ABC Countdown- Each Day In Pictures!

Last Thursday I posted that we started the ABC Countdown to the end of the year!

I am going to use this post to update and post pictures of each day of fun, so be sure to keep checking back to see what we did!

If you missed the first post you can find it here:

You can download the editable ABC template, as well as the letters you see on our door for free!

A is for Art!

There is more about our 'A Day' on the previous post, so be sure to check that out!

B is for BINGO!

We played Number BINGO as our 'math' for the day!  They had to ID the numbers and when they got BINGO they got to pick from the famous treasure chest!

C is for Candy!

I made a Candyland-like game to review sight words, CVC words, numbers and using a ten frame.  They worked in teams to answer the questions.  First team to finish got 6 extra pieces of candy!  (2nd place got 5 extra, 3rd place got 4 extra, 4th place got 3 extra, 5th place got 2 extra and 6th place got 1 extra).  

To play: I put magnetic tape on the back of the candy 'pawns' 1-6 and also gave each team a printout of their team number.  I moved the pieces on the board as they answered the questions correctly.  I changed the 'value' of each question round by round.  Sometimes they were worth 1 space, others 2 and sometimes 3!  When the playing cards ran out, I just shuffled and used them again until each team reached 'Finish!'

I made these 'candy bags' to collect the treats- and to hold them safe until we got home to share and eat the rest of our loot! 

Find the game, game board and candy bags for free here!

Here were our plates of candy ready to be shared! 

'Digging In' was so much fun!  We counted the candy as we went to keep it somewhat 'academic!'

Each person ended with a stuffed bag!  SWEET!

D is for Dance!

I don't have any pictures of our dance party!

We did the Chicken Dance, Macarena, Cha-Cha Slide, Hokey Pokey and Free Style (dance as you please!)

E is for Exercise!

 We used Go-Noodle for our exercise fun!  If you have never Go-Noodled, you have no idea what you are missing!  If you have, you know what a gem it is!

Here are just a few of what we did:

'I Like To Move It!'

We won a gold medal!

Our favorite!

We also did Chillax and O'Maximo's Eagle Pretzel yoga!

F is for Favorite Book (with Friends)

Everyone brought in a favorite book (and if they forgot, they borrowed a favorite from our Book Nook).  They kept the books at their seats all day to read when they finished activities, but after lunch we took them all outside!

We loved sharing our favorite parts with our friends!

It was such a beautiful day...we enjoyed some relaxing time in the shade!

We took turns reading to each other!

And we helped each other figure out tricky words!

We couldn't leave poor Pete inside...he snagged Mrs. Drake's favorite book to read....but then let her read it to the class outside before we headed in for math!

G is for Game Day!

We had a lot of fun games come in- and it was also a rainy day with indoor recess, so we got extra time with our games!

Here are a few that we played:

It was so nice to see so many 'classic' games come in!  Some were my favorites when I was in kindergarten many (MANY) years ago!

My son is also in kindergarten and doing ABC Countdown.  He had 'G is for Game Day' too so we made a Lego-inspired set of cards that he could use to play 3 different games- Brick Memory, Brick War and 'Go Build.'

I printed a second set to play in my class, but almost everyone had a game and those that did not were happy to join in with someone who had one so it wasn't needed!  I'll just keep it handy for the last few days when we need some 'new fun' to keep up occupied!

Here are some pictures of my boys giving the games a trial run!

I pulled out scrapbook and printed on the back so that you couldn't see through them while playing!  You can read about how I did that on my post from November. 

If you are looking for a fun, easy to prep game with your Lego enthusiasts, I put this game up as a few download!  Just click here!

H is for Hat Day!

Since it was a Monday, many forgot to wear their hats.  I was at a meeting in the morning, but when I came back in the afternoon they all got a kick out of my hat:

I is for 'I Am Special' Day!

Today we talked about what makes us special!

Every year I have the students draw self-portraits the first week of school.  I also have them write their names the best they can.  I display them for 'Meet the Teacher' night, but then store them away for the remainder of the year.

In June I have them draw a self-portrait again (I don't show them their earlier one yet).  They also add their name.

I staple their 'September' and 'June' portraits side by side on a sentence strip.

For 'I Am Special Day' we drew our self-portraits to show all our special qualities!

They were IN SHOCK when I showed them their previous portraits!  Many doubted it was their work!

Here is the fabulous growth of some of my kinders over a short 10 month time!

Aren't they amazing?!!!

I can't wait for their parents to see these!!

J is for Juggle and Jump Day!

Today was all about moving and shaking!!

I purchased jump ropes from Amazon (12 for $9.77) so that each child could have his/her own jump rope for the day and then to take home to keep moving all summer long!

I opened the packages and put each jump rope in a gallon size sliding Ziploc bag so that they could easily take it out/put away and it would have a safe place to travel home!

It was time to JUMP! 

I had tennis balls for them to practice juggling too!

If you want to do the same, here are the tags I made to use.  You can download them for FREE!

K is for Kindness Day!

Today we focused on being kind all day long!

We read 'I'm A Good Friend' and talked about ways to show kindness.

We made a chart of all 'kind' phrases and words:

Then it was time to make a 'kind' poster for each other!

I had the kids write their names with marker in the middle of a 12x18 piece of construction paper using a marker.  They put a 'bubble' around it.  

Then they took their crayon boxes and took to the room!  They wrote a kind word, phrase or picture on each person's poster until all the posters were full of kindness!

They even took to writing to my poster!  I love all these messages squished together!

We are full of kindness in Room 66!

L is for Lollipops!

They got to choose from Blow Pops or Tootsie Roll Pops and got one to eat in school and one to take home!  

We didn't get to create a paper lollipop because we were so busy finishing a hungry caterpillar craft, but we did listen and dance to the 'The Lollipop Song' on YouTube!

M is for Memories!

Today we talked all about our memories of kindergarten!

And then each child made a picture for our memory book!

(We are still waiting on a few entries from students that were absent, but then I can copy and bind them and send them home with each student!)

Here are just a few pages in our book.... 

I also put a copy of their individual favorites poster on the back side of their page.  

Here is the color version they will each get to take home the last week of school:

N is for Neon!

Being a child of the 80's I grew up in NEON!

BUT...I could not find any neon 'grown up' attire to wear...so I opted for this... 

Many of the kids had neon!  I didn't get to snap of picture of them in the neon, but we did use some neon sentence strips to create bright 'no rules- create as you like' collages!

 

O is for Opposite!

We started the day by saying 'Good Night' instead of 'Good Morning' and did everything opposite until it was time to leave (saying 'Hello' instead of 'Goodbye!')

They LOVED walking backwards in the hall...and sporting their opposite shirts all day! 

Stay tuned for the rest of our alphabet adventures!

Until next post,