Summer School newsletter #1

Our first week of summer school is done. I am so impressed with how hard they are working.

I wanted you to be aware of the FREE summer reading program at the library. You can even ride the bus for free to get there!! http://www.meadpubliclibrary.org/teens/picks

The children have been working hard to add words to our class word collector. Each of them also have their own personal one.

Remember: Reading logs are due on Monday.

In addition: as a class we decided to look and listen for at least 2 Interesting Words per night.

For example, instead of using "said" we could use "exclaimed!" or "ancient" instead of "old."

This is to use the the reading strategy under Expand Vocabulary- Tune in to Interesting Words.

Thanks to the parents that have helped their children this week and for the children who worked so hard. Keep up the good work!

Please remember to call you child in if they will be sick or send in a note if you know they will be gone on a certain day.

Pictures will be added when we are done with school today.

Have a great weekend. See you next week!

Summer School Day

8:00 Students enter the room. Books shop for books if necessary.

8:05- 8:30 Making Words Lessons

8:30- 10:00 Daily 5 Reading Rotations

R2S (read to self) WW (Word Work) WoW (Work on Writing)

Mini lesson 1

Mini lesson 2

10:00 recess

10:15 snack and read aloud ( Snack will be up to the individual student)

10:30- 11:30 Daily 4 Math

Lesson: Teacher will meet with individuals and small groups based on student ability.

All games will be from EDM books.

Fact Practice: The children will use flash cards to practice their facts.

Fact Games

Number Games

Strategy Games:

Students will rotate to each section as their choice. One of the “Must Do” choices is the teacher; the other “Must Do” will be the workbook. The children will be assigned pages based on their individual need.

11:30-11:45 Share: TICKET TO LEAVE and prepare for dismissal. Assign homework

11:45 Dismissal

Summer School

Summer school is a time where we will try to work hard, even though it is summer. I am working towards a classroom that is welcoming and a safe place for the children to learn and be comfortable. The children are able to bring in beach towels to sit on while they are doing Read to Self and Work on Writing. While the children are reading, they will be using the reading strategies from the CAFE menu.

At the end of summer school, I will provide you an individualized list of the strategies we discussed. Not all of the strategies will be covered for each child as we are building on the strategies that the students already have begun learning. . Some of the strategies are covered as a whole group but some will be covered during individual conferences.

Summer School Day 1

Each day, your child will work with math, writing, and reading. Each day we will discuss items on our CAFÉ board. Café stands for: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary. Together we will work on strategies from those ideas. Each week, I will post a newsletter on my classroom site: http://kinderpond.blogspot.com/ of the strategies we worked on during the week. Please let me know if you do not have access to the Internet and I will make you a copy of the newsletter and send it home with your child.

We will be working in small groups to give the students the most individual instruction to meet their individual needs.

We added one strategy to our CAFE menu:

Check for Understanding is the very first one we talked about.

Yarn Art

I covered cardboard with tin foil. We drew with glue then added the yarn. We used sharpies to color. We decided that you needed to overlap the yarn to make pictures sectioned off.

Watermelon Art

We rounded off the corners and then gave them light and dark green and red squares.
We made a watermelon graph. I made green colored copies for watermelons. Those are supposed to be vines (the yarn.) Only one child didn't like watermelon!

Salt Paint

I made some salt paint of different colors and put them in ketchup and mustard bottles. They took forever to dry. Make sure that the lids are on tight. After using them for the activities, one of lids was loose and one of my students was using it and it blobbed out- so I said it should be a green bush lol

Feeling Buggy?

Here are two different TLC projects that we did. We did Ladybugs in Grass and the ladybugs, ants, and bees in the mural.

Here are some lessons:

http://www.kinderpond.com/ladybugunit.html

http://www.kinderpond.com/insect.html

Seuss on the Loose

Every year we decorate the room and every year all of the students come visit our very own "Seussville" Each class comes for about 30 minutes. We look at everything in the room. In years past, I have dressed up as either the Cat in the Hat or when the Horton movie was coming out, I was Horton. Here are some of the photos of the classroom from last year: