Holy macaroni! I cannot believe we are starting our end of the year ABC countdown. It seems like there is so much left to do! Remember way back when on the first day of school and I was hyperventilating as the monsters made their way down the hall?! Now I get sad thinking of sending my proteges on to someone else. And then I start imagining a whole new class of monsters and the fact that they will be empty vessels that I must train and mold. Holy macaroni that scares me. And now this…
My first year of teaching I ran across the idea for an end of the year countdown of the alphabet. I loved it. (Sadly, I don’t know where I found this but thanks to whoever it was that inspired this!) The alphabet is such a huge part of the kindergarten experience that it only seems right that we end our journey together by celebrating the letters that made us readers and writers and geniuses! And we’re all about meeting those common core standards in the kindergarten smorgasboard!
My alphabet countdown is simple. We start at Z and celebrate a letter each day. For each letter we have one or two or three activities we do that day for the letter. Here’s my list of activities:
Z-Zebra puppets (We use a template from DLTK and brown lunch sacks to make zebra puppets!)
Y-Yellow! (We wear yellow shirts!)
X-X-change autographs (A friend who works for the YMCA donates t-shirts and we all sign each other’s t shirts!)
W-Where The Wild Things Are (we read the book and do a wild thing craftivity!)
V-Violet! (We all wear purple!)
U-Umbrellas (we make umbrellas)
T-Thank You Notes (we write thank you notes to people who have helped our class)
S-Sunglasses day (We wear sunglasses!)
R-Read Aloud Day (we get as many people as possible to come read aloud to our class!)
Q-The Wedding of Q and U
P-Picnic (we have a picnic and eat lunch outside!)
O-Orange! (we wear orange and make an ostrich!)
N-Noodle Newt! (We make a newt using green noodles!)
M-Monkey! (We make a monkey!)
L-Lion! (We make a lion!)
K-Kite! (We make kites and king crowns!)
J-Jump Rope! (We go to the gym and jump rope!)
I-ICE CREAM! (We have ice cream sundaes!)
H-Hat Day! (We wear hats!)
G-Glamour and Glitter! (Dress glamorously and play with glitter!)
F-Finger painting and fruit (we finger-paint and eat fruit….but not at the same time!)
E-Elephants! (We use a template from DLTK Kids and a brown lunch sack to make elephant puppets!)
D-Doughnuts and dogs (Mr. Greg feeds us doughnuts and we make a cute dog craftivity)
C-Cookies and Crazy Hair (Everyone brings cookies and wears crazy hair!)
B-Bubbles! (We blow bubbles!)
A-Apples! (We eat apples!)
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13 comments
What a great idea! Your kiddies are gonna love it 🙂
Kelly
First Grade Fairytales
We do an ABC countdown but I do opposite of yours. I start at A and work my way to Z. The kiddos favorites are queen day and king day. One day is all about the boys and they get to wear crowns and do everything first. The other day is the same but for the girls. 🙂
Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten
What a fabulous idea! We're a LONG way off from our end of year, but I'll be filing this away for when Nov/Dec rolls around.
Stef
Miss Galvin Learns
I am doing this Greg. I love it with my whole heart!
I love this idea. We end the year with an actual A-Z Smorgasboard. The students each pick a letter of the alphabet and bring a food that starts with that letter. The teachers pick the creative letters, and we spend an hour eating from A-Z. So much fun!
I love reading your articles.. they are very interesting..
Regards,
Preschool In Pune
Do you mind sharing some of the crafts you do? I am trying to find a good idea for U! I did find a nice idea for making monsters in the “w” day: http://www.se7en.org.za/2009/05/14/articulated-beasts-and-where-the-wild-things-are-round-up
Love this! I have seen several countdowns, but have never done it. Yours looks fun and easy to accomplish, so I'm gonna give it a whirl! Thanks for your creative genius! 🙂
Great ideas! What great ways to go out in the last days of the year!
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