Have any fun activities/traditions for the first week?

Discussion in 'Homeschooling' started by Mom2ampm, Jul 18, 2004.

  1. Mom2ampm

    Mom2ampm New Member

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    I know lots of us do work in the summer, but you still might have an official first week back to school or do a back to school theme. Do you have any fun activities, worksheets, games or traditions that you do with your children? I am always looking for good ideas and the traditional back to school resource books are too geared toward public schools.

    If you have anything to share I would love to read about it. Here's a few things we are doing.....

    Wear Back to school tshirts with this saying...

    Let's stand up and cheer
    2nd grade's finally here.
    1, 2, 3, hip, hip, hooray!
    Oh, how I love the 1st day!

    We always have a special school theme dessert that afternoon/evening...
    This year we're making chalkboards with mini ice cream sandwiches and white icing.

    We will have a "school bingo" match

    We will write about the first day

    We measure height and weight and record on a special page for portfolios

    We read school themed books

    The kids get to pick one wrapped present at the end of each day (the first week) if they
    have a great day. The gifts are educational/academic in some way.

    We take lots of pictures for our school yearbook/scrapbook

    We do a few school theme crafts (chalkboard windsock, apple scratch art, etc

    We play more games (educational) the first week of school too.



    Please share your ideas too! :D
     
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  3. abcTammy

    abcTammy New Member

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    Your list sounds great :!: While we do school year round here, I still try to keep the first week of school special. We do many of the things you mention, and I like throw in some homeschool perks. We do things the kids couldn't do if they were in a traditional class room.

    We go to lunch together and celebrate.
    We go to one of our nature centers and enjoy the perfect weather.
    Visit a museum or the science station.
    We hit the beach or swimming pool.
    This year they want to go to a movie during the day :shock: .
    AND my number one favorite....We go on vacation! We are heading out west this year. I love the fact that there are no summer crowds and the prices drop too. :D
    Have a great year, I can't wait for school to begin.!
    Tammy
     
  4. abcTammy

    abcTammy New Member

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    Missy,
    This year we will also start the "100 days of school project."
    Tammy
     
  5. Mom2ampm

    Mom2ampm New Member

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    Tammy,

    Do you guys go out to eat or just eat together at home? I took the kids to Wendy's but we just brought it home. Avery's got a broken leg and it makes it kind of hard to get out much. I love the movie idea too. I think we would have done that if Avery was better. We started school this week because of us all being bored after five weeks of staying home. We'll do our summer vacation in late September. I cannot wait!!!!

    What do you do for your 100 days of school project? I did that when I taught in ps. We mainly focused on it at calendar and then on the 100th day we celebrated with lots of fun activities. Is that what you will do also?

    Thanks for the great ideas!!
     
  6. Mom2ampm

    Mom2ampm New Member

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    Tammy,

    Do you guys go out to eat or just eat together at home? I took the kids to Wendy's but we just brought it home. Avery's got a broken leg and it makes it kind of hard to get out much. I love the movie idea too. I think we would have done that if Avery was better. We started school this week because of us all being bored after five weeks of staying home. We'll do our summer vacation in late September. I cannot wait!!!!

    What do you do for your 100 days of school project? I did that when I taught in ps. We mainly focused on it at calendar and then on the 100th day we celebrated with lots of fun activities. Is that what you will do also?

    Thanks for the great ideas!!
     
  7. abcTammy

    abcTammy New Member

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    Missy,
    How much longer does Avery have to be in her cast :?: Poor thing :( You might order in her fav. pizza or something. We go out, and like to order in our fav. pizza. We celebrate the whole week here. I'm looking forward to getting started again myself. We keep up with a summer reading program and lots of lessons, but the "missing it" feeling has set in for us too.
    I think summer vacation in September is perfect.
    For 100 days of school, I'm thinking about using pencils. I'm going to get lots of funky ones from the dollar store. Each time we re-group into tens, we will have a party of some sort. My kids love baking things into shapes or cupcake pyramids. Can you imagine a hundred cupcakes stacked up? I know they could :wink: I'll try to keep it fun with our daily calendar. I have the classroom set with the weather station, and the wipe off sentence strip for the month/day of the week.
    My dd is planning to decorate the house this year. We make an annual trip out to the apple orchard in August. That will be our theme. :D Last year we had the best time picking our own. Then we made every type of apple thing you can imagine. :shock:
    We also have pen pals and family the kids write with the summer scoop. My dd is planning to begin a family news letter. She will work on it through the fall and we'll send it out with our Christmas cards.
    I hope Avery is back on both feet in time to enjoy your September Vacation! We can't wait for ours.
    Tammy



    :D :D
     
  8. Mom2ampm

    Mom2ampm New Member

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    Thanks Tammy!

    Avery broke her femur in two places, so badly that she had six pins put in her leg. They go from the inside out (they are exposed and there are openings in her leg where the pins enter). It is a strange sight for sure. She is lucky in a way. If she had a cast it would be a body cast. This way she can move around and do lots of things that she couldn't in a cast. I am hoping she will get it off in late August. We just have to wait to see how quickly the leg heals. She broke it at gymnastics camp the third week of summer!

    Sounds like you all do some cool things for the 100 days of school. I like your cupcake idea! :shock: If you do that you should post pictures for sure! I am so burned out on calendar. I have a calendar up but really hate fitting it into our schedule. Wish someone could give me some cool ideas to help me get excited about it again.

    We love the apple orchard too. Our local one has a lot of fun things to do there including the best petting zoo, a hayride, a band, local food and even a play area for kids. We really had fun last year going there. I'm hoping we can go again this year!

    Btw, how old are your kids? Forgive me for not remembering. I can't keep up with everyones children and their ages! Thanks for sharing all the good ideas with me!!!
     
  9. Amanda

    Amanda Administrator Staff Member

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    Avery does sound "lucky," at least for a broken femur... I had a student who broke his femur just before Christmas. He ended up spending about 4 weeks in the hospital in traction, then he had a body cast and had to come to school in a reclining wheelchair. He was able to get his cast off after about 7 weeks, I think. Either way, it's no fun!!
     
  10. Mom2ampm

    Mom2ampm New Member

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    Wow, four weeks in traction????

    Avery does have it easy! She was in the hospital for four days and I was complaining. It can always be worse I suppose. Man, I can't believe that kid didn't do homebound study for those couple of months instead of coming to school in a wheelchair. What do you do about the bathroom when you are in a body cast?

    Avery has pain with the pins but mainly when we clean them everyday. Other than that, she does very well with them. We even went to the store yesterday and she had on shorts. She didn't say a word about everyone being able to see her contraption! At first, she didn't even want us to look at it and thought she was so ugly. Glad she has overcome that!!
     
  11. abcTammy

    abcTammy New Member

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    Missy,
    My dd is ten and ds is seven, but he feels ten. :roll: I get a little bored with the calendar thing myself. My dd is now able to 'teach' the calendar lesson to her brother. They both like being the one to write in the day of the week or add the date. They fuss over who gets to set the weather part :shock: For my son, there is a clock to set. (We were doing two Saxon meeting books a day...EEEkkk... I had to combine it or go nuts.) Both kids were bored with the meeting books last year.
    My kids do like the cup cake idea. We'll have to take pictures and put them into our portfolios. This year I definately am going to "not keep every single thing!" It is so hard for me to toss any of their work out.
    My heart goes out to Avery. No cast to sign, and missing out on such a wonderful time...summer:cry:
    I do hope she heals up 'good as new soon."
    Tammy
     
  12. Mom2ampm

    Mom2ampm New Member

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    Thanks Tammy!

    Avery used the Saxon meeting calendar last year too. She did fine but I just got to where I was forgetting to do ti. My kids fight over the weather and marking on the calendar also and PReston is just three. I have even done a weather chart for this year. I need to make myself do it. Avery is doing a neat calendar in her agenda everyday. She has an activity to do with it everyday and seems to enjoy it, but Preston is missing out. :cry: Oh well, he's only three. I never did a daily calendar w/ Avery at that age and she is very smart. :wink:
     
  13. Amanda

    Amanda Administrator Staff Member

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    Re: Wow, four weeks in traction????

    I had a full-time aide when he was in the wheelchair. He had to use the bathroom in the nurse's office. I felt sorry for him because they had to help him go in a pan. Homebound study was an option that the school admin preferred, but his mother wanted him to be in school, and I agreed. (She was also on her own (hubby left), with a new job she couldn't continue missing.) He didn't have any social interaction when he was in the hospital, but he was able to do everything with us at school. My aide took him outside for recess, or he and a friend got to go down to the special ed room and use the toys down there. He could get out of his wheelchair there and rock, swing, or play other games. It worked out well!
     
  14. Kristy

    Kristy New Member

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    :D These ideas sound wonderful and make the first week fun. I was wondering if you all could tell me where you the patterns for theme crafts and the recipes for the theme deserts. Thanks for all the help. :?:
    Kristy TX
     
  15. Kristy

    Kristy New Member

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    :D These ideas sound wonderful and make the first week fun. I was wondering if you all could tell me where you the patterns for theme crafts and the recipes for the theme deserts. Thanks for all the help. :?:
    Kristy TX
     
  16. Mom2ampm

    Mom2ampm New Member

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    Kristy...

    I did a search for back to school crafts and found the chalkboard pattern. I have no idea now what site it was one but I know it was from Mrs. Burn's first grade class ??? Honestly, you could make up your own by just drawing out a chalkboard on black paper and then making a border with brown. Use any standard windsock pattern (11 x 18 paper). We glued on a paper apple, paper crayon, paper pencil, and a school house. Later, I thought we could have just decorated a real chalkboard that you find in the craft section at Walmart or somewhere. You could hang a real chalkboard on a door or wall. You can even write your school name or child's name on it with white paint pens.

    I came up with the chalkboard ice cream on my own. I used a mini ice cream sandwich and made a brown border with gel icing. Then, I used white gel frosting to write a, b, c , 1, 2, 3, chalk and such on it. I used red gel to make a little red apple in the corner. I usually make a special dessert every year for the first day of school. I have made a bus cake for several years, a chalkboard cake and apple cupcakes.

    Later, I found a blank bingo pattern and used "school themed" stickers to make a Back to School bingo set. I used a bus pattern to make a school bus and then we put our photos in the bus windows. My son made an apple paper craft to help reinforce the letter Aa and it's sounds.


    Hope this helps you a little! Oh, this site has some good ideas and links http://www.eduplace.com/monthlytheme/august/school_activities.html

    http://www.mrsburns.com/home.htm
    This site is the chalkboard windsock pattern and a whole lot more too!!! :shock:
     
  17. TinaTx

    TinaTx New Member

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    Hey girls, I'm finally coming up for air, and wanted to post a few things that we did....

    I get the kids to stamp their feet and hands in acid free ink for the scrapbook that I keep each year for them...Its going to be harder this year finding a bigger one for my oldest, I'll have to see if they exist for his size.since he shot up :D these past couple of months.

    We do go out to eat as family......and they also write about what they want to learn this year.....Its so cute to look at at the end of the year to see what they said plus HINT, HINT it gives me some ideas on some unit studies I might want to.

    They also interviewed their grandparents, or they did last year anyway....Grandma and pawpaw tell them about their going to school...last year they shared a few pictures with them....This year they said they had more picturesto share, and explained to them how their schoolroom had multi-levels or ages like our homeschool has..We take pictures together.

    We will make up a different list of questions this year to ask them......I keep that too with their scrapbook .

    We also take pictures.......I may do it different this year.....instead of having an end of the year picture....we may do a beginning of the year picture. We have local photographer, who happensto be a homeschooling dad, who takes WONDERFUL pictures. One was the boys sitting by a fishing pond with blue jean overalls, no shirt, no shoes,, just each with their feet inthe water....So something like that I may do.....

    We also do the 100 day each year, not so much to count, OR least for my oldest two, but more for *celebration* time......The one time we celebrated when we met the other homeschoolers at the mall for a party.It was cool in the a/c and they enjoyed eating lunch and playing at the tree in the mall. They had fun..This past year, I just gave them gifts becasue i had no time to party..I'm thinking about this year, doing some short of mural that we paint or do something with each day, for just a few minutes....stil perusing those idea..... :wink: They are a little older, so maybe a swim day they may like,etc.

    Thats some of the general stuff we do :D ..
     

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