End of the Year Read Aloud

Tomorrow is going to be such a bittersweet day. The LAST DAY of school. I have had most of my kiddos for two or three years so it will be sad to let them go tomorrow. To get them excited for 3rd grade we used the story A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle today. We paused every couple of pages to retell what we heard and then the main idea and theme at the end of the book. As I love to integrate arts and crafts into everything we made our own little hermit crab shells. The kiddos decorated a large shell that I printed on construction paper and glued eyes onto two red rectangles. They then traced their hand onto red construction paper, cut it out, and then glued onto the backside of the shell. We then wrote on the back of the shell, "I hope my 3rd grade home is..." Here are a couple of my kiddos creations.

 This little crab says, "I hope my 3rd grade home is nice."

 

 It is almost time for my little hermit crabs to move onto the next shell of their school journey. 



End of the Year Countdown

I cannot believe that we only have 7 days left of the school year! WHAT?!?!? Many of my kiddos are getting a little anxious for the summer to begin. The weather here in Colorado has added the summer feeling with highs in the 80s too. My kiddos began our Balloon Countdown last week. I just placed little activities into each balloon and hung 12 up on our Focus Wall. Then each morning, before our Walk to Read literacy block, each one of my kiddos gets a turn to try and pop one of the balloons. It has been so entertaining to watch my boys use so much power to try and pop the balloons with a dart, but it has been my girls who have popped most of them! Here is what our countdown looked like our first day. I know some of the balloons look a little wimpy, but I am always afraid that they are going to pop in my face when blowing them up!

 

Our final days will also be spent remembering the activities and memories of the past year. My kiddos will create a memory book to record these moments. I have put it as a FREEBIE in my TPT store! Click on the picture below to download.