Spring Garden School
Weekly Reminder: Week of June 25, 2018
Thank you for a Wonderful Year!
Congratulations Graduates!
6th Grade Graduation on MOnday, June 25 at 2:00 p.m.
Summer Reading Packets
Ideas for summer reading fun
Make sure kids have something to read during the summer — put books into children's hands.
Get your local public library to sign kids up for summer reading before school is out.I
Get to know your community public library better. .
Let parents and kids know about the free summer reading incentive programs. Over at Scholastic, there's the Happy Camper Summer Reading Challenge that encourages kids to log the minutes they spend reading and map their accomplishments. Kids can participate in weekly challenges, earn digital rewards, and enter to win prizes. The Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program will give away a free book to children who read eight books (and parents receive a summer reading kit full of activities). With the TD Bank Summer Reading Program, kids who read 10 books will get $10 added to their Young Saver account.
Help kids build math and science skills over the summer. Share our Literacy in the Sciences series with families. Each one-page tip sheet (in English and Spanish) suggests easy hands-on activities as well as fiction and nonfiction books to extend the learning. In this section you'll also find links to great science websites for kids, blogs about children's science books, and links to PBS KIDS science programs and activities.
Encourage parents to start a neighborhood book club with other families this summer. It's a great way to keep the summer learning social and low-key. Warmer weather can inspire some not-so-run-of-the-mill meeting places, too: a tent or picnic blanket in the backyard. If the book club catches on, it's something to continue throughout the school year. PBS Parents has a wonderful collection of tips on how to start a club and encourage great discussions. Our special education blogger, June Behrmann, shares ideas (and title selections) for starting your own mother-daughter "accessible " book club using print alternatives.
Online activities for families
Share examples of good interactive educational websites that parents and young kids can explore together. PBS KIDS Lab offers the newest educational games, activities and mobile apps, for kids PreK to grade 3.There are lots of other quality websites for kids — here are a few more of our favorites:
- National Geographic Kids: Great nature videos, activities, games, stories, and more
- Discovery Kids: Video, games and activities to explore dinosaurs, sharks, space, pets, history and more
- Smithsonian Kids Collecting: how to start your own collection and see what other kids collect
- The Last American Dinosaurs: from the National Museum of Natural History
- NASA Kids Club: a place to play games and learn about NASA through interactive explorations
- My Wonderful World: A multimedia tour of our seven continents
- Time for Kids: Fun games (The Great State Race), an online weekly magazine written for kids, and news from around the world
Introduce your students and their families to stories from around the world. Let them know about the International Children's Digital Library, an amazing (and growing!) collection of international children's books available to read online in their original languages. Big Universe is another online library of fiction and nonfiction books for kids 0-12. The site also offers adults and kids the chance to create and publish their own stories.
Suggest audio books as an alternative to print, especially for kids with learning disabilities that make reading a struggle. See our article, Listen and Learn with Audio Books(available in English and Spanish). You can now download stories to iPods and other mobile devices, perfect for car rides or a lazy hot afternoon. Tales2Go offers high-quality kids' books through a mobile streaming service. AudibleKids has an extensive collection of downloadable books, and some of them are free through a partnership with RIF. Browse our list of Favorite Audio Books and find even more titles on Book Finder.
Monday, June 25 & Tuesday, June 26
Pizza will be served on Tuesday to Grades K-6 (courtesy of PTO)
Pre-school will receive bagels (Courtesy of PTO)