End of the year, and final good-bye

The end of the year is always bittersweet for me. I look so forward to spending the summer with my own little ones but I know how much I will miss walking into my classroom each day and seeing my students faces each day. Nevertheless, all good things must come to an end. Here are just some of the many great things we do at the end of the school year in my classroom. Enjoy!

Space Day

We soared to the moon for space day in our room! Our little astronauts learned about outer space, rocket ships, the moon and more! 

 We made these "Space Books" that taught us all about Space! It took a few days to complete but the children had a blast making them! 

Of course Space Day wouldn’t be complete without an out of this world craft so our little ones made astronauts walking on the moon! They even made stars (using a tooth brush and flicking the paint off with their finger). They even crumbled aluminum to make that textured look for the moon.  

My favorite craft has to be this foot rocket ship craft. I started with a black canvas. Then we painted their little feet silver and put their footprint onto black cardstock. Once dried, we cut out their footprint and added it to the star speckled canvas. The kids decorated their rocket ships with some cool finishing touches. Totally out of this world!    

They also made a rocket ship using all different shapes. Great review for them!

Here's a cool one I did with my summer camp kids from a few years back. Pom-pom aliens! 

How about these cool rocket boosters we used let our little ones try on in the classroom!? So cool! My son didn't want to take his off he loved them so much. 

Here are some really awesome things other classes did for Space Day! 

Memorial Day

Some of our favorite crafts from years past in honor of Memorial Day! 

I love the rolled marble in paint look! The kids have a blast doing this craft too! First we add a few drops of red and blue paint onto a piece of paper inside a bin. Then we shake the bin back and forth until we get the look we want. Once done the children  use little tongs (love to incorporate fine motor skills however I can) to pick up the wet marbles inside the bin. 

Here are some cute crafts by own children made or were made by other classes! 

Father's Day Crafts

Here are some special things we did for Father's Day in our class. 

We made cards out of pieces of construction paper they tore apart and personalized each card with a picture of their child holding a sign saying, "Happy Father's Day" or for the other class we did "all about my dad". I LOVE how the cards came out!!! 

We also made a special gift for Father's Day too! First, the little ones painted the canvas blue. Once dried we traced their hand to make the fish and then they glued on the bubbles out of gems. to finish it off they crumbled up green tissue paper to create the seaweed. 

Caterpillars and butterflies

Caterpillars and butterflies! This month we learned all about the life cycle of a caterpillar into a butterfly! Here are some crafts we did as we learned about butterflies and caterpillars. 

We learned that butterflies wings are symmetrical. As a way for our little ones to understand this concept they dropped paint onto one side of card stock. Then we folded the other side of the paper on top of the paint and pressed down on the paper to move the paint underneath around. Once we opened it they saw how both sides were exactly the same!  

We even got to display our beautiful butterflies at the Art show for all to see! 

We also made a gigantic caterpillar for the one and only book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", by Eric Carle. The children helped paint the large circles all different variations of green and then we put our long caterpillar together for all to see at the Art Show. 

For this craft we used a small balloon we blew up and paint. The children pushed the balloon into the paint then onto the paper to create their caterpillar. After it dried they decorated with cotton balls for clouds and yarn for grass and of course a face for our little friends. 

These little caterpillars helped our children strengthen their fine motor skills. They used age appropriate scissors to put cuts into the leaf. Then they glued on four pom-poms and some eyes. 

 Here are some crafts my own children made in their classes. I really do love anything with their handprints.