Summer Learning Opportunties

Below are links to a few wonderful online learning opportunity for your incoming first grader to use as practice over the summer.  Please take advantage of these programs as it helps to keep your children using the skills they have learned over the year, as well as keep them prepared for the transition into first grade.

Raz-Kids

Everyone in our classroom has an account with this reading website.  Please follow the link (which is also on the left side of our classroom blog) and select your child's name.  Their password is their first initial and last name.  Example: skefgen

Here you will find books for your child to read at their own level, as well as comprehension questions that follow each book.  If your child has read all of the books at their level and you feel that they are able to red and understand the books, please contact me for additional books to be released on their account.  have fun reading this summer!

http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login


Citizen Science Project 2013

This summer, we invite you to join us on an exciting learning adventure!  We will be using Loree Griffin Burns’ book, Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery from Your Own Backyard, as the summer read for the Harlan community. There will be 20 copies of Citizen Scientists available to borrow at Harlan’s front entrance throughout the summer.  You may also order your own copy of Harlan’s summer read, Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery From Your Own Backyard.   We would like all Harlan families to enjoy reading Citizen Scientists together, choose a topic to explore further (perhaps by joining a citizen science organization), and share their learning at our Citizen Science Expo in the fall.   

For more information, please visit http://blogs.birmingham.k12.mi.us/harlancitizenscience

Be sure to have your child show you his/her Citizen Science Notebook and bookmark which have been created to guide your family’s citizen science exploration this summer.  These were sent home a few weeks ago.  Questions can be sent to harlancitizenscience@gmail.com or answered in person during our summer “check-in” days in our outdoor classroom from 2-3pm on June 25th,  July 17th, and August 15th.  


Compass Learning

This is an amazing site that is differentiated to your child's needs based on their assessment results on the NWEA math and reading assessments that we took earlier this month.  I really encourage you and your child to explore this site as much as possible to avoid summer slide.  Please use the following link to visit the site (which is also listed on the left side of our classroom blog):

https://www.thelearningodyssey.com/

The children's passwords are their birthdays.  For example, May 27, 1981 would be typed as 5271981.  Your child's user names are as follows;

Semaya    sdb2
Julian     jab14
Dominique     dec2
Elizabeth      ege1
Kyle    krg3
Grace    gaj2
Brendan     boj1
Alexander      adj3
Elena     esj2
Mary    mek3
Hailey      hhl1
Ryan        rlp2  
Rachel      rer5
Molly      mls7
Mia      mmt4
Andrei       adv2

Sean, Helen and Alejandro are all signed up, but I am waiting on confirmation on user names.


Writing

I plan on writing letters to the kids to this summer.  I would love to receive stories or letters telling me what they have been up to this summer!  Please remember that the more they write, the more comfortable they become with their writing skills.

Good luck this summer!