Summer School Notebooks!

I just finished making summer school notebooks for Natalie and William.  My big plan is to have them work on them together at the kitchen table for a little while each morning as part of my plans for organizing our days.  I've already put in place that they both brush teeth and get dressed right after breakfast, which helps with us getting out the door later, but also allows them to go outside to play much sooner, which is important because I'd prefer them be inside during peak heat and sunburn hours,  On Monday, I plan to introduce using their notebooks in the morning before we turn on the TV.

So, what's in the notebooks?

Natalie:

• Several coloring sheets that use a dot or number to denote which color to use.  (These are her only items that don't use dry erase).  These are for helping her improve her fine motor skills by staying in the lines, as well as number recognition. 
• Dot-to-dots. She has several using 0-5, and then a few for 0-10.  (I have more on standby for 0-20).  There are also a couple alphabet dot-to-dots.  
• Handwriting practice.  There are sheets that cover 1-10 and the whole alphabet, both lower and upper case.  Then, there is a sheet for each letter.  (The sheets I had for each number weren't that great).  
• Pattern mazes.  For these she follows the pattern to get through the maze.  She liked playing a game like this on StarFall.  
• My Little Pony sheet for tracing and naming shapes. 
• Letter review.  These include one sheet per letter that has room to trace and then write each letter, upper and lowercase, several times as well as a short exercise for each letter.  (I have many other letter practice to sheets if she gets bored including additional tracing and writing, circle the picture that starts with the letter sound, and look and finds for the letter).
• Star Wars and Disney Princess tracing sheets.  These have a picture of the character and then a place to trace the name.  These are good for handwriting and  reading.  I plan to make her a My Little Pony one myself if I can't find on on the internet.  I also might make them using her classmates pictures from the yearbook. 
• Alphabet mazes.  I need to add some more regular mazes.  I have a bunch in a workbook, but they individual letter work on the reverse sides. 
• Create your own pattern sheet by coloring in the shapes.  
• Dry erase board with lines for writing on one side, and no lines on the other.  
• Manipulative counting scenes.  There is a dance floor and a castle each with a space to put a cut out number.  She then counts out the correct number of ballerinas, princesses or ponies.  I also have one that is all boxes, which can use the pony cut outs or other small manipulatives like pom poms or buttons.  
• I need to add some more complicated scissors work.  
• I am thinking of adding sheets for making basic addition equations with manipulatives.   
• I should add 10-20 sight words.  
• I should add sheets of paper with room for a picture at the top and lines to write at the bottom. 

William:

• Some regular coloring sheets tucked in the pocket.  Currently these are of sheep and Star Wars.  These are the only items not used with dry erase.  
• Very simple mazes for practicing tracing a line.   These have ponies, Sesame Street, and other themes.  
• A sheet with the uppercase alphabet with a picture for each letter.  This will mostly be for him to point, circle, or cover the letters because they are a bit small to trace.  Later in his notebook there is a two page spread for tracing uppercase letters.  (Only one of my books had a lowercase alphabet, so I gave it to Natalie). 
• A sheet with the numbers 1-10.  Each number as a picture of items to correspond.  These are big enough to trace.  
• Shape tracing and identification with Star Wars characters. 
• Look and find sheets.  Each has a scene with five objects to find and circle.  
• Matching.  Mostly these are for practice drawing lines and noticing similarities and differences, but one is about shapes and another about professions.
• Finding shapes in pictures,for both naming and tracing.  
•  Playdoh mats making for basic shapes.  I should add one of a face.  (I wonder if I can find them for letters and numbers, too)
• Scissor practice.  The one he is going to like the best is stripes of Star Wars characters with a short line to snip between them.  He also has paint color swatches to snip between the colors.  I also included a couple princess practice sheets for long straight and curvy lines that Natalie is now too advanced for.  
• I need to add an activity for counting manipulatives. 
• I am thinking about printing sheets that copy the Lego picture, such as patterns or letters.  
• I need to add some Jake pirates items and Octonauts.  :) 

To go with their notebooks, I have a pencil case with thick and thin dry erase markers and scissors.  

I have a two inch thick notebook of all the sheets I used when doing the alphabet with Natalie, but I didn't use any of those in their notebooks yet.  I plant to use a lot of those for William in the fall.