As the school year draws to a close, teachers always hope that the things they have done with and taught to their students that year have made an impression. Did we cover everything? Were the lessons engaging? Was there a balance between fun and learning? The answers to these questions are pretty much always "YES", since we work hard each day to making sure they are true. But this type of reflection is inevitable as it becomes more and more clear that the time we have with our particular groups of kiddos is running out!
To help end the year with a bang and to make sure that their learning from all of these past months is impressed upon them even more, the Kinder Crew and I enjoy our last 26 days with a little bit of extra celebration. Each day for the last 26ish days brings with it a new theme corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. We work our way from Z (Zoo Day) to A (Adventure Day) with activities, lessons, reviews, crafts, add-ons, and more, pertaining to the respective theme.
Follow along with us as we mark the end of our Kindergarten year with these fun and wacky additions to our regularly-scheduled programming...er, learning!
To help end the year with a bang and to make sure that their learning from all of these past months is impressed upon them even more, the Kinder Crew and I enjoy our last 26 days with a little bit of extra celebration. Each day for the last 26ish days brings with it a new theme corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. We work our way from Z (Zoo Day) to A (Adventure Day) with activities, lessons, reviews, crafts, add-ons, and more, pertaining to the respective theme.
Follow along with us as we mark the end of our Kindergarten year with these fun and wacky additions to our regularly-scheduled programming...er, learning!
Zoo Day
I like to start this countdown off slow to ease the kids into the MADNESS that these days bring! On Zoo Day, it was a normal academic day but with a few special guests: our favorite stuffed animals!
The kiddos got to bring in their favorite stuffed animals which they read to and wrote about during Daily 5.
The kiddos got to bring in their favorite stuffed animals which they read to and wrote about during Daily 5.
During math, we were in the midst of our unit on measuring. We were learning all about the concepts of length and height this week, so the kids got to "write the room" during their math game center. The kids were tasked with searching the classroom for pictures of zoo animals which I had hung on the wall. Near each picture was a pile of unifix cubes, which the students stacked together to measure the animals, recording their answers on their worksheets!
Yarn Day
Much like Zoo Day, Yarn Day was quiet and very similar to a typical school day. However, we played a few team-building activities with a ball of yarn AND made some beautiful stained glass-style paintings which are brightening up the classroom quite nicely right now! Take a look at some of our masterpieces!
X-ray Day
X-ray day requires a lot of preparation on my part...both physically and mentally...which explains nicely why the first 2 days of themes might seem so lame: I'm consumed with getting ready for day 3!
Sometimes, getting through every item on the curriculum seems nearly impossible. For me, there are always nerves about getting through all of our science and social studies units. My brilliant solution for getting through this is by making one of our theme days (X-ray Day, to be exact) a day that is fully consumed by science. So, in the course of a single day, the kindergarten class covers the entirety of our Human Body science unit! It is a wild, crazy, and glorious day! The day is filled with demonstrations, experiments, exercise, and discussions!
To begin the day, we discuss our extremities and our skeletons. Using Play-Doh and toothpicks, we learn that without our bones, we'd just be a floppy pile of skin and guts. EEW!
Sometimes, getting through every item on the curriculum seems nearly impossible. For me, there are always nerves about getting through all of our science and social studies units. My brilliant solution for getting through this is by making one of our theme days (X-ray Day, to be exact) a day that is fully consumed by science. So, in the course of a single day, the kindergarten class covers the entirety of our Human Body science unit! It is a wild, crazy, and glorious day! The day is filled with demonstrations, experiments, exercise, and discussions!
To begin the day, we discuss our extremities and our skeletons. Using Play-Doh and toothpicks, we learn that without our bones, we'd just be a floppy pile of skin and guts. EEW!
We also learned that while our skeleton's job is to keep us "rigid", there are also bones in our body that are meant to protect other body parts. Our ribs protect our heart and lungs like a cage, and our skull protects our brain like a helmet!
To mark the progress we made when learning about our bodies, the kiddos glued those body parts to a brown paper bag.
To mark the progress we made when learning about our bodies, the kiddos glued those body parts to a brown paper bag.
Next up, we talked about our lungs and heart. This required some life cycle review (i.e. we need oxygen to live) and lots of exercise! The kids listened to each other's hearts before and after exercise, and also laid on the floor to feel their bellies rise and fall with the change of breathing rate. We talked about how the lungs filter oxygen into our blood which is pumped throughout our bodies by our heart. The kids also saw that the heart and lungs have to work hard during exercise so that the rest of our body has the ability to work hard, too!
We also discussed our muscles! We saw, through our exercise, that after a long time of working, our muscles get tired and sore. Our heart, however, has to work and pump blood for our whole lives!
We also discussed our muscles! We saw, through our exercise, that after a long time of working, our muscles get tired and sore. Our heart, however, has to work and pump blood for our whole lives!
Finally, we talked about our stomachs! We learned about stomach acid (also EW), and the job of the stomach in the digestion process. Some kids also mentioned the eventuality of poop--which we all naturally found to be hilarious--but I think we don't need to discuss that anymore here... ;)
When our bags finally had each body part represented, we got to wear them!
When our bags finally had each body part represented, we got to wear them!
Please excuse the location of the lungs and heart...we didn't want to hide them under the ribs!
So, it took 7 hours, but we did it! We learned so much about our bodies and had a ton of fun along the way!
Stay tuned for more Alphabet Countdown shenanigans! We have W, V, U, T, and S coming your way!
Stay tuned for more Alphabet Countdown shenanigans! We have W, V, U, T, and S coming your way!