Grandparents’ Day

Thank you so much for all the nice comments.  Theresa asked if I had any ideas to share for Grandparents’ Day.   We didn’t usually celebrate it at our school because so many children do not have a grandparent who lives close enough to participate, but I love the idea – especially since that is my new role!  I have collected a few ideas that might help, most of these are from my files – sorry I can’t give credit to the authors.

I would begin at circle time demonstrating how we always start our day.  I would ask each child to introduce his/her guest and I would have encouraged children to bring any older adult in their lives if a grandparent were not available.  We would demonstrate some of our Hugs and Handshakes (check out that post if you aren’t familiar with this idea.)  Here are some songs you might sing to greet the Grandparents.

Songs

Here is a poem my own children learned when they were little – a long time ago!!

Glasses

Here are a few ideas of crafts you might want to make for the Grandparents – or have them make with the children.

I love the idea of making a big award ribbon out of a paper plate.  The child could use markers or stick on foam letters and shapes to decorate it.

You can never go wrong with a pencil can.  The children could decorate the paper covering by drawing or gluing on words or designs.  It might be fun to print out words like Grandma, Nana, Mimi, Grandpa, Papa, etc. in different fonts for the kids to cut out and glue on.  A bookmark is also a timeless, useful idea.

I thnk it would be a great idea to take a picture of each child with their adult.  You could make a simple frame out of popsicle sticks or tongue depressors (decorated with markers or stick on foam) – or you could cut the photo into strips and rubber cement them onto tongue depressors to make a puzzle.

Grandparents and children could trace and cut out their hands, then glue them onto another paper with the title – My Grand(ma)(pa) and Me!  If a child brought more than one grandparent all the hands could be on one paper.

You can never go wrong with flowers!  This was a mother’s day gift for my daughter in law that you could easily adapt.  I would put just one handprint for the grandparent.  An alternative would be to just put the handprint, eliminate the cut out tulip shape, and glue a circle picture of the child’s face on the handprint.

Here’s another flower idea:

You could use a cupcake paper for a 3 dimensional effect.

One of my favorite Mother’s Day gifts is this hug – great for grandparents too!

 

 

I traced the child’s outstretched arm and hand onto a folded piece of pink construction paper.

After cutting the arms and gluing the heart we folded them to be a huge hug.

This is the poem we glued on – easy to change to Grandparents’ Day!

Here is someone else’s adaptation of the same idea:

 

I think Grandparents would enjoy joining in to a very simple cooking activity like this:

You could use any kind of pie filling.   All they really have to do is crush up the graham cracker in a baggie, then add the filling and Cool Whip or Whipped Cream.  You could do this with pudding too!  Very simple and tasty!

Cherry pie-7 copy

Here is an idea of a Grandparent booklet you might want to make or adapt to give to the grandparents.  You would run the 2 pages back to back and fold it like a card.

Grandparents booklet

On behalf of all the Grandparents out there – Thank you for making our day special!!

 

The Pledge of Allegiance

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but you all really do make my day!!   This is my second year to watch the buses go by my house, instead of waiting for them to arrive and deliver my Kindergartners to me.  I have plenty to do, and I’m thankful for time with my family and friends, but I will probably always miss Kindergarten.  I really appreciate teachers who read my blog, and especially when you leave a comment.  It means so much to hear form you!!   A couple of days ago Cindy asked if I had any activities or ideas to share about the Pledge of Allegiance or the American flag.  I’m so happy to share!!

pledge 1

I hope that reciting the pledge is part of your classroom routine. I loved doing the pledge, but I wanted it to mean something to the children.   The beginning of the year is very busy, and depending on your group – sometimes it is really a matter of survival for those first few weeks!   The first thing I emphasized to my children was to put their right hand on their heart.  I mentioned this in another post, but I found it really helpful to cut out a left and right handprint.  I put a flag sticker on the right hand, then I taped both handprints on the wall by our flag.  Now when the children looked up at the flag they could hold up both hands and figure out that the one that matched the handprint with the flag was the one they would put over their heart.

I found this book about the flag in my files.

Printable copy:

american_flag_book

I often took the flag out of the holder and brought it to circle time so we could study it.  I liked to ask the children what they noticed about it, and encourage them to use some math skills.  I had this handout in my collection, but I only used it to remind me to talk about patterns, counting, and shapes with the flag.  Sometimes we made our own chart telling what we noticed about the flag.

Sometimes we colored individual flags and I taped them to pencils for a flag pole.

flag

This book has great information, I didn’t always read it word for word because it is a little long.

I used to have a reproducible small book retelling the Pledge of Allegiance, but I guess I didn’t save a copy.  I think it was from Frank Schaffer but I didn’t find it in my search.  There is a nice little booklet on this website:  www.hubbardscupboard.org, under the social studies section.

Since I couldn’t find my little book, I made another.  I enlarged a copy on the copy machine and read it to the whole group, taking time to talk about what the words really mean.

Meaning of words

You could copy the clipart and put the words into a pocket chart too.

This is a half page book to be stapled on the left side.  You could put 2 of each page on one page, then after copying and collating you would just have to staple the books.  Or you might not choose to send it home, but just to read it to your class to help them understand those mysterious strange words.

Pledge book

Here is another chart I found to help explain the meaning of the pledge to children.

pledge chart

So Cindy, I hope this gives you a few ideas that you could use.  Please everyone, feel free to ask – if I don’t have an idea or activity, someone else might!