Memorial Day: We Will Always Remember!

Thank you to those who served.

Thank you to those who lived and died protecting our nation.

Thank you for giving your life for our freedom.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

In honor of all of our brave men and women,
I have made some activities that young students
can use to help them to remember that it's not just
another day off from school.
Agreed!
The only way our students will understand
why they have the day off is if we tell them.
Thanks for all of these great activities.
....BTW-tell the hubs I said thank you
since he's one of those Veterans you're referring to.

 We Will Always Remember!

Memorial Day Poster

 

Print out the poster style you like best…

color or black and white,

posters with or without a place

for students to write their names or not.

I made these posters to help us

to never forget the sacrifices

made by our troops!

Thank you to all of the brave men

and women who have given their lives

for our freedoms.

I am also wanting to share
my Memorial Day Puppets with everyone.
They are super easy to make.
Just print, cut, and attach to a popsicle stick
with some tape.

Memorial Day Puppets

Print out the color or

black and white puppets for your students.

Attach them with tape to a popsicle stick.

I made different printing options so that

you can just print out a single soldier

or you can save on paper space

and print out 2 at a time.

Here are some graphic organizers about
Memorial Day for anyone wanting writing sheets.

A+ Memorial Day...Three Graphic Organizers

Have your students write
3 sentences about Memorial Day:
Memorial Day is...
Memorial happens...
Memorial Day honors...

Memorial Day Bubble Maps

Have your students draw a picture
about Memorial Day and then write
three things or three sentences about it.

Here are the same sheets made in
Spanish for any Bilingual Teachers out
there who would like to have their students
writing this week about this special day.

El Día de los Caídos....3 Graphic Organizers

I decided to make ALL of my Memorial Day
products free on TPT so that as many students
as possible will have the opportunity for
remembering our troops.

Thank you. We are in your debt.

Watermelons For What A Year!

I don't know about all of you,
but this has been quite the year!
Have you noticed that
each year keeps becoming
"quite the year" for one reason or another?
In celebration of it soon coming to an end,
Woo....wait, 
let me enjoy that sentence....
"coming to an end"
aaaahhhhhh
I decided to share some of my
favorite fruit with all of you!
I love eating watermelon!

Especially when it's cold, and crisp

straight from the fridge

on a hot day!
Those hot days are already starting 

to warm us up in sunny Florida!
And yes, the rest of us are jealous!

When I start thinking about watermelons,

I start thinking about summer....

we now have 11 more days until

that fabulous time of year is finally here!

Wow!  Another year of teaching
and learning coming to an end!

To celebrate this upcoming summer,

I want to share a watermelon
activity with all of you.

This is a knock-off from
Who Took The Cookie
From The Cookie Jar game.
It's a free download on
Teachers Pay Teachers.

Please leave some feedback
if you have a chance....
only if it's NICE feedback.
If it's snarky, complaining,
or mean comments
just keep those to yourself.
Sorry, but I don't want to hear
any of THOSE kind of comments.
I've heard enough of
those type of comments,
policing my Kindergarteners
these past few weeks.
True that!
The kids have been together for 
so long they're comfortable enough
to treat each other like family.
The filters have come off!

It IS the end of the year,
and I've been listening to constant
complaining from my 5 and 6 year old students.
We've been together on a long journey
and some of them are just DONE with
all of the "togetherness" they've had
with some of the other students.
Yep!
Ma Chérie likes to describe it as
the longest road trip ever!

I love her analogy so much,
I have to share it with you.
Have you ever taken a 2 week road
trip with your family, and by the end of it
ANY little thing is about ready to set someone off?
"He's touching me!"
"She's looking at me funny!"
"He's breathing my air!"
"He's on my side of the seat."
"Are we there yet?"
Welcome to Kindergarten teachers'
end of the year crowd control.
True that sista!

According to my good friend,
Ma Chérie, we've been on a 9 month
road trip.  We're now on the home stretch,
and our little guys are READY
to get out of the car!
"She touched my paper!"
"He took my glue stick!"
"She's touching me in line!"
"He took my pencil!"
"I was there first!"
"That's my paper!"
"She's on my iPad!"
"He's in my carpet square."
Just breathe, 
in a bag if necessary,
while rocking in the nearest corner.
and put it in perspective.
It's just the end of the world's longest
road trip and it will all be over soon!
What would I ever do without
Ma Chérie's words of wisdom
that add some hilarity
to our real world situations?

When you're ready to bark,
"Enough is enough!"
Just take a breath,
bring a watermelon to school
and have some watermelon fun!

 Who Took The Watermelon

From The Watermelon Patch? Game

1.  Have students sit in a

circle and close their eyes.

2.  Quietly tap one of the students

on the shoulder and pass them

the watermelon picture.

Have that student hide the watermelon picture.

3.  Start the game by saying,

"Who took the watermelon from the watermelon patch?"

4.  Students will raise their hands

if they think they know

who has the watermelon card.

5.  Call on a student to say a name.

6.  Insert that name into the rhyme.

7.  If that student doesn’t have the watermelon,

then they’ll say,”Who me?  …   Couldn’t be!”

Then that student will have to say

the name of someone that they think

has the watermelon after the class says “Then who?”

8.  “_______ took the watermelon from

the watermelon patch!” 

9.  Continue playing until the person

who has the watermelon is discovered:

“Who me?”  “Yes you!”  “You’re right!”

10.  Start the game over and repeat the procedure

until students tire of the activity.
So simple it's genius!!
Thanks for sharing friend!

I have to give it all to you

in easy to print black and white.

If you're anything like me

your printer may be on its

last few drops of ink by this time,

or maybe your ink is completely gone

and you're just waiting until next year for a refill!

A few years ago, all of Ma Chérie's word printing

was done in a very pretty rust color.

I asked her what color font she was using,

and she just looked at me and said,

"That's called being too broke 
to replace my ink cartridge." 
Huh-larious! 
We still giggle over that one!

Here's a really short and cute clip
about watermelons on youtube 
that can be used as a springboard to a writing activity.

It's called Watermelon Magic by BigandDigital:

I hope you're a follower on Teachers Pay Teachers,

because this next one is a Flash Freebie!

It won't last long.  That's a promise!

If you missed it...I'm sorry!
Being a follower on TPT will help you to catch

any future Flash Freebies! 

Watermelon Writing Paper

I just love that watermelon clip so much,
I have to add an additional clip from the
same little girl and her magical way of growing
her watermelons!
 Watermelon Magic uploaded by Spring Garden Pictures:

If you want a different style to use for writing
about watermelons...you could try out my
graphic organizers all about that delicious snack!

A+ Watermelons...Three Graphic Organizers

Since it's a brand new store item...you can get it
for 50% off today!  All of my followers always have
access to all of my products at that half-off rate
within the first 24 hours of posting!

This last one is a STEM activity

that I remade recently.  Some teacher

friends wanted to use the Pumpkin Push STEM

Pumpkin Push STEM

in May so I suggested that they could just

substitute another fruit....

oranges, cantaloupe, watermelons.

They really liked the idea of using watermelons,

so I remade the STEM activity using the song

Down By The Bay as a springboard.

Down By The Bay on youtube
version by Raffi uploaded by icnelly.

Down By The Bay: Watermelon Push STEM Activity

Dang girl!  
Do you ever sleep?
Like ever? 
I'm really hoping that the watermelons

don't bust open when we're rolling them,

but hopefully if we use smaller sized watermelons

we won't have that problem.

Maybe it won't be a problem even if they do....

When life gives you a busted watermelon,

maybe it's just time to sit and have a picnic!
....and celebrate the fact that the end is near!!!

Enjoy!