summer Archives | Page 4 of 4 | Lucky To Be In First

Happy Friday! What makes this Friday even more incredible is the amazing weather we’re having in Northern California! It always gets me pretty pumped for summer {just 28 days more!}

My sister’s twins came over for a swim yesterday! These guys crack me up. The pool was freezing, but it was fun to get a taste of summer!

Speaking of summer, I finished up my math Staying Sharp in the Sunshine summer pack this week. I’m trying to prevent the dreaded summer slide between first & second grade. I plan to send my kiddos off with a pack full of skills we’ve covered this year. As an added bonus, they’ll earn a trip to the prize box if they bring it back completed at the beginning of next year!

You can read more about this pack {here}

As I panic that there’s {just} 28 days, I’m working furiously to squeeze stuff in! In our continent study, we spent some time learning about Europe. We created a George Seurat ‘painting’, played the Danish game Nimbi, made awesome Claude Monet Water Lilies, played Italy’s Cencio Mollo…and more! Today we’ll be exploring at South America!

It's a Small World - Study of the Seven Continents Lucky to Be in First

Click {here} to learn more about It’s a Small World.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Daily 5. What I don’t love about Daily 5 is emptying book boxes. I dread it, actually. Part of our routine is to put the guided reading book they’ve taken home the previous night into their Book Box so they can read it during Read to Self time. This gives the kids a lot of choice during D5 time.

However, imagine the amount of books…24 kids with a new book each night — and not emptying those boxes for many, many, weeks! It’s a logistical nightmare!

So, genius struck and I put the kids to work! Excellent idea! We turned it into a game and they were able to stack up their books way faster than I could ever figure it out on my own.

In Science, we wrapped up our look at animals with a silly mammal activity. We read the magical story of The Whingdingdilly. It’s about a dog who wishes he was a horse. The silly story that ensues is a great excuse for using our own imaginations to dream up our own Whingdingdilly!

Click on the book to read more about the story.

The kids had a fun time creating their own crazy mammals.

Click the picture below to grab your own copy of The Whingdingdilly!

Make sure to head over to Primary Paradise – one of my freebies is featured in her Top Five Freebies of the Week! Go grab some goodies!

I hope you have fabulous plans for the weekend! JB and I are headed to our first Giants game of the season! Woooohooo!

Slainte!

So grateful for the sunshine! Bring on summer!

While we’re on the subject of summer, I’ve been thinking of how I’m going to make sure my kids hold on to everything I’ve taught them. {Okay, they won’t remember it all, but I’d love for them to head off to second grade with their teachers thinking I’m a rockstar!}

So, I created Staying Sharp in Summer: Daily Common Core Math Activities for Summer!

Since we’ve worked hard ALL year to make our kids have mastered all of the Math Common Core Standards we don’t want the dreaded summer slide to happen!

The cover got an update, but the content is the same!

This pack is designed for students to complete a page-a-day activity. It’s a simple daily review of the most important concepts they’ve learned in first grade…and they’ll need to remember as they head to second grade!

Simply photocopy the pages and staple into a book.