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An End of the Year Recap and Peek at my Last Two Week!!!

WOW.  Just one word sums up the recent past and the current future!  I can’t believe that I have less than 2 weeks left of school this year!  Every year I am equally giddy for summer as I am a little sad to say goodbye.  I stumbled upon the quote above…I know it wasn’t written with a teacher-student relationship in my, but it’s so true.  I must never forget what an impact I have on my students’ lives and to be sure to instill a love and passion for learning…even through these last few days!

This post itself is pretty much a random, HOT MESS.  However, when I went back to see details from this time last year…there was NOTHING on my blog.  I’m sure I mean positive that I got too busy with the end of the bustle…and I simply didn’t have time to post.  So, this post is a little from the past couple of weeks and my ideas and events coming up these next two weeks!

Up first…how can we not just be in awe with all of these adorable mother’s day drawings we’ve been seeing all over blogs, Facebook, and Instagram. ADORABLE.

 I loved Jennifer White’s directed mom drawings so I knew I had to do them too!  I purchased my frames at the Dollar Tree so it was a $20 project, but so worth it!

We also wrote all about mom books.  I placed the pictures and books on the tables for our morning Moms-n-Munchies.  Sorry for the blurry phone picture!

Our close read for the week was Koala Lou.  We supplemented in additional texts during writing time.  We worked hard on generating ideas on why we love our moms….beyond that they buy us toys!  To be five years old, right? 🙂

And of course we had to do koala bear drawings too…

Our poem for the week was equally adorable and to a tune I could actually sing LOL!  You can download the poem for free by clicking below!

Now going back in time to a couple of weeks ago we did a week of the Three Billy Goats Gruff!  This was the first time I had done it as a close read…and let me tell you the kids LOVED it!  “Well then…be off with you!” is still a regular going statement in the room {of course jokingly only}.  It’s funny that one line was their favorite…I mean it couldn’t have been that we went to the pasture to eat instead?! 😛

We retold the story using our retell sticks and bridges.  I gave the kiddos a half sheet of blue paper for their river and then a strip of brown for the bridge.  We stapled each side of the brown paper down and it curled up to make the bridge.  The kiddos then finished it off with adding detail to their bridges and river!  It was quite hilarious to hear them retelling the story!  We also reenacted the story using our Scholastic masks…now that was something from Hollywood!

 I’ve been trying really hard to add in more “play” into our day so on this day we made our own trolls using playdough!

If you look real close this one has a belly button HAHAH!! Every troll needs to have a belly button for sure!
 For our last two weeks of school we will be studying ocean animals and you can never go wrong with the National Geographic readers!!!  I have a feeling that sharks will win the prize, but I never do know! 🙂  

And what is the last two weeks of school without crafts??? View the craft ideas HERE.

Alright…now we are going to start fast forwarding through the future events that haven’t happened yet! 😛  I will be doing this with the kiddos this week to give to them on their kindergarten celebration day {next Monday}.  I will be having them hold a whiteboard with their message and then print them out as 4×6 pictures!

Next week we will also be having our end of the year book party!  Our theme this year will be ocean and I am doing the snack!  I think this will be easy enough for me…we shall see though {already predicting my pinterest #nailedit}

For the book party we purchase a book for each kiddo.  It always happens to be a $1.00 scholastic book 😉  This year we found one that matched perfectly!  You of course can’t beat a $1.00!

This week I will also be prepping these to send home with the kids next week!  I mean Miss Kindergarten makes them look so adorable, right?  I’m sure they’ll love me if I can’t make them a gorgeous bow! HA!  I used to change what I sent home each year, but last year I sent home this packet and had such great feedback from parents so I am sticking with it!  You can view additional information about the packet in THIS summer packed post from Hadar.



I just wrapped up creating our video for the kindergarten celebration.  Although, I think I need video making skills or a MAC one of the two or both LOL!  We have over 100 kindergartners so it’s hard getting in all of the pictures within two songs, but I managed!  Here are the songs….

Never Grow Up {Taylor Swift}
You’ve got a Friend in Me {Randy Newman}

This week I am also helping to organize our first spring kindergarten “open house.”  We’ve always done the standard meet your teacher scary/madness event in the fall, but I feel this one will be so much more relaxed and enjoyable for our new sweet kinders!  The event in the fall is such a blur, so I am excited to have the opportunity to just have fun with the kiddos and play some games!  We are doing a safari theme so I will be sharing this later in the week for anyone looking for ideas!

Alright that is all for now!  I’ll be back in a few days. In the meantime will you comment below how many school days you have left?

And if only….

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Filed Under: KinderCurriculum

Comments

  1. ih says

    May 10, 2015 at 8:29 am

    thanks for sharing..

    Reply
  2. Positively Learning says

    May 10, 2015 at 10:11 am

    Love these ideas & thank you for the book recommendations! Enjoy the last 2 weeks – we have a little over a month to go! Jen 🙂

    Reply
  3. Jodi says

    May 10, 2015 at 1:56 pm

    Putting the directed drawings in frames is such an AWESOME idea!!
    ❀Jodi
    Fun In First

    Reply
  4. Rita says

    May 13, 2015 at 3:29 am

    22 days and counting! This is my first year teaching ADK. Thanks so much for sharing so many great ideas! I love your blog!

    Reply
  5. Tami says

    April 26, 2021 at 11:25 pm

    What product did you use to create the class photo titled when I grow up?

    Thank you.

    Reply
    • Tara says

      April 27, 2021 at 6:32 pm

      Hi there! That was a photo I was sharing! I should go to a different site if you click through 🙂

      Reply

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