School's out for summer!

School in our area is finally out for the summer holiday break! YAY! I have so many things to do this summer. First, I am off to Las Vegas for the "I teach 1st!" conference! My best friend (who also teaches grade one) and I, plan on shopping and hitting a show while we are there! Plus we are both super excited to attend a Blogger meet up, so we can meet and greet with some of our very favourite First grade bloggers! Some of these ladies are ROCK STARS in our eyes and we can't wait to meet them! Plus we will meet Todd Parr! He is a wonderful children's book author and artist. I really want him to autograph one of my books and hopefully I can get a picture too!
Before I go and enjoy my holiday, I wanted to share something simple that "saved" my end of the year! Most teachers know that June is crazy for kids attention and behaviour. Well, I brought in a "friend" to help me out! Her name is "Clucky" and she is one FUNKY Chicken!
As soon as I introduced her to the children, they were in love with her and listened to her whenever she had something to say. She's quite sassy, but very fun! She always started her day by having the children do "The Funky Chicken Boogie" (her very favourite song!) Then she would say rather loudly, "Guess what?!" and the children would respond, "Chicken Butt!" And she would dance around! Then we would all laugh and then Clucky would "teach" the lesson and she kept those kids attention!! The kids even invited her to come to our school sports day. Kids would hold her little wing and run the various races. "Clucky" would cheer for them at other events. "Clucky" is by far the most fun way I have kept the kids attention right to the end of the school year! The children loved her and would ask to sit and read to her or ask to play at centre time with her. "Clucky"is probably the best puppet I have purchased! The kids know she is a puppet, but that's the beauty of teaching grade one, that line between fantasy and reality is still a bit blurry and they love to play along!