KindergartenWorks: end of the year kindergarten handprint poem

The end of the school year brings lots of work and pulling a year's worth of learning together. Learning about each other, life, academics, problem solving and more. How can a kindergarten teacher use activities to help pull it together? Here is one idea where the finished product is more for the parents, but is a great discussion starter and lead-in activity.

End of the Year Handprint Kindergarten Poem

This end of the year Kindergarten Handprint Poem is a great printable from Little Miss Kindergarten that you can use with your class. We actually had it going simultaneously during one of our last writer's workshop sessions. We always start by writing our names and putting on invisible gloves (a foamy great-smelling soap) and rub it in like hand sanitizer.

End of the Year Kindergarten Handprint Poem

Students chose from three colors of paint and added their own prints. I think that they turned out very beautiful just as they are on white paper, so we didn't add anything, although you could definitely could let them paint or add more to the frame.

We don't "graduate" from kindergarten in our building and honestly, some will be ours again next year in kindergarten. Yet, we don't focus on that line of the poem as a class. We focus on how far we've come and we read First Day Jitters. (They can handle the twist ending by the end of kindergarten) We tour first grade classrooms while they're away at a special and write a letter to our new teacher.

I attach their letter to the back of their student profile sheet so when we do our class sorts, the teacher can be familiar with their writing, work and get a warm note from their new student. It all comes from these cute end of the year handprint poems and kicks off our wrap up activities with the right note of celebration (without the craziness), excitement for next year and appreciation for kindergarten.

More End of the Year

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17 Simple End of the School Year Student Gifts and Writing Activities
26 Fun and Memorable End of the School Year Celebration Ideas

I'm that kind of teacher who is already thinking about organizing and freshening up one or two things to prepare mentally for next year. How about you?
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- Leslie