The last days of any school year are stressful!
I call it a marathon because it just keeps going and going and going; and then suddenly it's all over.
So here is how we spent the last few days of kindergarten.
A few days before of our Kindergarten Program I started gathering everything that we had been making for the last month or so.
I'm really bad about forgetting things because I tucked them away somewhere for later, so I wanted to make sure that didn't happen.
My cute little bubbles gift for all of my students.
The cute little gift tags came from Stephanie Stewart and you can check them out here.
My year-end books/memory books.
We've been working on these all year.
You can check out my blog post on them here to see everything I put into them.
Our beach ball books we made awhile ago.
Check them out here too.
Each student's awards are tucked inside their white envelope and ready to go. All I had to do was a final check through and seal them up.
You can check them out here.
Our student-made ABC books.
These are from Miss Kindergarten.
And you can check out my blog post I wrote on them last year if you want, just click here.
This year's cover looks a little different from last year's only because I printed the covers out on neon cardstock instead of white cardstock, letting the kids color them, gluing them onto construction paper and then laminating them.
Whew!
Way easier just to copy on colored cardstock.
The afternoon before our Kindergarten Program I let each student look through their Year End Book. They were so excited to see and remember all of the work they did throughout the year!
I called two students back to my table at a time and let them look through the pages while everyone else was playing in centers.
When they were finished looking, I had them take their book and place it on their table in front of their nametag.
After everyone had looked through their book, I had some helpers help me pass out the ABC books, beach ball books, and bubbles.
You might have been wondering where all of my classroom chairs went to.
They were in the gym, set up and ready to go for our Program at 8:30 the next morning.
Chairs for all five sets of kindergarten classes were ready to go.
We definitely like to set things up the day before, nothing is worse than running around the morning of a program trying to get things set up.
I tried to set my chairs up by colors, but as you can see, they really don't match.
So I kind of gave up toward the back.
Oh well.
I also labeled the backs of my chairs with my name written on a piece of orange duct tape.
Usually the gym teacher has 4th graders help us by bringing our chairs back to our classrooms, and I wanted to make sure mine didn't get lost or mixed up.
Not like that has ever happened before :)
Our gym floors were just refinished and look so pretty.
But we don't have a canvas cover yet, so we couldn't put folding chairs out for the parents.
They had to sit in the bleachers.
Our program was wonderful!
Our kindergarten program is our music program and awards program wrapped into one, not a graduation.
The classes walked out to Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
Then we sang and danced to "Oh What A Miracle" by Hap Palmer.
(I suggested we use this song after my mom found a video a few years ago of my kindergarten graduation. And yes, we sang this song during the program in 198something. It's old people!)
Then we sang a school version of "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah."
(I can remember where I found it, probably some website a long time ago. There's no music, we just sing it acapella.)
Then we did the "Dinosaur Stomp," from GoNoodle, led by our music and P.E. teachers.
Next we had the actual awards part of the program where we called out each student to receive their awards.
We sang "Good-bye Friends" by Dr. Jean.
Then we danced/walked out to "Kids Just Wanna Have Fun," also by Dr. Jean.
When the parents met us back in our classroom we watched my classroom slideshow dvd.
They loved it!
Usually we purposely schedule our program for the very last day of school. Well this year the program was scheduled for us, the week before school let out. So we had to find some fun things to do those last few days.
So we went to the park one day.
Another day we had a movie day.
Two teachers paired up and showed a movie.
Can you tell what movie was in my room?
Can't you tell from all the girls?...
We watched and sang along to Frozen.
We even had three little boys in there with us. They were smart, they knew where the girls would be.
Then we had a water day!
This my friends is call a redneck water slide.
All you need is a hose, a tarp, and some Dawn dishwashing liquid.
We enjoyed snow cones!
We even got sprayed by the fire dept with their hose.
Can you tell I teach in a small town?
They loved it!
This little stinker didn't want to get sprayed in the face, so she sunbathed instead.
I had no clue what this cutie was doing, but she was sure having fun.
So some others decided to come join her.
I called them my "synchronized sidewalk swim team."
Then we dried off a little and played with chalk and bubbles.
This was the beginning of Olaf.
Here was another Olaf.
And of course Olaf had to have an Elsa.
Then we ate watermelon while we played on the playground.
And that is a wrap for my 9th year of teaching.
It's been a great year!
