The Last Week of School - Kindergarten 2008

What happens the last week of school in a high performing building?


Starting the day with a pancake breakfast

While you will see some cleaning, straightening and organizing in this last week, teachers do not a move ANYTHING until the first day of post planning. You will not see fifth grade boys being used as free labor during this last week or custodians moving furniture and you won't walk into classrooms where the last week's agenda is watching endless movies or having hour long recess. This week is about celebrating all that has been done throughout the year. It's about creating memories.



Writing post cards to patrols

In most kindergarten classes, each day of this final week has a theme such as "Wacky Wednesday," or "Backwards Day" where you wear everything backwards, or "PJs and Pancake Day" where everyone wears pajamas and has pancakes for lunch, or "Crazy Hat Day" where everyone wears the craziest hat they can find, or "Crazy Socks Day" where you wear the craziest socks that you have. Many activities include writing such as writing postcards to patrols who have worked in the class all year or making Father's Day cards or writing directions for how to make those delicious pancakes so mom can make them all summer.



Decorating bags to take
end-of-the-year "stuff" home

Some classes are reflecting back and writing about their favorite kindergarten activity - a final keepsake to remember their first year in school. Some classes are decorating bags or large brown envelopes to take all the end-of-the-year "stuff" home by drawing and writing about the Wacky Olympics held last week. Others are writing thank you notes to the coaches for putting on such an amazing event as Wacky Olympics. Some classes revisit their favorite star books from earlier in the year and put on plays or Readers' Theatre, remembering to use all the intonation and "voices" that they have learned throughout the year.

Readers' Theatre

 Some classes make their own class yearbooks. Teachers bring in one of their own yearbooks and show it to the students and then invite them to draw a portrait-type picture of each of their classmates. They staple the pictures together with the picture pages, a cover and a blank page and on the last day the students go around and collect autographs of all their friends. Regardless, the last week of school is a time to celebrate all of the learning that has taken place and a time to look forward to the break over the summer. It's a week filled with memories, hugs and - can't wait until next year!

My Class Yearbook