What I did this summer...

Or rather, why did my summer pass so quickly?!

So, I truly love my job.  But I LOVE summer, too!  I feel like teachers deserve it after working as hard as we do all year long.

My bank account, however, does not like me taking the summers off.  Luckily, I am very fortunate to know the woman who runs the summer camps at our local university.  Around October she emails me and asks what camps I want for the upcoming year.  I usually just tell her to put me wherever she needs an instructor...which meant 3 camps this summer.  All with rising first and second graders.

Each camp is only 1 week long.  And each camp is on a different subject.  So you can sign up for one camp, or multiple camps.  It's great.

Are you ready for some pics?

Great...here goes.

Week 1: 

Robotics Camp

We used the Lego robotics kits...and they were amazing!  If you're thinking about getting them, do it.  I personally think they're worth it.  Now, we could only afford 4 kits, which means we had 5 kids per kit...and I had to share with the two older camps.  I'm hoping that next summer we can buy another kit or 2.  

We also made recycled robots

robot commercials

and studied all kinds of robots.

It was a great week.

Week 2:

Jr. Forensics Camp

We had to solve crimes

create crimes

get fingerprinted

study chromatography

look at, and study, handwriting

Again, great week

Probably my favorite of all 3 camps.

Week 3:

Jr. Archaeology

Now, I wasn't planning on teaching this camp.  I was supposed to teach a tech camp this week, and it was cancelled (due to low numbers).  And then the instructor for this camp bailed.  So I was asked to step in, and of course, I said yes.

This week was a good week, but a LONG one.  Granted, I only had 10 kids, but that meant no assistant.  :-(  And while I love history and archaeology, I had to do a lot of research to come up with curriculum for this week.  And trust me when I say there is not a lot out there for 1st and 2nd graders.

Anyway, we learned about

timelines

cave paintings

digs, and how you have to be gentle

you also have to make sure you document where you find things

we painted pots

then Mr. Ryan broke the pots (I might've thrown them off some steps...oops)

and then we had to glue them back together.

It was a good week...but like I said, long.

I LOVE doing summer camp.  It keeps my teacher bladder in check (haha), and lets me work on my Whole Brain strategies (I can use some I'm "afraid" to use during the year).  But three weeks of working in the summer means my summer goes fast.  :-/

One day I'll be rich and not need to work during the summer...right?

Thanks for sticking through such a long post!