Summer School Week 2: All About Kindness

The theme for this week was kindness.

For reading, I brought in a collection of books around the topic of friendship/kindness - students then chose a book they wanted to read. 

After reading, students drew writing prompts from a jar, and in response wrote as many sentences as twice their grade level (for example, third graders wrote 6 sentences).  All prompts revolved around kindness, for example:

I show others I care when ______________________

Friends can be counted on to _____________________

The best way to show my family that I care is when I _______________________

The most important kindness I’ve received is _________________________

Kindness means ______________________________

Interestingly enough, the students were pretty resistent to write about kindness - I suspect it is a concept that isn't culturally talked about often, although parents were glad that the kids were exploring the topic.

I was planning on sharing the Susie Story, but the timing did not feel right. Writing about kindness was a challenge enough for this group of kids.

For math, we played Close Call: An Addition Card Game.  It was great - we modified it depending on grade level (ranging from single, double or triple digit addition).  Worked great, as everyone was in different groups according to their level.