The End of the Alphabet

I was worried! I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. It seemed like the end of the year was getting closer and closer, but the letters of the alphabet just coming and coming. I did make it, and I had a few classes to spare. Whew.

To finish up our books we needed to do the letters N, W, X, Y, and Z. Then Mrs. M and I added a cover and stapled them together.

For N our page was "Nightingale in a Nest. I thought it would be fun to use noodles in our craft for that letter. I drew a capital N and let the children glue noodles to it.

W was a "Walrus in the Water." I had thought I wanted to make a windmill. I toyed and toyed with different ideas, but never came up with any I liked. So we ended up making a watermelon. I had cut out a green and red piece for them to glue together to make the watermelon. Then I had them dip their finger in a black ink pad and put some seeds in the watermelon.

X was a "Fox in a Box." Here was another tricky one. I was thinking of making a xylophone, but truth be told, the craft day came around before I was prepared. I was going to cut out different color rectangles and let them glue them next to each other. But, since I didn't get there, we made an EXIT sign. The children stamped the letters E, I, and T. Then we put the capital X from our letter pad in the X spot. They actually turned out better than expected.

Y was a "Yak in the Yard." Many of them had not heard of a yak before so we discussed that a bit. Also, yam was a popular Y word which some had not heard of. Luckily one of my students brought one in for our Y show-n-share. I decided on yellow for craft fun. We had to split this up into two days. Day one I had them paint a piece of paper yellow. On day two they tackied down some different yellow objects. Such as: pom poms, foam shapes, beads, or buttons.

Finally to letter Z. What else but a "Zebra in a Zoo?" Here is another one I put my thinking cap on for. I had wanted to make a zipper, since zebra is so popular, but again my brain could not configure one in my head--I don't know maybe because it was the end of the year. So I did end up making a zebra. I had a horse shape on their paper with the word zebra. I then gave them a black strip of paper which they cut out small strips from. They then glued the strips to the "horse" to create the zebra.

So we finished them all. They did a great job and I thought it was fun to create different things from each letter. I think mom and dad, and the children, really enjoyed their books.

Milkshake Day

For our last day I wanted to do something fun. Unfortunately, our weather did not allow us to enjoy the outdoors this day so we had to rely on indoor fun.

I had to start the day out with our graduation practice. Of course, this is very important so that everyone knows what is going to happen on graduation evening.

I had decided it would be fun to let the children make milkshakes.

I got each child a 99 cent cup at our local CVS. The cups had Avenger characters or Disney princesses on them. I also bought a pack of milkshake straws.

On milkshake day I brought in vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, and milk. I then had a small hand mixer to mix everything up.

Each child got to choose a vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry milkshake. The children added the ice cream to the mixing cup, poured in the syrup if needed, I poured in the milk because it was a new gallon jug. Then I showed them how to push the button on the mixer to mix everything together. (I guided now and then too.)

After everything was mixed, they poured it into their cup, added a straw and ENJOYED! Mmm Mmm good!

The last part of the project was for the children to wash out their cup, dry it, and put it in their backpack to go home. Remember how fun it was to wash dishes when you were little? Oh so long ago.

My Little Graduates

Well, the Pre-K class had their graduation ceremony. They're all grown up and leaving the nest:(.

It was a wonderful evening. We practiced all our songs for about a week. They were singing like professionals. Add about 100 people on graduation evening and suddenly all their voices disappeared:).

Actually, I was very proud. They did a great job and held up like troopers.

I really can't believe the year is over. It seems like just yesterday that I was fretting I was never going to make it through. What would I do? Would I be able to plan enough for all those days? Would the children have a good time? Would I help them complete the skills they needed for kindergarten?

I think the year went great. I never was looking for anything to do. I was actually looking for more time to do things I wanted to. And the children? All top scholars. Of course, they are just geniuses anyway.

Happy Summer!