Kindergarten Graduation


You know the end of the school year is near when it's time for Kindergarten Graduation.
We celebrated this milestone yesterday (with one class) and today (with the other class).
It was SO.MUCH.FUN!  The students have been waiting for this day for a very, very long time!
 
Our theme this year was "Reach for the Stars". 
It's a little hard to tell, but the words "Class of 2013" were also on the bottom of the stage.
Here's what our stage looked like (it is closed).
 
This was our adorable graduation person craft from Peace, Love and Kindergarten.
We added the star which had a picture of the student in a cap and gown as well as a written component, "When I grow up I want to be a ..."
 
Here's what they looked like hanging up on the wall.
 
Here's a close up of one of the stars.
It says "When I grow up I want to be a hockey player."
My favourite answer....."I want to be a zoo keeper."
 
All the students wore a blue cap and gown.  We also served yummy cake! No graduation is complete without one!
 
Yes, we are still doing work in our class (we have a week of school left!).
Here are some of the Literacy Centres we worked on in class.
 
Putting the sentence together so that it sounds right.
 
Unscrambling the sight words.
 
Syllable counting.
 
Spelling CVC words.
 
Listening for beginning blends.
 
You can find these activities and math centres too in the Graduation unit I teamed up with Ann-Marie Parisi to create.
You get all the templates to create a Reach for the Stars theme as well as 3 other themes (which we rotate each year).  The unit comes complete with lots of literacy and math centres (ready-made!), diplomas, certificates, crafts and a bulletin board idea too!
Click on the picture to take you there.
 
I also wanted to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who donated to my project on My Class Needs.  I was able to finally get a guided reading table - and it's beautiful!
All donors remain anonymous on the website - so whoever you are, thank you so much!
The project was funded in record breaking time - under 3 weeks!
 
Here's a picture of my new table - my caretaker was putting it together.
 
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I'm going to Vegas....are you?

In less than a month, I will be heading once again to the I Teach K! conference in Las Vegas!
I can't tell you how excited I am!
(But first I have to get through the next two weeks of school.....we finish June 29.....I'm hanging in there!)
 
Last year we had a Blogger Meet-Up night which was SO.MUCH.FUN!
I met the most amazing ladies!!!
 
 
I have remained great friends with these ladies and I am thrilled to be seeing them again next month!
Thank you to The Teacher Wife for the cute button!
So are you coming?
If you are, you HAVE to join us for our Blogger Meet-Up night this year...
my sweet friend Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants is organizing it.
 
Please RSVP here if you are coming.
 
Hope to see you there!!!


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Farm Fun - Part 2 with a FREEBIE!

Horray!  June is here!  That means only a few more weeks left of school and summer is close by....which I can't wait for!  I have lots of things packed into this summer.  Is there anyone else going to the I Teach K! Conference in Las Vegas this July?  I'm going again.  Just loved it last summer and can't wait to see all of the talented and sweet blogger friends!
If you are going, be sure to follow my Facebook page so that you can find out about any meet-ups (which is in the works).
 
As we are moving into June and the last few weeks, we wrapped up our Farm unit by taking a trip to Round the Bend Farm and working on these centres:
 
At the pocket chart centre, the students read each sentence and matched the animal to the sound that they make.  This is from my All Year Long Pocket Chart fun pack.
 
One of the most popular centres in my class is the Write the Room centre.  I`ve blogged a lot about it in the past.  I put up these cute barns around the room and had students search for the farm words and record them on different worksheets.  This activity never gets old since the words change by theme all year.
You can find this activity here and here.
 
We have been doing a LOT of work on syllables this year.  I loved it when nearly all of my kinders could complete this activity with no help!
 
We`ve also been recently learning about blends and tried this activity during literacy centre time.
 
During the month of May our focus was on word families.  Here the students read the word and sorted them according to the word families.
 
My kinders are getting really good at listening for the middle vowel in words.  For this activity, the students had to cut/paste the pictures by listening for the middle vowel sound.
 
All of these activities can be found in my Down on the Farm unit. 
 
I uploaded the last activity "E-I-E-I-O" to Google docs as a freebie from my farm unit!
Just click on the picture below to get your copy.
Clipart by DJ Inkers.
 
This week we are getting ready for kindergarten graduation.  Do you do a big graduation at your school?  We go all out, with caps and gowns, a celebration, a power point presentation, a programme for parents outlining our celebration - complete with songs, speeches and, of course, diplomas!
And we wrap up our afternoon with yummy treats!
Graduation isn't for a couple more weeks but it's practice, practice, practice 'til then!
 
If you are looking for ideas on how to celebrate kindergarten graduation I'd love for you to check out this new unit Ann-Marie Parisi and I worked on.  It's packed with 4 different themes, literacy and math centres/printables, crafts, writing activities, diplomas/certificates and more!
Click here to see the unit.
 
We are doing the Reach for the Stars theme this year....be sure to check back in a couple of weeks for lots of pictures!
 
You can also follow me on Instagram @mrsalbanesesclass
 
 
It's on sale for the next few days in case you are still in school and are looking for fun things to wrap up your school year.
I'd love to hear all about what you do for Kindergarten graduation too!!!


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