during the school day.  I created an activity for the number of students in my classroom, and we began our countdown at that number.  At the end of each day, I would pick one student to choose a stick from our "Countdown Bucket".  This would list the activity the students would get to participate in the next day.  We did this each day until there were no more sticks left in our bucket.  It was just a small thing that the boys and girls looked forward to, and they had to "earn" the opportunity to pick a stick at the end of each day.   If you would like to make your own "Countdown Bucket" you can download this FREEBIE by clicking on the picture below.  Enjoy!!!

Have a fabulous weekend!  I would love to hear how you celebrate the end of school.