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!
