The end of the year balloon countdown is as much for my own sanity in addition to keeping my learners engaged. Last year, I used some premade activities from Pinterest. When I began to think about the end of the year, I thought about things that I had not gotten to that I wanted to fit in. Immediately, I knew I wanted to cook pancakes with this group. From there, I just tried to think of activities to motivate them as well as extend their learning.
Day 10: Popsicles in the Park
The plan was to enjoy popsicles outside for snack. I asked a parent who was assigned to snack that day to send popsicles. It was only fitting that it rained on this day.
Day 9: Dance Day
A dance artist was scheduled to be at my school and we would visit them as a part of a schedule rotation. In addition to this, we listened to music in the classroom while we worked. Thank you, Pandora.
Day 8: Picnic in the Outdoor Classroom
My school has an outdoor classroom that we had just planted in a couple of weeks before. My kindergarten grade level enjoyed lunch outside. My class loved this! After they finished eating, children played Duck, Duck, Goose.
Day 7: Thunder Thursday
Thunder Up! I owe my sister-in-law for this idea. Back in April when I was brainstorming things that I could do, she mentioned this. It was perfect for so many reasons. So as the Thunder made the playoffs and did not always play as well as they could have, I got a little nervous. I really wanted them to be in the playoffs while we celebrated. Apparently, the team knew this was important because Thunder Thursday was actually a game day! The children dressed up in their Thunder gear.
For snack, I had planned to make basketball snacks (round cheese and crackers) and then we had blueberries and whip cream to look like a rain cloud. They loved it!
I am not a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, but I can do it, at times. Realizing that it was game day, I thought I would have the children "predict" who would advance in the series. We also read a non-fiction book that a little one had checked out from the library and told me that we should share it on Thunder Thursday.
My favorite part of the day was after reading the non-fiction book, we were talking about something and one of the little ones mentioned Kevin Durant's MVP speech. He had won the MVP a few days before. The little girl (yes, girls like sports too!) mentioned how he talked about his mom. The best part of the speech in my opinion had nothing to do with him mentioning his mom. Kevin Durant works hard and is a star. There were so many times at recess this year where little boys aspire to be Kevin Durant. So in a world where everyone is out for their own ambitions and success, it was nice to mention how Kevin Durant mentioned everyone of his teammates in his speech because he recognizes how much they contribute to his own success. It was a great conversation for my little class who struggles with being egocentric.
Day 5: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
I am a Summer baby. It has its perks but it also has its downfalls. I always include Summer birthdays on my May snack calendar. As I was planning the snacks, one of my little ones reminded me that we needed to celebrate my birthday. I brought cupcakes and there was a rainbow on top.
We also had t-shirts from the beginning of the year with each child's name written on them. Each child wears these during the school day, during our short first week to help everyone learn their names. I thought it would be fun to tie dye! We tie dyed these shirts to wear on the last day of school. I will totally do this again but it made me nervous dying with five and six year olds. I used squirt bottles so they actually got the opportunity to squeeze the dye. It was memorable for many reasons including the fact that the only things that were dyed were our shirts!
The worst part of the tie dye was rinsing! Next time, I will not do it before school for the day!
I did not love the end product but there's always next year. The kids loved it!
Day 4: Pancakes and Pajamas
I love cooking with children. Pancakes are super easy and I usually do it while we learn about Eric Carle. This year, a student teacher taught as we studied Eric Carle so it did not happen. We listened to Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle and my children made so many connections to the Little Red Hen study. We also listened to Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola and used the pictures to tell the story. We voted on whether or not we wanted regular pancakes or polka dotted pancakes (chocolate chips). One of my little ones before casting his vote says, "if I get chocolate chips, can I still have butter and syrup"?
Day 3: Kick Off Your Shoes
This would have been easier if we had been in our classroom for longer lengths of time. They loved it though! We listened to Pirates Go to School and talked about bossy r. I had "hid" ar words around the classroom and children went to find them to bring them back to the carpet. We used strategies to say the word and place them on the map.
We had a relaxing snack at the end of the day.
Just another day in paradise...
Day 2: Treasure Hunt Thursday
My team and I put together a scavenger hunt for our classes. Last year, we did this with book buddies but we decided that this year, we would do it just for our grade level with a few clues. We decided on the places that we would visit and had specialists help. Each class' clues were tied with different colors of ribbon and our last clue was tied with a gold ribbon. We all started in different places so that we would not be in the same place at one time. When we got to the last clue and the ribbon was gold, one of my little boys said "it means we found the treasure". As their treasure, I had put together gift bags with student work, a slideshow from our year, and some summer learning ideas in a bag that was sitting at their table. Once we got back to the room, they were allowed to wear eye patches and we made a pirate snack. They loved this so much. It was a hit!
Day 1: Last Day! Hooray!
We wore our tie dye shirts to our morning assembly. The shirts that hung off at the beginning of the year because they were too big were suddenly more of an accurate fit. My homeroom moms bought pizza for lunch so we ate lunch in the classroom. We also made plane tickets and "flew" to the beach to enjoy our afternoon centers outside as a grade level.
The end of the year is stressful and sometimes I think that the balloons can be stressful. There are things I learn each year about how to embrace the end. I am not good at change so letting go is extremely difficult. I always contemplate if I am making the ending harder on the little ones by counting down. There are always children who struggle with the changes approaching as much as adults do. I do not have the solution but I know when talking to families during our last week together that the children mentioned all the random things we did to celebrate our time together. During our kindergarten recognition, a family that I did not have an extensive amount of contact came up to me and was sharing about how the little one (a boy) talked about all the cooking we did as well as the integration of sports. For that little one, the planning and the details mattered.
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