Pack your bags for Camp What-A-Wonder!

Wonderopolis became a favorite website for our class last year. This summer, they aim to combat 'summer slide' and keep kids' brains engaged all through their vacation with Camp What-A-Wonder. Here's some information from the site:

Wonderopolis® is putting a new twist on an old tradition this summer. Created to combat summer learning loss, a troubling trend of children forgetting a significant amount of what they learned during the school year, Camp What-A-Wonder is a free virtual program to engage families in learning while school is not in session.

Don’t miss Wonderopolis’ weekly Campfire Sessions — a one-hour opportunity for parents to gather and discuss related topics with a facilitator. The topics will focus on the same weekly themes at camp and will take place on Twitter on Thursdays at 8 p.m. EDT. (That's 5:00 for us in San Diego.)

This is a great opportunity for families to learn together and even earn prizes! If you don't already have one, you'll need to set up a Twitter account if you are interested in participating in the online discussions with other parents and the facilitator.

To check out the first of eight sessions, visit Wonderopolis today and learn about poison ivy!

The entry includes a video called "How to Recognize and Avoid Poison Ivy" and a link to an e-book "about your skin and how it works." You can even show off all you've learned by taking one of quizzes. Have fun at camp and be sure to write! :)

Puppet Show ~ June 29

PUPPET SHOW
June 29th, 3pm Pacific Beach Library (Puppet theatre with rhythm instruments for the audience)

ZOMO the Trickster Rabbit from West Africa presented by San Diego Guild of Puppetry. Colorful puppets leap out of the welll-loved book by Gerald McDermott. Come join ZOMO in his search for wisdom!
Performed by Iain Gunn & Mindy Donner

 I wanted to share this opportunity to see our friend Mindy Donner perform. She is a member of an organization called Storytellers of San Diego. Check out their website for opportunities to see live storytelling all over the county.

Synesthesia

I came across a video today that made me instantly think of my students so I had to share! If you follow our blog, you may remember that we read a great book called The Name of This Book is Secret. For more about that, click here. Synesthesia was an important topic in the book and the children often wondered if it was "a real thing." Though we discovered that it was indeed real, we didn't learn much more about it - other than what we learned from the book.

Daniel Tammet, who appears in the video below, has linguistic, numerical and visual synesthesia and is further described as a high-functioning autistic savant. He describes how much richer words and numbers can be to synesthetes. The video actually meant for an adult audience so some of it may be difficult for children to follow but I found it very interesting to hear him describe how he views the world. Check it out and let me know what you think by leaving a comment...

Kids - I miss you all and I hope you are enjoying your vacation so far! Hugs, :)Ms. G