Thursday, May 17, 2012

Stop Summer Sliding and a FREEBIE

I'm linking up with Life with Mrs. L for her Stop Summer Sliding Linky Party.  What do you  do with your students to help prevent that summer slide?  Link up below.


Stop by and check out all the wonderful posts on this subject.  I have  enjoyed reading all of the great ideas.  I have to admit that as a parent to 4 children ( 3 of them in school), I struggle with the summer slide.  Summer is such a busy time for us ,and our routine is vastly different compared to the school year that time spent working on school related items with my kiddos slips away.  I do enroll my kiddos in our public library book programs and set aside time for them to read each day, but I'm ashamed to say that's all I usually do during the summer aside from the daily teachable moments that occur.  I really want to make it a point to work with my kiddos this summer.  A few minutes each day is all it really takes.

My kindergartner brought home a calendar of activities to do during the summer months, and I love this idea.  Something short and sweet and "doable" during those busy summer months.  I generally send home a note with things for my students to work on over the summer such as reading, writing in a journal, and multiplication facts... but nothing tangible and user friendly.

So I have been busily creating a Summer Bucket List booklet for my students.  It's a summer activity booklet to help prevent that summer slide.  I'm really excited about it, and am even going to tweak it a bit to use with my 5th grader this summer.  This booklet can be used with grades 2-4.  There is a calendar for June and July with daily activities. There is also a short activity sheet to complete each day.  At the end of this booklet is a certificate that states the student completed their Summer Bucket List.  The parent signs it, and the student brings it in to their previous teacher for a small award.
This is what you will find in this unit:
1. parent letter about the booklet
2. calendar of activities for June and July
3. Daily activities for students to complete.
Some of the activities include:
Reading ( Monday-Friday students are encouraged to read daily)
Math- fractions, telling time to hour, half hour, and 5 minutes, counting money, shapes, adding and subtracting with regrouping, multiplication
Writing- students will be asked to write about some of their adventures. They will be asked to write poems, recipes, and a sequence of events.
Language arts: correcting punctuation and grammar errors, homophones, synonyms, antonyms, verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs
Additional activities included are:
Bubble blowing contest
Write a poem using sidewalk chalk
Tree identification while hiking
Water balloon fight observation sheet
Make a fruit salad- record ingredients
Make a dessert- record and measure ingredients
Watch a sunset- draw and write about it
Water gun fight- write sequence of events
Weatherperson activity- record the temperatures throughout the day
Paper airplane race- measure distances
Here's a  picture preview of the Summer Bucket List:




And.. as a BIG THANK YOU for following my little ole blog.. You can get this for FREE from my TPT store through Friday May 18 at 3pm ( after that it's $3.00).  Click on the picture preview above to download it for free.  Please leave some love and let me know what you think.
Have a fabulous day!!!

Don't forget to link up with Life with Mrs. L for Stop Summer Sliding or stop by and read the fabulous ideas many bloggers have given.



..



6 comments:

Briawna said...

Thank you so much! This is amazing!

Heidi said...

Thanks so much. It looks awesome :)

Heidi
My (Not So) Elementary Life
mynotsoelementarylife@yahoo.com

Heather said...

Thank you so much for sharing this! What a wonderful idea!

Lorena said...

Thank you so much!
I am a new follower!

Lorena
Little Treasures

Neesa said...

Thank you for sharing this gem.

louise zirk said...

I am teaching summer school and this is just what I need to survive the experience!! Thanks for sharing your creativity.