To help welcome families of Summer Learning Program students, TCDSB teacher Annamaria Aloisi created a fun and informative slideshow presentation to acquaint parents with the program during family visits to the SLP classrooms at St. John the Evangelist Catholic School.
In preparing the slide deck, Ms. Aloisi spoke with her students about their favourite activities completed during the three weeks of Summer Learning. She then incorporated these tasks or high impact “minds-on activities” into the presentation.
For the classroom visits, says Ms. Aloisi, “I had the students lead instruction (teach their families), work together, and rotate in small groups every 10 minutes to experience a new learning centre with either focus on Literacy or Numeracy. All families participated.”
And what was the reaction of parents during these visits? “The families loved this experience at the centres. Many of them shared they felt they had learned new games they could play at-home with their child.”
In portfolios (or “Summer Learning Packages”) placed on students’ desks for parents to observe the work completed, Ms. Aloisi included future supplementary/enriching learning activities they could complete with their children.
In addition, Ms. Aloisi inserted a letter inside of each portfolio that described some simple activities with household objects (manipulatives) parents could use to support learning retention, such as dry beans, cereal, buttons, or coins. Photographs highlighting students having fun and engaging with “speciality teaching and learning” were also included in the packages.
This year was Annamaria Aloisi’s first time teaching summer learning and, she hopes, not her last. She gives full credit to her colleagues for their support and encouragement: “It has been a great experience to work with the students and many new colleagues from everywhere in our Board. The three weeks were a highly collaborative effort and not possible without the support of my TCDSB colleagues, who provided lessons, materials, ideas, suggestions, in-class support, (and who) coordinated much of the fun, safety, supervision, and nutrition at the St. John the Evangelist site.”
The “Welcome Families!” presentation can be downloaded here.
