End of Year Poems + Festivities

End of Year Poems and Festivities
Where are you in the countdown? Already celebrating summer or still with a few heartbeats to go? I'm making my annual rounds of 'end-of-the-year' Author-Illustrator school visits and I have some new images to share. 

The poem above came home in the summer bags for the WonderPeeps. Miss Janet and Miss Dee had personalized the confection of words with just the right sentiment. It's so hard to imagine that we are officially saying good-bye to the preschool era for the WPs! They're off to kindergarten in the fall. Oh.My.Word!

Now let me share some kinder-ideas from my annual two days of fun at Darby Creek Elementary. This 'piggy-back' song was on Mrs. Gilmore's flip-chart. Long term readers here know how I LUV handwritten anchor charts. Here's the first verse. Sing the verse to the tune of "Love and Marriage." (That was used most recently as the theme song of the ol' TV show 'Married with Children.')

*I don't know who to credit for this clever piggyback song. If you do, please let me know and I'll edit. We checked Mrs. G's copy and there was no author attribution. The very talented 'unknown' will suffice for now. Sorry.

Seeing both of these two examples of End-of-Year celebrations to conclude last week, put me in a pensive mood and the desire to write my own little tribute. I decided that I wanted it to be generic enough to be useful for all of my friends -- whether it be PreK or Kinders -- maybe even my 'big kids' as they transition out one door and into the next. 

*Once I'd written the poem, I typed it line by line at Picmonkey, so that I could adjust for color. That's how I added the little flowers.  We are going to keep it in a pdf format over at our collaborative cyber-store as a FREEBIE. Pop over to our 

EARLY EDUCATION EMPORIUM
to get your free copy. My poem is a standard 8.5 x 11 inch format. Just go grab the pdf and print to your heart's content.  
(*I think that I've done this correctly from the golf driving range. I will double check after this afternoon's matinee and adjust accordingly.)

Now for a kindergarten graduation bulletin board standing just outside Mrs. Sherwood's classroom door. You've maybe seen something similar on Pinterest. 
She took black and white photos of her kiddos holding the announcement of their intended profession. 

This may be your first visit here and if so, welcome. I am a singer-songwriter of original songs for children. I make my way around the country visiting classrooms sharing my original songs and their picture book format. 

My song, "You're Wonderful" is the ultimate 'graduation' song of affirmation and guaranteed to bring on genuine tears for this meaningful time of transition. 

"You're Wonderful" Digital Download 

Here's the link to YouTube watch it being performed by a combination of preschool children and ECE college students at a family gathering. 

Honest-to-goodness. If you taught my song tomorrow, it could be 'ready-for-performance' by the next day. It's that simple. Your kiddos REALLY will sing it. The sign language will guarente video footage will be shot. 

I am now receiving feedback that some schools are using my "Red, White and Blue" for their end of the year concerts and performances. I am doubly blessed! It would be truly PERFECT for your Memorial Day festivities. It too is a picture book, but the song and sign language chart are also available in digital download format. 

I had a similar RoundUP last year. You'll probably want to go back to this earlier article to see a host of other ideas -- including a couple of additional bulletin board ideas specific to EOY festivities. There's a TON of handprint happiness in the first article! 



As always, your pin(s) from my articles are the very best marketing I have -- besides your word of mouth enthusiasm. I am so grateful when you share my work with others. Pinterest is my number one source of traffic here and is now resulting in my visits to schools! Thanks so much for your pins! 

-- Debbie -- 

I'm now at 120,989 followers!     

Click this link to go there directly! 

Now at 319 followers!

Linked this article over at Kindergarten Works