Wrapping up the last few weeks!

These last few weeks have been CrAzY busy! Although, as a teacher I feel like I am always saying that! There is always something am I right? Well since I haven't done an update in a while, here are just a few things that we have been up to lately....

Even though my students are only 4 and 5 years old, we start talking about college early on. When talking about our community at the beginning of the year, I point out local colleges in our area. During our community helpers unit, we talk about how many of the careers the students aspire to have require a college degree. During the month of April we ramp it up a notch and talk about college the whole month through. 

For our family project in April (we do one each month), students created a college pennant with their parents. Here they are displayed on our "college bound" wall.

Throughout the month we have also been working on these little books that are all about student's plans for college. They wrote about where they wanted to go for college, what they wanted to learn, and what career they hoped to have after they graduated. I also included a sweet little picture on the last page of each book with that student in a cap and gown. Here is a sample of some of the pages:

The parents LOVED these! I had several tell me they were going to hold on to them until their babies graduated high school and got to college!

We also wrapped up our unit on animals and insects last week. We learned the body parts of insects singing and dancing away to this cute little song I got from a training a couple of years ago. Then we played "insect Simon says." I would say, "Simon says, point to your antennas!" and they would make antennas on their head." Or, "Simon says, point to your thorax!" and they would all point. It was a quick, fun way to check who got it and who needed a little extra practice.

  I saw this cute little foldable in one of my genius coworkers classrooms and knew my kids had to make it! Student's drew a loooooong insect inside the foldable so that when you open each flap, it shows that part of the insect. I just took pictures of several different heads to show you guys though because I love all of the different insect facial expressions! :)

 Along with insect body parts, we have also been learning about different life cycles. Being the AMAZING Ants that we are, I knew I could not end the unit without making this cute little ant Life Cycle plates using beans (white and black) and pasta (shell and macaroni - sorry I know it is not the best picture!). 

Last Thursday I was also able to enjoy my Teacher of the Year banquet. I felt really grateful and honored to be voted teacher of the year at my school this year and loved attending the banquet with my amazing Husband and parents. 

 We have also had Lemonade Day, 1 on 1 end of year testing, and had a Muffins with Mom celebration - oh my! Like I said, it has been a whirl wind past few weeks! 14 days left! We can do this!!