Summer School!

I work in a special program that requires us to add 25 days to our school year.  This is quite tough because it makes our summers so short.  We got out of school May 22 and started back June 30.  We live in the desert, it is hot- too hot for school.  Also we were displaced to another school, so I didn't have all my fun teaching goodies!  Well enough complaining because there is a silver lining here! Oriental Trading sent me some sample products to review.

How exciting to get a package like this! Let me say this review on these products are based strictly on my opinion.  Others may have a different opinion or experience with the products.  I was provided the samples free of charge by Oriental Trading and I am providing my honest opinion.  No other type of compensation was received for this review.

We started this summer session with the GIANT All about Me poster.  I was amazed at the size of this poster. I teach Kinder, 1st and 2nd.  The poster was difficult for the kinders to fill out but my 1st and 2nd graders helped them.  I really like how this poster was a ready made project to display on my bulletin board.  I posted it with pictures of the kids on the first day at school.

This summer we decided to do fairy tales, and I was thrilled to see some of the products offered through Oriental Trading.  We started out making an anchor chart with what elements can be found in a fairytale. The students used the DIY Fairy Tale Sticker Scenes to start their own fairy tales.

The students could not wait to tell me what was happening in their picture.  I told them they had to write it down before they told me.  It was quite the motivator. 

Another project we had them do was to work in groups of 4 to 5 students.  They had to write a fairytale, write the script, make costumes and then act it out.  We started with them mapping out the story with characters, setting, problem and solution.

There plays were a blast to watch. They loved making their costumes.  They used butcher paper for parts of it.  I also had crowns, shields and Self Adhesive Jewels that they could use.

I love their imaginations in their stories and in their costumes!

It is amazing how some products inspire us and push our students to some amazing creativity.  We also used these cute little fairytale finger puppets in a center so that they could retell the story. These were simple but interesting for students to pick up and use.

I was thrilled we had fun and learned some things this summer. Now I just have to get my room ready for the rest of the year!