The One Where Summer School Starts

Week one of summer school is in the books! Our three week program has a lot of my future students in it and it’s getting me so excited for the next fall! (NOT to the point of wishing away summer, but still excited nonetheless) There are four of us teaching incoming 3-5 graders in a center rotation format. I see each student 25 minutes a day and I figured I’d share some of the successes we’ve had! 

Monday and Tuesday 

The first two days of summer school we focused on math concepts which students’ currently had misconceptions. Each group was a little different but topics included place value, rounding, and time. Summer school is a nice time to try out new teaching practices with smaller groups! 

Rounding was one area I strayed from our usual way of teaching to shake it up. Thanks to my obsession with Pinterest I found a great blog on rounding. It explains how to really teach foundational skills and the number sense behind rounding. Like anything good in life it took a little longer to explain but after two days of concrete work their reasoning for rounding has improved tenfold. For a more detailed look check out The Math Spot blog. (I won’t write anymore on it since it was not my own idea.)

Wednesday and Thursday

Each week we have a new theme that matches our Friday field trip! This week we went to the Ft. Collins Discovery Museum and watched an IMAX movie on space. So, Wednesday and Thursday we researched questions we had about space on the iPads. Three of the other rotations exposed the students to constellations, the planets, and other space topics. This gave them a good background for questions to keep asking at my center. 

Sometimes kickin’ it old school gives the best results. We used a KWL chart to keep track of what we already Knew, what we Wanted to learn, and then, what we Learned. Notice the change in both learned and want to learn! The more we learn the more questions we have. That’s my favorite part of a KWL chart is to show how learning never stops, even after our original questions are answered. 

Friday

            Our Friday field trip arrived and everyone survived the hour and a half it took our school bus to get to Ft. Collins. The Discovery Museum was fantastic! I always love children’s discovery museums and this was no exception. All of the exhibits had a hands-on factor that kept each child engaged (and hilarious hidden jokes and quotes for adults!) Our favorite was by far the music and sound exhibit. If anyone makes it to Ft. Collins and the brewery tours aren’t your deal, you can always learn about sound waves and Colorado native animals. ;)

These next few may give you a laugh, or show you that my humor has been brought down to an 8 year old's level. 

Overall a fun week of summer school that kept the kiddos learning and having a safe summer. Next week we are learning all about the ocean and will head to the Denver Aquarium on Friday!