Summer Math Activities

Summer Math Activities

Each summer my grandkids incorporate a variety of fun activities with basic math concepts. We also like to play board games that include counting money (Monopoly), matching numbers with analytical game playing strategies (Mexican Train Dominos), or learning how to strategically connect intercontinental train lines (Ticket to Ride). We spend hours completing puzzles. Over the years, my kids and grandkids used their math skills when helping with various household activities. Below are ten activities that can support math skill development:

  1. Use math for a home project. We are in the middle of painting and fixing bathrooms. We are teaching our grandkids how to calculate the square footage of each room for painting, carpeting, and refinishing hardware floors.
  2. Budget a trip or outing. My teenage granddaughter loves to shop. She is very astute in managing her clothes buying budget and determining how much money she will need for an activity. She loves math and is passionate about getting the most value for her money by researching and comparing prices online and at stores.
  3. Balance checkbooks and statements. Our grandkids are learning how to manage their money with debit accounts. Their parents transfer their allowances into online debit accounts that the teenagers can use for errands and food purchases. They can also check statements throughout the month to monitor expenditures.
  4. Encourage kids to use math when selling products or providing services. An elementary grade school grandson loves to make cookies and lemonade to sell on a busy street near his home. He must measure ingredients to prepare various cookie recipes. He must then determine how much he spent for supplies so he can identify a cost for each item that he will sell to generate a small profit. He will repay his parents for his supplies and keep the profit from the items sold.
  5. Incorporate career explorations and internships. A middle school granddaughter started a custom stamp making business online business. She made beautiful return address stickers and artistic stickers for envelopes and scrapbooking projects. A high school grandson was able to use his increased skiing skills to teach younger children how to ski. He plans to extend his skills when working with children with special needs next season.
  6. Use math when completing community service activities. The middle school grandson is passionate about trains. He and his grandpa volunteer for a nonprofit recreational train depot at a county park. He is learning how to support the basic maintenance of trains and is meeting the engineers who service the trains. He has memorized the commercial train whistle signals. He is also learning carpentry and uses math skills for fixing fences and various train depot repairs.
  7. Use math for landscaping projects. The grandkids help us prepare the soil and layout when planting flowers each summer in our garden.
  8. Design clothes. My younger granddaughters wanted to learn how to sew. We decided to create basic dresses for their Barbie dolls by measuring and cutting out two felt shapes that were bigger than their dolls. We sewed them together with yarn and then we cut out a large opening so the dresses could slip over the heads of their dolls. These handmade outfits stayed on their dolls for months.
  9. Create mandalas. The grandkids love to watercolor. We use a spirograph or incorporate basic shape templates to design a pattern that they can watercolor for cards or for an art piece for their rooms.
  10. Create counting collections. My grandkids are collectors. I have several hundred buttons that I have collected from four generations of family members. We count these buttons. We count coins and exchange them at the bank for larger denominations of cash. We count seashells, ants, stamps, stuffed animals, and any other cherished items. Some of the children categorize specific collections.

May you and your child treasure your own creative adventures while incorporating math into your daily lives this summer.




Moving with Kids

Moving with Kids

In a few weeks, our family will move across the country, back to my hometown. Our family has experienced the spectrum of emotions about the move:  excitement, hope, anxiety, and sadness.  Sometimes a few feelings all at once!

Looking Forward To Hellos As We Say Goodbye

I have always sensed the weight and importance of walking my children through this move in a healthy way, allowing time to discuss all the feelings as they surface.  I felt a little lost about how to do this. I wanted my kiddos to process leaving friends and our home here but also look ahead to the new opportunities waiting for them in the Midwest.

My kids each have favorite activities that I knew they would love to continue after the move.  I researched new Boy Scout troops and nearby mountain biking trails for my son.  My daughter loves her inclusive Little League team, and I found the same Challenger league exists within driving distance of our house!  I found a horsey summer book club for my daughter who loves horses and reading.  Two-for-one win!  And maybe by continuing these hobbies, they will meet new friends.

Lean on Friends for Support

A friend of mine made a similar big move a few years ago. I reached out last month for her input on a long-distance move.  She suggested that we research places to explore in our new home.  Since I spent my childhood there, I had plenty of suggestions.  My kids have spent time every summer with my parents in my hometown, they had even more ideas.  As their list grew, so did their anticipation.

My friend also advised that the kids find at least one friend in California who could become a pen-pal as they made the transition and developed new friendships.  We went shopping for letter-writing supplies:  creative stationery, envelopes, stickers, and stamps.  They will give these pen-pal kits to their chosen friends before we leave…something to look forward to seeing in our new mailbox!

Be Mindful of Our Own Feelings

In the midst of walking through this big change with our children, it has been important for my husband and I to be mindful of our own feelings. We need to take the time to discuss and process our own emotions, too. Children are intuitive and will sometimes follow our lead as they watch us.  In the end, actions do speak louder than words.

Moving day is just around the corner. I hope my kiddos will look forward to new opportunities and activities, even as we say goodbye to our life here.

 

 




Getting Kids to Read

Getting Kids to Read 

It’s summertime! School is out of session and our children love to sleep in and play outside. It is hot and our children enjoy waterplay and staying up late. But what can we do to avoid the summer slide? As a teacher, I send home 12 donated books for each child to use for summer reading. I instruct them to read each day throughout the summer and write in a journal their reflections about what they read and learned from each book. Then I tell them to bring their journals into class in the fall and share with their teachers their wonderful reading adventures. I also warn my younger readers that if they do not practice reading each day, they may forget how to read at the start of a new school year. They agree that they must practice and are proud when they have completed extended reading homework assignments.

Ten Summer Reading Activities

Below are ten motivating strategies to inspire kids to read each day this summer:

  1. Make it fun. My grandkids asked me to bring some of their favorite books to the swimming pool so they could read to me while eating their snack after a swim lesson. They are excited to show me how well they read.
  2. Be engaged. Although I did not attend back-to-school night, the grandkids made sure I sat with them as they read their stories to me. One granddaughter described how she is in a published book. Another wrote about having a funny grumpy grandpa and nice grandma who helps her.
  3. Incorporate art. Each grandchild keeps a journal at my home. A favorite activity is having a sibling, cousin, or me draw a picture in their journal. Then they draw their version of the illustration and write a story about the picture. Favorite themes have been bloody horror and scary stories. Other themes include how to stories and fantasy adventures.
  4. Take the kids to the library and relax while reading together various books. Our library sells children’s books for $1. I encourage them to purchase books that they would love to keep.
  5. Research your family history by checking out relevant books about the country that your family immigrated from. Study the history of the communities you and your relatives have lived in throughout generations.
  6. Encourage your child to write a graphic novel. They love to create talking bubbles with illustrations. They can also develop a book of their favorite characters with a new adventure or storyline.
  7. Explore having your child submit a creative writing story to the Highlights Magazine for kids.
  8. After completing an art project, have your child research and write a story about how they created their project and what they can do in the future to expand their skills. For example, our granddaughter loves to watch YouTube videos about how to draw specific animals. Then she researches specific books about the animal to understand their behaviors and their habitat
  9. Help your child plan for a summer camp or family vacation by having them research places to visit and the history of specific activities. For example, a granddaughter will be traveling to New York, New York this summer. After reading and researching various activities, she is excited to visit the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park, and a Broadway play. She will also collect postcards and memorabilia to add to her scrapbook with a story about her travels.
  10. Research the rules about a sport. My grandson is passionate about sailing and spends hours reading and researching all the safety regulations of sailing in the bay. He also must master how to safely prepare for and navigate a sailboat in various weather conditions.

Much success as you and your children incorporate reading into relevant daily life summertime activities.




Ten Strategies to Ensure Student Success

Ten Strategies to Ensure Student Success

Our staff met these past few weeks to reflect on the many successes that we have achieved with our students this school year.

Student Engagement in Learning and Their School Communities

Here are our top ten strategies for student success:

  1. Our high school students are fully engaged once again in their daily school activities after distance learning. They use their talents, skills, and voice to produce creative projects through media art classes that include film and photography projects.
  2. The leadership team creates monthly social activities that include group movie nights, lunch time rallies, a twin day, a pajama day, and a pie in the face of an administrator day. The all-time favorite was when the students dyed the hair of an administrator.
  3. The students’ ongoing academic growth is impressive at the 8th and 12th grade levels because these students lost 18 months of face-to-face learning without social interactions with their teachers and peers.
  4. All students are achieving significant milestone growth at each reporting period.
  5. Our afterschool study hall provides students with academic teacher support by using supplemental materials for acceleration.
  6. The student clubs are supported by teachers and support our English learners in their language development. Favorite student clubs include the chess club, film, volleyball, an adventure club with science and nature activities, and a cooking club that focuses on cooking culturally diverse recipes.
  7. The teachers collaboratively support each other at the many academic activities to foster cooperation and team work.
  8. We have a larger pool of students in our senior class who are eligible to attend four-year universities and colleges.
  9. Teachers and parents can now attend student sporting events since the COVID restrictions have been lifted for attendance.
  10. Our major event for the year was a “trunk or treat event” in October. Nearly 25 cars were decorated by the students with open trunks full of candy for students and their families. The high school media arts class decorated cars along with the advisory groups. The community attendees voted on the best decorated car. Community agencies provided community services. A community vendor provided reduced cost foods as a donation for the event. And staff members performed in a folklorico dance group. This celebration of our school community truly showcased the vibrance of our students and their many achievements.

Much success as your school’s staff creates spring and summer activities to celebrate your school’s families and their children’s many achievements this past school year.

 




Writing Standards with Fun Activities (Part 4)

Writing Standards with Fun Activities (Part 4)

Each year I am challenged in how I can adequately increase the writing competencies of my students in project-based learning activities. When I partnered with another teacher, we created a checklist of what we had to complete by the end of the school year to meet all writing competencies. These activities included:

  1. Writing teachers must understand the rules for grade level writing standards.
  2. The teachers must consider various activities that will fully engage and inspire diverse learners.
  3. Writing activities must be fun while meeting a wide range of reading and writing abilities within a class. This ensures differentiated instruction that is equitable and successful for all students.
  4. Writing teachers must research and collect resources that will support an engaging writing activity in the classroom.

What I Must Teach

I also reviewed and summarized the California writing standards for my second-grade class that included:

  1. Write opinion pieces with an introduction and reasons for supporting an opinion.
  2. Write an informational/expository text with an introduction, supporting facts, and a concluding statement.
  3. Write narratives about a sequence of events with details, thoughts, and feelings in an organized order of explanations.
  4. Produce writing that is organized according to task and purpose.
  5. Learn to revise and edit with support from the teacher and peers.
  6. Learn to use digital tools to publish writing products in collaboration with peers.

What Students Have Learned

When reviewing this list, my class has already created an informational text on learning more about rattlesnakes and how antivenom can neutralize a venomous rattlesnake bite. Next, my class completed a reflective narrative about how they researched and created the snake story with our writing teacher, Mrs. Burke. Most students were impressed with how Mrs. Burke shared her story about being a rattlesnake survivor after being bitten and medicated with antivenom from a horse. Many expressed relief that they would not die from a rattlesnake bite and that there are medications that will save them from a bite. Finally, students wrote an opinion story about how they plan to protect themselves from rattlesnake bites when working in their garden or hiking with their family. Most do not want to ever encounter a rattlesnake. Many also feel confident they now know how to protect themselves from a bite.

What We Must Still Learn

As I initiate second semester writing assignments, students will now focus on more collaborative writing and editing assignments while working on their Chromebooks. Their activities will include writing a fantasy story in the winter months and completing a career path research writing project in the spring time.

Much success as you engage your students with differentiated collaborative writing projects.