How Should I Help My Kid Over The Summer?

A common question around this time of year is, "what should I do over the summer to help my child?"
I would like to share some options that you may like to use.

• Parent Resource: Please take a moment to read this resource How To Help Your Child Love Reading Over The Summer. It was shared with me from Beth Moore who has been a literacy coach for our school for a number of years. It offers suggestions for how to help your child to enjoy reading over the summer!
• Classroom Blog: Our classroom blog can be used as a way to navigate various websites that relate to math, reading, etc. What is nice about this, is that the students are very familiar with our blog and how to access various programs and games.

Wednesdays at Summit Street School:

• Summit Street Learning Center will be open this summer on Wednesday mornings from 7:30 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. Students and adults are invited to exchange their summer reading books.

• Please visit the library on Wednesdays, starting June 26th  and ending August 21st.

Writing Ideas: Writing can be tricky to think of ideas for. This blog is co-written by Beth Moore. It offers writing suggestions that may spark your interest. Please see suggestions below:

• Create a toolkit (notebook, pens, sticky notes).

• Design a space (special corner in their room with pillows and a clipboard or a beach towel and water bottle for outdoor writing).

• Write cards, letters, and lists.

• Take field trips (walk the neighborhood, visit the library, local museums, or parks). Reflect on those outings by drawing and/or writing.

• Tell stories to your child and with your child. You can record their stories by writing them down, using a voice recording, or by saving them on SoundCloud.

• As your child tells stories, help structure the stories with a beginning, middle and end format. Telling stories is an important precursor to writing stories. Your interest will encourage your child to add details!

• Does your child thrive on a challenge? Color in the squares of the WRITE BINGO board for additional prompts and writing inspiration. (Younger children might like this version (also found at https://goo.gl/MP7J9K )and older children could enjoy this one (also found at https://goo.gl/nT3Gvl ).

• Check out Sharing Our Notebooks, a site by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, for many ideas on summer notebook writing.

• Encourage your child to write a review for all the great reading being done this summer! Sites like The Spaghetti Book Club allow students to submit book reviews!

• Get appy! Try some apps that allow your child to draw with his/her finger or a stylus, record audio and draw. Some favorites include Pixie, Explain Everything, and Notability.

• Tell and retell stories of favorite summer moments with your child. Make a scrapbook of special photographs and memorabilia from the summer. Encourage your child to write about favorite moments and add them to the scrapbook.

More ideas on how to help your child grow as a writer can be found here.

Summit Street School Field Day Volunteers

Summit Street School Field Day 2019

• Wednesday June 12th
• 8:30 - 11:30 am  AND / OR 12:15 pm - 2:15 pm
• Click here to sign up 

Volunteers are needed to assist with our fabulous field day festivities.  We are looking for 25 volunteers for morning and afternoon sessions.  This will be an all-day school-wide celebration.  Volunteers are needed to run field day stations or assist teachers with assigned group of students.  We guarantee a fabulous day!!  Please join us.  We also invite you to stay late or come early for the school lunch BBQ. 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080448a8aa22abf58-field

Pollinating Pollinators

Today, we got together with Mrs. Filipek's and Ms. Novotny's second graders. We created pollinators out of various art materials. The next step will be to act out pollination with flowers. 

This Week's Reminders

Our end of the year Musical is on Thursday at 1:00 at Fleming.  The children should wear combinations of black, brown, red and/orange solid colors.  

****Children will be dismissed from the back or from Village Kids after the performance.  No one may be dismissed from Fleming or at the classroom.  

Friday is our 2nd grade class picnic at Maple Street Park. We will be leaving about 10:00 for our walk and plan to return to Summit about 2:30.  

Please be sure your child has the following:

• Sneakers or some sort of Velcro sandals
• Lunch and drinks (unbreakable containers)
• Sunscreen and/or bug spray
• Items that they choose to bring to play with should be labeled with their name.  NO hard baseballs are allowed.
• Pack a light jacket in their backpack in case we have a light rain shower on our return walk.

We plan to eat lunch about 11:30 if you would like to eat with your child.  End of the day dismissal plans will be followed unless we have a written note on Friday morning.  

Our Audubon Field Trip

We had a fabulous field trip yesterday at the Audubon in Huntington! The students had the chance to spend time in the different habitats at the Audubon, learn how to identify birds and their nests and explore the beaver pond! 

Seed Dispersal

In learning about plant survival, we explored various ways that seeds are dispersed. We learned that seeds can be dispersed by:

• Water
• Wind
• Animals
• Itself (on its own)

Next, we learn more about pollination!

June 6th Concert

Please plan to join us at Fleming on Friday, June 6th at 1 pm, when our Summit Street students will be presenting songs and dances in a performance called A Million Dreams, featuring some of our favorite music.  The performance will take about an hour and will involve all classes in a school-wide showcase.

We are suggesting that students wear the following colors, but please do not purchase anything.  This is just a suggestion with a lot of flexibility!  

•  Kindergarten - any combination of yellow, brown, white, and black (solid colors)
•  Grade One - solid color shirt - any rainbow color - dark pants, shorts, or skirts
•  Grade Two - any combination of red, orange, and black (solid colors)
• Grade Three - any combination of black, blue, and green