Last Week, Summer Break, Lightening Bugs, Oh my!

Last week was SO busy & emotionally draining that I couldn't muster up the energy to post.  I think I probably would have cried bawled a little more had I tried to post!  So let me rewind....
Wednesday we finally were ready to do our wax museum... I know I posted some pictures last week of the kids.... but I wanted to share some of their month long work!

I made journals for my kids and used part of Tracy Teagler's Wax Museum unit with the organization of their materials.  The kids LOVED their special research journal, they had a pocket, pages for their research stickies, and a flip book in the back, which is where I used some of Tracy's unit!  I also figured since we were at the end of the year and since MOST of my kids are ready for the added responsibility, I made students keep track of the resources they used, so they could prove where they found their facts!  They numbered their stickies according to the resource used so they could keep track!  I am so stinkin' proud of how hard they worked and how wonderful their work turned out!! Proud Teacher!

Thursday was our last day of school.  We started the day with our talent show, after taking my kids downstairs, I FRANTICALLY did a little bit of running around and tried to schedule my little miss a doctors appointment...of course she would get sick on the LAST WEEK of school!  Thankfully, my  momma & siblings were able to love on and take care of her!! Once I made it back I was able to watch most of the acts before we (the 2nd grade teachers) headed back stage to prepare for our skit!  Right before our skit though was one of my little babies.  Of course being the sap that I am, I bawled during her performance.  She did a dance/gymnastics mix thing... This is something she is very passionate about and spends almost every night doing.  It was awesome to be able to see her poise and seriousness about it, it was a completely different side than I'm used to seeing.  One of my co-workers said something to the effect of "we don't need real water for our skit!"  You will get it once you view our skit BELOW!!! :)  I think it was quite a hit!

Forgive me for the awful quality of the video... you can see a little better version on my FB page! :)

After the talent show we cleaned out the desks, loaded the back packs, did our classroom awards, & then it was time for our hula-hoop relay!!

This was one of their balloon incentives!!  I think this was one of their favorites!  Each team was racing to put on the grass skirt and a flower lei, run to the other end of the court and get their hula hoop around five times, run back, and take it all off for the next person!  They had fun, but were super STINKY when it came time to come back in thanks to our wonderful Texas heat! :)

Then it was time for a movie to unwind, followed by a pizza party, and candy bar!! 

I didn't even think to take a picture of the candy bar BEFORE the kids emptied the bucket!  As you can tell from the picture, the kids went home with a LARGE bag full of candy, I'm sure their parents greatly appreciated it! ;) B's picture is actually from Friday, her last day at her babysitters, I just couldn't resist! 

To be honest though, I was the BIGGEST cry baby ever when my kids left.  Seriously, I TRIED really hard to hold it back, but like I've said a ton of times before my class this year was really special!  While some kids had tiffs at times and not everyone was always BFF, we really meshed well together!! I'm really going to miss this group!!  Not to mention that this week I found out that not only were we losing my good ol' neighbor Gwen, but another one of our teachers is moving to a school closer to her house! :(  So now we are down two teachers!  I guess it's the norm... EVERY year for the past 3 years now, we've lost two teachers on our team! Bleh.... I just want it to stay the sameeeee!!!  Whaaa... Ok, I'm done with my whining fest now! :) 

Now that it is officially summer, I have spent quite a bit of time sleeping, playing with my baby, relaxing, and because I can't help it .... working on back to school math centers!! I'm in love with them already! Anyone else obsessed with MelonHeadz!?!?!  I have some great ideas for my back to school lit centers too!! Can't wait!

Of course I have to leave with you with a few weekend pics!!  We had quite a bit of fun to say the least! :)

I finally ordered and got my sweet brother to help set up B's CHRISTMAS present from her great grandma this weekend!!

She is obsessed with her new swing set!! When it was time to come in tonight, she went and pouted under her little fort.......... top right picture!  As she was pouting I saw LIGHTENING BUGS!! Oh. My. Gosh.  It has been YEARS since I've seen them, seriously like since I was a kid!  B had a blast laughing at me running around the yard like a wild one trying to catch it!  She loved seeing it up close too! :) 

Sorry if this has been all over the place, I'm still trying to fully comprehend that it is SUMMERRRR!!!!  

Hope you're all enjoying your week, hopefully you're on summer break and relaxing!