What Are Your Plans for January 3rd? :)

The new year is fast approaching and so we must start preparing to exit vacation mode to face the beginning of the new semester. Have you thought about how to help our students exit vacation mindset and re-enter our classrooms January 3rd? In truth, I have not spent the bulk of my time off dwelling on it, but as the last week slowly draws to a close, I am doing my best to arrive at some transition activities to slowly move them back into school routine:)

With this thought in mind, I will share with you not only some internet activities I will be doing with mine, but also some sites that may interest you.

http://superherosquad.marvel.com/create_your_own_comic This site is every kid's dream---to design their own comic book (or comic strip if the 22 page book is a bit overwhelming). I plan on having my ELD classes make a 22 page book together (I only have 13 kids of mixed English proficiencies so this should work). If you have a language arts class or English, this may be fun way to ease the shock of being back in school:)

http://sheg.stanford.edu/ This site was created by Dr. Wineberg of Stanford University. The focus is getting ELLs to read historical documents. There are already 75 complete lessons (down to worksheets) already done and ready to go. I see them as easy supplements to any lesson (for more information join my subscriber list at www.ellteacherpros.com if you want the newsletter by 1/1/11, OR you can wait a month and access it on 2/1 when it will be released to everyone.

http://www.mathplayground.com/index.html For kids who need a refresher on the basics, this would be a fun place to spend some time (either as a reward or tutoring support). I played on the graph game site for a new minutes and enjoy my time there. The site has a variety of games and the site is also very easy to navigate.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/science/games/5833.html This site has science games from K-12. This would a great fun review of what students did right before break!

I hope you have a great start next week and look for my blog on my experiences:)

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com