Linking with Doodle Bugs...Week 1 of Summer School

 

Link up here!

I'm a couple of weeks behind on sharing our ESY activities, and want to present them in order, here is what went on
the first week ....

1. Our Reading

 

• The Deep Blue Sea (colors, predictable text)
• Under the Waves (nonfiction)
• Over in the Ocean (rhyme)
• The Octopus Song

2.Art project

 

 

Deep Blue Sea

Great project! It takes two days.

First: paint the entire paper blue, don't leave any white. (well some friends have trouble with this)

 

Second: glue and sprinkle sand. Apply sea animals.

3.Science experiment

Salt Water

 

We did an oldie but goodie experiment.(I forgot to take pictures)

 

Materials:

2 clear glasses/cups of water

3 raw eggs

salt

 

1. Display the 2 glasses of plain water.

"Are these the same or different?"

 

2. Show the eggs.

"These are not cooked."

Demonstrate by cracking open 1 egg into a separate container.

 

3. Gently place one egg in each glass.

" What happened?"

See if someone comes up with "they both sank."

 

4. Take the eggs out. Add a good amount of salt to one glass.

"How are the glasses of water different?"

 

5. Place eggs back into the glasses.

"What happened?"

"What do we know about salt water now?"

 

I love this experiment! It encourages lots of language and has the "WOW" factor.

 

 

 4. The Beach (Sensory Play)

 

Fishing!

 

 

 

Mud!

 

 

A couple of boys took my Ms. Frizzle quote seriously!

 

 

They had a grand time. But then.....we adults put the lid on the tub and left it for 4 days...when we returned....

Mold!

So that tub of sand has been retired.

I'm looking for more ideas to replace it

and keep the fun going.

 

5. Station Activity

 

 

Adapted book. Match pictures as we read the book.

 

Happy 4th of July!

 

 

 

Paula

 

Station Rotations....Under the Sea Style!

For ESY our classrooms usually have a variety of students who work at many different levels. This is just one of the cool things about getting to teach in the summer! It is a challenge and gets the teaching brain cooking.

Once I know I am hired for ESY, I choose a theme.

When I receive information about the students, I compile their objectives into categories:

• Math skills
• reading and writing skills
• behavior and social skills
• communication skills

I pack what might be needed ( I always over do this, I'm trying to reduce the number of boxes but it's hard).

If the theme is a new one for me, I go to Oriental Trading, they ROCK!

After "regular" school is out, I spend a couple of weeks doing what I want and the third week planning for summer school.

I purchased my own laminator....and....it is the best thing ever! I don't know why I waited so long!

(PSSST....also the film is so much better then the film we have on our school laminator)

My brain requires time to sort out how and what I want my classroom to look like. I know teachers who just open the boxes and they are ready! I envy them, but I would be hysterical if I tried to do that!

Most of the time, after the first week of ESY, I relax. Our team (usually 2 assistants and myself) figure out ongoing problems as they occur and everything goes just FINE!

I work with the most amazing people! I have been teaching ESY 8 years and have never worked with anyone who wasn't fabulous!

I'm getting off topic......

this all leads to the  STATION ROTATION part of our school day!

 

The theme is "under the sea".

 

The stations are named to match.

(stations have matching visual-see previous post)

 

Visuals are crucial!

 

Velcro helps us be flexible!

 

Groups are assigned....3 to 4 in each. (hopefully no more)

 

and given a necklace to help remember which group they belong to

 

 

Groups are divided into

starfish

turtles

jellyfish

 

3 groups....3 adults....each of us wears a necklace also and travels with our group.

 

In the past, adults have been assigned a station and stayed there.

 

Traveling with the group works better....if kids need help transitioning someone is right there.

 

I ring the bell when it is time to move.

 

We change around their groups because someone always wants to be something different...

("awwwww....I wanted to be a turtle.")

 

This way I can say

" You will be a turtle tomorrow."

 

 

by the way, the necklace pictures are stickers from the awesome

Oriental Trading.com

 

 

 

That's it for now!

 

 

Later,

 

 

 

Paula

 

Five for Friday....July 11, 2014.. Hermit the Crab

Happy Week-end! Linking with Doodle Bugs Teaching......

ONE

The weather was edgy all week, lots of rain but we managed to have recess every day! 

Sometimes I still can't believe that we live in this amazing place, I think to myself "I'm going to wake up and be in my bed in Oklahoma". I have mixed feelings about that, because if I lived there I could easily drive over to my Dad's or sister's houses!

TWO

We are in the house buying process, we were pre-qualified for a loan, BUT now that we are closing in on a house, there are more questions. I did a foolish thing also, I purchased an item on payments and now I need to explain it! I'm wishing someone had told me not to buy anything  until all of this was finished! I am feeling dumb......

THREE

Sea life was the continued theme this week. We read A House for Hermit  Crab by Eric Carle.

The crab art project really turned out cute! The most difficult part for the students was folding the strips.

FOUR

My daughter is getting married soon and the supplies are coming in.....

We are so excited!

FIVE

Here's our awesome bulletin board!

Next week is our last week of ESY (Extended School Year). Our final theme is "camping at the zoo". I have found some good stuff from the measured mom blog and huggies.com to get us through the week.

Later,

Paula