Trainings, Olympics and Summer Swim Challenge

I have been in training all this week. It has been great! I have so many ideas of what I can add to my social studies curriculum and found tons of resources. Here are two big ones for you:

TeachTCI is a resource for websites, photos, videos for K-12. It is geared towards a set of social studies curriculum. You can pay for a subscription or get a 30 day free trial or just use the free resources found under Explore TeacherGenius button.The free resources would be great additions for any program.

Gilder Lehrman Institute has a plethora of primary sources. I know it geared more to upper grades but still has items for lower elementary.

I am coming up with so many items and activities to use with even my first graders. One really easy activity I plan on using is visual pictures. Currently we discuss quotes but I am thinking looking at pictures and photographs might be an easier and more engaging activity.

I have been seeing so many cute projects others have been making and can't wait to tackle my project list! Two more days of training and that is my mission. I have started working on an Olympics packet that includes math and literacy activities to use at the beginning of the year. Right now I have the math almost done. So look for them soon! If you have any suggestions of what you would like let me know.

So yes it is officially summer!!!! Can I get a silent cheer for that?  Usually my saying is skip and go naked (not that I actually do that) but it great watching the reactions when I say it. I decided to begin my own Summer Swim Challenge. As some of you know I live in Michigan- Northern Michigan to be more descriptive. Someone from my hometown-(super-tiny-no-traffic light-hometown) is swimming every day in Lake Michigan for the summer starting at Memorial Day and going to Labor Day. I thought how cool is that! I want to do that, then I got to Lake Michigan a few times last week and oh boy!! It is cold! Ice cube cold. We are talking almost Lake Superior cold. So I scratched that idea really quick.

Today I came up with this challenge for myself...starting today until school resumes I will go swimming daily in a lake. Pools are nice but when you have over 15 lakes within a twenty minute drive of you I choose a lake every time. So today was day 1- Lake Huron. Hope I can keep this going!

This picture is from freephotosonline.blogspot.com.