Kindergarten Spring Open House! {a safari themed adventure}

Hi there and thanks so much for stopping by!  This past week we hosted our first spring kindergarten open house/round up!  It was so much fun and the kids really seemed to like “easing in” to the new school!  We always have a fall open house where the kiddos get to bring in their supplies and meet us.  However, it is usually so hectic we rarely get to socialize much and it’s pretty a fast faced  blurr.  For this spring open house/round up the kids were able to have the night be about them and get to choose where and what they wanted to do!

Of course nothing says kindergarten like a THEME!  Our theme was safari and the kids had a blast going on their little adventure to kindergarten!  What  goes hand in hand with a themed activity??? Amazon Prime 😉  Here is a look at our entry table.

tablecloth
safari name tags

safari balloons

safari hats

Once checked in and after getting their name tags…we gave each student a safari hat and they then got to take their picture in the safari jeep!  
Adorable right?

Here is another look at the jeep and back drop.  I placed a small student chair behind the jeep.  It was the perfect size for the little pints! 🙂
safari backdrop
safari jeep

After the students were checked in and had gotten their pictures taken parents headed into the gym for a quick talk from our principal.  Afterwards the real fun started!  Each kiddo was given their own safari ranger certification passport.  They then headed to each area to have their passports stamped!

If you would like to grab these freebie safari passports you can click below!


Parents also received this quick “check-off” list for their soon to be kindergarten kiddo.  This list has some academic areas, but mostly focuses on the important non academic aspects of entering kindergarten!  You can grab this parent flier as a freebie by clicking HERE.

I had placed these signs around the school to help direct parents on where to go! The lion’s den where were the kiddos go to explore with math manipulatives.  There were pattern teddy bear cards, pattern block puzzles, and more.  The students could move from station to station to explore!

In the elephant art room students used their fine motor skills to create a tiger!  The faces of the tigers were already the plates…so students had to color the eyes and cut small lines around the face to create the tiger’s mane.


The next three rooms….giraffe jumping, tiger make & take, and zebra zone were down the hallway.  My room was the zebra zone.  Students were able to choose from a range of hands-on building activity/games that I have.  The magnatiles and castle blocks proved to be favorites!  In the giraffe jumping room…students worked on their gross motor skills with a bean bag toss, hopping on one foot, etc.
In the tiger  make & take room students were able to create a safari animal using stickers!  Another Amazon find 😉  I had also picked up some safari 3d puzzle animals from the Dollar Tree which were just as adorable!

                               

Safari Build an Animal Stickers

You can download the freebie posters for each room below as well! 🙂


Each of us had our own matching stamp for our themed room!  We stamped the kiddos’ passports when the would enter the room.

safari stamps

After the students made their way through the five rooms they were give a special sticker!


Well….that’s all I have for you today!  Have a great week and I’ll be checking in soon! 🙂

6 Comments

  1. What a great idea! How do you "recruit" people to attend? Does this take place in the evening?

    We have a "transition visit" for our community students, but it happens during the school day. They visit a kindergarten classroom (with the K kids in the room) and listen to a story then participate in centers. After about 45 minutes in the K classroom, they have a snack in the cafeteria and experience the playground. We bus area preschool students and those not attending preschool are invited to come with their parents.

    Do you have a good turn out? I like the idea of having different stations for them to visit. Thanks for sharing!

    Amanda
    A Very Curious Class

    1. Hi there Amanda! In the fall we have all new kindergartners come to meet us and bring in their supplies. We do this a few days before the first day of school! This spring we invited the students that will be attending our school in the fall to come! We have a district wide round up in April…that is how we knew who would be coming 🙂 Sorry I didn't really explain that part! We had about 40 of the 60 show up!

      🙂 Tara

  4. We are planning a Safari-themed Visitor’s Day so this post was just perfect! Thanks for the freebies. I’m feeling a lot more energized about our day after reading what you did. Many thanks!

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