Dear Parents and Friends,
It has been such a joy watching your children grow and blossom this year in Sky Class. We want to thank all of the parents who donated money to our classroom gift, it was so generous. A big shout out to our classroom parents, Megan and Sadie, for all their hard work this year and to all our parent volunteers. It takes a village for sure. Below is a video of our last day of school and rising ceremony. I have also attached a summer learning letter (which will also be emailed). Be sure to check out Natalie's summer reading lists! Play often, go swimming, and read, read, read! Enjoy your summer!
Summer Learning – June 2017
Each year we provide some suggestions for summer learning. Of course, summer provides wonderful opportunities for children to have time with their families, time for their own interests and projects, and time to relax. A lot of important learning goes on when children follow their own interests and generate their own projects. Through these they develop initiative and responsibility for their own learning and lives.
There are additional ways you can encourage building on the skills they have been developing this year. Regular visits to local libraries or bookstores are great. Your child can find books that interest her/him. Libraries and bookstores often offer events such as story time and book-themed activities. Magazines and comics can be another source of enjoyable reading material. There is also practical everyday reading, such as reading labels and lists at the store, reading maps and signs on trips, and other reading of the words that are all around us.
Here is a link from the National Council for the Teachers of English to a host of resources for language arts work that are grouped by grade level:
Here are some other links to recommended lists for summer reading:
http://www.ala.org/alsc/publications-resources/book-lists/2017-summer-reading-list
Our library website (lslibrary.cfsnc.org) is a great place to explore our subscription databases such as Pebble Go and World Book Online as well as kid-friendly websites and search engines under the Research tab. The Parent Resources tab also has reading recommendations and links to diverse reading lists. Natalie is also happy to provide individual reading suggestions for students over the summer by email at nharvey@cfsnc.org.
Writing also can be part of summer activities. Trip journals and blank storybooks for them to fill in with their stories can inspire writing. There is also letter writing to friends and family. Some children may enjoy writing a newsletter about family doings or neighborhood happenings. If you are on a trip, your child could be a reporter writing stories for a trip newsletter.
Nature experiences and trips can be wonderful ways to explore science, math, and social studies. Creative activities are always great fun, as well as significant learning opportunities. Cooking can include both math and science. (It’s a great place to work on fractions.) Math can be practiced through money management, map reading, and lots of games with dice and cards. See the attached sheet, Math Games, for some ideas to get you started. Students will have access to their Reflex Math accounts until June 30. They can continue to log in as they have this school year until that time. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has a lot of resources at their Illuminations page (http://illuminations.nctm.org/) Bedtime Math (http://bedtimemath.org/) is another good source of math activities and problems. Coding using Scratch Jr. and PBS Kids Scratch Jr. (available as free iPad apps through the app store and as an Android app) supports creativity, design skills, and math skills.
Edutopia has gathered links to a variety of sites that provide resources for summer learning: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/summer-learning-resources-matt-davis
For iPad users, we’ve attached a list of iPad apps that we often use in the classroom. Many of them also have Android versions. In addition, here is a link to a list of iPad apps recommended on Richard Byrne’s blog:
