Are You Bored Yet?

This was about the time each summer that I would begin complaining to my mother about my boredom, and she would then dream up the most humdrum tasks imaginable to prove to me the definition of true boredom.  It’s hard to believe, now, that I was ever bored, because I always have thousands of things I would like to be doing and not enough time to do them!

I came across some activities on Pinterest that might interest some of my GT families out there, and thought I would share them.  My favorite, by far, is the Rainbow Sock Snake that you see pictured above.  You can visit this site to learn how to make them.  Easy breezy!  I got this idea, along with some others, from this Pinterest Board from Mensa.  You might want to look at some of their other resources as well.

Around town, the McNay has a new Norman Rockwell exhibit that looks very promising.  You can see related family activities here (page 4).  This Sunday, your family can participate in “Trash to Treasure” at the McNay.  And, speaking of treasure, Treasure Island will begin playing at the Magik Theater on June 26th.

If you know of any other events that might be of interest to our GT families, please let me know!

Summer is in Full Swing!

Well, one week later, I am trying to keep my promise of posting once a week!  So far, so good!  I hope that all of you are enjoying your summer.

One link that you may want to check out is diy.org. My 5th graders used this as a resource to find interesting projects for Genius Hour this year, but parents might want to think about actually registering your children with this site.  If you are looking for a way to fuse on-line and off-line learning, this is the site for doing that.  It includes instructions for lots of projects to make, and really showcases creativity.  You don’t have to join to benefit from the site.  It’s easy and fun to browse through projects.  One advantage of joining the site, though, is the opportunity to earn virtual badges.

Another favorite resource for my 5th graders was Wonderopolis.  I was just checking it out, and noticed that they are offering a “Camp What-A-Wonder” this summer!  I have never participated, so I am not sure exactly what it entails, but it looks like it is free and can be done whenever you like.  I know, for sure, that my 2nd graders should check this out – because look at the themes for the first two weeks:

  • June 17 – 21: Ant Farms, Spider Webs, & Underwater Coves — Dig Into the Wild Kingdom!
  • June 24 – 28: Buildings, Bricks, & Bulldozers – Scout Out Some Superstructures!

This totally goes with what we studied this year!  I hope some of you get the chance to participate.  I’m going to sign up, too!

One More Day!

I can’t believe we only have one more day of school – and that my daughter is graduating from elementary school tomorrow!  Those of you who are 5th grade parents are surely feeling the same way!

I’m going to try to do my weekly summer posts on Wednesdays.  I just want to keep in touch with everyone, and let you know if I find any awesome resources for keeping the kids occupied this summer.

On my professional blog, I am doing a week-long series of resources for parents over the summer.  You can check out today’s article here.

Also, one of my favorite go-to sites for GT kids is Mensa for Kids.  It has great puzzles and games that really get the students thinking.

One of my colleagues, who teaches GT at Bulverde Creek, is hosting a Tech Camp this summer.  The tuition is $100.  You can visit this link to find out more information.

And, one more resource you might like:  Fabulous and Free

You can subscribe to “Fabulous and Free”, and receive a free flyer every day with apps and e-books that are being offered for free.

Stay tuned for more ideas next week!

Summer Resources – Week 1

I hope to post once a week with a collection of ideas for things to do this summer. Here are some that I have so far:

AppsStack the Countries and Stack the States (especially for 1st graders), Just Four Colors (the second graders would enjoy this if they liked our map-coloring activities), and FlipPix Art (Kids, Zoo, Jurassic, Model Plane). All of these appear to be available on Android, also, except for Just Four Colors.

Websites – Go to my “Hot Link of the Week” archives for tons of educational sites. Also, work on your keyboarding with Dance Mat Typing.

Activities Around Town – Thanks to Mr. Bonugli for forwarding this info to me (weirdly, my daughter just bought her own Venus flytrap a couple of days ago, so I am sure she will want to go to the “Savage Gardens” exhibit!): San Antonio Botanical Gardens, Savage Gardens Exhibit (Unfortunately, the Summer Camps at SABG appear to be full.)

1st Grade Prepares for the Summer!

In our last class for this school year, the 1st graders practiced doing some “Animal Sudoku” puzzles. I plan to include some in a summer packet that will be in their report cards, and I wanted to go over strategies with them before they get their packets. They seemed to enjoy solving them, but I warned them that they will get harder on the packet pages!

I forgot to do some editing on some of the projects I included in our last post. Cristian’s Germany project and favorite memory have been changed, so I have included them in today’s post again.

Free Summer Courses for 3rd-5th

Any students currently in 3rd-5th NEISD GT are eligible to register for ONE summer online course at this link: http://www.flipsnack.com/568BECAD75E/ftj54n3p

Decide which course you would like, and (with a parent) click on the link to the registration form at the bottom of the course description page.

Some courses are limited to certain grade levels, and some have a limited number of spaces, so please read the descriptions carefully.

The deadline for registration is May 24th, 2013.

1st Grade Plans a “Loop” Party

1st grade did some divergent thinking today. One of the pieces of S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is “Rearrange”, so I asked the students to think about rearranging the letters in “pool” so they would spell “loop”. Then, I asked them to draw what at “Loop Party” might look like (as opposed to a Pool Party). They did some other Summer Pool Party activities as well, and presented them to the class.