If you Give a Butterfly a Diploma...

Another school year, flown by. And now it's time to graduate!

 My apologies, but it seems I have no pictures to share! I will search my other camera, and put them up if I can fin any! Last year we a had a Lorax themed graduation that was pretty cool too!

I really wanted my class to be involved in the planning and decisions for this year. If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff was one of my favorite stories when I was young, and I thought "What a great template for the class to write their own graduation play in this style!" And so, a theme was born.

First we decided what songs to sing. I asked the children to vote on their favorite songs that they learned this year. Out of a few that were requested almost daily, they decided on "Twinkle Twinkle Hanukkah Lights" and "I'm a Little Penguin". For a prop to hold while singing, the children each made a dreidel and penguin.


We worked on, "We Are Here to Graduate", to the tune of London Bridge. This is what we sing as we walk into graduation.

"We are here to graduate, graduate, graduate.
We are here to graduate, on this special day."

Then we learned "I'm a Little Graduate", to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot".

"I'm a little graduate, Aren't you proud of me?

I know my numbers and ABC's.

I made lots of friends and had fun too,

Now, I'm off to the big kid school!"

Then we needed to talk about a performance to do. Since we were going with a If You Give a .... theme, what better thing to do than write our own!? Each day for a week, we "wrote" a story, each child giving what would happen next in a chain of events. I'll admit, some of them were pretty out there, but in the end, we focused in on a story centered around things in our own school.

To go with their part of the story, I drew simple illustrations of their part for them to color. At our ceremony, when it was their turn to speak, they held up their illustration too! Their parents LOVED it!! 

I turned the pages into a class book, so after graduation, I went back and wrote their spoken part on the page that they colored. It is something that I will treasure forever because I know how hard they all worked on their parts and I know that future classes of any age will love to see it.

I made little goodie bags with their names on them filled with some pieces of sidewalk chalk that I handed to each child when they got called for their diploma.  They were so happy!

It was such an amazing afternoon and I was so, so, SO proud of my kids and all the hard work that they did. This was the order that we followed for our graduation ceremony.

"We Are Here to Graduate"

School Owner and Director Speeches

My speech. =]

"Twinkle Twinkle Hanukkah Lights"

"I'm a Little Penguin"
"Telling: If You Give a Butterfly a Diploma"

Graduate: Diplomas!

"I'm a Little Graduate"

End!

Next week: Summer Camp!!

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My Father!

The theme for the third week of June was "My Father". We spent a lot of our last week of the "school year" playing games and reviewing things that we've talked about.
Graduation is here! We had a really fun week gearing up for Friday's ceremony. Check out the "If You Give a Butterfly a Diploma" post to see it all in one place!

This week we read: King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood
                                        I Love My Daddy by Sebastian Braun
                                        I Love My Dad by Anna Walker
                                        I Love My Daddy by David Bedford
                                        The Night Before Father's Day by Natasha Wing
                                 
Our question of the week was "What was your favorite thing about school?"

We did a few fun review activities for different things that we talked about. The children practiced recognizing similar shapes with this quick worksheet.

We also played bingo with shapes and colors. So fun! And this really helped us work on playing with each other and following the rules of a game.

They also practiced the numbers 1-20.

And they worked on using print clues to find the color words!

For our theme "My Father",  we celebrated Dad! The children drew pictures of their Dad.

The children wrote in their journals about why they loved their Dad's.

The children also worked really hard to make this really cool gift for their Dads. the children each took turns to drizzle colored chocolate on bite sized pretzels... Yum!! Then, the children decorates a tie to put it all together. They were so excited to give them to their dads for Father's Day! We of course had to try some to make sure it was good! =]

While bringing the school year to a close, we did some fun activities. Each child made a page for a class-book about their favorite thing about school.

We watched the movie Up, one of my favorites! and the children painted balloons... for my favorite display ever!

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Types of Art! (X, Y, & Z)

The theme for the second week of June was "Types of Art". Since we finished our Letter of the Week study, we are now reviewing our letters! This week we reviewed letters X, Y, & Z! Many of our projects over the next few weeks are in preparation for our Graduation! Check out the"If You Give a Butterfly a Diploma" post to see it all in one place! This week we some props for the songs we sang and had a blast in a graduation themed "photo booth"!

This week we read: If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff
                                        Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
                                        The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
                                        A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead
                                        Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire
                                 
Our question of the week was "What kind of art do you like to do?"

For a number review the children practiced the numbers 1-15 and their recognition of the numbers.

For our theme "Types of Art",  we explored different art forms! The children started by making collaged dreidels! Very seasonally appropriate, I know... it makes sense in the scheme of our Graduation. You'll see!

Next the children painted penguins! Again, you just have to trust me on this one.

We had an absolute blast in a graduation themed photo booth! I got the props from Walmart for under $2, and we used our awesome paintings from last week as the back drop.

The children colored illustrations for their graduation story.

And they rounded out the week with come good old fashioned finger-painting!

While reviewing the letters X, Y, and Z, we are really focusing on practicing writing, having good control over letter formation, and having a solid knowledge of the letter sounds.

The children wrote in their journals about their favorite letter in the alphabet!

My children that are moving on to kindergarten next year, are working on sight words and this worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler are amazing! They challenge the children to think of the word in a new way and get creative. This week they worked on the word "you".

I created envelope games for each letter of the alphabet that we played the first way through the alphabet. My children that are staying with me another year played these again to work on their letter sounds.

We reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about, X, Y, and Z. The pages for my younger group came from Letters for Little Learners, and I found these more advanced worksheets for my older children from education.com.

The book Alphabet and Counting that we used used  to turn our letters into fun animals, also has cute little tongue twisters for each letter. I printed them large and illustrated them, then I laminated them with contact paper. Using wet erase markers, we take turns finding the letters hidden!

On their own, they searched for the letters as well!

The letter of the week books have pages that you can make a book into. I picked from both to get my "favorites". Each week, we'll work on these pages, and each child will end up with an alphabet book at the end of the year. I like to do these pages, because not only do they get more practice writing the letter, but they also have to finish the sentence on the page, which is really cool. It gets them thinking!

There is a 15-20 minute span of time while the children are waking up from our rest time and afternoon snack. During this time, we talk about what they will be doing in the afternoon with their afternoon teacher, and what we did in the morning. We also spend some time learning about animals through videos. This week we watched about a zebra!

I made an "I have, who has" game filled with X, Y, and Z things. I love this game because once it starts, the children completely direct it. I love seeing them help each other and play with each other.

 Leave a comment below and let me know that you stopped by!

Painting to Music! (U, V, & W)

The theme for the first week of June was "Painting to Music". Since we finished our Letter of the Week study, we are now reviewing our letters! This week we reviewed letters U, V, & W! Many of our projects over the next few weeks are in preparation for our Graduation! Check out the "If You Give a Butterfly a Diploma" post to see it all in one place! This week we made the shirts that everyone would wear for the ceremony, as well as the backdrop!

This week we read: Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
                                        Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker
                                        The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
                                        LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
                                        Curious George Plants a Tree by Margret & HA Rey
                                 
Our question of the week was "What kind of music do you like?"

For a number review the children practiced the numbers 1-10, both counting and recognition of the numbers.

For our theme "Painting to Music",  we did exactly that! While listening to different styles of music each day, the children all painted on a large piece of white bulletin board paper. I love projects like this, free-form and loose, whatever the children want to do!

Country Music: Yellow, Orange and Brown paint.

Jazz Music: Blue, Red and Brown paint.

Classical Music: Red, Green and Yellow paint.

Dance Music: Blue, Purple and Yellow paint.

Rock Music: Red, Black and Purple paint.

I will be using these in a few weeks as the backdrop for our graduation ceremony!

The children wrote about the kinds of music that they like the best.

While reviewing the letters U, V, and W, we are really focusing on practicing writing, having good control over letter formation, and having a solid knowledge of the letter sounds.

My children that are moving on to kindergarten next year, are working on sight words and this worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler are amazing! They challenge the children to think of the word in a new way and get creative. This week they worked on the word "we".

I created envelope games for each letter of the alphabet that we played the first way through the alphabet. My children that are staying with me another year played these again to work on their letter sounds.

We reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about, U, V, and W. The pages for my younger group came from Letters for Little Learners, and I found these more advanced worksheets for my older children from education.com.

The book Alphabet and Counting that we used used  to turn our letters into fun animals, also has cute little tongue twisters for each letter. I printed them large and illustrated them, then I laminated them with contact paper. Using wet erase markers, we take turns finding the letters hidden!

On their own, they searched for the letters as well!

The letter of the week books have pages that you can make a book into. I picked from both to get my "favorites". Each week, we'll work on these pages, and each child will end up with an alphabet book at the end of the year. I like to do these pages, because not only do they get more practice writing the letter, but they also have to finish the sentence on the page, which is really cool. It gets them thinking!

There is a 15-20 minute span of time while the children are waking up from our rest time and afternoon snack. During this time, we talk about what they will be doing in the afternoon with their afternoon teacher, and what we did in the morning. We also spend some time learning about animals through videos. This week we watched about a wallaby, vulture and wolf!

I made an "I have, who has" game filled with U, V, and W things. I love this game because once it starts, the children completely direct it. I love seeing them help each other and play with each other.

 Leave a comment below and let me know that you stopped by!