Maintaining My Sanity During the Last Few Weeks of School

Summer Lovin'....

...had me a blast!

This will be my face on the last day of school:

OH.MY.HEAVENS.

Summer is so close I can almost reach out and grab it!!!!!

We have 9 more school days (with students). NINE!!! SINGLE DIGITS!!

The end of this school year is a pretty big deal for me because we are moving to Little Rock as soon as school is out! On to new adventures!

AND...

We're expecting our first child in August!!!

It's going to be a big summer for us!

Now to just maintain my sanity for 2 more weeks!

One way I plan to do that, is by making class funny. I love humor. Who doesn't?? It makes me feel better.

Last week I found this meme and showed it to all three of my classes and told them that I didn't want to have to be Grumpy Cat. Some laughed. Some were scared. HA!

Now when I give kids this face for talking while I'm talking, some smart aleck always says, "Oh! You just got the Grumpy Cat."

I then give them the Grumpy Cat. And try my hardest not to laugh. It never works out.

So on with my plan to save my sanity during these last two weeks.

The biggest part of my plan...

KEEP THOSE KIDS BUSY!

I learned last year that if the kids aren't busy, they turn into gremlins that you fed past midnight.

Rookie mistake, I know.

That will not happen this year! No way, no how.

First of all, we are going to continue doing our Early Bird morning work until the.very.last.day.of.school.

Yup. We totally are. It keeps them engaged with a productive activity during the morning and it's good review for language! Never would I have thought that my Early Bird Work would serve as a classroom management tool but it totally is during these last few weeks! 

We'll also be doing a ton of activities out of my End of the Year Activities Pack! 

Seriously. Like every activity. We're doing it. 

We're gonna do word searches, letters to our future teachers, letters to the incoming 3rd graders, making words, acrostic poems, a big fat memory book, and so much more!!

I may have already started my own memory book to share with the kids...

#notashamed

Also saving my life during these last few weeks...

Class Dojo!

Now if you don't know what Class Dojo is, it is a classroom management tool that allows you to create little monster avatars for each of your students. You can then reward them for good behavior with positive dojo points or you can punish them for bad behavior with negative dojo points. I like to use the positive points more (keepin' it positive, y'all).

I can honestly say that my students have not lost interest in Class Dojo once this year! They are so in love with getting points! When they start to become little wild things, all I have to do is take out my iPad and say, "I'm going to give so-and-so a positive dojo for not running around like a little wild thing." And immediately, they all get super quiet, sit up straight, and stare straight at me. LOVE IT!

And then the last bit of wonderfulness that is going to save my sanity during these last two weeks...

GONOODLE!

Now if you don't know what GoNoodle is, you need to come out from under your rock and check this website out! Seriously. Everyone uses it and blogs about it and instagrams it because it is awesome! It's a website completely dedicated to brain breaks for the classroom and they are FABULOUS!

Pretty sure my students and I both could Pop See Ko all day long if I allowed it...

And there you have it folks.

How I plan on not losing my mind during the few weeks before summer!

And in 9 days, this will be me...

We're in the home stretch guys...

YOU CAN DO IT!!!