Wrapping Up a Great Year!

On Wednesday afternoon, Lily popped our final balloon!

It seems like just yesterday our room had 20 balloons hanging from the ceiling and then we were down to #1! #1 revealed another one of our favorites..... a dance party!

Our last day was SO bittersweet.  We started it, just like we start nearly every morning...... with a song.

Next, our families joined us for Meeting for Worship where we listened to the story, What do You do With an Idea?

We also enjoyed a reception with our families, friends, and teachers!

After lunch and music, we enjoyed some Afghani ice cream (vanilla ice cream with cardamom and rose water) made by Mrs. Etemadi-Cusic.  Most of us really enjoyed this special treat.  Then we headed back to our classroom where we listened to the story, Last Day Blues.  In the story, the students want to make a special gift for their teacher and come up with the idea of a special letter.  Reading this story to 1A made me a little sad, but just after the story, I was quickly cheered up!

Many of our 1A students hid themselves in the cubby area and created a very special note for me just like the kids in the story did! 

We ended our day with some dancing, some tears, and LOTS of hugs!  

Parents, thank you so much for sharing your children with me.  They are such great kids, with huge hearts, and amazing personalities.  They will always be in my thoughts and I hope you keep in touch as I'd love to hear about how they are doing. You and your family are always welcome to stay with us in Colorado should your travels ever take you that way.

1A friends, thank you for making this last year such a memorable one.  We grew, we learned, and we had a lot of fun!  I hope you always look back on your first grade year with fondness and I hope you keep in touch too (if you click on the envelope to the right, your message will get delivered right to my email).  Good luck to all of you! I'll miss you!

Have a wonderful summer!

Watermelon Day!

Balloon #3 was Watermelon Day!  On Tuesday afternoon we enjoyed a delicious and refreshing slice of watermelon.

First graders, what other summer foods do you enjoy?  Post a comment to share with all of us!

Read....... AT THE BEACH!!!

Our #6 balloon was Read at the Beach!  While it would have been a ton of fun to travel to the beach with 1A, we knew we'd just have to use a little creativity and imagination.  Here's a few pics of us lounging at the beach with Mr. Scott!

    

Thanks for your help with this one, Mr. Scott!

First grade friends, do you have a good book to read at the beach or by the pool this summer?  Post a comment to share the title with your classmates!  Remember you can visit the library to check out some books for the summer too!  

Snowball Toss!?!

Although my future city might have snow in May every once in awhile, friends in 1A thought it seemed just a little quirky when our balloon for today said Snowball Toss!  "Miss Muntean, how in the world are we going to have a snowball toss when we don't have any snow?"  "Are we going to make snow?"  "Maybe we're going to eat snowballs"  Oh there were so many questions and wonderings about this one that we could hardly contain ourselves!

Throughout the year, I place extra copies, copies we haven't used, etc. in a bin in our room.  The plain side of these scrap papers work great for math work, score sheets for games, and drawing paper. During our final weeks of school, some of that paper gets magically transformed into "snowballs!"

Before we got started we went over a couple rules........
1.  It's a snowball toss (not a fight- no throwing snowballs at each other)
2.  Look out for each other and be safe

And then we were ready to get started!  However what would a snowball toss be without some wintery music?  Cue Bing Crosby and "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!"  This year we most definitely had to include a few snowy favorites from Frozen as well!

Here's a few pics and videos:

 Making snowballs:

And we're all ready...... let the toss begin!

I think we're all quite happy it's finally spring, but a snowball toss at the end of May can certainly be a lot of fun too!  

1A Friends, do you have a favorite Balloon Poppin' Fun activity so far?  Post a comment to share with all of us!

Tomorrow we're headed to the beach..... Remember your beach clothes and a towel! 

We Popped Some More Balloons

Here's a few highlights from our balloons this week:

Sunglasses!

 Dance Party!!

Airplane Contest:

The owners of the planes that flew the farthest!

Picnic Lunch! We invited 1B to join us outside on this gorgeous day too!

It's been another fun week in 1A!

1A friends, what was your favorite Balloon Poppin' Fun Activity from this week?  Post a comment to share with all of us. Would you like to do something like this at home?  Take a peek at a 1A student's blog to learn how you could do this:

Balloon Poppin' Fun at Home!

I hope you have a wonderful long weekend and enjoy the holiday with friends and family!