Summer Spell-it!

Wish I was here...still.

I spent a glorious day here floating along the lazy river and sipping Pina Coladas...and I was thinking about school?? Yes, I'm that crazy. But I'm betting that most of you are just as crazy as me. I will say that I did get over it and manage to push school to the back of my mind and enjoy the most fun I've had with the hubs in a while. He pretty much cracks me up on the daily, so that's saying something!

As we were walking out to grab our towels and rent our raft, Radio Disney was sponsoring a totally cute poolside party for the kids. One of the activities was so awesome, I had to share it. The party hostess, who I am convinced was a moonlighting teacher {note to self: look into that gig for next summer!} had each group of kids on a towel and gave them a beach pail filled with magnetic alphabet letters. Then Little Miss. BestSummerJobEver called out a word and the kids had to work together to spell it correctly on the towel. Fun, right?

So I'm totally stealing her idea. The kids by the pool were talking and giggling and stuff because it was summer and all, and you could totally allow that if you ran one of those fun classrooms where <insert sarcasm here> no actual book learnin' takes place. Doing it like that would actually be a great ice breaker activity.

I think I might take it a step further. I was thinking of doing a round or two like that but then making it a bit more serious and telling them they had to work together as a team to spell the word I call out without talking to each other. I'm thinking it would give me a good idea of how they work together, who the natural bossy kids leaders are and who is more inclined to sit on the sidelines. And just when I thought I was done with Dollar Tree, off I go again to pick up some more magnetic letters.

I just now had a little brainstorm. You could also use alphabet pasta for this which will come in very handy if I repeat this bulletin board!

Tomorrow I'm back to my classroom for my early days. I'm excited, happy, overwhelmed and sad all at once. Pictures of the whole thing coming soon.