After teaching Kindergarten for 6 years, I know how much fun the 100th Day of School is for students, and how much they look forward to it. When I moved to PreK, I wanted my students to feel the same excitement, so I took the fun in a slightly different direction and started celebrating the 50th Day of School, complete with a fun 50s theme, games and activities.
The Activities:
My day is set up in stations, and I have parent volunteers man different stations throughout the day. I begin by dividing the class into small but manageable groups. The first station we have is the Photo Booth. I have the Rockin' 50s Backdrop, Inflatable Jukebox, and some Rockin' 50s Sundae Tissue Centerpieces set up in a corner of my room. I have some props laid out they can use to take some funny pictures. The kids' favorite was the Inflatable Guitars. I also laid out the Poodle Skirt so they could dress the part! The second station we have is putting stickers on the Vinyl Album. I love the fine motor aspect of this station. Using the Mini Teacher Reward Rolls of Stickers, the kids take a strip of stickers (counted out to 50), and put all 50 stickers on the vinyl disk, one sticker per dot. The third station is a fine motor station as well. I have five 'ice cream sundaes" with 10 dots on each. The kids use one of the tweezers from the Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set to move White Pom Poms from the basket to each of the "sundaes". The fourth station is a favorite as well. Using the scoop from the Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set, I have the students move a scoop or two of Opaque Pony Beads to their plate. Next, they have to place them one by one onto the ten frame mat we have. It's always so interesting to see how the kids sort the beads. Some make patterns, some just sort them by colors and then some just put the beads randomly on the mats. There are a couple of ways to do the next part. The first option is to use the Pony Bead Necklace kit to make necklaces. I like these necklace templates because there is a stopper at the end, and the beads can't all fall off. You can also use just regular yarn and Super Safe Lacing Needles. Just make sure to tie a bead at the end of the yarn to prevent all the beads from sliding off. The other option is to use Chenille Stems to make bracelets. They will have five bracelets with ten beads each on them. My little girls are obsessed with the bracelets I wear every day, so this was a huge hit with them! It also helps reinforce that fifty is both five groups of ten, or fifty single beads. The kids' absolute favorite station is an engineering focused station. My kids BEG for it for weeks after the celebration day. The goal is to build a stack that is 50 cups tall. I let them build however they want to. I also have the iPad out at this station so they can take pictures of their amazing structures. I used these super cute Rockin' 50s Disposable Cups, and they were the perfect way to add a little bit of fun to our 50s celebration! Little Details: To really make the 50th Day of School POP, we transformed our room! We used Teal Paper Lanterns, Purple Polka Dot Lanterns and Lilac Stripped Lanterns to bring out the colors in the backdrop and decorations. It's hard work changing the tone of a classroom that is predominantly red, yellow and turquoise! I also added a Vintage Car Stand Up to the decorations, and of course it was a real hit with the boys! I hope you took some great activities away from our 50th Day of School celebration! You can also get the activities HERE for free!
