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End of Year Writing Bundle

I can't believe that we only have 5{ish} weeks left in school. Goodness! My kiddos have state testing in 1 week {well...6 days to be exact}, so as soon as we finish, we are diving back into a normal routine. After our testing is over {finally}, we will be working through my Ultimate End of Year Writing Bundle. This pack has some super cool and easy {PTL} projects that will help your kiddos reflect on the amazing year that they have had. 


Here are the activities that we will be working on...


Since our paper bag poetry books were so super simple and since the kids LOVED them so much, I had an idea to create an end of the year keepsake...paper bag style. Love that paper bags are so stinkin' cheap! 


All you need are paper bags {lunch sacks....not grocery bags} and dollar store stickers to help your kiddos make these little scrapbook{ish} memories. 

Then, we will also be adding to our time capsules for the year. End of the year is the perfect time to bundle all of your memories up into one place for safe keeping. I have included time capsule contracts, poems, and much, much more to get you going. 


Along with these two activities, we will also work on several end of year writing and craftivities...just to end the year with a bang! 


We will be planning for a great summer ahead...


And...my favorite...letters to next year's kiddos. I always display these on our "Welcome Back" night for my newbies to read {well..until I looped!}. This helps your kiddos get a glimpse into what is ahead in the new year. Plus, it adds a little spirit to those empty walls at the beginning of the year. 


Hopefully these activities will keep my summer hungry kiddos busy after testing. 

You can pick this unit up at my TPT shop by clicking {HERE}

Have a great weekend! 



Rockin' Math Review (1st Grade CCSS Math)


YES! That is just what we will do the last 2-3 weeks of school (review the whole CCSS math)!  Because we don't have official standardized testing in 1st grade, I like to review the last 2 weeks of school to help my students remember what we learned and to get them ready for 2nd grade.

Here's what I've done (and it's taken me soooooooooo long to do- I even cried TWICE!!!!)... I have made a review center game for EVERY STANDARD in the 1st grade Common Core Math (some games cover multiple standards).  I know... I  am CRAZY! But, my students needed some fun ways to review and so I have been working on this for WEEKS.  This would also be a GREAT review for your 2nd graders at the beginning of next year.



There are 18 centers!

Come check it out:

Incubation Station


Remember I told you round 3 of my science obsession was coming soon?  Well......
Our chicks have finally arrived and are growing fast!! We started our chicken life cycle unit 6 weeks ago and this was one of my most educational experiences yet!  My classroom was FULL every morning before and after school with kiddos coming to see our first babies arrive!  I am attaching lots of pictures so get ready!

I surprised my students with eggs in March.  They went on Spring Break and then came back with only a week left before they hatched.  I planned it that way so they wouldn't lose interest waiting 21 days!



The chicks need to stay warm after hatching so they spent 3 more weeks under a heat lamp.  They needed to get feathers first.  My daughter named them right away.  The first one she called "Chickadee", and the second one."Hamburger".  I guess they looked like hamburger when they first hatched..LOL!  We had 4 total hatch out of 12.




Here is a short video clip of the first chick who hatched:

They hatched on day 20 and 21.  By day 23, I broke the rest open to show the students that they hadn't been fertilized.

We started an observation journal a few days before they hatched.  They loved this part of the day because they could observe them and write about how they changed each day.  And boy do they!  One week later, they were already trying to fly!

Journals

They are growing up! Sniff!


I have feathers now!




We did a little comparing with chickens and ducks.  We put together a Venn Diagram to show our learning.  They made chickens and ducks to go with it.




If any of you have been thinking of hatching eggs with your students, I highly recommend it!  They will love it!  
Here is my Incubation Station Math and Literacy Unit.  It has 141 pages of fun!  It has detailed instructions on getting you started with hatching eggs and the activities are differentiated for the primary grades K-2.  Just click the picture links to see more.  It will be 20% off today only!
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Happy Spring and Happy Hatching!

African Jungle Fun!


Hello!
This is Cindy, from Kinderkay Love Those Kinders. We are in the midst of our African Jungle unit and I thought that I would share with you some of the fun we are having!

First of all, I am so pumped to say that my students are able to tell me that Africa is a continent, not a country and that there are 7 continents in the world! (We still separate Europe and Asia and do not use the term Eurasia!) They can tell me that Africa has many habitats and that the animals that live in each habitat are different. Woo hoo! It makes me feel like high fiving each child when things like this happen!

To begin the unit, I project the PDF of my African Jungle unit upon our Promethean board in my classroom. We discuss the pictures as an introduction; then revisit the pages as we study each habitat and animal. The children illustrate their own African animal book.





 A big project that we do for this unit is for each child to be assigned an African animal and then do a simple report on it.  They choose one animal in which they want to be the "Animal Expert." They do research on their animal and fill out the report form with their findings and a hand drawn picture of their animal.
The next thing they do is to create a paper mache representation of their animal. I used to have the children create their own representation, but this was soooo hard for them and I had to work with each child individually which took up too much class time. So, now I create the form for them. Now.... before anyone says "That is not art when the teacher creates the form!",  I completely agree with you! This is NOT an art project! This is a science and research project. It is no different than giving a child a coloring sheet and telling them to color a picture that someone else drew!
Here is a picture of what the forms look like:
After the form is made, the children cover the entire form with plain white paper towel and art paste.

When the animal is completely covered, they use NON BLEEDING tissue paper to give their animal the proper colors. I LOVE using tissue paper for the colors! All the mess is done in one day; no waiting for the form to dry and then painting it!

After the animal has a day or two to dry, they add details to their animals using tacky glue. Since this is a science project, they have to tell me whether their animal is a mammal, a bird, or a reptile. They add a small bit of fake fur for the mammals, feathers for the birds, and sequins or buttons for the reptiles.

We also discuss traditional African clothing and masks. They create an African child wearing an African mask.

When both the animal and the African child are complete, they write one sentence on a sentence strip about their animal and we display them together in our hallway.






 
Hop on over to my blog Love Those Kinders to read more fun jungle ideas that we did in our Jungle unit including more cute pictures of our giraffe art! (This project REALLY is art!)

If you are interested in my African Jungle Animal unit, click the image below to take you there!


Blessings,