Tips for Ending the school year and TPT Giftcard Giveaway!

Welcome back my friends!

Today I am joining some other great bloggers to bring you some tips of things we do to end our school year :) 

In my opinion, awards are a big deal! I have worked in two different schools where awards were handled differently. At one school, teachers were a 100% responsible for the awards. This would take place in each classroom on the last week of school. At another school, awards in a classroom was just optional because the school did an award ceremony for everyone.

Regardless of the case, I believe that awards can be the best way to reward your students to show them how much they mean to you and how important they were in the classroom. I personally don't see awards as "I have to have one for each" type of thing. There is honestly something good and positive we all can find in our students. On a particular year, this is a true story, I had to create a "elepehants never forget" award for one of my students. You might think it is funny, but I kid you NOT when I tell you she was the ONLY ONE in class who would remember all the extra activities or the crazy day schedules. She would always tell me "Mrs. Nicolau aren't we supposed to go??" There were times that she really saved me from being too late or even missing something! We all know we tend to get carried away with other things! Don't you agree??
You might think she was a low student and probably she was paying more attention to leave the classroom. She was not! She was an excelent student, too! However, even if she was struggling academically, she saved me many times by reminding me of the time. Wouldn't you like to reward this student or let her know how grateful you are for being the way she was? ABSOLUTELY!!


I would like to share with you how I used the awards in my class.  I didn't have a specific theme in my classroom, so I created The Rock Star Student Award. I gave this type of award to ALL of my students along with a goody bag. Oh boy! I'm telling y'all, they all loved their award and goody bag so much! Some of them even showed me the next school year they still had some of the goodies from there (I moved up with them to third grade). 

These are pictures of my goody bags :) Each bag had a card (click HERE if you would like to download it from my Google Docs. They come in color and B/W with a boy and girl version), two erasers (a guitar and a pick) from Geddes (they are not available anymore there, but you can find them on amazon), a pair of glasses that are called "shutted shades" (purchased at a craft store - Hobby Lobby), and a glowing in the dark bracelet (purchased at Dollar Tree).

This is a picture of the award that everyone got in my class, along with the goody bag. I had a girl and boy version, so I also made bags for boys and girls (same goodies, just different colors and cards).

Hope you like these as much as I did when I made them for my kids :) 
I have created a Free Sample of some awards, these are general awards and have no theme. The Free Sample comes with three awards, in both color and B/W versions. These only come in English, so I'm sorry, but I never had the time to create the whole thing in Spanish.My classroom theme was just animal prints so I didn't really want anything specific.
This sample is found on the preview of the product, so you will see the cost of the product and won't see the free sample by itself. 
All you have to do it's download the preview and you will find the 3 free awards: Smile (boy version, the girl version is in the paid product), hard worker, and perfect attendance. Would you like to download this sample? Just click HERE  
The rock star award is part of my paid product. If you would like the paid product, please click HERE.

I also have a second set of awards! On this set, the theme was all about Jungle stuff!! These awards are different from the first, not only because it has an actual theme, but also because it is editable; all you need is Power Point. I have included instructions when you click on the editable section. Editable means you can type your name and the student's name. Please be aware that "editable" means typing names only, I can't make the titles or the clipart editable due to the illustrators' copyright. Just in case you forget, I have included that information on the product :) Like I said, it is based on a jungle theme, so most of all (if not all) has jungle illustrations :) I have this free sample available in both ENGLISH and SPANISH

Thank you for stopping by today!! I hope you have found this post helpful and it motivates you to do a huge celebration in your classroom with some awards! :)

Before I say goodbye, remember we are having an AWESOME GIVEAWAY! Please enter on the Rafflecopter for a chance to win a $50 TPT giftcard! All you need to do is visit the rest of my friends' blog posts and figure out the secret code! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

These are my other friends' blog posts! Please visit each of them! They have awesome ideas on how to finish the shcool year as well! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

End of the year Awards PLUS a Linky Party with a TPT giftcard giveaway!

Hello friends and welcome back! I had been very good at blogging more often than a week. However, the last time I posted was a few weeks ago. The reason of it? Well, baby boy is on the way and there is so much to do PLUS having a toddler at home makes it a little harder to clean and organize! So I am sorry if I have not been around since my last post!

Today I want to share with you my awards! It is that time of year when you start thinking what kind of awards your students will achieve and preparing them. I am here to show you a couple of my free samples that I have in my store for you!

The first set of awards I created was when I taught second grade and it was just a general one without any theme. My classroom theme was just animal prints so I didn't really want anything specific.


The Free Sample comes with three awards, in both color and B/W versions. These only come in English, so I'm sorry, but I never had the time to create the whole thing in Spanish. This sample is found on the preview of the product, so you will see the cost of the product and won't see the free sample by itself. 

All you have to do it's download the preview and you will find the 3 free awards: Smile (boy version, the girl version is in the paid product), hard worker, and perfect attendance. Would you like to download this sample? Just click HERE 

I would like to share with you how I used the general award in my class. Like I mentioned, I didn't have a specific theme so I created the rock star student award. I gave this type of award to all of my students along with a goody bag.
These are pictures of my goody bags :) Each bag had a card (click HERE if you would like to download it from my Google Docs, they come in color and B/W with a boy and girl version), two erasers (a guitar and pick) from Geddes (they are not available anymore there, but you can find them on amazon), a pair of glasses that are called "shutted shades" (purchased at a craft store - Hobby Lobby), and a glowing in the dark bracelet (purchased at Dollar Tree).

This is a picture of the award that everyone got in my class, along with the goody bag. I had a girl and boy version, so I also made bags for boys and girls (same goodies, just different colors and cards).

Oh boy! I'm telling y'all, they all loved their award and goody bag so much! Some of them even showed me the next year they still had some of the goodies from there (I moved up with them to third grade). Hope you like these as much ad I did when I made for my kids :)

On the preview document you will be able to see the free awards I mentioned above and a preview of the other awards :) The rock star award is part of my paid product. If you would like the paid product, please click HERE.

The second set I created was all about Jungle stuff!! These awards are different from the first, not only because it has an actual theme, but also because it is editable; all you need is Power Point. I have included instructions when you click on the editable section. Editable means you can type your name and the student's name. Please be aware that "editable" means typing names only, I can't make the titles or the clipart editable due to illustrators copyright. Just in case you forget, I have included that information on the product :) Like I said, it is based on a jungle theme, so most of all (if not all) has jungle illustrations :) 
I have this free sample available in both ENGLISH and SPANISH

I wasn't able to give these awards to my kids because I was already on maternity leave. Therefore, I wasn't able to make any goody bags for them this time. However, I did include a general award for all of them. Since I had a jungle theme, I included a "Wild Student Award" that everyone received. This is a preview of what comes in the paid product. If you would like the paid product, please click on  ENGLISH or SPANISH

That is all for me my friends! Thank you for stopping by today!! I am about to be away for some weeks since baby boy will be with us very soon! I'll probably blog about how my life has turned into a circus with a newborn and toddler at home! 

Please don't forget to visit my other friends who are part of this great linky party! Also, make sure you enter into the Rafflecopter for a chance to win a TPT giftcard!! YAYYYY!!! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

End of the Year Awards Unit with FREE SAMPLE!!

Hello everyone! I ma sorry I have been absent the last weeks. My hubby, Pollita, and I went to my home country for Pollita's 1st birthday!! PLUS my beautiful niece was born few weeks before her birthday, so my whole family went there as well to celebrate these great and special days!! :)

I will be blogging more about my personal goals and events through the month of June; since school will be out and we all need to take a break of it (I hope I am not the only one who wants to think about something else throughout the summer, am I right?!)

It is that time of year when you start thinking what kind of awards your students will achieve and preparing them. I am here to show you a couple of my Samples that I have in my store for you!

The first I have is on the preview of the product, so you will see the cost of the product and won't see the free sample by itself. 
All you have to do it's download preview and you will find 3 free awards: Smile (boy version, the girl version is in the paid product), hard worker, and perfect attendance. ALL AWARDS COME IN COLOR AND B/W VERSION. You will also be able to see the other awards that are included in the paid product :)
Would you like to download this sample? Just click HERE or click on the picture below:

The second Sample I wanted to include because this Sample is editable; all you need is Google Docs and Power Point. I have included instructions when you click on the editable section. Editable means you can type your name and the student's name. Please be aware that "editable" means typing names only, I can't make the titles or the clipart editable due to illustrators copyright. Just in case you forget, I have included that information on the product :) This product has a Jungle theme, so most of all (if not all) has jungle illustrations :) I have this product sample available in both ENGLISH and SPANISH

If you would like the paid product, I have them in both Spanish and English. 

Here is a preview of what comes in it...

Thank you everyone for stopping by my blog today, we hope you come visit me again soon!!       

Longs weeks... Freebies everywhere!!

Hello everyone!!!
I am so sorry I have not posted anything for the past two weeks!! I promise I have a good excuse...It is only one word.. STAAR.. lol As you all know STAAR was last week, so the week before the state testing we have been reviewing, reviewing, and MORE reviewing!!
Now it is all over so I am hoping to hear good news once we have the results in :)

I wanted to share with ya'll the last time I took a picture of our beetles, we have released them and we don't have them as pets anymore. I'm telling y'all... my students were NOT afraid of grabbing them with bare hands to release them.. I, of course, had to wear gloves.. LOL
Anyways here are the last pictures of our friends :)

                     

 


I also wanted to introduce our new friend Froggy! The students gave it that name so I, of course, had to label his home with his name :) Froggy is still a tadpole...
Sadly, I will not be able to see him grow, but I'll try to see if my sub could take pictures of it so I can keep you guys posted!

I wanted to share with you my NEW FREEBIE,  Wild End of the Year Awards FREE SAMPLE packet. This is a preview of what my complete packet looks like. Since I have a jungle theme this year, I created a jungle theme award for the end of this year. Some of them do not look much of a jungle theme, but I tried my best to use as many as I could so it can match my theme :)
This freebie comes with an option to edit the names and the date; I'm still working on my complete packet so all the certificates can be editable. I should have the packet done by the end of the week, so stay tuned! :)
Here is a peek of what my freebie looks like:

 To take you to my TPT so you can download this FREE sample, click on the image.

Here is a preview of what comes with my COMPLETE award packet. There are about 16 different awards, ALL come in a B/W version and most come in a different style for a boy or a girl. If you would like to check it out click on the picture below :)

If you are looking for something not too jungly (yes, I think I just made that up.. not sure if it's actual word), I have another End of the year Awards packet from last year.

The awards also come in a b/w version, but this packet  is NOT editable. So if you don't have any problem writing names by hand, this packet is super cute! :)

If you click on the preview section of this product, it will give you 3 FREE awards as well :)

Well ladies and gentlemen, this is all for today. I am officially on maternity leave, so anytime now our baby should be on her way!!! I will be all over the place making sure everything is done before she comes, but I promise I will be blogging very soon with other activities that I have been holding onto... 

Before I go, I just wanted to share with you all a picture from our maternity session; my friend did an AWESOME job and we are sooo pleased and blessed to have these unforgettable pictures! They are ALL so cute, but I can't really upload them all, so I'll leave you with one :)

We can't wait to meet our little "Pollita"!!

Sarah Sacco Photography