End of Year Beach Party and Awards

Well, we finished up a week ago. Another close to another year.

We had a great end of year celebration and kick off to summer.

Completing 1st grade is a HUGE accomplishment for a 7 year old.

They don't realize it, but there is SO much we throw at them in this year of their education.

Celebrating their hard work is always an emotional roller coaster, for this teacher, and their parents.

So to "lighten" the mood, this year we decided to turn our buckets into an all out beach party!

Everyone had a part in decorating for our awards ceremony and celebration.

During writing, the kids wrote about what they saw themselves doing this summer.

They illustrated their writing within the glasses and drew their faces.

They were our "summer eyes". I used this to cover our whiteboard. 

I also buy buckets from the dollar store every year. Inside, each student gets the following:

Scholastic book (I use my points)

Ready Made for 2nd Grade pack (find it HERE)

Extra supplies (glue, crayons, pencil)

Candy bar (from candy award)

Pillowcase keepsake (read more HERE)

My room moms were a great help in getting things together!

We had plenty of food for our beach party.

We had these precious cupcakes (Pinterest inspired) and put our drinks in an inner tube.

More beach party snack food...

I purchased and had several blow up items donated including 2 blow up palm trees, dolphin and a parrot. The kids LOVED these!

For our awards, I made a boardwalk for them to walk down to receive their awards and bucket, similar to a 'red carpet'. It was simple to make out of colored butcher paper. 

Table skirt for their buckets and awards was found at Hobby Lobby.

We had a great time celebrating all of their hard work! 

Time to enjoy summer!