Ms. Perry's Peaches: We rocked 100 days of school..

Well it’s been a busy two weeks in my classroom. Between my mom’s going away party, the peaches learning about the spelling of /ar/, getting our valentines in the mail to exchange with other schools, getting pneumonia, getting ready for Valentine’s Day and celebrating the 100^th day of school I hardly had any time to catch my breath! So I’m going to be on picture overload for you this evening.

First up: Mom's going away party. That's right my mom who has been around for 28 years of my life is now living and working over 2,000 miles away in Louisiana. All night I heard the question, "Do you want your mom to go?" OF COURSE NOT! But do I want my mom to be happy, yes! Do I want her to be successful and enjoy her retirement when the time comes, yes! The only way these things could happen were if she moved. I miss her like crazy already but I'm trying to stay strong and be happy for her!

Next, our Valentine's Exchange. I decided to sign my school up for a Valentine's Day valentine exchange hosted by PAWSitively Teaching. I decided to have my kiddos make animals out of hearts. Let me say the results were just adorable. Then it hit me, what could make this project even more exciting? Let's put facts about that animal on the backside of these animals. Of course I didn't account for some peaches to take a little more time and the fact that I was absent for two days to try and get better. So I was rushing to finish these up last Friday so I could mail them out. Everything came together and hopefully reached their destination.

We are also charting all of the valentines we have received on a map on our bulletin board. The kiddos always get excited to see another valentine added.

Alright, I found out at the end of January that my kiddos were going to learn how to spell /ar/. So I cruised on over to TPT and Pinterest and found some amazing things! I purchased the fabulous Babbling Abby's Learning /ar/ with Pirate Mark. So I dressed up like a pirate, Captain Bell to be exact, on Monday to introduce the topic and my kiddos got so into it. I told them I like /ar/ words and they started asking me, "Do you like star?" I'd respond with a pirate voice "Arrggh, I like star because it says /ar/" They bought the lesson hook, line, and sinker. They even began writing stories about pirates, I love when learning takes over my classroom like that!

My pirate gear!

Arrgh ye ready to learn /ar/?

It's hard to read my peaches handwriting/phonetic spelling, it says:There was a good pirate it’s name is Miss Bell(that’s me hehe). She sails across the sea with her crew.

Finally, Pièce de résistance! The 100th day of school celebration!!

So this is my 6th 100th day celebration and I only get wiser as the years go on. Here are some tips I'd like to pass on to you to make your 100th day celebration easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Tip #1: Try to have your celebration on an off week. It felt so easy to just slip the 100th day of school in during this four day week because things are already off because of a holiday on Monday and Valentine's Day on Friday. Granted it wasn't the 100th day but my kiddos had tons of fun!

Tip #2: Try to have it on an early release day. My first plan was to work myself all weekend and have the celebration on Tuesday. BUT let me tell you how easy it was to have it today (our early release day). We skipped the language arts period, did our celebration, had lunch, cleaned up and they went home all sugared up! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Tip #3: Use the free aging booth app!! If you haven't used the aging booth app, do it! So many times I have my students try to think what life would be like when they are 100, some imaginations were bigger than others. Now they can use a picture to visualize it! I took their pictures, printed them and added them to a "When I'm 100 years old" page. So what are you waiting for??? Go get the free app!

Vocabulary Wall I created to help with writing

My example!

Tip #4 If you have older students, use them! In the past I would enlist the help of my husband and we'd spend our weekend prepping (aka blowing up 100 balloons). The past two years I've enlisted the help of our oldest students to help keep my insanity during this busy time.

My two 5th grade helpers!

Tip #5 Have them dress up! For the past 5 years, I would make my students shirts saying "I survived 100 days of..." and their grade but I decided to mix things up this year. I had my students dress up (with only a days notice, shame on me) and let me tell you it was the best Decision EVER. All of my students participate and I even had an awesome mother stay and do make up for all the peaches!

These two cracked me up!

Amazing make up!

My coworker and I all dressed up err down!

We had a fun time being elderly today!

Happy 100th day of School from Union School!

Tip #6 Do Stations! I can't tell you how easy it was to set up the stations and rotate during our celebration. I had 4 stations 2food, 1 craft, and 1 writing. I walked them through the directions and they took off running, in pairs! It's so amazing being at a school where upper grades are readily available. They all picked a name, or two, and were paired up for these stations.