Looking Forward to Upcoming Breaks

I know that many of you, like me, are looking forward to the upcoming holiday breaks in the school calendar.  For many of us, these breaks include some much needed time with family and friends.  While this time of year is very busy (and oftentimes packed full of travel), it is important to keep working with your student during this time.  It is a great opportunity to create fun family projects.  I wanted to take the time to create a post with some project ideas that you and your students can work on together over the break.

Make a word cloud together:

Word clouds are a great way for students to express themselves and share who they are with other students.  While these are great "get to know you" activities for the beginning of the year in a classroom, you can also use them to make some really cool, meaningful art for your home.  Head over to www.wordle.net (super easy to use) and create your own.  I would suggest braining storming a list of things that your family is thankful for, assisting your student to type them in, and then choosing fun fall colors.  These could be great gifts for grandma or grandpa too!  By brain storming with your student, you are helping them to practice oral communication skills.  Assisting them with typing helps build small motor skills and keyboard skills. 

Learn about healthy foods (at a time of year when food is definitely on the mind!)

Mind maps help students to take thoughts from their heads and place them on paper in a very organized fashion.  This Mind Map I designed helps students to visually categorize the foods they eat.  It promotes organization, helps students see categorization in a visual way and provides students with quick to answer questions.  
We all know that eating healthy is very important, especially for kids.  Help your student to understand the different types of foods we eat-- what's healthy?  what's not?  what do we need the most of?  After you fill in the food categories with your student, use those answers to create a healthy meal (perhaps a healthy Thanksgiving feast!).  That way, when your child goes through grandma's holiday buffet, he can think back to your map and select foods from some of the healthy categories.
You can access and print the Mind Map here:
http://www.mindomo.com/view?m=bfdd6de693a54e3b9ad6d311ead69f57 

 

Keep up good behavior practices over the holidays:

While having a clip chart at home may be a little much for your student, talking about and practicing good behavior is key during this chaotic season.  Talk to your student about ways to be helpful, things they can do to be a good leader and a good friend (or brother/sister) at home.  When they come back to school, they can share these ideas with their classmates.  Be sure that you reward some of those wonderful behaviors with praise (or maybe even a sugar cookie). 
 

Get ahead:

While the break from school is definitely a time for rest, it is also a great opportunity to get ahead.  After the break, we will continue to work on literacy skills.  It is vital that your student begin her mastery of these skills to become the best reader that she can be.  When we return from the break, we will begin using Voice Thread to record student answers and to assess literacy skill development.  You can help your student practice these skills by participating in the Voice Thread below.  

This screencast will help you and your student get started (instead of using the desktop item, use the link below to access the Voice Talk session).  The screencast will help make using this new technology easy and fun.  Feel free to leave feedback/questions for me here.  
http://screencast.com/t/QUi7KMGy0GUA

Voice Thread practice assignment:
https://voicethread.com/#q.b4931472.i0.k0
I will be emailing you your student's login information later this week.

Last but not least... relax and have fun!

Your kiddos have been working so hard and they definitely deserve a break.  While I know we are all excited for the upcoming time away from school, I am also excited for all the fun we are going to have learning together next semester!  Until the break, I will continue weekly posts to keep you up to date on all of our hard work.