Wow, is it really June already?

I can’t quite believe it’s June already.  My son turns one tomorrow – how on earth has that happened so quick! Things here have been rather busy (and sadly I’ve neglected to blog as a result!) and June has just snuck up on me.  Part of the reason for that is that, as is the life of an international teacher, we’re are moving again very, very soon.  This move is a tough one because we’re leaving India, a country which will always hold a very special place in our hearts, and a school that we truly do love.  However, we’re also REALLY excited, because we are moving to a country we’ve been hoping to eventually move to ever since we first went there on our honeymoon almost 5 years ago – Malaysia! We just know that we are going to have a wonderful time there and that for our little guy so many great opportunities await him.

So, my own move aside, it is of course the end of the school year (or it will be less than two weeks!).  With this somewhat startling realisation my thoughts turned to making this last two weeks a whole lot of fun for my class.  Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the things we’re doing to celebrate the end of the school year:

Balloon Pop Countdown

I’ve seen this around on a few blogs via pinterest for a couple of years now and this year seemed perfect to give it a try.  I printed out 10 strips of paper each with a different game or activity and put them each into a balloon.  I then labelled the balloons (counting down the days left) – I chose to do this because a couple of my activities require some preparation on my behalf, so it’s helpful to know which one is coming up next.

I then used one of my display boards to put up a poster and my balloons.  I had hoped for 10 different colours of balloon, or at least 5 colours x 2…but this is India (and life in general) and so some days you just take whatever you can get! Besides…in all honesty my students really don’t mind what colour the balloons are.

Here’s a picture of my display:

I put this up whilst my students were in PE and they were all really intrigued when they came back.  The honour of popping the first balloon became a big deal and it was lovely to see the whole class cheer for one of my introverted students when she got the job!

My lucky student popped the balloon with a sharp pencil since we thought a pin-hole might just lead to the air slowly leaking out which would have been rather anti-climatic.

You can take a look at my list of activities to go inside the balloons here via Google Docs but I’m sure you already have a few ideas of your own!

Spelling Bee

At our school we always round of the year with a Spelling Bee with structured bands for different abilities.  The students really love it and it’s always been a lot of fun.  We try to keep the event exciting, but also relatively low-key to prevent it getting ultra-competitive.  So far this has worked really well and it is something all our students look forward to.

Movie Day and a Feast

I also happen to run our school’s GATE programme and this year they were challenged to create a business plan, enact it and see if they could turn a profit.  They did just that, earning over 15,000 rupees! Not too bad, eh! Even better than that is how they have decided to spend the money – they’ve contracted a local restaurant to cater a lunch for the whole school while we screen a movie too.

My Year – the Cartoon Series

In class we’re also wrapping up with a cartooning activity charting their highlights of the school year.  I can’t wait to see what they produce here as I have a very artistic bunch plus some avid young authors!