Summer reading - starts with a great book store crawl!

My auction teacher experience for the past two years has been a Tacoma book store crawl. I LOVE taking students to some of my favorite bookstores -- and this hidden gem, the Tacoma Book Center, is my absolute favorite. There is nothing as exciting as literally being surrounded by books ...

Then and Now

That was then... (September)



This is now... (June)



What a bunch of characters -
So long Pioneers! Don't forget to be awesome!
Happy summer!

Prevent "Summer Slide," Seabury-Style

Well, my first recommendation for preventing the summer learning loss known as the dreaded "summer slide" (and yes, this even happens to gifted kids) is to sign up for one of our awesome summer camps: http://www.seabury.org/summeratseabury2016/
(Mrs. Towne and I are teaching Grossology and it is going to be REALLY gross and REALLY slimy and REALLY fun! Join us to learn all about sticky, goopy gross things, squishy, mushy gross things and bumpy, lumpy gross things!)

But if you're ready for a little less structure, that's OK too! Try one (or more) of the following:

My favorite list of summer activities for gifted kids is "The Summer Seven" at Mensa for Kids:
http://www.mensaforkids.org/teach/activity-plans/the-summer-seven/
which includes watching TED talks, being a tourist in your own city, and ideas for learning a new skill.
Mensa for Kids also has some great educational games to practice grammar and math, as well as a fantastic reading list (see the Excellence in Reading tab). *Pioneer families, I sent a hard copy of this home in your Friday Folders on the last day of school.

Hoagie's gifted is also an awesome web resource, and their games for kids and teens span all content and interest areas. Click on the link for choices like: arts, theater & music; books & authors; brain teasers, logic puzzles & optical illusions; natural science; for the love of words; space; and virtual reality -- just to name a few!

I also love just about every You Tube video made by Sci Show Kids and Crash Course Kids - these cover a range of science topics and all kinds of other cool concepts.

If your child would like to build on some of the things we've learned about this year, here are a few great sites:

Citizen scientists/Nature mapping: http://www.projectnoah.org
Endangered Species: http://www.fws.gov/endangered/?ref=topbar
Make things: https://diy.org
Build on our family history projects: https://www.historypin.org/en/

Every Pioneer loved the computer this year -- here are some great sites for learning to code/design video games:
https://gamestarmechanic.com
https://www.codecademy.com
https://code.org
https://scratch.mit.edu
http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker
and if they must just play, at least have them create: https://minecraft.net/en/

For more traditional core subjects -
My favorite is still Khan Academy for advanced math topics and practice (and a whole lot more - their tagline is "you can learn anything")
https://www.khanacademy.org

There are also great math, grammar, geography games: http://www.mensaforkids.org/play/games/

Keyboarding skills are  great to develop over the summer. We use:
Dance Mat typing: http://www.kidztype.com
Typing Web: https://www.typing.com

And here are some interesting looking ipad apps:
Learn and create on all kinds of subjects (lots of videos) with Wonderbox
Create ibooks with Book Creator - we definitely have some students who would love to do this!

Set aside reading time daily and check out your local library -- they are ALWAYS running some great summer incentive programs!

Don't forget the Seabury Library now has a giant catalog of new e-books and audio books that your Seabury students can access all summer long through the Overdrive link! Our fabulous librarian, Ms. Becky, has picked out some great titles and there is something for every age and reading taste. Be sure to check it out, Seabury families! (Each Seabury student has a sign-in. User name: First name and last initial, all lower case. PIN: The last four digits of the phone number listed in the class list in the directory.)

I recommend you highly incentivize summer educational work (personally, I do a 1-1 educational to recreational computer use time in the summer for my highly video-game addicted child) -- what is your child passionate about that you can use as a carrot?

For whatever subject area you are focusing on, the key is to keep it fun, but keep it in practice.
And, of course, to find time to also get outside and have a GREAT summer!

Another Day at the Beach...

We had beautiful weather for our annual day at the beach, and a good time was had by all!

Liberty - Isn't She Beautiful?

Bringing History to Life

Working with a grant from ancestry.com, students in grades 1-5 researched their family histories while studying American history, Westward Expansion and Immigration. We read about Ellis Island and heard many different stories about why people came to the U.S., but nothing could have brought the story of the American melting pot to life better than our Immigration Fair June 2!

Each class had a slightly different angle, but the overall idea was to research and present your family history. The Pioneers made family trees, interviewed grandparents and relatives to find out when and why their ancestors came to the U.S. and where they originally came from. They wrote about what they learned and brought in some kind of family artifact for the fair. Many also dressed up and brought regional foods to share. 

  Traditional Ukranian dress.

 Sharing family heirlooms.

 A beautiful old family album. This also included some old ration tickets.

 A lovely pair of leather lederhosen from Germany.

 A beautiful painted box -- a tourist trinket from Ecuador.

 Chinese calligraphy and flag.

We enjoyed looking at the projects in the other classes as well as showing off our own. Thanks to all the families who joined us. So many great pictures like these were shared! We were amazed to find how diverse our student population is at Seabury. The Pioneers made a list and charted all the places people were from on a world map, below. Where are we from? EVERYWHERE!

Working in a Widget Factory

Learning about the Industrial Revolution, we offered the following engineering challenge: Working alone or in teams, make as many widgets as possible that match the blueprint exactly.

Here's what it looked like:

Here are some of the things we learned:

Working alone it is hard to make a lot of widgets. Those who worked alone made only a few.

Working individually within a group might make a lot of widgets, but they don't all look the same, and this might be a problem if you are making parts for a car or airplane that need to be interchangeable.

Working as an assembly line is efficient, and produces a lot of widgets that all are the same.

It is good to have one person checking the widgets to make sure they match the blueprint (quality control).

And, last but not least:

It is fun to make widgets!