Cameron is a little upset with me. His mom, who was also a teacher, does not want him to forget what he has learned over our 3 month break called summer. I never really had to worry about retention since our previous 5 years of a year round school schedule allowed a 3 week maximum break (even for summer) from school.
Now that we have experienced our first full year of a traditional school schedule, I really don’t want the kids to forget everything their teachers drilled into their brains day in and day out the last 9 months. So, I came up with “Summer Tic Tac Toe” to cover their educational needs. The kids can choose what math, reading or writing activity they want to do as long as they get “3 in a row”. Each week they get to erase their board and start a new “game”.
Even though Cam isn’t all that thrilled to practice some of his skills over the summer, and keeps reminding me that summer is supposed to be a break from schoolwork, the other kids are looking forward to playing “Summer Tic Tac Toe”. Brit even said, “yay!” when I mentioned it…which makes me feel a little bit better.
Some fun educational Websites: www.fun4thebrain.com, www.freetypinggame.net, www.invention@play.org, www.mathisfun.com, www.seussville.com, www.nlvm.usu.edu
Mead makes Redispace transitional storybook paper that teaches proper spacing, legibility, appropriate letter size. You can buy it at Wal Mart in the school aisle. It is for students 1st Grade and up.
For the File Folder Games, you can order “Instant File-Folder Games for Math” Grades 1-3 on Scholastic.com. ISBN 0-439-13730
Instead of the Investigations workbook, Scholastic also has fun math practice activities in “Mystery Picture Math”. ISBN 0-439-449892. The kids love the activities in this book. I used to use them as a fast finisher for my class.
