Summer school kicked off yesterday with a camp theme. All the teachers were to follow the going to camp theme. The first week of summer school is “literacy camp” and next week is “math camp”. I think this was done partly to lure more participation in summer school (it isn’t seen as boring) and partly done to entice parents (who might want their children to get ahead in a subject area). In the past summer school was two hours of math and two hours of literacy with a recess and free breakfast thrown in. Food for the students has been a victim of budget cuts.
Because of the lack of experience of my students going to camp or even camping with their families I had a hard time sticking to this assigned theme. Some teachers pitched tents in their rooms (I usually have a wigwam in my room in the fall so this isn’t that different for me and I wasn’t about to buy a tent just for this) and one teacher even built a faux camp fire out of newspaper, cardboard, and colored paper (way too time consuming for me to even attempt). So I struggled how to make this a positive experience both academically (easy part) and thematically (hard part). How do you make camp a good thing when most of my students don’t know what it is or associate it with refugee camps or being homeless while illegally immigrating to the U.S?
Animals! All kids like animals. I decided to focus on the animals you might see while camping in the woods. The first day we read Going on a Bear Hunt and did the actions. Our writing assignment was to rewrite “a camping we will go, a camping we will go, we’ll ______ and ________ and then we’ll ________ a camping we will go.”
They loved it, but how do I follow the classic bear hunt book up?
Ahh….I have animals!
So this morning Vincent and I packed up Speckles and Greenville (pictured above back at home in their habitat) to trek across the river (probably illegal to transport native turtles out of the state even if they were returning after a day of teaching). While the students were drawing their pictures of animals they thought they might see while camping they heard a shuffling noise coming from the back of the room. Every once and a while a student would look around but they dutifully drew their pictures of dinosaurs, owls, deer, bears (lots of bears…yesterday’s read aloud book), snakes, alligators, light\ning bugs (a source of debate on how to say it in Spanish between the Mexican and Ecuadorian students), and butterflies.
Then they clamored to the couches for the day’s read aloud. After prefacing it with a discussion about this being about another animal they might see while camping (actually how Speckles was obtained after we left Medoc Mountain) I read I Can’t Get My Turtle to Move. We read this story twice (I read it the first time but they helped me read it the second time).
I then showed them Greenville and Speckles. Little hands shot out to touch their shells and stroke their necks (the boys…the girls were a little more squeamish). I placed the turtles on the floor by my feet and told the students if they were quiet and worked hard the turtles would walk around and hide and we could play hide-n-seek with the turtles later. (I didn’t explain that Perry does this once a week when the turtles have their night out.) When we returned from the computer lab the students eagerly found the turtles. Speckles had obliged by climbing into one of the mailboxes and Greenville had gone back under my desk.
During our movement time we walked to the back of the room. I had placed two lengths of string on the floor about three feet apart. I then placed piles of books, boxes, and other obstacles along the sides to make our rectangle. The boys lined up on the side that Greenville was on and the girls lined up on Speckles side of the rectangle. I then held the turtles up in the air and explained that they were going to race from one string to another string.
The “ready and set” filled the room with silence and then a loud “go” started the screaming. First the turtles tried to climb the piles of books. Then they started going the wrong way, but eventually with lots of shouting, jumping up and down, and thumping on the books piled behind the starting line the turtles moved in the right direction. Greenville (Mine that Bird) had a good start while Speckles climbed books. After some redirection Speckles (Rachel Alexandra) came up from behind and then passed Greenville (MtB) before inspecting the finish line (it looked like a worm). Greenville (MtB) was trying to regain the lead but then Speckles (RA) rushed across the finish line for a several furlong (turtle lengths) lead.
The boys wanted a rematch!
The second race was much like the first only Speckles (RA) now knew the course and seemed to take the home track advantage. She rushed straight to the tempting blue yarn finish line and the even more enticing little girl toes peeping out of flip-flops. She again had to be redirected but for different reasons (I don’t want sued over missing toes).
For the end of the day group writing assignment (we pretended it was a postcard to the other ESL class) they had to draw the picture for the postcard side. Almost all the students drew pictures of Mine that Bird and Rachel Alexandra, I mean Greenville and Speckles and the fantastic turtle race.
Now they know how to cheer on their horses for Derby…isn’t that on the state standardized test?
Gosh, what to do tomorrow?
Because of the lack of experience of my students going to camp or even camping with their families I had a hard time sticking to this assigned theme. Some teachers pitched tents in their rooms (I usually have a wigwam in my room in the fall so this isn’t that different for me and I wasn’t about to buy a tent just for this) and one teacher even built a faux camp fire out of newspaper, cardboard, and colored paper (way too time consuming for me to even attempt). So I struggled how to make this a positive experience both academically (easy part) and thematically (hard part). How do you make camp a good thing when most of my students don’t know what it is or associate it with refugee camps or being homeless while illegally immigrating to the U.S?
Animals! All kids like animals. I decided to focus on the animals you might see while camping in the woods. The first day we read Going on a Bear Hunt and did the actions. Our writing assignment was to rewrite “a camping we will go, a camping we will go, we’ll ______ and ________ and then we’ll ________ a camping we will go.”
They loved it, but how do I follow the classic bear hunt book up?
Ahh….I have animals!
So this morning Vincent and I packed up Speckles and Greenville (pictured above back at home in their habitat) to trek across the river (probably illegal to transport native turtles out of the state even if they were returning after a day of teaching). While the students were drawing their pictures of animals they thought they might see while camping they heard a shuffling noise coming from the back of the room. Every once and a while a student would look around but they dutifully drew their pictures of dinosaurs, owls, deer, bears (lots of bears…yesterday’s read aloud book), snakes, alligators, light\ning bugs (a source of debate on how to say it in Spanish between the Mexican and Ecuadorian students), and butterflies.
Then they clamored to the couches for the day’s read aloud. After prefacing it with a discussion about this being about another animal they might see while camping (actually how Speckles was obtained after we left Medoc Mountain) I read I Can’t Get My Turtle to Move. We read this story twice (I read it the first time but they helped me read it the second time).
I then showed them Greenville and Speckles. Little hands shot out to touch their shells and stroke their necks (the boys…the girls were a little more squeamish). I placed the turtles on the floor by my feet and told the students if they were quiet and worked hard the turtles would walk around and hide and we could play hide-n-seek with the turtles later. (I didn’t explain that Perry does this once a week when the turtles have their night out.) When we returned from the computer lab the students eagerly found the turtles. Speckles had obliged by climbing into one of the mailboxes and Greenville had gone back under my desk.
During our movement time we walked to the back of the room. I had placed two lengths of string on the floor about three feet apart. I then placed piles of books, boxes, and other obstacles along the sides to make our rectangle. The boys lined up on the side that Greenville was on and the girls lined up on Speckles side of the rectangle. I then held the turtles up in the air and explained that they were going to race from one string to another string.
The “ready and set” filled the room with silence and then a loud “go” started the screaming. First the turtles tried to climb the piles of books. Then they started going the wrong way, but eventually with lots of shouting, jumping up and down, and thumping on the books piled behind the starting line the turtles moved in the right direction. Greenville (Mine that Bird) had a good start while Speckles climbed books. After some redirection Speckles (Rachel Alexandra) came up from behind and then passed Greenville (MtB) before inspecting the finish line (it looked like a worm). Greenville (MtB) was trying to regain the lead but then Speckles (RA) rushed across the finish line for a several furlong (turtle lengths) lead.
The boys wanted a rematch!
The second race was much like the first only Speckles (RA) now knew the course and seemed to take the home track advantage. She rushed straight to the tempting blue yarn finish line and the even more enticing little girl toes peeping out of flip-flops. She again had to be redirected but for different reasons (I don’t want sued over missing toes).
For the end of the day group writing assignment (we pretended it was a postcard to the other ESL class) they had to draw the picture for the postcard side. Almost all the students drew pictures of Mine that Bird and Rachel Alexandra, I mean Greenville and Speckles and the fantastic turtle race.
Now they know how to cheer on their horses for Derby…isn’t that on the state standardized test?
Gosh, what to do tomorrow?
---Stephanie
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