Continued Learning

Website of the Week:
National Geographic Kids
Some highlights from the site...
Photo Fill-ins - Kids can fill in thought balloons with silly or serious quotes. This can also be done with magazine photos or even photos taken during vacation. There's a great website that allows you to create photo film strips with speech bubbles using Flickr - Bubblr.
Cartoons - similar to Photo Fill-ins
Make a Kaleidoscope!
Watch some baby wood ducks hatch!
Make beads from old newspapers!


Activities:

1. Reading ~ Have you read a book recently that you really enjoyed? Read some book reviews written by children and then write your own! Share What You're Reading
2. Language ~ Look through old magazines and catalogs for images that grab your attention. Cut out a picture (be sure to ask if it's okay first!) and then glue it on a piece of paper. Write adjectives all around the picture that describe it - try to come up with at least 15 words. 
3. Mathematics ~ Next time you are out to eat, ask for a To Go Menu (you can also find these online for most restaurants.) Pretend you have only $7.00 for your meal - what would you choose? What if you got to choose food for your whole family but only had $20.00 to spend? Try different combinations. You can also practice your 'ballpark estimates' by rounding the amounts or practice using a calculator.
4. Writing ~ Keep a vacation journal. Write about how you spent your days and who you were with. Not much to tell? Make up a crazy entry like in the book we read, How I Spent My Summer Vacation.
5. Health ~ Make a graph of the healthy foods you eat this week. How many items did you eat in each of the food groups? Did you eat more veggies than 'extras'?
6. Science ~ Walk around your yard or neighborhood and collect 15 things you find along the way. Sort them into at least two categories and label them appropriately.

Hey kids!

If you choose to complete any of these activities, take a photo and email it to me! I'll post it on the blog for your classmates to see. :)

I hope you are enjoying your vacation so far. I can't believe it's already been a week! I have already read a great book, seen a few movies, spent time with my friends and am now getting ready for my trip to Washington, D.C.  I can't wait to see my sister and my nephews. What have you been up to?

Here's a silly picture I took of my friend's dog Gunner, beside the pool. :)

I miss you and hope that you are having some fun! Do something to exercise your brain and your body this week. My next post will be from Washington, D. C.!

Big Hugs,

:)Ms. G

Let the learning continue!

Hi Families,
Providing summer learning opportunities is an important way to prevent your child from experiencing "Summer Slide" - a common occurrence for children when they have 2-3 months off during the summer. This loss of learning time can lead to problems for students down the road. According to a USA Today article, "...a well-documented "summer slide" in academics that, by sixth grade, accounts for as much as 80% of the achievement gap, Allington and other researchers say. Researchers note that low-income students lose about three months of ground each summer to middle-class peers." 

Three Ways to Prevent Summer Slide from Scholastic's Parent and Child Magazine
Keeping Kids Off the Summer Slide from Reading Is Fundamental

Sadly, our lease prohibits us from having summer school at LdV this year but that doesn't mean the learning has to stop! I will be posting some suggestions for educational opportunities here on our blog all summer long. I will try to provide a variety of activities, both things kids can do online and things that can be done easily at home and in your neighborhood. If you have any suggestions for activities or your child would like to share what s/he's been up to, please email me! I'd love to put their work up on the blog as well! I'll have the first post up ASAP.

Hugs to you all,
:)Ms. G