Hope You Have a "BALL" Summer Gift For Students (& a GIVEAWAY)!

The end of the school year is hard.  I mean, on top of all the teacher stuff, like paperwork, folders, files, documentation, grades, and so on and so forth, you have the class stuff, too!  And, I'll be honest, most years it's kind of sad.  Even those tough years can get me a little blue in the end, too.  We spend 9 months in a room with 20+ kiddos, each and every day, and then, all of a sudden, they're not going to be ours anymore.  It's certainly a weird feeling that I do believe no other profession experiences. 

So, end of year activities are always fun.  We always complete a "Memory Book", do other fun Summer activities, travel to other 2nd grade rooms to sign yearbooks, and much more.  But, for the past two years, I've also been partaking in a few, special "End of Year" gifts which are both meaningful to me (and the kiddos, too!) and fun!

You can find this fun activity with more info on
what's included here on TpT!

The first fun "gift" is one the students get to participate in.  It is a neat beach ball "scoot" that ties in with my "Hope You Have a "BALL" Student Summer Gift".  Since I knew I'd be giving this little booklet out at the end of the year, what better way than to incorporate the students into it, and make/keep some memories in the process?!  Basically, each student gets one plastic, UNinflated beach ball.  I generally buy cheap ones, no more than $1.  (Last year, I got mine in the dollar section at Target, and this year, I got mine at the Dollar General-- both were $1 a piece.)

We unwrap our beach balls, and I give the students about 5-10 minutes and ONE section (generally the white one) to write the name LARGELY and doodle with sharpies.  I try to spread out the colors of sharpies, and they share at their tables.

After the students have had ample time to "doodle", we all choose one color sharpie, then play "scoot" with our signatures!  For those of you who are unfamiliar, basically we start out at our desks, then SCOOT to the next "stop" (desk), where we will sign out names, put our sharpies up in the air to signal we're ready to move, then SCOOT again!  This continues until we're all done signing and return back at our own desk.

 

After we finish signing, the balls get returned to me, I put them in a large paper bag (paper grocery bag is a great size), and store them away until I can add the rest of the "gift".  What's the rest, you ask?  Well, of course, it's the little booklet that you can find on TpT to accompany the beach ball, BUT, there's also a 2nd part to my gift each year...

 

**Want to win a free copy of my "Hope You Have a "BALL" Summer Gift"?  See if you can GUESS what else goes into the paper bags for my end of year gifts.  I'll give you a clue...there are 3 other parts!  The first 3 people to correctly guess one part (that hasn't already been guessed!) will WIN a FREE copy of my TpT file!!!  Woo-Hoo!  So, whatcha waiting for?  Start guessing!!! :)  I'll be back soon to post "part 2" of what goes in the bag!