I didn't want to start summer school until after the family vacation and yesterday just wasn't a good day for me to start. So, we started "classes" on a Tuesday and that's OK.
Melissa was a genius and reserved the church's gym every Tuesday morning. This way we have a place to go every week, rain or shine. We have invited other mommies and their kids to join us, and today Kayla and Ansley came. I didn't get any pictures, sorry. Also next week we will come better prepared with jump ropes or something. We had basketballs at the gym, but the kids would have liked something more.
I'm also hoping next week is dry so we can play on the playground outside of the church.
When we got home we did some "lessons". It was mostly a sit down and focus time.
I got a Summer Program book for Isaac to work through. It's a book of kinder-1st grade activities. Today he worked on the kinder assessment pages.
Then Isaac worked on math. One of the second grade teachers had an extra math workbook from this past year, so I grabbed it up and brought it home with me! Lesson 1-1 Writing Addition Number Sentences.
Our vocabulary words for this lesson. We are going to work on these words- recognizing them, reading them, and using them in context. We made some flash cards and attached them to his chair. He can go over them when he's waiting for lunch and dinner.
The twins worked on 3-letter words. I bought 3-letter word cards a few years ago for Isaac and now it's the twins turn to use them. Abby and Andy put the cards in order, said the word, and wrote the words in their journals.
Abby worked very hard on her letters. She's still working on letter recognition, so when she wrote her letters she had to focus on making the letters look just like the letters on the cards. Honestly, she created her letters the way a painter would create a still-life painting. She looked for lines and curves and wrote to match. When asked if she could read the words without the cards, she couldn't. She was able to spell most of the words, but there was no connection from letters to words yet.
Andy is a different story. He recognized every letter on the card enough to write all of his words in capital letters. After writing the words he was able to read most of the words back to me. He already has a pretty good sight word base. The words he didn't recognize on sight, he also wasn't able to sound out. He knows his sounds, but blending them together isn't there yet.
After reading/ writing practice, the worked on tracing their numbers 1-5.
Andy did a great job of doing each row in order. He started at the top of each number and followed through to the end.
Abby worked column by column instead of row by row. She also worked backwards, 5-1. She didn't start at the top of each number, she did the curves of the numbers first, then the straight lines. Or, in the case of the 4s, she did the side-to-side lines first, then the up-and-down lines.
I can tell that I'm going to have a real time teaching Abby. She's more of an artistic learner where I'm not necessarily an artistic teacher. Maybe the best way to describe it is that she and I are both stubborn and are both convinced that our own way is the right way. She hated having to erase her letters when I told her they were backward. She didn't see that the "e"s had to be a certain way to be right. This is going to be fun.
Each kid has his/ her own notebook for their work. I am also documenting their progress each day along with anything I notice about their work.
I'll try to keep everyone posted as to the kids' progress this summer!
The twins are really excited about starting Pre-K this coming school year and I want them to be ready for more structure in their lessons.
Isaac was tested and passed the gifted test last year and will start the program next year. I really don't want him to lose any of his learning over the summer. We will be focusing on his working independently, reading and comprehending directions for himself.
I will be working on creating lessons and activities for my class next year. I'll still be in 3rd grade and my administration wants 3rd grade to be departmentalized. I will be teaching social studies and math small groups. Lord, help me.
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