Towards the end of the year, as educators we try to squeeze so many fun and engaging activities before our students head off for summer and start another grade. One of my favorite activities to do at the end of the year is an ABC Countdown. You can check out my ABC Countdown on my TeachersPayTeachers store here. To determine when to start your countdown count back 26 days from the last day of school. Our school years ends in May, so I count back 26 days and and start with letter A towards the end of April (or you could do it backwards and start with letter Z.)
ABC Countdown Struggles
One thing I struggled with was having to prep the days in advanced and making sure I have all supplemental materials ready. The typical ABC countdown consist of things to do on those days. For example, A is Art Day and you get decided an art project to complete, B is Beach Day and students come in wearing bathing suit and bring beach towels to lay on in the classroom. It was engaging but as a teacher at the end of the year I struggled to keep up and be prepared. Also, my students thrive on routine and 26 days in a row with routine thrown off was not a good idea haha.
ABC Countdown with Standards
After waiting a whole year to revamp my countdown, distance learning happened due to Covid 19. This allowed me to think outside the box because now we aren’t in the classroom. Without being in the classroom and students learning from home with support from their parents, how could we do an ABC countdown?? I knew it have to be simple, easy, low prep and not time consuming.
I created a calendar with all the letters of the alphabet that match a kindergarten or first grade standard. There are one page worksheets that go along with each day that students can complete independently. You can even use this next year as morning work or during RTI time.
The BEST PART OF ALL, you can grab this calendar for free at the bottom of this blog post in my Facebook Group, Kindergarten with Kayla! If you want to create your own activities that go along with these standards this can be your starting place.
Activities for the ABC Countdown
I wanted to show you some of the activities included in this resource in case you are like me and would rather buy things complete, instead of trying to figure it out yourself! To see the complete resources, click here to view in my TeachersPayTeachers Store.
For letter A, the activity is addition. Students will try to complete 20 addition problems between 0-10 as fast as they can.
For letter B, the activity is blends. Students will write the r, l or s blend that matches the picture. All worksheets that have color also have a black and white version to save ink!
For letter C, the activity is colors. Students have black and white pictures and have to color them to correct color using the options from the directions. Example, the pig will be pink and the crab will be red.
My favorite is letter in the ABC countdown is letter Q and the activity is questions. Students get to pick a book of their choice and answer the five questions. For example, who is in the story and where did the story take place?
Free Calendar in my Facebook Group
I know we are all scrambling things together to give to our students for distance learning. To help you still maintain fun activities at home, I am giving you my ABC countdown calendar for free in my Facebook Group under the files section! Click the photo below to grab it! Let me know what activities you come up with that match these standards!
