Super Tutor Thursday: Rechenka's Eggs

My DIY Babushka inspired costume.

This week's costume was inspired by the book Rechenka's Eggs. We did language arts and math exercises with worksheets related to the story.

A few of the exercises we did this week were:

We reviewed parts of speech by going through the story picking out nouns, verbs and adjectives.

We created math equations on a page of egg outlines, numbers and  symbols were each written in individual egg shapes.

We came up with the equations by rolling a giant sized dice. If a larger number was rolled first, it would be a subtraction equation. If a smaller number is rolled first, it would be an addition equation.

They also used a worksheet of egg shapes to fill in the missing numbers, counting up to 100.

Bird theme sensory bin, inspired by somtehing I saw somewhere online.

The students drew pictures of their favorite part of the story, which predominantly was the end...when a little goose hatches from a wondrous egg.

At one point I was having the students chant and repeat: a noun is a person, place or thing. I then asked each student individually to repeat the phrase on their own. The first cutie chants, "A noun is a person plays and sings." Haha! I obviously needed to clarify.

I used the same bird themed sensory bin as last week. It worked out that way. The base is birdseed and there are a few fake birds, bird houses, feathers, fake flowers and berries with small owl buttons hidden among the seed.

The last thing I did to end this week, was have all the students sit with me on the floor, as I read the book to them. It was a peaceful ending to another busy week.

Super Tutor Thursday: Make Way For Ducklings

Quack! Quack!

This week began my switch to the first grade class and instead of being an assistant--I was on my own! I chose a literary theme based off the book, Make Way for Ducklings. I think this book is one of the sweetest stories.

I used duck shapes from Dollar Tree to create a small book of adjectives. I also found a printable counting book online, along the lines of 10 little monkeys jumping on the bed, where you keep adding ducks and the other you keep taking away ducks.

I printed the sheet of small ducks and had the students cut them out and paste the correct number on each page. This took waaaaaayyy longer than I expected!

I also found a few duck shaped dot-to-dots for them

Beautiful and friendly chickens came by to say hello!

During the last class day of the week (absolutely perfect timing!), a parent of a private student came into the center, saw me dressed like a 'duck' and asked if I wanted her to bring in her chickens for the students to pet and see.

She returned a little while later with two of her lovely chickens. So nice, friendly and fluffy! We discussed the difference and similarities between ducks and chickens. The students also cut out a dusk mask to wear as my own little ducklings.

This is only an example of a few exercises we did this week...I have four mornings a week to fill. There is so much fun to find online! You can pretty much find free printables to match almost any theme you can think of!

Super Tutor Thursday: Pirate

I forgot to take pictures of the language arts and math assignments we did today. Boo!

We did a creative writing prompt/story starter using a free printable with a pirate theme. We're very good at adjusting according to the students needs and with that in mind, some students were given the story starter hand-out and some were given lined paper with a gorgeous blue pirate map picture across the top as the only input. The map was a beautiful blue with blue lines to match. I created it myself.

We found color by number worksheets with pirate themed pictures in addition and another with multiplication, also given according to the students abilities.

Another language arts exercise was to describe me, as a pirate, then write about the pirate character they had created in their description. They all loved the pirate and had been waiting for week since I had thought I was going to be the pirate sooner.

It's not a big deal but it gives the students something to look forward to each week and adds a little fun and something different.

Super Tutor Thursday: Ms. Katybug LadyBug

Lady Bug!

This was the end of our four week boot camp session. I had no idea how much the students enjoyed and looked forward to Super Tutor Thursday. Today, the parents began to tell me how much their student looked forward to Super Tutor every week and the only thing their student talked about all week was Super Tutor. 

Yes...I sort of have a *thing* for photo props.

How wonderful is that? We set the language arts exercise up earlier in the week. I brought in my collection of photo props, each student chose something and we took their picture.

Creating their own character.

The writing prompt was to create a character out of themselves with the prop and then write about it. This allowed them freedom to use their creativity while still developing their writing skills. The more advanced students were challenged to actually edit their work. For other students it was enough to produce a few sentences. 

One of the students brought a beautiful succulent arrangement to each of her tutors. Mine was in a different glass planter, an apple. How cute is that? 

Super Tutor Thursday: Tiger Lily

This week I came to the center as Tiger Lily, to go along with a Peter Pan theme.

I found lined paper with a border of Peter Pan characters. We also found a writing prompt that challenged the young writers to create an alternative Peter Pan story, as if Captain Hook was the hero and Peter Pan the bad guy.

What we didn't expect was the students having never heard, read or watched the story of Peter Pan!!!!

Oh my, seriously.

This costume was left over from last seasons production of Peter Pan, that we were all involved in. Originally, the dress was a costume I made when I was pregnant with Kurtis...It was pregnant Padme from the Star Wars movie series.

Super Tutor Thursday: Mermaid

For my second week as Super Tutor I was a mermaid. I am so blessed by our community theater costume designer! She has given me access to her costumes and has a great eye (her husband confirmed this!).

This costume was used in last season's production of Peter Pan. It was worn by one of the teenage girls that was cast as a mermaid. I did not expect it to fit me at all!

Everyone loved it of course. We used a mermaid themed writing prompt and math exercises.

To help the students with their equations, I brought shells and decorative blue glass baubles to use as counters.

It was definitely a FUN day at the center a great end to the long week.

Super Tutor Thursday

Super Tutor with my partner in crime, Ms. Dana. 

I was unexpectedly yet, gratefully, hired on for the summer to work the tutoring centers summer boot camp program. The hours are 9am-12noon Monday through Thursday.

I am assisting another tutor for the 3rd-5th grade class. It's too big to handle alone (15-18 students) combined with such a variation in grade and ability levels.

I decided I was going to wear my red cape, platinum wig and fake glasses and call myself Super Tutor on our final day of the week, Thursday.

The students got a big kick out of it. It wasn't any big deal but it was something different and special to add some fun into our learning environment. I think it also gives the students something to look forward to, maybe? Maybe they might htink I'm the crazy tutor, at their age. That's ok by me!

I want them to enjoy themselves along with their learning. For many of them, it is a challenge and they struggle in certain areas. It's nice to relax a little at the end of a week and be silly.

I spoke with our costume designer from our community theater and she agreed to help me with costume pieces each week. We will see what we can come up with. Stay tuned.