Mrs. F  brought in Barbie dolls and rubber bands today, in our never-ending quest to see what sorts of odd things we can use to teach with.  First, we figured how many rubber bands it would take for Barbie to safely bungee off of a yardstick.  We figure Barbie is a thrill-seeker, and wants to [...]

Today we practiced so many math skills: ordering numbers sorting counting by fives, tens, and mixing fives and tens adding on from 15 with 5s and 10s algebraic thinking (j = 11) number-symbol relationships adding on to larger numbers   And social skills: taking turns conflict management managing disappointment encouraging others strategizing Okay, we played [...]

We finished our posters with lots of ways to cool down this summer.   And lots of things to avoid, too!

My husband tells me that today is supposed to be the hottest day yet of the summer.  Add in Missouri humidity, and I’m afraid it’s going to be miserable! Today’s writing lesson focused on things that are good and bad on hot summer days.  We brainstormed a list of good and bad things, and a [...]

Today’s letters: a, a, e, i, o, l, n, n, s, s, t   We made many words from these letters, arranging and rearranging them.  The “secret word” (uses all the letters) was a tough one! But we finally figured it out – sensational!   To find a selection of words to use from one [...]

This is one of my favorite four block activities, from Month-by Month Phonics for Third Grade  (during summer school, I’m using the one for upper grades). First, we make a chart with two rimes that sound the same, and spell words with both rimes: The kids write the one that looks right to them, then [...]

We’re working on our second five-paragraph essay of the summer.  The first one was about three of each student’s favorite things.  This time we’re writing about a memorable haircut.  We’re nearly done, and will illustrate and share them on Monday!

We used a bunch of random shapes to make patterns: Then we sorted the same shapes: And finally put them in order:   Kids came up with their own rules for patterning, sorting, and ordering, and did this as many times at they could in our hour of math.  It was really interesting to see [...]

Every day, we start off with a review of one of last year’s skills on a worksheet.  Sometimes these are tricky!

Summer school isn’t always fun and games!  Today we sorted words, looking at one rule for adding suffixes. Later, we tried our hands at some logic and problem solving for math: We also started our second 5 paragraph essay!  These kids are busy bees, and such hard workers!