Summer & End of the Year Student Gifts

Today was my first Monday of summer vacation!  Woo Hoo!

Is there anything better than a Sunday night and a Monday morning during the summer?  I don't think so.

But I went in to school to do a little packing and cleaning and I was sad.  :(

I missed my bug-a-boos.  It just felt sad and lonely and way, way, way, too quiet!

This class, with all their quirks, was one of the best and I will so miss them.

For end of the year gifts for the kids, we brainstormed words that went with our class . . . nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.  It was a great (and quite sneaky) review if I do say so myself.  Then I typed up the list of words (and added a few of my own) in a Tagxedo which is basically a Wordle in a shape.  So cool!  (You can even upload your own shape. . . very very cool!)

I really wanted a bee shape for my bee theme but the shapes I uploaded just lost something in creation.  (A simple shape is much better, take my word for it.)  So I finally decided on a cross since I teach at a Catholic school and second grade is THE year for all the big sacraments.

Anyway, I think they turned out fabulous!  I added a quote by Dr. Seuss at the bottom.  You know the one about not being sad because it ended but happy it happened.  I love that quote!

(BTW, when you download the Tagxedo image, it has that purple frame around it.  But you can just crop that off and voila!  Beaut-a-mus!)

Then I printed them all off for each child (in color of course!) and each child in the class autographed the matte that went around each one.  (We had someone donate a box of picture mattes to our school.  So more free!)  I left the framing up to the parents because of the expense but you could get frames at the Dollar Store.  I didn't see any that appealed to me and of course it was last minute.  HA!  And this way the frame can match their decor.

I've already heard from a few parents who loved and appreciated this little keepsake.

This is definitely a keeper for next year.