Extended School Year - Community Trips

I really thought I'd be posting more about ESY, but wow do those days fly by! I forget to take pictures that I can share with you guys, but with some cropping I am at least able to share these from a few of our community trips so far.

We went to the grocery store to pick up from materials to cook with this summer. We are able to use one of the culinary labs, which I absolutely love, because each student can have their own microwave and sink! I made a visual shopping list of the items we need for cooking, and then cut it up so each student had a section to shop for. (Check out our shopping list here for our easy cooking ideas). 

Each student had $5 to spend (which they put in their pouches/lanyard wallet things that we got from the bus presentation we had earlier. It's perfect since not all students bring wallets or have pockets, and this way students can hold onto their own money.)  At then we saw a Burger King in the same parking lot, so we stopped there for ice cream and ICEEs for only a $1!

Update: I've recently added these visual cooking materials that would be perfect for ESY or year round!

Our theme is Chicago this summer, and the White Sox gave us a tour of U.S. Cellular field! The kids all had a blast! We also went to the Chicago History Museum and if you follow me on instagram @BreezyBrieJoy you will see me as a Chicago style hot dog. I, of course, made all of the students become hot dogs as well. The museum was a lot more fun than I expected it to be.

We walked across the street to a local diner one day to have lunch. It was great to see my students order. Some of them were fabulously independent, like this student, who unexpectedly asked for a diet coke to go with his burger and fries! Plus, we got to work on skills like crossing the street at the light when the walk sign is showing. I have a couple of runners who all behaved like angels on this trip. YAY!

I have a couple more trips planned for the rest of this summer (we have a break this week and then only two more weeks left!) We are planning on going to the Willis Tower with another class which should be a blast! And then we will also take the train to the library. Taking the train with my students kinda terrifies me in a way so I'm going with another class and that teacher will show me the ropes. :) I just don't want anyone to be annoyed while we load the wheelchairs!

How's your summer going? ESY or relaxing? I'd love to hear about it!

3

Extended School Year starts TOMORROW!

Extended school year starts tomorrow. I won't lie, I definitely have mixed feelings about this. Just this morning I was thinking why do I do this to myself? And that next year I will definitely take my summer off... But now...I've been preparing and pinning some things and I'm getting more and more excited!

I don't know how most of you do your ESY programs, but ours is district wide so while I will have some of my students from last year, I will also have students from the other schools that I don't know yet. And I have to be in a different classroom since it isn't housed at my school. Those parts I think are what makes it harder for me, but it all works out in the end!

Our ESY program runs Tuesday-Thursday for 5 weeks. Each day is 5 hours long. (So at least it's still a bit of a break for myself!) We have a couple of whole school field trips planned and then we will do some community trips as an individual class as well. Our day then consists of language arts, math, vocational/daily living, fine arts, and lunch (our schedule items are here if you would like those).

I created this calendar that we will start tomorrow (it is three separate pages). We will shade in days with different colors based on whether it's a school or non-school day or even a special day. Then we have pictures to add to different days for when we have special activities. You can download these and edit it to fit your needs on Boardmaker Achieve.

I have started this ESY Pinterest board to start putting together some ideas! Our overall theme is Chicago and then we have mini weekly themes which are sports, weather, culture, environment/weather, and museums. If you have any other great ideas for me I would love it if you wouldn't mind sharing! :)

2