Class Raffle

Oh. My. Goodness. All the chaos of May! I forget every year how craaaazy it can get! I think I look like Princess Tiana every morning lately. Only 15 days left, then it's sweet summer time! Don't get me wrong I love my class and all but I need a break.
Yesterday I held my class raffle which holds a few different functions. Probably the most important is the sneaky built in classroom management. Every student will want to participate. The other great thing about this raffle is it helps me get organized at the end of the year. Somehow us teachers always end up with odds and ends that can quickly clutter and take over a classroom space.
There's a few important reminders I keep in mind about the raffle:
1. Nothing glass or fragile
2. Age appropriate
3. Make sure it's nothing a mini gave me during the current school year
4. It has to fit inside a backpack
5. Everyone "wins" something
I'd been gathering my raffle "prizes" for a couple of weeks now.

 Then I laid everything out on the floor for all to see.

In order for students to participate in the raffle, they had to sit quietly while they waited for their turn and not influence another student on what they should or shouldn't pick. 

All student numbers/names go into a bucket for the fun to begin. It's not my most cutesy work, but it's functional and moves the raffle along smoothly for us.

 I reach my hand into the basket with a bit of dramatics to pull out the first number. The minis become so quiet you could hear a pin drop! They're all on the edges of their seats anticipating what comes next.

One by one the minis come up to claim their prize. 

 Our classroom has definitely been lived in. I'm not a fan of my book baskets this year, bleh! One of my summer projects will be to find new ones.

Voila! Quick, fun, and easy. The minis were all excited about what they won and I cleared up some valuable storage space.