Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten

Bright Ideas for Little Learners

books, Elementary, summer

Books Teachers Love: Last Day Hooray

Wow, I can’t believe that we are talking about June read alouds already! If you are busy wrapping up your school year and looking for great books to keep your class engaged, my bloggy friends and I are sharing our favorite read alouds for the end of the year before we take a little break from our book sharing blog series or the summer.

Lets be real, there are so many exciting things going on at the end of the year it is easy to get wrapped up in all the fun activities and let learning take a back seat. But if you plan ahead you can keep your kiddos working on all of the skills they need while celebrating a great year together.  One of the books I use at the end of the year to engage my students in writing activities is Last Day, Hooray! by Nancy Poydar.

The students and school staff in the story are busy cleaning and wrapping up their school year, dreaming about the summer ahead and planning a celebration for their teacher.  

 

It is both exciting and a little bit sad to take everything down at the end of the year, so this book is perfect to read on the day that we start packing up our own classroom. While I like to have students help with a lot of the work I need to get done it can get pretty chaotic with 18 students all trying to help clean and pack up at the same time.  So I like to have lots of writing activities for students to work on while I have a few students at a time completing end of the year assessments, and helping me with different projects.
The biggest writing project my students work on is their memory book.  
If I have time I like to print out pictures of my students for the first few pages.

It’s fun to see what they remember about their year in kindergarten.

I love seeing students reflect on everything they’ve done throughout the year.
We also complete a few writing projects to share with parents at the Kindergarten Celebration. Students start by writing the top 10 things they learned and memories they made.

Then they choose one special memory to illustrate and read aloud during our ceremony.

And last they use their top ten lists to help them write a letter to the incoming kindergartners about what they will learn and do in kindergarten.

You can find these printable writing activities, and more end of the year fun, in my Kindergarten Celebration Pack.

Don’t forget to enter to win 4 awesome June Read Alouds! And you get to choose any 4 you’d like!

FREE Printable Shape Roads!

Image1

Sign up for ideas, tips & exclusive FREEBIES delivered right to your inbox!

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit
by  
4 Comments

Comments

  1. Kelli says: May 15, 2016 at 9:02 pm

    What a precious keepsake! And good call on keeping them busy while they also help clean up… the struggle is real!

    Reply
  2. Katie Knight says: May 16, 2016 at 3:15 am

    So sweet!

    Reply
  3. One Sharp Bunch by Ashley Sharp says: May 17, 2016 at 12:52 am

    It's hard to believe that it's already the end of the year! Our memory books are one of our favorites to work on at the end of the year!

    Reply
  4. Peggy Means says: May 18, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    I love your kindergarten memory book!

    Peggy @ Primary Flourish

    Reply

Leave Your Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Popular Posts

Subscribe to the Newsletter

  • Just one more week until our sweet girl is one. My cousin took the cutest cake 🎂 smash pics today and I cannot wait to see the rest! #ourarabellabrooke 📸: @littlebearphoto45
  • What’s your favorite sensory bin filler? Aubrey LOVES cloud dough so today she had a blast playing in this 🎃 pumpkin themed cloud dough bin. I love that it’s super simple to make and we usually have everything we need in hand in the pantry🙌🏻. But if I’m being honest I don’t love the mess. I’ve shared this before in my stories but I LOVE these splat mats I found on Amazon. We now own 4 of them😳 I usually use one to cover the table and one (or more) to cover the floor. They seriously make clean up a breeze and help me let it go ❄️ when I see piles of cloud dough dropping on the floor.
  • Took these cute pumpkins to the pumpkin patch today🎃 It sure was freezing but we did all the fun fall things, and didn’t even have to bribe the kids to leave since they were frozen.🥶🙌🏻
  • Can’t even tell these cuties are freezing their butts off to dance this morning😍 Love them!
  • Arabella’s exploring color mixing today for our #mpkbabybins 💜purple 💜 theme. Our mornings can be a little crazy with all 3 girls, but I try to squeeze in a baby bin activity for Arabella most days between school drop off and nap. So I LOVE an easy mess free activity like this one. I first drew some grapes with a sharpie, then squirted some pink and blue paint in a @ziploc bag and she went to town smushing and squishing away. Then I just toss the mess and she’s off to nap🙌🏻
  • #ad Madelynn and Aubrey are loving Saturday morning snuggles and reading (Cinderella is on repeat this morning!)📚 with @vooks I love that this streaming storybook platform that brings books to life with animated pictures and narrated text. (See this story in action in my stories right now❤️) My girls are learning so many great reading skills just by listening to these stories! It’s great to have a go to educational app that I can trust with great content and no ads so I know EXACTLY what they are watching (goodbye annoying YouTube toy videos 🙌🏻) And they are offering a FREE YEAR subscription right now to all teachers and homeschoolers. HURRY on over and click the link in my profile to get signed up, and enjoy some quiet time with your kiddos happily engaged in learning right away. Then follow @vooks for latest news + updates for teachers/parents.
  • This tooth labeling craft is the perfect way for students to show their learning during your healthy habits or dental health theme. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Find this activity and more health activities for preschool here: ➡️bit.ly/PreschoolHealth . (Or click the link in my profile)
  • Last week we learned about dental health for our "Healthy Habits" theme. 😁 Then we played a quick math game with our dentist play dough toy. Aubrey chose a number card then had to pull that number of teeth. Always fun to find new ways to play with our toys! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Find this and more My Body themed #mpkpreschool ideas here: bit.ly/PreschoolHealthyHabits

FOLLOW ME @MRSPLEMONSKINDERGARTEN