Hi Friends,
I am so excited to share with you all about my 19 sugary days at SWEET TREAT SUMMER SCHOOL. Want to see how I set up my room? Keep in my mind it was my rent-a-classroom so my decor had to be very minimal. I am always eager to teach summer school because it gives me more practice being “the teacher”.In my district, we offer an enrichment summer school through our cities
foundation where children can take classes about subjects that interest
them. Can we discuss how I had one sweetie from Taiwan and another sweetie from Korea. They came over for the summer to take our program. They did AMAZING! I signed up to teach READ, WRITE, PUBLISH. I have never taught the
class before, but my friend Sarah shared what she had done in the past.
Really this class was MADE FOR ME. I get to teach about picture books,
children’s literature, reading, writing, coloring, and candy. SIGN ME UP! Remember thematic units- that is what it felt like. #lookatmecommoncore! I had a wonderful class and they were all eager to write and learn. It was pretty magical.There is MOUNDS to share so grab a brownie and enjoy the show!
Each week, I debuted different themes through picture books, even though my over all theme was SWEET TREATS. Want to see all the books I used? Go to my FREE Book List Tab on my homepage- or click here.
OMG! When I found this idea over at Teaching in Room 6, I got SO excited. I love doing a morning greeting with my class. It sets the tone for an amazing morning and the kids love it. I sure did have some actors in my summer school class. I changed mine to match my candy theme, but Stephanie does a wonderful job explaining how she uses her morning message. Go check it out! She much braver than me and even did a video!
WORD ART- My friend Sara gave me this idea. I just love it! After we brainstormed million of words to do with food, sweets, and desserts, the students picked their favorite word and created food art. Sorry- I do not have a picture of my anchor chart, because to be honest- it is a HOT MESS!
Show Not Tell. Thanks to Miss Radka and her amazing SHOW not TELL activity my students were able to practice giving much detail through pictures.
Before the students arrived, I created this chart. Please do not judge the failing marker, my awkward handwriting, or the “Dog Ate My Homework” rip. It was one of those mornings, but I had to teach this lesson that day. In 19 days, there isn’t much room for lesson rearragning.
Luckily, Miss Radka has this lesson posted on her website. I did an array of charades to prompt student response. They were super engaged and created their chart inside the Almond Joy Author’s Workshop section of their journal.
Figurative Language
Like I say, you can teach anything with a
picture book. For this series, I chose one picture book for each
figuaritve language element to use as a teaching guide. The books I chose
were:
I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is one of my all time favorites! Perfect for a Sweet Treats theme! On the last day, we watched the old version of the movie. I loved hearing the students make compare and contrast comments. #theydidntrealizetheywerestilllearning! More about this later!
What is even more exciting! My parents were in Europe when Charlie the Musical was playing. Want to read about that?
Each week, I hid 3 Golden Tickets around the room. The students who found them received a small prize. It was a hit. Oh! I promise these were on gold paper- camera fail!
Want to win your own copy of my SWEET TREATS WRITING PROJECT… Answer this question in the comments. If you were going on a sweet treats vacation, where would you go? I will randomly pick 2 winners tomorrow morning!
4 Comments
Hmmmm….a sweet treats vacation…I would like to visit the Biltmore Estates in Asheville, NC with my hubby. Being with him would make it a "sweet treat"! This looks like an awesome unit! I would love to win it! mrsruffin924@gmail.com
Absolutely fabulous!! Thank you so much for sharing. I'd love to propose teaching this in my district next summer.
If I was to go on a sweet treats vacation I'd travel throughout Europe eating my way thru delicacies!
I am Italian and LOVE everything italian.. from any kind of pasta to delicious cannolis! I would love to go to Italy and eat my weight in Gelato and cannolis!!!
Okay, get ready for a crazy response! I remember being younger watching Merrie Melodies and they had a land these children went to and it had gum drop bushes and lollipop flowers! I remember being younger thinkng how facinating it would be! I even remember writing a story over that episode in elementary school! I would love to travel to this candy land! đŸ™‚
Amber
Peppyzestyteacherista.blogspot.com