Low-Stress Summer Lesson Planning: Start with the Fun Stuff!

It's so important for teachers to take a break and recharge over the summer so they can return refreshed for the new school year. As we all know, it's also necessary to do some planning before school starts up again. A strategy I discovered to ease back into prepping lessons is to begin with the fun stuff. Coincidentally, this planning needs to be done first anyway!

Planning fun events and activities can be enjoyable and make you look forward to the upcoming school year. For me, the "fun stuff" includes field trips and projects that connect students with parts of our community outside of the classroom. 

Some field trips that are popular with students can get booked quickly, and this is the perfect excuse to work on this task first! In San Diego, one popular excursion is a field trip to the tide pools at Cabrillo National Monument. Once the trips open up on their website, they go like hot concert tickets. (Well, almost!) These trips are usually available to book beginning in mid-to-late August.

Another project that can might entice you to get a head start on your lesson planning is the Future City Competition for students in grades six, seven, and eight.

In the Future City Competition, students are challenged to imagine and design sustainable cities of the future. (The competition itself is not required.) Every year a new theme is chosen that relates to an issue currently in the news or, as I have found, one that soon after becomes a headline. I have found that participating in the Future City project has given my students and me insights into pressing issues around sustainability.

Another great way to connect students with the greater world beyond the classroom is through service learning experiences. It can be helpful to start making connections over the summer.

As a science teacher, you may want to give your students the opportunity to volunteer at a community garden or nature preserve. There are many possibilities for homeroom and other classes, too.

Beginning your summer lesson planning with "the fun stuff", like field trips and special projects, can make the planning seem less like work. You'll be getting yourself ahead in the game and enjoying the process, too! Sometimes it's just the thing you need to get yourself started in preparing for the school year ahead.

For those who live in San Diego, here is a link to the science education programs Cabrillo National Monument:

Cabrillo National Monument: Science Programs

This is a link to an earlier blogpost about exploring the tide pools at Cabrillo National Monument:

It's Tide Pool Season in California!

If you are interested in learning more about the Future City Competition, see my previous blogpost:

Students Explore Engineering and Sustainability through the Future City Competition

Link to Future City Competition website:

Future City Competition

For more service learning ideas and to see how it can benefit students, see this previous blogpost:

Students Give Back with Service Learning

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A Trip to Muir Woods

 

While on vacation in San Francisco, my family took a short drive to Muir Woods National Monument. We were surprised to find such tranquility so close to the busy city.

Muir Woods is best known for the towering coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees that made us feel tiny by comparison.

There were multiple other visitors at Muir Woods, but many times we found that we had the trail to ourselves. This may be because we visited the park on a weekday in the fall.  Because it was autumn, we caught a hint of fall foliage, something we sometimes miss from our days living on the East Coast.

Another surprise and benefit to visiting Muir Woods in the late fall was seeing clusters of little red ladybugs huddled together in preparation for the winter.

You can see these clusters of ladybugs beginning in late fall and continuing into early spring. They stay close to each other to keep warm and find a mate. The ladybugs can easily be found on wooden fence posts on the Fern Creek and Bootjack Trails.

We often enjoy attending guided walks when we visit a national park. The guided walk at Muir Woods lead by a volunteer was very informative and something I would recommend.

My daughter was able to add to her collection of Junior Ranger badges by completing an activity booklet and taking a pledge to protect all national parks, continue  learning about them, and to share her knowledge with others.

Our family thoroughly enjoyed our time in San Francisco, and Muir Woods is definitely a spot we would all like to return to one day.

Here is a link to the Muir Woods National Monument website:

National Park Service: Muir Woods National Monument

If you plan to go to San Francisco and are interested in other places to visit, check out this blogpost about the California Academy of Sciences:

Teaching Resources from the California Academy of Sciences

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