It always amazes me how quickly time flashes forward from August and we are suddenly looking at two days of school left. This has been a big year in school for our family.  My oldest is finishing third grade and survived his first round of end-of-grade state testing. Anyone who lives in the state of North Carolina knows about the new Read to Achieve law and the massive amount of testing and controversy that came along with it.  (You probably don’t have to even be in NC to have heard about it…sadly, the topic has made its rounds through the national news and comedy circuit).  This was an unfortunate year to be a third grader, but I’m proud of the way he tackled the challenges with tenacity and perseverance.  My middle child is completing her kindergarten year.  Such sweet memories were made this year…she is growing up too fast!  I am also quite attached to this year’s 5th grade students.  I have worked with one in particular for seven years. He’s been in my life longer than two of my own children…wow!  When I met him he had limited verbal output but he certainly knew how to communicate his thoughts!  Now he is a rising 6th grader that will tell jokes, join in conversations, and beautifully illustrate stories.  He is still very good at sharing his opinion 🙂   To say that I am in denial that he is moving on is quite the understatement!

We are having fun in therapy as we wrap up the school year.  Many of our classes do an ABC countdown.  I’ve had fun incorporating bubble day, game day, hat day, outside day, and reading day into my therapy plans.

As we are getting ready to say goodbye to another school year, I wanted to share some goodbye rhymes with you.

My first set that I can no longer locate the original source

I found some animal rhymes a few years back through Pinterest that I posted by my door.  Students loved saying these and searching for their target sounds.  It became a routine as we exited, often trying to generate new rhymes as we walked back to class.   When I tried to locate the original source again for a kindergarten teacher, I could no longer find the link.  The pins take you to Cara Carroll’s TPT page but I don’t see the rhymes.

Expanded set of goodbye rhymes

I figured that was a sign to expand my goodbye rhymes library.  This set includes fun rhymes for kids to say as they leave the room targeting reading, rhyming, articulation, vocabulary, and social skills.  There are a total of 80 cards.  Eight thematic groups include Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall,  Animals, Halloween, inspiration from the Good Doctor, and Superheroes.  Mine are now in a pocket chart by the door.  Some groups have two pages (Halloween and animals for example) and they fill up the pocket chart on their own.  For the groups that have just one page I can include two sets on the pocket chart at the same time (Spring and the Good Doctor for example).  It went against every fiber in my being, but I didn’t even laminate these babies since they are only being handled by me are are presented in the pocket chart.  I might break down one day, but for now I have saved a little bit of lamination for the next project 🙂 Check out the freebie on TPT.   I hope you have fun with these little rhymes also!