The Last Week of School

MCA and NWEA testing is finally over. Thank goodness! Testing season is so taxing on the children and teachers. While it's tempting to stop teaching and show a movie every day (it's true, I walked by a few classrooms last week where they showed a movie every single day), I think it's important to keep those little ones actively engaged in learning up until the very last day of school. I'm impressed by all the teachers that use this time to fully immerse their children in fun projects, something we don't always have time for before state testing. Our wonderful ELL teacher, Ms. Christine Brinkman, had one of the third grade classrooms create a diorama showcasing their favorite story from our National Geographic REACH curriculum. Our students can only be creative if you give them the opportunity to be creative. And boy did they run with this project! Here are a few examples of the amazing student work:

Ms. Ashley Eichhorn and I had our students make pinatas after reading The Pinata Maker by George Ancona. It was such a mess, but sometimes it's just necessary to let the kiddos be a little messy. The pinatas turned out nicely!

To prevent the dreaded summer slide, we sent home an 8-week summer packet with each of the students. Each day the students will have five math and five literacy problems to complete. Depending on the student, each page will only take about 10-15 minutes to complete so it's just enough daily spiral review to help them retain what they have learned, but won't take up too much of their summer fun time. If the student brings back the packet completed during the first week of school, they will get a reward from their teacher.

Are you looking for a free summer packet to send home with your students? Or are you looking for a free summer packet to use with your own child? You can have a 5-day summer packet sample for students going into first grade, second grade, third grade, or fourth grade for FREE!

Or you can purchase the full 40-day summer packet for students going into first grade, second grade, third grade, or fourth grade. Either one you choose, parents and students will be delighted!

Four more days until summer break! I cannot wait to lay by my pool with a good book and summer cocktail!

Happy summer everyone!

Mai