Summer is Almost Here

  Summer is almost here! Can you feel it just ahead? This is the time to pack up your room, pass out your Super Summer Kits, collect your fabulous teacher gifts, and collect lots of hugs, smiling through your tears. Don't cry. I'm here to tell you from the other side of your teacher life that your students loved you and appreciated all you did for them this year. When they look back on their school years, the older they get, the more they will realize what you did for them. Many of them will even find ways to tell you. I promise. 

As teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe once said, "I touch the future. I teach." As
you close up shop for this year and start to plan for next year, never forget that in all you do and say and plan, you touch the future every day. What an awesome superpower to have!

Reaching out into the future, you may find an idea or two in this bundle from Rainbow City Learning. The Summer Activity Calendar is a must! Lots of ideas for other add ins. 

What was the Super Summer Kit? It was simply a large ziplock bag or white 8 1/2 x 11 envelope filled with an activity calendar, a list of books "Recommended in Rainbow City" by other students, a goodbye letter from me filled with memories of our year together, and hopes I held for them as they grew up and away, fun writing suggestions like nature observations and different ways to make fun books and journals, a list of fun local day trips and summer field trips, and a summer bucket list brainstorming activity called "I Would if I Could". Kids used these throughout the summer with no future deadlines or pressure. Some even took them to camp for some downtime suggestions to share with bunkmates. I made a colorful and personalized cover page for each one, and loved having this unique gift to greet them on the last day of school as important as the backpack bags I greeted them with on the first day!

Since I have now have evidence that so many are hugely successful adults, and since those who looped with me or returned to a classroom of a teaching friend that I could check in with came back refreshed and even smarter, I have to conclude that the Super Summer Kit was enough. The thick worksheet books that parents used to clamor for at our local book shop every May and June seemed daunting and uninteresting to me. What kid wants an assignment to complete every day all summer long, in  the interest of "keeping skills sharp"? Kids need their vacation and down time just as much as we adults do to refresh, recharge, and renew our interest in learning. I always found that the activities that I selected for that kit (most found right here in this bundle) were a "just right" approach to summer learning.

So, if you are lamenting the end of the school year, even while looking forward to your own summer plans, and want to send your babies off with a fun and learning filled kit for their summer, I hope you'll check out these summer resources from Rainbow City Learning for a happy slide through summer and into the next school year. And don't worry, they're still making more! (Love and kisses to Joanie, now in Heaven. She always told me not to cry on the last day because they were making more (kids) and when they were ready, they'd send them!)

For more summer inspiration, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! This is our last linkup until August. Posts in this linkup are limited to Teacher Talk member bloggers only.

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at TPT. For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

                                         

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Welcoming the Summer Slide

It's an exhilarating time of the year! Testing should be over by now (Pleeeease tell me that's true for you!), classrooms are getting packed up and summerized, and we're celebrating all the learning that has happened for our students in this important piece of their childhood. Still so much to do and so much to ponder. 

I cried at the end of all but one of my classroom years. (That one year is another loooong story. I'll save that for now.) I was sure that I would never see these precious children of my heart again once they ran out the door into the summer sunlight (or rain! We live in Michigan, where the weather is never guaranteed.). My teaching friend, Joanie, always told me not to cry because, "They're making more. And when they are ready, they'll send them!" But what about this group? What about these kids who have become a kind of family with me this year? 

The good news is that so many of them have come back as adults as our lives have crossed once more, whether in real life or on social media. Hearing them say to their own children that I was their third or fourth or fifth grade teacher fills my heart. Surprisingly, more than a few have remembered and reminded me of the "Super Summer Kit" I once sent them out the door with on that last and bittersweet day of our year or years together. (Lots of looping years!)

What was the Super Summer Kit? It was simply a large ziplock bag or white 8 1/2 x 11 envelope filled with an activity calendar, a list of books "Recommended in Rainbow City" by other students, a goodbye letter from me filled with memories of our year together, and hopes I held for them as they grew up and away, fun writing suggestions like nature observations and different ways to make fun books and journals, a list of fun local day trips and summer field trips, and a summer bucket list brainstorming activity called "I Would if I Could". Kids used these throughout the summer with no future deadlines or pressure. Some even took them to camp for some downtime suggestions to share with bunkmates. I made a colorful and personalized cover page for each one, and loved having this unique gift to greet them on the last day of school as important as the backpack bags I greeted them with on the first day!

Since I have now have evidence that so many are hugely successful adults, and since those who looped with me or returned to a classroom of a teaching friend that I could check in with came back refreshed and even smarter, I have to conclude that the Super Summer Kit was enough. The thick worksheet books that parents used to clamor for at our local Borders Book Shop every May and June seemed daunting and uninteresting to me. What kid wants an assignment to complete every day all summer long, in  the interest of "keeping skills sharp"? Kids need their vacation and down time just as much as we adults do to refresh, recharge, and renew our interest in learning. I always found that the activities that I selected for that kit (most found right here in this bundle) were a "just right" approach to summer learning.

So, if you are lamenting the end of the school year, even while looking forward to your own summer plans, and want to send your babies off with a fun and leaning filled kit for their summer, I hope you'll check out these summer resources from Rainbow City Learning for a happy slide through summer and into the next school year. And don't worry, they're still making more! (Love and kisses to Joanie, now in Heaven.)

For more ideas as you slide into summer, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! 

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts

that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at    TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Summer is Almost Here

 

Summer is almost here! Can you feel it just ahead? This is the time to pack up your room, pass out your Super Summer Kits, collect your fabulous teacher gifts, and collect lots of hugs, smiling through your tears. Don't cry. I'm here to tell you from the other side of your teacher life that your students loved you and appreciated all you did for them this year. When they look back on their school years, the older they get, the more they will realize what you did for them. Many of them will even find ways to tell you. I promise. 

As teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe once said, "I touch the future. I teach." As
you close up shop for this year and start to plan for next year, never forget that in all you do and say and plan, you touch the future every day. What an awesome superpower to have!

Reaching out into the future, you may find an idea or two in this bundle from Rainbow City Learning. The Summer Activity Calendar is a must! Lots of ideas for other add ins. 

What was the Super Summer Kit? It was simply a large ziplock bag or white 8 1/2 x 11 envelope filled with an activity calendar, a list of books "Recommended in Rainbow City" by other students, a goodbye letter from me filled with memories of our year together, and hopes I held for them as they grew up and away, fun writing suggestions like nature observations and different ways to make fun books and journals, a list of fun local day trips and summer field trips, and a summer bucket list brainstorming activity called "I Would if I Could". Kids used these throughout the summer with no future deadlines or pressure. Some even took them to camp for some downtime suggestions to share with bunkmates. I made a colorful and personalized cover page for each one, and loved having this unique gift to greet them on the last day of school as important as the backpack bags I greeted them with on the first day!

Since I have now have evidence that so many are hugely successful adults, and since those who looped with me or returned to a classroom of a teaching friend that I could check in with came back refreshed and even smarter, I have to conclude that the Super Summer Kit was enough. The thick worksheet books that parents used to clamor for at our local book shop every May and June seemed daunting and uninteresting to me. What kid wants an assignment to complete every day all summer long, in  the interest of "keeping skills sharp"? Kids need their vacation and down time just as much as we adults do to refresh, recharge, and renew our interest in learning. I always found that the activities that I selected for that kit (most found right here in this bundle) were a "just right" approach to summer learning.

So, if you are lamenting the end of the school year, even while looking forward to your own summer plans, and want to send your babies off with a fun and learning filled kit for their summer, I hope you'll check out these summer resources from Rainbow City Learning for a happy slide through summer and into the next school year. And don't worry, they're still making more! (Love and kisses to Joanie, now in Heaven. She always told me not to cry on the last day because they were making more (kids) and when they were ready, they'd send them!)

For more summer inspiration, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! This is our last linkup until August. Posts in this linkup are limited to Teacher Talk member bloggers only.

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at TPT. For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

                                         

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

0

Summer is Almost Here

Summer is almost here! Can you feel it just ahead? This is the time to pack up your room, pass out your Super Summer Kits, collect your fabulous teacher gifts, and collect lots of hugs, smiling through your tears. Don't cry. I'm here to tell you from the other side of your teacher life that your students loved you and appreciated all you did for them this year. When they look back on their school years, the older they get, the more they will realize what you did for them. Many of them will even find ways to tell you. I promise. 

As teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe once said, "I touch the future. I teach." As
you close up shop for this year and start to plan for next year, never forget that in all you do and say and plan, you touch the future every day. What an awesome superpower to have!

Reaching out into the future, you may find an idea or two in this bundle from Rainbow City Learning. The Summer Activity Calendar is a must! Lots of ideas for other add ins. 

What was the Super Summer Kit? It was simply a large ziplock bag or white 8 1/2 x 11 envelope filled with an activity calendar, a list of books "Recommended in Rainbow City" by other students, a goodbye letter from me filled with memories of our year together, and hopes I held for them as they grew up and away, fun writing suggestions like nature observations and different ways to make fun books and journals, a list of fun local day trips and summer field trips, and a summer bucket list brainstorming activity called "I Would if I Could". Kids used these throughout the summer with no future deadlines or pressure. Some even took them to camp for some downtime suggestions to share with bunkmates. I made a colorful and personalized cover page for each one, and loved having this unique gift to greet them on the last day of school as important as the backpack bags I greeted them with on the first day!

Since I have now have evidence that so many are hugely successful adults, and since those who looped with me or returned to a classroom of a teaching friend that I could check in with came back refreshed and even smarter, I have to conclude that the Super Summer Kit was enough. The thick worksheet books that parents used to clamor for at our local book shop every May and June seemed daunting and uninteresting to me. What kid wants an assignment to complete every day all summer long, in  the interest of "keeping skills sharp"? Kids need their vacation and down time just as much as we adults do to refresh, recharge, and renew our interest in learning. I always found that the activities that I selected for that kit (most found right here in this bundle) were a "just right" approach to summer learning.

So, if you are lamenting the end of the school year, even while looking forward to your own summer plans, and want to send your babies off with a fun and learning filled kit for their summer, I hope you'll check out these summer resources from Rainbow City Learning for a happy slide through summer and into the next school year. And don't worry, they're still making more! (Love and kisses to Joanie, now in Heaven. She always told me not to cry on the last day because they were making more (kids) and when they were ready, they'd send them!)

For more summer inspiration, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! This is our last linkup until August. Posts in this linkup are limited to Teacher Talk member bloggers only.

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at TPT. For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

                                         

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

0

Welcoming the Summer Slide

It's an exhilarating time of the year! Testing should be over by now (Pleeeease tell me that's true for you!), classrooms are getting packed up and summerized, and we're celebrating all the learning that has happened for our students in this important piece of their childhood. Still so much to do and so much to ponder. 

I cried at the end of all but one of my classroom years. (That one year is another loooong story. I'll save that for now.) I was sure that I would never see these precious children of my heart again once they ran out the door into the summer sunlight (or rain! We live in Michigan, where the weather is never guaranteed.). My teaching friend, Joanie, always told me not to cry because, "They're making more. And when they are ready, they'll send them!" But what about this group? What about these kids who have become a kind of family with me this year? 

The good news is that so many of them have come back as adults as our lives have crossed once more, whether in real life or on social media. Hearing them say to their own children that I was their third or fourth or fifth grade teacher fills my heart. Surprisingly, more than a few have remembered and reminded me of the "Super Summer Kit" I once sent them out the door with on that last and bittersweet day of our year or years together. (Lots of looping years!)

What was the Super Summer Kit? It was simply a large ziplock bag or white 8 1/2 x 11 envelope filled with an activity calendar, a list of books "Recommended in Rainbow City" by other students, a goodbye letter from me filled with memories of our year together, and hopes I held for them as they grew up and away, fun writing suggestions like nature observations and different ways to make fun books and journals, a list of fun local day trips and summer field trips, and a summer bucket list brainstorming activity called "I Would if I Could". Kids used these throughout the summer with no future deadlines or pressure. Some even took them to camp for some downtime suggestions to share with bunkmates. I made a colorful and personalized cover page for each one, and loved having this unique gift to greet them on the last day of school as important as the backpack bags I greeted them with on the first day!

Since I have now have evidence that so many are hugely successful adults, and since those who looped with me or returned to a classroom of a teaching friend that I could check in with came back refreshed and even smarter, I have to conclude that the Super Summer Kit was enough. The thick worksheet books that parents used to clamor for at our local Borders Book Shop every May and June seemed daunting and uninteresting to me. What kid wants an assignment to complete every day all summer long, in  the interest of "keeping skills sharp"? Kids need their vacation and down time just as much as we adults do to refresh, recharge, and renew our interest in learning. I always found that the activities that I selected for that kit (most found right here in this bundle) were a "just right" approach to summer learning.

So, if you are lamenting the end of the school year, even while looking forward to your own summer plans, and want to send your babies off with a fun and leaning filled kit for their summer, I hope you'll check out these summer resources from Rainbow City Learning for a happy slide through summer and into the next school year. And don't worry, they're still making more! (Love and kisses to Joanie, now in Heaven.)

For more ideas as you slide into summer, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! 

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts

that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at    TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Read Aloud Magic

 Ready to add some magic to your read-aloud? Reading plus gifts. What could be better? This post is a followup reveal to something that I teased in my last post! Who loves reading? Well, almost everyone. Who loves gifts? EVERYONE!!! By adding class gifts to your read-aloud, you can offer your students a magic portal to the world inside the book, as well as encouraging them to love reading just a little more than they already do. 

It all started on Mother's Day several years ago. My daughter gifted me a subscription to a book box club that would send a new book to me each month, along with four gifts that are mentioned in the book. As I read the book, I would reach a page with a sticky note that said, "Open Your Gift!" The gift, wrapped with a label showing the corresponding page number, was always a perfect way to hold a piece of that book in my hands. Example, in that first book, a "flower child" of the seventies approached the main character. She was wearing huge hoop earrings with fringes and a scarf in her hair. Inside the gift for that page was THOSE earrings and THAT scarf! Love, love, love! Right? In another book, the main character stepped out of her usual personality and stepped up to try karaoke. My gift for reading to that page? A karaoke microphone! The microphone was also rose gold - definitely speaking to my very soul! 

Sweetheart number six in my family has seen my book boxes in process and some of the gifts. She asked for a book box of her own for her recent seventh birthday, and I created two of them for her! She loved her  gifts! Clementine by Sara Pennypacker is one of the books that I gave to our sweetheart. As I've also used this in the past as a read-aloud for third graders, it occurred to me that this open-your-gift magic could also be done as a read-aloud experience in the classroom. 

Yes, of course there was glitter on each sticky. Have we met?

I'm sharing here ideas for two read-aloud books that you could try this with. The first is recommended for grades 2-4 and the second would work with grades 4-6. The second one is my all-time personal favorite for an upper elementary read-aloud. I'm listing individual gift ideas, and then classroom "moments" (gifts suitable for a group). This idea would also work in small book club groups in your classroom. A great followup would be to ask students to select four stopping pages and four corresponding gifts for the next book they read. 

I hope you and your students will enjoy stepping through the portals into the story of your next read-aloud! I would love to hear from you in the comments below after you try this! Email me if you'd rather share your results that way!

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

Page 18: "grabbed the box of markers from where my mom had hidden them"

individual gift: new permanent or paint markers

class moment: new markers added to community boxes, or an art break to paint a "flaming sunset".

Page 83: "The following students are excused from recess so they can catch up on their journal writing"

individual gift: new fun journal

class moment: extra time to add art, stickers, and other embellishments to journal entries, or time to share the reading of journal entries in small groups

Page 114-115: "Because I am so good at paying attention, I know all the things Margaret likes. So I ran around the apartment gathering them up."

individual gift: red Barbie shoes, a blue feather, or M&Ms

class moment: Stop and talk about collections that each student personally has. Could also plan a collection display as part of the celebration for completing the book.

Page 130-131: 

individual gift: stuffed kitten

class moment: cupcake decorating party - adding frosting, sprinkles, etc. Alternative: design and draw cakes that celebrate events other than birthdays

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Page 20-21: "...he would hand me a velvet box, and in it would be a diamond tiara..."

individual gift: tiara

"And the second thing is that she likes ginger ale..."

class moment: ginger ale tasting (Compare Vernor's to Canada Dry, Schwepp's etc.) 

Page 43: "And she gets socks."  

individual gift: unusual socks

class moment: wear (or draw) your favorite socks to class. Have a "wear your socks" day in class.

Page 76 -77: "So what's it going to be?" asks Mabelline Person. 

                     "'Forever in Blue Jeans', by Neil Diamond," I say.

individual gift: USB Flash drive with the five songs mentioned on page 76; doll-sized blue jeans 

class moment: dance break with the five songs mentioned above, vote for class favorite

Page 116: "My cake is beautiful."  "'It's perfect," I tell him." "'It's a crooked kind of perfect,' I say."

individual gift: cake mix, frosting mix, cake decorating accessories

class moment: design the perfect birthday cake for you (start with an art activity, but maybe choose one to     actually create and bring in to share at a later time. 

Page 184: "'Wouldn't that be funny if everybody wore shirts with true stuff on them?' Mona laughs."

individual gift: white t-shirt and fabric markers

class moment: design a t-shirt with "true stuff" about you 

For a complete unit on A Crooked Kind of Perfect, click here:

For more Book Club ideas from Rainbow City Learning, click here!

If I can do anything else to help make your job easier,  please let me know in the comments below! If I use your idea for a new blog post, you will win a TpT $10 gift card. If I create a new resource for Rainbow City Learning based on your idea, you will win a free copy of that resource to use in your classroom! (Note: all comments are reviewed before appearing on my blog. It may take a few hours for your comment to appear! Thanks for your patience!)

For more thoughts on teaching as we head into the homestretch of the teaching year, don't miss these posts by our awesome members of Teacher Talk!  

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts

that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at    TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

1

Untamed Teachers

Yinz! Yinz have got to read this book! (Yinz  = Pittsburghese for Y'all. As in Y'all! You have got to read this book!) Just trying to be authentic here. I'm from Pittsburgh. It would be inauthentic to say Y'all. But really - Read this book! It's summer, and you have time now.

I was scrolling through Facebook in the midst of our shelter at home order and came upon a video of Glennon Doyle reading an excerpt from her new book. She was, of course, sheltering at home also. She was on the couch with a quilt, just like me, but was wearing a fabulous and unique sweater. I was wearing PJs. She was wearing the sweater  that she had planned to wear to an in-person book tour event. I loved her voice, and the chapter she read, "Attendants", really spoke to me. It addressed the fear and anxiety so many of us were feeling at the time, and also reminded me of a specific situation I had been in during an overseas flight.

Glennon's reading sent me right off to order her book. I listened to it on Audible and added it to my Kindle library. When my podcast group, We Teach So Hard, decided to read the book together and discuss it during our Summer Reading series, I needed to order the hardcover and actually hold it in my hands. The cover is gorgeous - looks like poured paint and glitter - and the book made it easier to add tabs and to mark up. Our discussion also prompted me to replay the audiobook during my morning walks. Each section of the replay gave me a new thought for the day.

Glennon Doyle's works are all memoir and her life is nothing like mine, yet everything she writes speaks to me on a level that is meaningful in my own life. Try reading this one - I think you will find the same is true. I will talk about a few takeaways that I think are relevant to my teacher life, and I hope you will also listen to our podcast episode.

Cages
In the first section of the book, "Caged", Glennon talks about all the ways that women are caged and limited by the society in which we live. I personally think that our society provides plenty of limitation cages for humans in general. As a teacher, I have many times walked willingly into the cages set up for me. Heck, I even decorated them and added stronger locks to some. The cage of how a teacher should dress, the cage of what you can discuss with your students, the cage of standards to tick off, the cage of how parent contacts should go, and the tiny, suffocating cage of teacher evaluations. There's more, but these stood out to me. Doyle doesn't talk about the teacher life in her book because she is not a teacher (not officially anyway). But wow. So much there to apply to teaching. My teaching was pretty ordinary until I discovered the "key" of imagination. I freed myself and my students by shutting the door and just teaching. I invited my students to "live inside of their imaginations" along with me.

Keys
In the section on "Keys", Doyle talks about the inner work that must be done to break out of the cages. The one that spoke to me (other than "Imagine") was "Know". It took me years to break out of following the traditional molds of teaching because I was too frantically busy trying to stay on top of it all every minute of every day. When I finally took the time (during a seven year hiatus at home with my children) to consider what was good and not so good about my teaching practice, I was ready to return with something much better to offer my students: imagination, joy, and curiosity. I didn't need seven years, and neither do you. A short time this summer away from it all, and the opportunity to look inside is enough. Listening to the audio version of this amazing book is a wonderful trip inside yourself because every section makes you think.

Free
The last section talks about all the ways to break free and to be free. The biggest problem with all of this is that you have to be willing to "burn it down" (get rid of what you may have believed and held on to for your whole life) in order to find freedom. You may need to read, walk away, and go back later to review. Read a few beach reads in between! LOL! My application to teaching here is the ways in which I became a district leader in the last third of my career. I had burned down the expectations that were confining my imagination and thought of some educationally better ways to do things. Some of these were to trust the students to make good decisions during PBL assignments, to decide on the structure and rules of our learning community with the children rather than for them, and to add much more of the arts into my teaching in some unconventional ways.
By the way, you might not have "burned it down" on your own, but you sure broke into some new ways of delivering an education this Spring. You were expected to shift with just hours of warning from in person classrooms to online learning. From what I was able to observe from my perch in retirement, WOW! You nailed it, teacher! You are a cheetah and a prophet! (Read the book and you'll know why I have called you that!)

The We Teach So Hard podcast group would love for you to try these recipes while you make your way through Untamed. Hope you find time for peace and reflection this summer. Yinz owe it to yourselves!

0

Sliding into Summer

It's an exhilarating time of the year! Testing should be over by now (Pleeeease tell me that's true for you!), classrooms are getting packed up and summerized, and we're celebrating all the learning that has happened for our students in this important piece of their childhood. Still so much to do and so much to ponder. 

I cried at the end of all but one of my classroom years. (That one year is another loooong story. I'll save that for now.) I was sure that I would never see these precious children of my heart again once they ran out the door into the summer sunlight (or rain! We live in Michigan, where the weather is never guaranteed.). My teaching friend, Joanie, always told me not to cry because, "They're making more. And when they are ready, they'll send them!" But what about this group? What about these kids who have become a kind of family with me this year? 

The good news is that so many of them have come back as adults as our lives have crossed once more, whether in real life or on social media. Hearing them say to their own children that I was their third or fourth or fifth grade teacher fills my heart. Surprisingly, more than a few have remembered and reminded me of the "Super Summer Kit" I once sent them out the door with on that last and bittersweet day of our year or years together. (Lots of looping years!)

What was the Super Summer Kit? It was simply a large ziplock bag or white 8 1/2 x 11 envelope filled with an activity calendar, a list of books "Recommended in Rainbow City" by other students, a goodbye letter from me filled with memories of our year together, and hopes I held for them as they grew up and away, fun writing suggestions like nature observations and different ways to make fun books and journals, a list of fun local day trips and summer field trips, and a summer bucket list brainstorming activity called "I Would if I Could". Kids used these throughout the summer with no future deadlines or pressure. Some even took them to camp for some downtime suggestions to share with bunkmates. I made a colorful and personalized cover page for each one, and loved having this unique gift to greet them on the last day of school as important as the backpack bags I greeted them with on the first day!

Since I have now have evidence that so many are hugely successful adults, and since those who looped with me or returned to a classroom of a teaching friend that I could check in with came back refreshed and even smarter, I have to conclude that the Super Summer Kit was enough. The thick worksheet books that parents used to clamor for at our local Borders Book Shop every May and June seemed daunting and uninteresting to me. What kid wants an assignment to complete every day all summer long, in  the interest of "keeping skills sharp"? Kids need their vacation and down time just as much as we adults do to refresh, recharge, and renew our interest in learning. I always found that the activities that I selected for that kit (most found right here) were a "just right" approach to summer learning.

So, if you are lamenting the end of the school year, even while looking forward to your own summer plans, and want to send your babies off with a fun and leaning filled kit for their summer, I hope you'll check out these summer resources from Rainbow City Learning for a happy slide through summer and into the next school year. And don't worry, they're still making more! (Love and kisses to Joanie, now in Heaven.)

For more ideas as you slide into summer, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! Want to join us? Email me and I'll tell you how to do it!

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