Delk Summer School

My kids watch a lot of tv. It's sad but true. It's also a crying shame since I'm a teacher and should know better. Oh well.

It's a rainy, dark day outside and I decided that I didn't want to watch Harry Potter for the hundredth time, or watch Phineas and Firb on the Disney channel. (I really can't stand that show.) So, I started the Delk Summer School. I had some school materials that haven't taken to school in my house, so I can feel professional when we work. Also, I'm really just anal like that.



Chart paper- in rockin' awesome colors. I just can't teach without color.



I found these fabulous cards at Target. They are good as a starting point, but I plan on making a lot of my own materials from here on out.

So, as a teacher/mom, what is the first thing I do? I assess their prior knowledge.

With Isaac, I know that he knows his ABC's, numbers, letters and letter sounds, shapes, and some basic words. With him I am going to start working on making and reading 3 letter words. For math skills we will begin with making numbers. (with things like beans and pasta- groups of 3 for example)

The twins are a little harder. For one thing, Abby is annoying and wants to do everything Isaac does, even though she is not on his level. Already I am having to diversify my instruction to make her feel like she is involved, without having to actively work with her while I work with Ike.
Today Abby saw Ike working with markers. So, I let her work with markers too.



I let Andy work with the Leap Frog alphabet magnets. He was happy as a clam. (No picture, sorry)

So, here is Day 1 at the Delk Summer School...

Isaac worked with the 3-letter word cards that I found at Target. He put the cards together, spelled the word and said the word. After he did 3 sets of cards I had him write the words. He wrote 9 words before becoming antsy. Not bad for the first day. ( No math today. I need to get some glue before starting our math lesson)



With Abby and Andy, I let them do their "Individual Learning Centers" while I worked with Isaac, then I assessed their vocabulary using the picture flash cards. For Andy this was a double whammy since it let me know what he recognized, and it helped with his speech therapy. From here, we can work on making 2-4 word phrases with the picture cards. (Ex.- I see a cat.)



Great job, Andy!!



Andy recognized and could properly verbalize 27 of the picture cards. I wrote down the pictures he recognized and added any extra words he added. (ex. for "boots" he said "shoes". I counted it, but documented the swap.) Yea Andy!!


It did not surprise me that Abby had a larger vocabulary than Andy. I already knew that just from her speech. However, even though she has a more extensive vernacular, that does not mean she is ahead of Andy in all areas. She does not recognize all of her letters, for example the way Andy does.



Abby recognized 39 picture cards! I also documented any swapped words that she said. (ex- "airplane" for the word "jet") My favorite of her swaps was when she said "coffee" for "cup". She recognizes that a lot of the adults in her life like to drink that disgusting brown stuff. (not I, obviously)

It was a start. I played Beethoven, softly, in the background while we worked. The kids had a good time and I feel like I accomplished something. Tomorrow we will work on math. I hope. I might even start making lesson plans. Cause I'm anal like that. :)