Summer Fun Ideas for Families

Summer Fun Ideas for Families

There are 8 1/2 days left of this school year and 84 summer days between June 9th the first day of school on September 1st.  I know summer will go quickly for me, but for some kids summer can be long and boring and they are anxious for school to start again.  Below are some links for some terrific summer ideas to share with parents.

Fun Summer Science Projects for Kids - PBS

Creative Summer Learning Ideas - Scholastic
This link from Scholastic also shares some great end of the school year activities!

28 Boredom-Busting Summer Activities

Enjoy the summer, I am looking forward to some time to do things I don't otherwise have time to do. 

Aesop's Fables and Literature Teaching Guides

Aesop's Fables 

Aesop's Fables Interactive Book is presented by the American Library Association, and adapted from The Aesop for Children: With Pictures by Milo Winter published by Rand McNally & Co in 1919.  Aesop's Fables is considered to be in the public domain in the United States.  Enjoy this wonderfully presented collection of Aesop's Fables and be sure to click on some of the interactive or video illustrations. 

Literature Teaching Guides

Literature Teaching Guides has a wonderful collection of Teaching Guides with a separate collection for primary, middle school, and high school literature.  It has a category for Summer Reading Lists, Holiday Reading Fun, an Interactive Calendar of Holidays and Seasonal Events and much more! Know that Teacher Vision offers a free trial when you sign-up for a membership to TeacherVision.  You automatically get seven days of free trial access to all the materials on the site before being charged the membership price.  If you are looking for free literature teaching guides materials for residents of Wisconsin, check out TeachingBooks.net.  This outstanding resource begs to be explored!  I am happy to meet with anyone that is interested in learning more about both of these resources.

Summer Reading

Summer Reading

Summer is just around the corner and reading should be a daily part of summer fun!  The following article titled 7 Strengths of Super Readers: Turn the Summer Slide into the Summer Leap cites a "study found that if children read four or more books over the summer, they did better on reading assessments in the fall than their peers who read one or no books during that time, regardless of any differential." The same article also offers some great ideas including Celebrating Independent Reading, Summer Read-Aloud Fun, Creating Super Reader Families, and 7 Strengths for 7 Weeks of Summer where this program has a focus on seven strengths for reading success: belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope.

In the next couple of weeks the South Milwaukee Children's Librarian, Stephanie Jurss will be coming to each elementary school to promote the summer reading program at the South Milwaukee Public Library.  What a fantastic opportunity for our students to have access to books, cool off in the library and other great ideas as offered in Kate DiCamillo's Top Ten Reasons to Participate in Your Local Summer Reading Program. While your students are at the library they should check out Kate DiCamillo's newest book titled, Raymie Nightingale or any of her other fantastic books!

If you are looking to send home a suggested summer reading list, below are two outstanding reading lists from the Association for Library Service to Children:

2016 ALSC Summer Reading List for Grades K-2

2016 ALSC Summer Reading List for Grades 3-5     

Thank-O-Rama! and More

Thank-O-Rama!

Thank-O-Rama! from Mo Willems @The_Pigeon promotes this website where Mo Willems shares how you can thank those that are important in your life!  His last and final book, titled The Thank You Book is the 25th book in the Elephant and Piggie series.  In honor of Mother's Day and the month of May, I think Thank-O-Rama is a great idea! Check out the spinner, the how to draw Piggie with Mo video and printable pages.

Gene Luen Yang

Gene Luen Yang is the 2016 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and honorary chair of National Library Week 2016.  The article, "Newsmaker: Gene Luen Yang The comic book writer and artist discusses his work and new national literacy appointments" shares more about him, and his interview of how comics/graphic novels impacted his youth and the importance of comics/graphic novels in libraries today.  His comment, "Comics can be a gateway into reading" is powerful and really exemplifies how Graphic Novels in the Classroom is important to consider as a bridge to help students in our district become life long readers. 

Golden Archer Nominations

Golden Archer Nominations

Last Sunday,  I shared the winning Golden Archer Award winners for 2016.  Last week, elementary students were able to nominate titles of books that they hope to see as nominees for the 2017 Golden Archer Award. 

Here are the titles I sent to the Golden Archer Committee.  The nominees for 2017 will be announced by June 1, 2016 so students can begin reading this summer!  Stay tuned as I will announce the nominees for our state student choice award.

Blakewood - Primary Titles:

1. Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick - 30 nominations

2. City Kitty Kat by Steve Webb - 27 nominations

3. Waiting by Kevin Henkes - 17 nominations

4. Splat the Cat: The Perfect Present Mom & Dad by Rob Scotton - 10 nominations

5. Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena - 5 nominations

Blakewood - Intermediate Titles:

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Old School by Jeff Kinney - 27 nominations

2. Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess by Rachel Renee Russell - 20 nominations

3. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - 15 nominations

4. Superman Family Adventures: Because You Demanded It! by Art Baltazar - 13 nominations

5. Aliens and Other Visitors by Ruth Owen - 6 nominations

Lakeview - Intermediate Titles:

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Old School by Jeff Kinney - 30 nominations

2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney - 24 nominations

3. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick  - 12 nominations

4. Drama by Raina Telgemeir - 6 nominations

Luther - Primary Titles:

1. Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock - 3 nominations

2. Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick - 2 nominations

3. My Dog is Better Than Your Dog (Crimebiters #1) by Tommy Greenwald - 2 nominations

4. Mercy Watson Fights Crime by Kate DiCamillo - 2 nominations

Luther - Intermediate Titles:
1. Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith - 14 nominations
2. El Deafo by Cece Bell - 12 nominations
3. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - 8 nominations
4. Crossover by Kwame Alexander  - 6 nominations
5. Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz - 5 nominations

Rawson - Primary Titles:

1. Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett - 70 nominations

2. This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen - 50 nominations

3. The Pencil by Allen Ahlberg - 45 nominations

4. Pete the Cat: Bedtime Blues by James and Kimberly Dean - 25 nominations

5. Help! A Story of Friendship by Holly Keller - 15 nominations

Rawson - Intermediate Titles:

1. Drama by Raina Telgemeir - 75 nominations

2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Old School by Jeff Kinney - 50 nominations

3. Crossover by Kwame Alexander - 35 nominations

4. Dork Diaries: Tales From A Not-So-Perfect Pet Sitter by Rachel Renee Russell - 25 nominations

5. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate - 10 nominations

This a great list of suggested books by our elementary students for students to read yet this year or over the summer.