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Happy Summer!  Summer is an incredible opportunity to spend time with your children reading, playing and having rich experiences in nature. In order to support you, here are a few resources from your Learning Coaches and Teacher Librarians.

Summer Reading Resources Available at the HUB and the HUB website!

The HUB is open and available for you all summer long from 7:00-3:00 PM.  We have suggested grade level reading lists here.  For information on what is happening in the HUB and access to the HUB catalog of books please click here.

Be sure to visit our favorite websites for books, reading and current events by clicking here

Follow us on twitter! @isbeshub

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How Can We Support Math Over the Vacation?

  • Notice and appreciate math in the world – cooking, shopping, reading maps, etc.
  • Keep a “math toolkit” in your purse or backpack
    • Items might include: tape measure, notepad and pen, deck of cards, dice, etc.
  • Try “Travel Trivia” and mix up problems by varying the unknown. i.e. “I had $5.50.  I spent some of my money on an ice cream and then I had $1.25.  How much did I spend?”
  • Ask Questions!
    • Why?
    • How do you know?
    • How did you picture that?
    • Convince me.
    • What do you notice?
    • What do you wonder?
  • Play Games Together!
    • Board games, card games, dice games – make math fun!

Activities that Promote Math:

Great Math Games:

Recommended Math Apps:

  • Addimals (K-3)
  • Subitize Tree (K – 3)
  • Friends of Ten (K-2)
  • Sushi Monster (K-5)
  • Jungle Time (K-3)
  • Blackboard Madness Math (4-5)
  • Mathboard (2-5)
  • Kakooma (3-5)

Youcubed website

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Technology & Learning

A reminder that the best app for the summer is… being outside!  Common Sense Media has a wonderful digital learning summer guide — a true one stop shop for parents.

Other ideas that you might consider:

  • Coding
    • We use Code.org here during the school year.  Kids love it!
  • Creativity
    • We use Spark from Adobe and its three apps to make creative videos, pages and graphics. Free and fun.
  • Digital Portfolio
    • SeeSaw will not be easily available in the summer, but will be available as soon as students return.
    • If you would like to download a copy of a SeeSaw portfolio from your son or daughter, see help here.  Perfect for families who are leaving or just like having their own personal copy.
  • Typing
    • Best learned in 5-minute bursts daily (in the morning or late in the evening) — summer is a great time to try Dance Mat Typing or Typing Pal.
  • Literacy

The long break during the next few months is a perfect time to get your continue to get your children hooked on books and reading.  Consider the following:

  • reading different genres (i.e., sci-fi, fantasy, NF, etc.)
  • reading different series’ (maybe one of them will stick and provide hours, days and weeks of reading about the same characters)
  • visit libraries and book stores
  • purchase books for your child’s e-readers – shop for them on-line together
  • read something together (you can refer to Jim Trelease for great read aloud titles)
  • picking up or subscribing to children’s magazines (i.e., Scholastic, Time for Kids, Stone Soup, National Geographic Kids, etc.)

You can help your child keep their writing skills sharp by nudging them to do some writing throughout their holiday.  You can encourage the following types of writing:

  • entries in a journal or diary
  • a travel brochure
  • a review of a book, theme park, restaurant, hotel, etc.
  • a fiction story (personal narrative, memoir, fantasy, realistic fiction, sci-fi, historical fiction)
  • a feature article (informational writing around a specific topic)
  • e-mails, postcards and letters to friends and/or loved ones

Above all, we want reading and writing to be FUN!

Board Games We Love

Anomia, Boggle, Blokus, Mancala, Bananagrams, Apples to Apples, Taboo for Kids, Mindtrap, Clue Jr., Shape by Shape, Block by Block, Rush Hour, Spot It, Cranium Cariboo, Scrabble Jr., Double Quick