Wow! Everyone is officially a 2nd grader now! I'm going to miss seeing my sweet children every morning, but we will be getting together for several class events. Be on the lookout for details. I will be emailing any special dates that you need to know about as well as letting you know when I have updated the blog. I hope your summer started out more relaxing than mine! So far, I've been to Daniel Island, South Carolina for some fun with our best friends, visited Sarasota, Florida for family beach time, and now I am heading to the mountains for a white water rafting trip with my family! After that, I'll be resting at least a little bit. Students, make sure you check out my SUPER SPECIAL POLL on the side of the blog. I think you will be very excited and CURIOUS about my question I have for you. Parents, I am re-posting some summer ideas to keep your child busy. I've also added a list of books that I think are worth while for your child to read. Keep in mind, this is a generic list and you will need to really focus on the level and look at the book to see if this is a book that your child can handle reading. My rule of thumb is if your child struggles with five or more words on a page when reading it out loud, the book is too difficult and comprehension will not be what it needs to be. Of course, you can always get the book and read it to your child!
Here's the summer ideas:
1. Set aside time (an hour is great) EVERY day during the week for quiet brain time! Have your child go to his/her room and pick either reading or writing to do for that hour. One trick that works really well with my girls is I say, "Okay, tell me when you are in your room and ready and I'll set the timer." I've never had any procrastinating since they know that they are telling me when they are ready to begin. As soon as they hear that timer, they can come out.
2. Activity suggestions while your child is in his/her room are write a letter to someone, read a chapter in their book and illustrate the main idea, read one chapter and write what they think will happen next, go on a "verb" or a "noun" hunt from their book and then write sentences of their own containing those words, read a chapter then write a descriptive paragraph about the main character. Every child should be reading daily!
3. Devote some time each week to go to "math facts practice" at the suggested websites at the bottom of this blog...my favorite is the math magician! How many math fact sets can they pass? Have a race with your child!
4. Play SALUTE with your child to practice finding the missing addend in an addition problem...this is SUPER math fact practice. A deck of cards and three players are needed. Your child is VERY familiar with this game.
5. Keep a summer journal and every Friday, write all about their favorite activity from that week. Emphasize the importance of keeping that paragraph format that we have enforced all year long in our writing. There should be a title, indentation, and a paragraph including who they were with, where they were, what they saw and what they did. About 10 sentences is the expectation...Don't forget to emphasize that HOOK and COOL CLOSING!
Here's the book list:
Cam Jansen (series of chapter books by David Adler)
Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux
The Indian in the Cupboard
Charlotte's Web by EB White
The Boxcar Children (series)
The Lightening Thief
Flat Stanley (series)
A to Z mysteries (series)
No comments:
Post a Comment