Good Afternoon! It's Saturday afternoon but feels like it could be Sunday afternoon, which is something we're getting used to in our house, might not be a good thing! Caleb and I have been working for my district's summer program this summer, we're calling it Summer Learning Academy. It's a great program that is brand new to this year aimed to help students get ready for the next grade. We serve students who are rising first graders through rising sixth graders. I have 7 rising fourth graders (one very small group, it's incredible for these kiddos to have so much more attention, I'm really digging the super small group) who have already made leaps in their education during the four weeks we've been together. We have three weeks left and I'm eager to see how much stronger they become. We focus mainly on reading, writing, and math but I've found ways to incorporate social studies and science. Our theme for the summer has to do with the Summer Olympics and we are all studying a different country. My group is studying Greece and we research (very Common Core like) and write to a pen pal at the other Summer Learning Academy campus to tell them about our country while they are researching to write to tell us about Jamaica. The kids love it! And boy are they learning! A lot of research, a lot of friendly letters, and a lot of Greece! It's really been a neat summer, packed with FREE field trips, FREE packs of books for the kiddos, and other incentives and prizes. I think it's really going to be a summer to remember for them, and me! I look forward to hopefully diving in again next summer. I say all of this to explain to you why today would feel like a Sunday at the Thrower house. We're both working with SLA this summer which runs from Monday-Thursday, 7:30-2:30. We have our Friday's off, which ends up feeling like Saturday which in all, feels like we have 2 Saturdays and then Sunday comes along. It's very nice, I hope we don't become too attached! The leaving at 2:30 thing every day is nice too, much better than 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, and the worst, sometimes 8:30. Always worth it but definitely nice to be done at 2:30 every day this summer. Like I mentioned earlier, we're focusing all of our time on reading, writing, and math. Math is my favorite, I was awful at it as a student but I think being so bad at it all of my life has helped me be a better teacher in it. I am constantly looking for new ways to help them "get it." I've especially needed to find/pull resources for helping my students understand number sense this summer. We're not focusing a lot on geometry, measurement, etc. but on numbers and operations and truly understanding a number. I found some things on Pinterest, of course, where teachers choose a number a day for their students to study. I've looked at several types of activities and gathered ideas from all and have created my own, "Today's number is..." I've seen A LOT for younger grades, but I've created one more geared towards 3rd and 4th grades. Please use if you see fit in your classroom and feel free to pin! I hope you enjoy!! Have a fabulous weekend and be looking out for my next blog.
Here are some other number of the day activities that I found on Pinterest...
I've been using this one this summer, until recently, when I created the one more fitting for my students.
http://loryevanspage.blogspot.com/2011/04/number-of-day.html
And another one...
http://shoopdedoop.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/todays-number-is/
And mine...
IMG-Today's Number Is
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