Waiting makes me restless. When I’m ready, I’m ready.-Reba McEntire

“Mrs. Meeuwse, my brain and my butt feel all jiggly.”…  And can’t we all relate to that? We have 7 days of school remaining and these kids are ready.  In fact, I’m not sure if the dinosaur drawing to the left is really a dinosaur or a portrait of me the last few days.  I may or may not be a little cranky…

To be sure, we are continuing our daily routine as much as possible for as long as possible.  We are busy readin’ writin’ and ‘rithmaticin’ daily.  The problem is these brilliant kindergartners are-Caps Lock- DONE,  ready to move on, needin’ to bounce, DONE.

So, in order to preserve my sanity, I came up with the idea that we needed to work on a project.  An end-of-the-year-what-have-I-learned project.  The idea was well received and they quickly went to work sketching out their plan.  They still like to make their plans on paper.  They have the choice of how to present their project.  Some are choosing Explain Everything, some, iMovie, some Book Creator and some Pic Collage.  I needed to intervene only once…a loud chorus of “None of your business!” rang out from a group of girls working together when a rogue boy intruder came by to see what they were doing.

Waiting makes me restless.  It definitely makes 5 and 6 year olds restless. When they are ready, they are ready. What better way to wrap up the year, than to have students share what they have learned?  Some are still working on their projects and it may go on through the week.  Here is one group that made an iMovie. They planned out their script and did it all themselves.  They are already talking about what they want to add to it. They said this is their “rough draft”.

We will have a sharing time so that all groups can show their work.  Some chose to work by themselves on the project and that’s ok too. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.  What matters, is that even up to the end, we are working together and students have the ability to choose. When teachers find ways to nurture these inner motivational resources, they adopt an autonomy-supportive motivating style.

All of that to say…the count down is on.  The natives are restless and we need to stay busy.  An end of the year project is just what we need to get us through the crazy.

Today we will do exciting new things. Let’s get to it!