Summer Fun Part #2 - Learning with Water

These 3 simple activities will keep your kids cool and have fun while learning!

1.  Water Target - Use Splash Balls to target throw onto letters, numbers, or sight words written on the ground with sidewalk chalk (Splash Balls are soft and can be used again and again vs. water balloons)

2. Water Painting - Using paint brushes and a bucket of water to get creative and draw on the ground or a fence. Great way to practice writing names. 

3.  Spray Away - Write letters, numbers, or sight words on a wall with sidewalk chalk and use a spray bottle to squirt and aim.  We had fun making addition problems and racing to see who could hit the correct numbers/answers first. 

As always, all my activities shared are super easy. You can focus on skills you are working on and they will keep your kids happy and cool this Summer!  

Summer Fun and Learning Part #1

Summer Learning and Fun

Here are 3 super simple and fun activities you can do today to keep your kids busy while learning the basics this summer!  They can play independently or with a group.

All activities can be adapted to develop the skills your child is working on, from learning letters and sounds, numbers or sight words.

#1 The Alpha Ball - Take a beach ball and write with a Sharpie letters, numbers OR sight words.  Toss or roll the ball.  Wherever you catch the ball, name the letter (number) closest to your thumb.










#2 Solo Cup Challenge - Create and build a structure OR write letters or numbers on the cups and stack the ones you can name.  Cup building is a fun activity for any age and is a free time favorite activity!

#3 Lego Build Hunt - Have your children find 26  2x4 Lego bricks and have them stack into a single tower.  Write a letter of the alphabet on each brick with a Sharpie.  Take the bricks apart and scatter them around the yard.  Have your children hunt for the Lego bricks and put the tower back together again in ABC order.  You can do with with letters or numbers #1-20.

Let me know how your kids like these simple activities!

Happy Summer

Summer MUST HAVES

Pool Noodle Bat

Sidewalk chalk ABC's

Looking for ways to keep the kids busy....  As a parent, it is always a challenge to finds ways to keep the kids active and having fun, while stimulating their brains.  Here is a list of must-haves this Summer and the best part is that the materials can be found at your local Dollar Tree store!  (The following activities can be modified to meet the academic needs or level of your kids. They focus on fine and gross motor skills as well as basic math and phonemic awareness.).

#1 Sidewalk Chalk:  Besides just drawing there are lots of ways to use chalk.  Create an extra large race track to run, hop, or ride bikes.

Try drawing shapes, letters or numbers.  Have kids line up, call out a letter, number, or shape and kids race to find and stand on the correct spot.  Try throwing a beanbag to their target letter or number. Write the ABC’s in random order on the ground and have the kids go on a beginning sound hunt by finding things in the yard that begin with that letter sound.

#2.  Paint Brushes and a Bucket of Water:  Paint shapes, letters, numbers, or sight words on the ground with water and watch them disappear!

#3.  Spray Bottles:  I am not a fan of water guns, and have found that spray bottles work great!  They are easy to refill and hold a lot more water.  Try having target practice with letters or numbers.  Using Post-It notes or chalk, write letters or numbers and place on the garage door or fence.  Call out a letter/number and have the kids spray/hit it.

#4.  Pool Noodles:  They are not just used for the pool anymore.  Cut them in half and turn them into a bat or sword.  It is fun to use them to “ninja” pop the bubbles or hang a ball from a string on a tree branch and hit the ball with the noodle.

#5. Beach Ball:  I turn my beach ball into an “Alpha-Ball”.  Using a permanent pen, write the letters of the alphabet on the ball.  Roll, toss or bounce the ball to a friend.  When you catch the ball, call out the letter where your thumb lands.  You can create different balls using sight words, numbers, addition or multiplication problems,  etc…

I hope this list gives you some new ideas to get your kids active and having fun this Summer!  My 18 month old on up to our 12 year old neighbor enjoy these outdoor activities.

Only at Gigi's House

 

 Yes...that would be a tower of toilet paper!  Why didn't I think of that.  The fun never ends around here.  The best part is no one gets hurt and nothing breaks. 

Summer Adventures Week 4

This was a big week for swimming...we have finally turned a corner and my son now LOVES the pool.  I guess we will be spending more time in the water!
Some of our highlights this week included:

Toothpick and gumdrop creations!  Hours of fun! See what structure can hold the most weight?  Which one is the longest?  Tallest...etc.

 Making and playing with playdough never gets old.  Our neighbor (age 12) loved making it!  Here is the super easy recipe:        http://mrsodaniels.blogspot.com/2010/08/playing-with-playdough.html They divided up the dough and made their own color by adding food coloring.

More adventure walks and climbing trees.

We continued reviewing sight words, played a dice game that covered numbers to 1 to 100, and made our own Silly Sentences.  

Summer Adventures Week 3

One of our highlights this week, besides the 4th of July, was vising our  Lafayette Community Garden!  They offered storytime, yoga stretching and planting activity for the kids.  After it was over we walked around the garden.  The boys helped harvest the beets.  They collected 15 pounds!  If you have not been...it is definitely worth checking out!   http://lafayettecommunitygarden.org/

We had a taste test when we got home from the 3 different varieties of beets.  The response I got was, "No thanks" after trying each one.  At least it was fun to pick them!  

We took advantage of the Summer Movie Clubhouse $1 movie and saw Turbo.  To top it off we ended it with a Slurpee and mustache straw!  Check out this link for the movie schedule:  http://www.cinemark.com/summer-movie-clubhouse

We continued with swim lessons, sight word games, July calendar,  visits to different parks, and celebrated the 4th of July!  Another successful week.

Happy July

Calendars are a great way to practice writing numbers, create patterns and talk about events happening that month, week or day.  We post this and cross off the days as we go.  We review the days of the week:  "Today is ...".   " Tomorrow will be...".   "Yesterday was..."  The art is white glue designs sprinkled with glitter to create fireworks in the night.

Summer Adventures Week Two

I was lucky enough to be a teacher this week for incoming second graders at VBS (Vacation Bible School).  It was a great week for me and my boys.  That kept us busy each morning.

However, we found time to play in the dirt, make homemade pasta, and did some simple science experiments in the backyard.

My son loves making pasta!  Making a volcano out of flour, cracking the eggs inside it and crushing it with your hands.  It is always exciting!

I looked up simple science experiments on You-Tube and we decided on two.  The first one needed a small container of water, black pepper sprinkled on top of the water and then one drop of liquid soap in the middle.  Results: The pepper "ran away" to the edge of the water container.  We did it a couple of times.  Amazing!  

The second experiment included some of our favorite science ingredients - vinegar and baking soda.  We poured 1/4 cup on vinegar in a plastic water bottle.  Filled the bottom part of a balloon with baking soda.  Put the lip of the balloon on the water bottle and dumped the baking soda into the vinegar.  Results:  The balloon filled up with air because the vinegar and baking soda created carbon dioxide.  Very cool!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsJBo6yXaUs

Then my son had fun mixing all the ingredients and seeing the reactions they caused.  Science it always fun!  I buy the vinegar and baking soda at the Dollar Store because we tend to go through a lot of it!

*We recorded the science projects in a notebook.  It included illustrations before and after the experiment with items labeled.

Summer Adventures Week One Complete!

Week One of Summer complete!  Here is a list of activities we did to kick off our Summer.  Our goal was to be out of the house by 10:00 am!
*Each morning starts with a weather report, calendar and counting the days of summer.  Go over the activities for the day
*Adventure Walk - We came across a new tree swing which was super exciting.  The boys threw mud clumps, saw a deer and listened to all the birds and squirrels in the trees.  Great time to practice counting by ones, tens, fives, etc...
*Visited a Music Store
*Made structures out of marshmallows and toothpicks.  I enjoyed listening to the boys talk about their creations.
*Made a home for a rollie pollie
*Had a battle between army men and dinosaurs in the grass
*Made popsicles from the leftover smoothie
*Played drums with rhythm sticks
*Visited the library and signed up for the reading program
*Made an ABC chalk maze
*Watered the garden and played London Bridges with the hose
*Popped popcorn and watched a movie
*Water colored
*Read a comic book
*Played with Kinetic Sand
*Walked the dog
*Frisbee targets
*Sight Word mind reader game
*Went to 3 different parks and talked about what we liked about them
*Play dates, swim and karate
*Friday Fun Day was a trip on BART to San Francisco
*Wrote three things they liked about their week

It was a great start to Summer!

Summer Enrichment

Give your child a head start and make Summer learning FUN!

This Summer I will be tutoring and offering one hour weekly classes to students entering Kindergarten and First Grade to keep them engaged, learning and having fun!  

First Grade Enrichment and Review Classes will be held on Tuesdays, 3:30-4:30 beginning June 24

Kindergarten Readiness Classes will be held on Mondays, 3:30-4:30 beginning June 23

One Hour Session - $30 materials included
Classes held in my home in Moraga.  Days and times are flexible depending on interest.  Class size: 2-6 kids

Private Tutoring - email for availability

One Hour - $65

    

Improve your child skills in:
Pre-Reading Skills & Phonics / Reading and Writing Sight Words
Numbers / Common Core Standards
Fun Activities Include:
Alphabet ball / Roll a word / Letter/Word hunts / Flip books / Journaling Sounding out words / Reading and writing silly sentences.
Activities can be done at home for continued learning and fun!

For Dates or More Information email: dcodaniels@gmail.com

Surf's Up!

I looked through my files to find the perfect hand/foot print for our final issue of the year.  We could do hands printed in yellow to make a sun or paint hand to look like the American flag for the Fourth of July.  There are endless Summer ideas on Pinterest. However, I came across this footprint on a surf board that my son did in my Mommy and Me class when he was two years old.  Then it hit me, this is why we do these crafty projects...as a record of them as little ones.  So here you go, the same project - 4 years later!
(Materials:  White washable paint, construction paper or foam craft sheets cut in the shape pf a surf board, marker(s), stickers and wet wipes)
Article for the Lamorinda Moms Club - July/August Issue

LOVE Kinetic Sand

This year the boys were given Kinetic Sand at Easter from our neighbor.  I was a bit nervous that it would be a huge mess but it wasn't and they LOVED it!  I wait to post about it just in case they fell out of love with it or if it was too messy to have around the house with a toddler.  Well I have to say, "WE ALL LOVE IT!"  My six year old plays with it all the time.  He puts LEGO characters in it, makes volcanos and hides treasures.  My toddler loves playing with it and is great for that fine motor development.  It is amazing how well it has lasted.  I even love playing with it!  I highly recommend it for a quiet time activity.  I put it in an old 9x13 pan and the rule is that it stays in the pan. It can be purchased at Michaels Craft Stores.  Have Fun!

Confetti Fish

I love all the fun ways you can decorate fish.  We read A Fishy Shape Story by Joanne & David Wylie, which teaches all the shapes.  Each fish in the book is made from a different shape.  The last page is a picture of a "confetti" fish which is made up of all the shapes.

I cut out a shape of a fish (you can let your child cut out if age-appropriate).  I had a pile of small shapes cut out from different colors of construction paper. The kids glued the shapes on the fish.  When they were done we added stripes of tissue paper on the tail. 
The kids had fun "swimming" their colorful confetti fish around the room.  The kids acted out the adorable story Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood as I read it aloud.  This is a great story for rhyming, counting and great illustrations!

When you hang the confetti fish up in your house it is a great way to continue to review the names of shapes.  Have your child point out a circle or triangle on the fish.  Ask them, "Do you have more squares or stars on your fish?" etc...
It is a fun, simple, and educational way to have fun with art!
Unfortunately I was unable to find, A Fishy Shape Story on Amazon.  It must be out of print!  Thanks mom for holding onto this book all these years!

Rainbow Fish

 

We have been reading and enjoying the many Rainbow Fish and Friends stories by Marcus Pfister.  Today my boys decorated their own rainbow fish.  I cut out a fish shape and they used Do-A-Dot Art markers to color the fish.  If you have not used these markers, they are fun and easy to use.   I got them at Lakeshore Teaching Supply or can be ordered online.  These markers are perfect for children to "dot" out letters, numbers or shapes.  It is a great way to practice pre-writing skills.