I have been talking a ton about the end of the year! You can see what I get my paraprofessionals, and how I plan The Last 10 Days of School all over my blog this time of year- but the hardest thing is giving gifts to our students.
Many of us have the same students every year for multiple years… so it’s not always a “good-bye” or “good luck” gift. Some teachers I have known have had students for up to 7 years! We invest SO MUCH time into teaching these amazing kiddos… and we want them to be successful over the summer too (+ not lose any skills right?)
Cue the “See you later” bag. It’s the perfect gift for teachers of kids (+ families!) in special education classrooms. Here’s what I put inside!
These letters are perfect for students to trace and select what they did this summer for them to send their teacher or friend a letter. Families can fill out the envelope together (or I provide one with my address on it!) and then the teacher can respond too! So much fun getting letters from kids and seeing them practice skills such as choice making, tracing, and fine motor over the summer.
I also send students home with a summer bucket list. Families can keep it on their fridge and use it to make choices or they can pull it out when things get boring! They can check off the things they have done together or even tally up how many times!
I love to send home recipes too! You can send home recipes your students have already completed at school for carry over, or new recipes for families to try together! The families will be so amazed to see the cooking skills their student has learned this year!
I also like to send home lists of basic skills that we are working on for families to work on over the summer. Sometimes just reading it will get their wheels turning and thinking of how they can help their child to not regress! I have two versions for basic skills concepts and one for life skills!
Here’s how the bag looks all cute together. It’s not all work. The beach bag, book (from target on sale!), and sunglasses (Target dollar section) are for the kid! You could even add a cute nametag (or their nametag from their desk from the year!), their memory book (from The Last 10 Days), some of their work, + anything thing else they might benefit from! I clip the summer concepts and summer life skills ring to the bag, and write a note in the students communication book to the parents about how some of the gift is for them too! You student will love running out of school with these bags!
You can find the bags in bulk here. (affiliate link)
You can grab all the printables in my TPT store!
Hope you + your students have a great summer!
