Transition Time

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

It's that time of year again...the end.  Cut, that's a wrap!  Although the end of the school year means summer vacation, for many Cookie Monster kiddos it also means the BIG SCARY UNKNOWN.  These kiddos depend on regular meals and TLC from teachers and school staff.  Summertime means they often don't know what will happen, where they will go, or even what and when they will eat.  Which also means, as the end draws near, the behaviors presented are not so kind.  

To help these tiny, terrified students, we read Oh, the Places You'll Go! and started thinking about just what, and where, we would be going this summer.  I also shared some big news with my favorite little Cookie Monsters...I'm going back to school, grad school!  Unfortunately, this also means I will be leaving an amazing school and moving to a new city.  It was a tough day, at least for me, to say goodbye.  But, it was a great growing experience to share my worries and fears and help the kiddos process their own about upcoming events.

To liven up the activity, we utilized this download (thanks Pinterest) to share in words and pictures where we hoped to go over the summer and beyond.  Some places were pretty local- Glacier National Park, the lake.  And others were more exciting- Disneyland, Legoland, and Seattle.  The kids were able to share about plans they already knew about for the summer, and think about what plans they wanted to make for the summer.  

The book helped us think of places we might get "stuck" and times when we have overcome obstacles.  And the activity helped us plan ahead, a scary task.

Good luck to those of you finishing up school this week, see you next year...in a new town, and a new school!

Kristina

Visiting Feelings + iSpy feelings

1 more week....!

The countdown is on...1 week left of this school year! I know many schools across the country have already sprung their students for summer vacation, but here in Montana we are still chugging away.

To wrap up our unit on feelings, we utilized the book Visiting Feelings by Lauren Rubenstein.  This is a great book to help kiddos visualize their feelings and learn how to be curious about these feelings rather than overwhelmed by them.  After reading the book with the Cookie Monster kiddos, we played a game of iSpy feelings.  

For this, we simply wrote various feelings on cards and taped them around the room.  Utilizing the "Describing Your Feelings" worksheet, we "spied" feelings that were different shapes, textures, weather patterns, and sounds.  I started the game to give them an idea stating "I Spy with my little eye...a feeling that is soft."  Based on this information, the kiddos had to look at all the feelings and try to guess which feeling might feel soft.  If no one could guess the feeling after the first round, a second clue was given, "this feeling is quiet."  Most of our groups were able to engage in this game proactively with little direction, but it was a little tricky for our younger groups.

The "Describing Your Feelings" worksheet was a great tool to help children think about feelings in different aspects and was a great transition after reading "Visiting Feelings."  For more feelings ideas, check out my Pinterest board!

Kristina