ABC Countdown to Summer - Marlie Rosenberg

One of my favorite things to do in kindergarten is our ABCountdown to summer. The last 26 days of school we celebrate with a different letter of the alphabet. I have read some fantastic blogs with so many great ABCountdown ideas. I wanted to share the ones I do for our ABCountdown.

A – Alligators and Apples ~ Students made alligators for a less than or greater than game. The students made little apples out of play dough. The students were placed into pairs and rolled dice to see how many apples to put in the middle. The students who rolled the higher number alligator ate the apples.You can download the template I used for here

B – Bubbles and Books ~ We made bubble solutions and adding craft paint. We then blue the bubbles and caught them to make cool designs on a thick piece of card stock. When the card stock dried we used it as a cover for a book. Click here to download the cover of the book we used.

C – Compliment Cards ~ We made compliment cards and gave them to our friends. For more information you can find directions and printables here Compliment Cards
D – Donuts with Dads ~ Dads were invited in to read with their child and enjoy a donut!

E – Exciting Experiment ~ Students were asked to bring in one of their fathers white undershirts to be turned into a lab coat. We used fabric markers to design our very own lab coats. When then performed the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment. The kids LOVED this day. They enjoyed creating their own lab coats and watching the diet coke explode. I guess it turned into our Exciting Exploding Experiment day. You can find the journal we used for this day for free here Diet Coke and Mentos Freebie

F – Frisbees ~ We learned the best way to throw a frisbee and measured our frisbee throws to see who had the furthest frisbee.

G – Game Day ~ Students brought in different type of games to play with one another. This day was a great way to revisit rules and being a great team player.
H – Hawaii Luau Day ~ We made leis by using a flower whole punch to make card stock flowers. We punched a hole in the middle and strung the flowers to make them look like leis. When then learned a Hawaiian luau by watching the Zumba Fitness Haleiwa Hula.

I – Ice Cream Day ~ Nothing too exciting here except eating ice cream sandwiches!
J – Jungle Juice ~ We made jungle juice by following lemonade recipe and dying the lemonade green.
K – Special Kid ~ This is one of my favorite days of my ABCoutdown. Students take Special K cereal (or any cereal) boxes and write kind words to one another. You can find free printables and instructions on how to make the boxes here I’m a Special Kid

L – Lunch Bunch ~ Students were allowed to eat their lunch in the classroom and they voted on a small video to watch during their lunch.
M – Muffins with Moms ~ We couldn’t leave the moms out! Mothers and grandmothers were invited to come in to read with their kids and enjoy muffins!

N – Neat and Clean Day ~ We started to clean the classroom for summer
O – Outside Story ~ we read outside (this was an easy day for me)
P – Peter Pan Pepperoni Pita Pizza Party ~ This was a mouth full! We watched my favorite Disney movie Peter Pan and ate Pepperoni Pita Pizza’s that we made in the microwave and ate popcorn. We also read the original Peter Pan novel during quiet time over the previous month.
Q – Quids ~ I work at a Catholic school and this year our Q day fell on the day we celebrate Quid Admirantes.
R – Rainbow Scavenger Hunt ~ We walked around our school’s campus and searched for items that were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

S – Summer Birthdays ~ We celebrated everyones birthdays that falls during the summer.
T -Treasure Hunt ~ Our class was visited by a secret pirate that left us maps of our school and clues/riddles to find a secret treasure. We found a gold bag of valuable ring pops!

U – Unique Object Day ~ Students brought in unique objects to share with the class. We had so many wonderful objects including a special pet gecko!

V- Virtual Visiting Vet ~ One of my best friends is a veterinarian. She lives in Pennsylvania and I am in Utah. She gave us a tour of the clinic she works at and showed us a quick examination of her dog Skittles. We did this through FaceTime. The students loved watching the vet visit on our projector.

W – Water Safety Day – We learned all about water safety rules. We used these rules to keep safe at our Swim Day.
X – X-tra special day ~ We went swimming on swim day!
Y – You’ll be Missed ~ We signed yearbooks
Z – Zip up and go! ~ We packed up, said our good-byes and left for summer!

Having an ABC countdown to summer is one of my favorite things about teaching kindergarten. This was a great chance to review so many concepts while enjoying the last few days of their kindergarten year!