More End-of-Year Ideas

Scholastic has a great area on their website called

72 ideas contributed by teachers.
The Scholastic End-of-year-wrap-ups include ideas in the following categories:
Learning Up to the Very Last Minute 
Books For the End of the School Year
Fun things to do/little gifts to give: We Are Moving On Up  
And a cute bulletin board printable
Thinking about the fact that the end of the school year is different for our readers all over the world, I realized that these fun ideas could be used at other times. How about the week before Christmas, the first week of school, and after standardized testing?
If you have already begun your vacation, congratulations! You made it!
If not, hang in there!

Those last few days of the school year...

For those of us in the South, there are very few school days left, and some of you probably have a few more weeks. No matter how much longer you have, you know how hard it can be to keep the children engaged when all the books and supplies have been collected, the schedule is totally out the window, and you still need to have class. Here are a few ideas:
Educationworld.com   is such a great site; there are several good ideas for different ages on this page.
What a great resource DLTK is.
Here are some good sites for those of you with SMART Boards.
Memorial Day Activities  are available here, and there is a concise summary of the holiday here.
If your students are old enough-- say, 3rd grade and up, you might want to read and discuss "The Blue and the Grey," 
This is a poem that was written after the Civil War, when the holiday was called Decoration Day. At that time, it was custom to adorn the graves of fallen soldiers. Francis Miles Finch was inspired to write the poem when he saw some Southern ladies laying flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers.
Hope you like the new layout-- since I found that nearly all readers are women, I thought I could go with something a bit more "girly!"
Please have a safe weekend!