Mentor Text- Beginning of School

Happy Sunday!  I am happy it is the week-end, but tomorrow I start a few of Summer Academy at my school.  It means getting up early and driving to New Jersey.  I am doing four weeks of Summer Academy spread out throughout the summer, it is a nice way to make extra money and gives me a little something to do!  

Today, I am linking up with Stacia & Amanda from Collaboration Cuties for their weekly mentored text party.  This weeks theme: Back to School Books...I am hoping they will not kick me out of the party because I am not going to share a book, but a poem I use at the beginning of the year.

My first year of teaching I was reading poetry to my students and came across a small book of poems call If I Ran the School compiled by Bruce Lansky.  

My students loved all of the poems and would often ask for me to read them again and again.  One of the poems is called: I Can't Wait for Summer by Kenn Nesbitt.  It is a fun poem that has kids thinking about summer, but realizing they have many more days until summer vacation.  After I read it to my class, I put a note in my beginning of the year file to read when school started.  I read it in the fall to my class and they thought it was mean because summer vacation was so far away.  I used this poem as a jumping off point to talk about all we are going to accomplish in the days between the first day of school and summer vacation.  We then created lists of what we wanted to do this year.  I became a different way for us to set goals for the year.

I Can't Wait for Summer

by Kenn Nesbitt

I can't wait for summer, when school days are done,
to spend the days playing outside in the sun.
I won't have to study. No homework, no tests.
Just afternoons spent on adventures and quests.

Instead of mathematics and writing reports,
I'll got to the park and play summertime sports.
Instead of assignments, report cards, and grades,
I'll get to play baseball and watch the parades.

I'll swing on the playground. I'll swim in the pool
instead of just practicing lessons in school.
The second the school year is finally done
I'll spend every minute with friends having fun.

I hardly can wait for the end of the year.
I'm counting the days until summer is here.
It's hard to be patient.  It;s hard to be cool.
It's hard to believe it's the first day of school.

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Have a great night!

Rosie