Happy Summer Vacation

We celebrated the last day of the school year today and started off by visiting the River of Kindness.   Students were thrilled to hunt for the rocks they painted.  

Then we made our way around the school and took a few photos along the way!

In recent weeks we have written about our hopes and dreams for next year and shared for some advice for incoming kindergartners.  Be sure to check the blog in coming weeks to read our recommendations!

Wear Pink

The Pine Glen community has been invited to wear pink clothing to school on Monday in honor of Breast Cancer awareness and to support one of Burlington's bus drivers.  Dottie has been driving Burlington students for many years.

Summer Learning and Fun

What to do, what to do?  The summer season is upon us but students are encouraged to continue to learn and keep skills sharp when away from school.  Here are some resources and ideas:

Summer Literacy

Besides visiting the library and reading books, websites, apps, and games are great ways to reinforce literacy skills over the summer!

Websites

The following is a list of websites with interactive literacy and thinking activities for children of all ages.

https://www.iready.com (until Aug. 15th) https://www.abcya.com

https://www.storylineonline.net https://www.nationalgeographic.com

https://www.starfall.com https://kahoot.com

Apps

This list of suggested free apps that will have children practicing their reading, memory, and thinking and reasoning skills…

EPIC books (use blizzard bag log-in) FarFaria

Trivia Crack MeeGenius

Chicktionary Learn with Homer

Heads Up The Opposites

Tikatok StorySpark Professor Garfield Fact or Opinion

One-minute reader (small fee)

Board Games

FUn for the whole family!

Spot It! (any version) I Have (Play ‘n Learn System) Blurt

Respond! Word Game WordTeasers (Small Fry) Boggle

Hedbandz Memory (any version) Last Word

Morphology Jr. Scrabble (any version) Apples to Apples

Pairs in Pears Guess Who (any version) Hangman

Don’t Say It Rory’s Story Cubes Taboo for Kids BuzzWord Jr. American Trivia Family Edition Freeze Up

Smart Mouth Wild Guess Chase Guesstures

Burlington Summer MATH FUN!

Children need to develop prerequisite skills* that are non-mathematical which helps develop mathematical concepts.  The summer time is the perfect time to develop these skills. When children play with games and toys, they are naturally engaged in learning many of these prerequisite skills and eventually these skills will transfer to academic settings in the area of Mathematics and Science.  

So...take some time out this summer and play a game with your child!

*The prerequisite skills are:

• sequencing
• spatial orientation/ space organization
• pattern recognition
• visualization
• estimation
• deductive thinking and inductive thinking

General guideline for choosing good games:

1. Games should be based on strategy
2. Games should last 10 to 15 minutes
3. Games should have 1 or more than 1 prerequisite skills

Sample Games

Simon Cribbage Concentration Rummikub Guess Who Blokus Set Mastermind Yahtzee Mancala Legos Battleship Chess

Checkers Othello Chinese Checkers Jigsaw Puzzles Number war Games Card Games Stratego Quarto Qubic Krypto Shut the Box Connect Four Rush Hour

Adapted from Mahesh Sharma: Mathematics for All: Center for Teaching  www.mathematicsforall.org

Wet and Wonderful Water Day

Special thanks to room 101 for inviting us to join in their annual water day.  We had a wet and wonderful time!  There was a sprinkler, many wading pools, water toys, shaving cream fun, sand, Legos,  sunbathing and popsicles!  Everyone seemed to enjoy the water balloon toss too!  Many hands make these events possible.  Thank you to our parent volunteers from both room 101 and 103!