campCORE: KUC's full-day summer camp for elementary students

Ssshhhh! Don't tell the children that they are actually learning anything during these camps! We walk a fine line between learning and having fun, so you can send us your kids knowing that they will have fun while they keep their minds active all summer long!

Kids Under Construction is excited to offer a full-day academic camp this summer! We know that many of you are looking for day camps for your kids this summer, and we think that campCORE is the perfect camp for parents that want their students to use their minds and have fun. You can enroll your students for a day or for the whole week, so we're hoping that your youngest students will join us.

What is campCORE?
campCORE is a full-day academic camp that helps keep students' minds alert using some of our most-loved games and activities. Students will create (C), observe (O), report (R), and explore (E) their way through some of our most-loved games and activities while reviewing common core standards to prepare for next year.

Who can enroll in campCORE?
We invite students entering grades K-5 to enroll in campCORE this summer. We are able to accommodate a wide range of students in these camps because students will move through a variety of stations that are grade-level appropriate for them.

What kinds of activities do you have planned for campCORE?
We've taken some of our favorite games and activities that we use to help students achieve common core standards and put them altogether in this camp. Here's a sampling of some of the activities we have planned:

The week of August 10th is BASEBALL WEEK! Baseball means popcorn, soda pop, snacks, and good ole fashioned fun. We will read about some of the players, calculate some statistics, and enjoy cracker jacks for a snack. One of the math activities that we will play is called popcorn math. Students get a bag of "popcorn" and practice math facts, compare numbers, and more.

Who doesn't like a delicious bag of chips with their hot dog at the baseball stadium? During baseball week, we use Cheetos to learn about how bugs and insects pollinate plants. Did you know that the cheese coating on Cheetos is sticky like pollen?

After reading about some of baseball's greatest heroes, we'll review some of the new vocabulary that we've learned with a fun game of muffin tin toss. 

You can't sit through a game without some soda pop to enjoy alongside your hot dog and chips! Some of our younger students will practice counting syllables by sorting words printed on bottle caps, while some of our older students will practice arranging numbers (including integers and fractions) from least to greatest. 

The week of August 17th is GAMES WEEK! You know that games are fun, but did you know that games are a great way to practice important skills? We will have all kinds of fun bowling, building with Legos, and playing board games (with a twist) like Candyland. One of the reading activities that we will play is called Candyland comprehension. Students pull a color card, and depending on which color they pull, they will have to read a short passage and answer a comprehension question. So for example, if a student pulls a purple card, they will have to identify the main idea of a short reading passage. Passages are anywhere between 5 and 8 sentences long, and we have them at a variety of reading levels. 

We turn our patio area into a bowling alley and attach all kinds of activities to them. We've used them to attach writing prompts, math facts, science review questions, and lots more.

Who doesn't love Legos? Our youngest students use them to make letters, spell words, and practice counting. Our older students use them to create multiplication arrays and calculate areas and perimeters.

Every week is jam-packed full of fun activities and tasks that students will have fun with. When you register, we will contact you to find out more about your student so that we can plan their activities.

What does a typical day look like at campCORE?
Camp starts at 9:00am and ends at 2:00pm. Here's our daily schedule:

9:00-9:15a : OPENING
9:15-10:15a : math centers
10:15-10:30a : SNACK
10:30-11:30a : reading rotations
11:30-12:00p : LUNCH
12:00-1:00p : group science activity
1:00-1:15p : BRAIN BREAKS
1:15-1:45p : enrichment (Spanish, art, engineering, history, writing, memory)
1:45-2:00p : CLOSING

What are the weekly themes for campCORE?
Every week of campCORE has a different theme. For example, all of our math centers for baseball week (8/10) will have something to do with baseball. The theres are as follows:

WEEK 1 (7/6-7/9) : candy
WEEK 2 (7/13-7/16) : oceans
WEEK 3 (7/20-7/23) : CSI
WEEK 4 (7/27-7/30) : planet Earth
WEEK 5 (8/3-8/6) : wild animals
WEEK 6 (8/10-8/13) : baseball
WEEK 7 (8/17-8/20) : games
WEEK 8 (8/24-8/27) : the human body

How much does tuition cost for campCORE?
Tuition for campCORE is $345 per week or $95 per day. You can enroll for just one day, or you can enroll for the entire week! If you know you've got a crazy week coming up sometime this summer, or a day when you need your kids out of the house, give us a call!

Are you as excited as we are?! There are no tests, no quizzes, and no homework, so campCORE is pretty much like the best day of school ever. Except that it's not school. And you can sit next to your friends.

Fall Workshops: Math Potholes: Multiplication

This is the time of year that we hear lots of parents stressing about math facts. In Long Beach, students in grades 2-5 are required to answer at least 65/70 facts correct in under 10 minutes (approximately 9 seconds per fact). In order for a student to receive a 4 on their report cards, they must be able to answer 68/70 facts correct in under 5 minutes (approximately 4 seconds per fact). This does not leave room for students to use aides, such as their fingers, a multiplication chart, or pictures. To help students pass these benchmarks, we use several different strategies.

First, we look at the four different ways that we can show multiplication using pictures. Here's an example:

Source: Natalia Ginns

Then, we show students how they can use a multiplication chart to help them when they get stuck. This is a nice visual for three main reasons. 1) It's easy to find patterns in a multiplication chart that help you remember some of those tricky facts. 2) When students use it, we have them circle the product that they got stuck on so tha we can keep track of their "hard" facts. 3) We like to show students how the chart can be folded in half, demonstrating how there are only half as many facts to memorize.

Source: Guru Parents

Once we feel that students understand what multiplication is and how to represent it visually, we shift gears into multiplication memorization. We have all sorts of tricks for memorizing facts, and a variety of ways that students can practice them and drill themselves. One of our favorites are multiplication wheels.

Source: Practical Pages

Another favorite is math towers.

Source: Teacher Tipster

If you missed our post abut our math facts Jenga, you can view that post here.

We can't wait to help your students memorize those facts!

Fall Workshops: Fine Motor Fun

Research shows that fine motor skills are linked to success in writing and academics. I just HAVE to share some of the super fun activities that we we used for our fine motor workshop last fall. They are geared towards students in Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, but the activities are so fun that even I had fun! This post contains affiliate links; read more about them at the bottom of this post!

One of my friends from my undergraduate days, Christie Kiley, is a pediatric occupational therapist and has a blog with many wonderful ideas! I help contribute to one of her fine motor boards on Pinterest, and this workshop encourages many fine motor skills that she explains on her blog. Here's a snippet:

Pincer grasp: Pinching with thumb and index finger. 

Finger isolation: Activating a single finger on command (such as the index finger for pointing and pushing). 

Thumb opposition: Coordinating the thumb with the other fingers to help with holding, squeezing, and strengthening the space between thumb and index finger (known as the “web space”).

Tripod grasp: Pinching with thumb and index finger while resting the object on the middle finger, much like you’d hold a pencil. 

Hand-eye coordination: Coordinating hand movements based on what the eyes are seeing. Also known as visual-motor integration. 

Bilateral coordination: Coordinating the use of two hands to accomplish a task, such as stabilizing an object with one hand while working with the other. 

Midline integration: Being able to come to and cross over the invisible line that separates the left and right sides of the body. This contributes to the development of hand dominance. If your child struggles with this, encourage midline crossing by placing desired items on the side opposite the hand they are using so they have to reach across their body. 

Here are some sample activities that we did together:

Students dug up sight words and then wrote them in the sandbox. Each student went home with a set to use at home since we live so close to the beach. Use non-toxic play sand to keep it safe for little ones. 

This activity helps strengthen those little muscles that support the pincer grasp. Make sure you use washable paint so that you can easily wipe the paint off of desks/tables/little hands.

These sensory bags are great for all students, but especially for those with sensory processing difficulties. We practiced prewriting skills and letter formation with these bags. You can use this non-toxic orange hair gel for a bright and fun pop of color.

This activity is great for practicing that tripod grasp that helps with writing. Students practiced making patterns, letters, numbers, and pictures. You can use an old bulletin board at home, or use these cork tiles to set up a rotation station. I'm loving these push pins to make it extra fun. What kid doesn't love decorative office supplies?!

Here's a three-for-one activity that practices letter recognition, spelling, AND fine motor all at once. These bright and colorful, wooden clothespins are great for adding visual stimulation.

This is another pencil grasp activity that helps students hold onto pencils correctly. If you have a clothespin handy, try this one out at home.

What kid doesn't love Play Dough and Legos?! Students practiced forming letters and numbers, and also created pictures using the Lego pieces. You can grab a 36-pack of Play Doh and either let everyone keep a canister in their desk or have enough on hand so that you can divvy them up into your centers boxes/storage. If your home isn't littered with these little sharp corners of death all over the floor, you can grab this Lego starter kit or ask students in class if they have any extras at home that they'd like to donate.

This is great practice for manipulating small objects. These yellow and white golf tees are easy to spot if they fall onto the floor (or into your carpet). How cute are these glass marbles?!

This is a great competitive activity that encourages muscle control and coordination. Students are given one minute to grab as many as they can, and then we count and graph how many marshmallows each student grabbed. We love to incorporate math concepts when we can! Grab 40 pairs of chopsticks and set some aside for other centers.

This activity is great for correcting students that hold writing materials inefficiently AND for students that need to strengthen their hand muscles. We used a variety of materials to keep this one fun. If you can't find these at the Dollar Tree, you can order a set of pom pom balls for less than a latte AND use the leftovers for warm fuzzies (hot glue a pair of goggly eyes to the pom pom balls and give them to students when they say things to you or other students that make your heart feel warm and fuzzy)!

Our fine motor fun workshop began with a station rotation in which each student got to practice a series of skills on their own. One of the stations was one-on-one with the instructor. This allowed us to monitor and help each student in the workshop.

We hope you can replicate some fine motor fun with your students!

AFFILIATE LINKS: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using this link. I purchased all of the items myself, and all of the opinions expressed here are my own.

Fall Workshops: Bookworms 3-5

Our bookworms workshop for grades 3-5 focuses on three of the reading strategies that our older elementary students struggle with the most: differentiating between main ideas and details, analyzing cause and effect relationships, and citing evidence to support text-dependent comprehension questions. Here's a sneak peek at some of the activities we will be doing in this workshop.

Main Idea and Details 

A student must be able to identify the main idea of a story before they can fully understand a story in its entirety. This is easier said than done with some of the longer pieces of text that students read in class. We will start our session on main idea and details by examining a few short paragraphs. Students will read them, and decipher between the main idea (what the story is mostly about) and the details (which sentences add more information about the main idea). Students will then be given an envelope containing detailed sentences. They will have a chance to practice putting the sentences together to write a main idea sentence that addresses ALL of the details. As a group, we will look closely at a longer piece of text, and color-code the sentences to reveal the main ideas and details of each paragraph. Students will take home two more passages to practice with on their own, which will be reviewed during our second session.  

Source: All The Dots

Cause and Effect
A large majority of the comprehension questions that our students are asked can be answered using the cause and effect relationships between events in a story. The choices that characters make in a story have consequences, that those consequences often have chains of events that follow. In non-fiction text, many historical events and scientific processes are explained as a series of cause and effect events. In this workshop, we use Thinking Maps to identify the causes and effects of events in our texts.

Source: The Applicious Teacher

Text-Dependent Questions
One of the major shifts in the Common Core State Standards is asking text-dependent comprehension questions. Let me explain what that means in English. Remember when you were in first grade, and your teacher read the story a class about a kid that got a new puppy? Remember how eeeeeeveryone wanted to tell their stories about when THEY got a puppy? That's called making a text-to-self connection. The story might have been followed up by a writing task that either asked you to write about a time that you got a pet, an animal that you'd like to have as a pet, or how you would have reacted if you got home and there was a puppy waiting for you on the front doorstep. You could easily receive full credit for a written response that had absolutely nothing to do with the story. Is it important for children to make these kinds of connections? Absolutely! Does telling about your own pet have anything to do with your understanding of the story? Although it's loosely connected, no. A text-dependent question might ask how Billy felt about getting the puppy, and ask you to cite evidence to support your answer. That's fancy classroom talk for "point to the place in the story where you found that information." Many of our upper elementary students are struggling to do this because they've never been asked to do it before. At best, they worked on it last year, and they certainly need more practice with it this year.

In this workshop, we will spend two weeks learning to understand the question, coming up with an answer, looking back in the text to support or refute that answer, and then explaining how that text helps us prove our answer.

Source: Luckey Frog's Lilypad

Source: Brooke Brown

Source: Create Teach Share

Source: I'm Lovin' Lit

Practicing these three skills will help your students meet and exceed their mid year reading benchmarks. We hope that if this workshop doesn't meet your needs, that you'll share it with a friend that might have students in need of this kind of practice.

Happy reading!

Summer Workshop Schedule and FAQ

We've got lots of you asking questions about our group workshops this summer, so we thought we'd compile a list of your most frequently asked questions. You can also view this information on our website by clicking HERE. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to contact us! Here's a look at our schedule this summer:

How do I sign up for a workshop?
To enroll your student(s) in a workshop, click on our workshop page for the grade span that you are looking for (clock here for elementary school, here for middle school, and here for high school). Find the workshop that you'd like to enroll in, and click on the icon for that workshop. A window will pop up that will allow you to select the sessions that are available. For our four week sessions, there will be 2 date spans to choose from. For our nine week sessions, there will only be one. Once you've selected your dates, click "enroll". Repeat this same process for every workshop that you'd like to enroll in. Once you've added all of your workshops, click on the black "tuition" button on the upper right part of your screen. This will take you to a PayPal screen, which gives you the option to securely pay using your PayPal account, a debit card, or a credit card. Once we receive your payment, we will contact you to answer any other questions you might have.

How come some of the workshops are 4 weeks, and others are 9 weeks?
Our four week workshops are designed to give students academic support and enrichment without committing to workshops for the entire summer. We offer a wide variety of workshops that (hopefully) appeal to everyone's interests and schedules. Our nine week workshops run throughout the summer so that we can really dive into some amazing curriculum.

I love this workshop, but it doesn't work with my schedule. What are my options?
If you see a workshop that you LOVE, but it doesn't work with your schedule, shoot us an email and let us know. We'll try our best to find a time that works for you and fill it with other students. If you know of three other students that would like to join you, we'll give you a 20% discount on your enrollment. Contact us for more details!

Why is there such a wide grade span for some of these workshops?
Within a grade-level classroom, there are always students with different abilities. Some students in third grade are at a second grade reading level, while others are at a fourth grade reading level. Some second graders have mastered multiplication facts, while some fifth graders struggle with subtraction facts. The curriculum and activities that we have planned for each workshop are developmentally appropriate for the grade levels indicated. We like to offer our students a variety of workshops to choose from, and combining grade levels with similar abilities allows us time to offer more workshops. Once students begin to enroll in our workshops, we take a look at the students, their abilities, and their interests, and we tailor our workshops to them. In our science workshops, for example, we have several activities that we love doing with students. If we end up with mostly primary students, we use the activities that are best suited for them. If we end up with a wide variety of grade levels, we can bring in another instructor to break the workshop into 2 smaller groups. You'd be surprised, though, to see how excited students are to work with older or younger students. In our workshops, grade levels are just a number. We can promise you that we will work hard to ensure that your student, regardless of their abilities, will participate in activities that are appropriate, meaningful, and interesting.

How many students are in each workshop?​
We will only enroll up to 8 students in a workshop, but we will offer a workshop with as few as 3 students enrolled.

Group Workshop Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the questions we get asked most frequently about our workshops. If you have additional questions, don't hesitate to call us. We are here to help, and we'd love the chance to help you select the workshop that's just right for your student(s).

Will any of these workshops be available again?
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me and you can start adding your own content and make changes to the font. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.​

Can I enroll my student(s) in workshops that meet back-to-back?
Yes! Our summer workshop schedule is designed to offer back-to-back workshops. We have snacks and water bottles available to all students free of charge, and we offer lunch for an additional fee to students on Mondays from 11:30 am-12:00 pm, Wednesdays from 11:30 am-12:00 pm, and Thursdays from 12:00 pm-12:30 pm. If your student is enrolled in our K-1 Bookworms, K-2 Math Potholes, Addition/Subtraction Stacks of Facts, Seven Habits of Happy Kids, 4-5 Bookworms, and/or Multiplication/Division Stacks of Facts workshops, you can purchase lunch for them before, between, or after their workshop(s) during the times stated above.

What happens if we have to miss one of the workshop sessions?
If you are able to give us at LEAST 24 hours notice, we can try to work with you. For our four week sessions, you can attend one workshop (of equal or fewer minutes) in another session. For our nine week sessions, you can reschedule one thirty minute one-on-one session with the instructor. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer any refunds or reschedules of any kind if we do not have 24 hours notice. Please double check your calendars for vacations, family events, and any other potential conflicts BEFORE enrolling in a workshop.

Do your four week workshops repeat the same curriculum and activities?
Each four week workshop will have different curriculum and activities. For example, if you have a child that is really interested marine biology, each four week workshop will be different. We'd love to have your students join us for both workshops!

How will my first grader learn appropriately while in the same small group as a fifth grader?
It might help to think of our workshops as exercise classes for your brain: when you take a group fitness class, the instructor gives you modifications for beginners and for more advanced athletes. Our workshops are designed in a similar manner. Students use many of the same strategies when they read. First and fifth graders both read to find the main idea and supporting details, but they do so with texts at different reading levels. For our reading workshops, we are able to teach the same strategies as a group while allowing students to read and practice them at their own level. If there is a large discrepancy in abilities within one workshop, we can bring in another instructor to split the group up. The new Common Core math standards are scaffolded so that each standard increases in depth and complexity as students progress through different grade levels. We've noticed that ALL students, regardless of grade level, are really struggling with explaining and proving their mathematical reasoning this year. Our potholes workshops are designed to give students strategies and practice with this task. We can easily have all students work with geometric shapes at the same time. Our first graders might be counting faces and vertices, while our fifth graders might be making geometric nets.

My 6th grader still needs help with basic math facts. Can he enroll in a younger workshop?
If you have a student that needs (or is interested in) a workshop that is outside of the grade levels, give us a call so that we can help you decide what the best fit is. In LBUSD, students need to be proficient in addition and subtraction facts by the end of second grade, and proficient in multiplication and division by the end of fourth grade. If students to do not meet these benchmarks, they will be recommended for retention UNLESS they have an IEP or a 504. If you have a student in 6th grade that that struggles with math facts, our one-on-one instruction might be better suited to accommodate his needs than a group workshop. IF YOU HAVE A STUDENT THAT IS INTERESTED IN A WORKSHOP THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE HIS/HER GRADE LEVEL, PLEASE LET US KNOW SO THAT WE CAN SET SOMETHING UP.

I see the book club is for 6th-8th graders. My child is entering 7th grade but reads at a 5th grade level. Will books be chosen for their reading level or their grade level?
Our book club books are chosen according to their grade level. We have a few books in mind, and we will post the titles, as well as the reading levels, on our website once they are set in stone. We recommend choosing a book club that is for their reading level, therefore I'd recommend the Bookworms 4-5 workshop for your 7th grader.

Do students just practice flashcards in your math facts workshops?
No! Most students that struggle learning math facts have already tried using flashcards. In our math facts workshops, we focus on finding number patterns, using memorization techniques, and understanding how numbers work to memorize math facts. You can't memorize something that you don't understand, so we don't use flashcards until our students understand how numbers work.

We hope you'll join us!

STAR Test Workshops: Sneak Peek

Happy Sunday all!

We had a FABULOUS weekend in our Kids Under Construction studio. We had lots of students that wanted to attend our STAR testing workshops, and many of these students had all kinds of time conflicts. We adjusted some of our workshops to accommodate their needs, and these are some of the pictures of the workshop that we held Saturday morning. 

If you couldn't join us this year, we hope you can join us next year. The kids had so much fun, I loved getting a chance to team teach with Georganne (one of our amazing tutors), and they left feeling prepared, confident, and excited about their upcoming celebrations of knowledge.

If you'd like additional resources or links, just let us know!

I got the idea for this sign from a local salvage yard. I was originally looking for an easel, but I found this ladder, and I knew that if I could fasten chalkboard panels to the front, I could use it to advertise our camps for people walking by. A friend of mine posted a picture of her daughter's one year photos, and included in them was a picture of a chalkboard sign from the photography studio. It said, "Welcome Ava," and I thought that was just so sweet and personalized and welcoming. As I was erasing our sign, I thought I'd do the same. I love this vase that a parent made me last year so much that I just had to fill it with sunflowers. I think that it adds warmth and coziness to our studio, don't you? The figurine was a gift from my mom from my grand opening. Her hope was that I'd see it and remember that no matter what, my first priority is to lift a student's spirit.

Before students arrived, we had the above goodies ready for them to choose from. Obviously, they each took one of each. The top ones were recipes for breakfast milkshakes with fun straws attached. You can find the recipe here. The rest were goodies that they could look forward to coming home to after testing. Half of the cards didn't download properly, so I had to make a quick look alike, hence the blue "pants" that I hand cut last minute.

These are a few of the informational sheets that we used to walk students through the tests. They have approximate testing schedules, examples of topics that the questions will address, and the percentage breakdowns of the questions on the exam.

Snacks for hungry minds!

We had our students make name tents as they arrived. On the inside, they drew pictures and wrote words to show us what kinds of things they liked. On the back, they wrote down some questions that they had about the test, what they wanted to know more about, and why they were with us on a WEEKEND. What?! Who wants to do more work on a weekend? These kids!

Here are the kids working away on a few practice questions. Yes, they are actually rereading for evidence to prove that they found the "exactor" and not the "distracter" answer. I know...it's a miracle.

We had to throw in a few mystery goodies just for fun.

Aren't they just the cutest things ever?! They were all so sweet and encouraging of one another.

Here are their goody bags, all filled up. If you know anything about me, you know how much it kills me that the actual bags themselves are freezer bags. Next workshop, I'll have to search for something way more fun.

At the end of the workshop, I asked students to tell me what "stuck" with them from the morning. I will keep these in mind for next year, and make sure that I keep the strategies that they found helpful.

We finished the workshop with the above book. Georganne ordered it from Barnes and Noble this week, and we were hoping that the books would come in by Friday so that I could pick them up. We got the email that they had arrived at the store at 45 minutes before our workshop was over. In a necessary panic, I called my dad and asked him if he would #realquickrightnow pick it up for me so that I could use it as a closing activity. Thank heavens for fathers that will deliver. He picked up the book and had it to us exactly 10 minutes before the workshop was over. If you haven't read it, it's hysterical. If you're a teacher and you don't laugh at how funny-cause-it's-true this is, then something isn't right with the world. Here are a few of our favorite pages:

Here in Long Beach, students have their practice test tomorrow, and THE TEST starts on Tuesday. We hope everyone gets some good sleep and a nutritious breakfast.

Happy testing!