Summer Scholar Sunday #3

Each week, I will feature an activity found in the Sun Scholars Summer Program and share some highlights from our Summer Scholar Families.  We'd love to have you follow along.  If you like what you see, and would like to learn more about my Sun Scholar Summer Program, click HERE.

Miniature Terrarium

Subjects:    Science

Time:         10+ mins

Supplies:       Small Jar, a variety of natural items, such as moss, pine cones, tree bark, seed pods, etc.

this is from Week 5 - The Great Outdoors of the Sun Scholar Summer Program

Have your child create their own miniature terrarium with items they collect on a nature hike.  Take some time to explore the outdoors for items they can include in this project.

  

Creating a Miniature Terrarium

·         Clean and dry your jar and lid.

·         Spread out your collected items on the table in front of you.

·         Place the moss in the lid.

·         Have your child select other collected items and arrange them on top of the moss.  You can “burry” the roots of small plants and flowers in the moss to encourage them to grow.

·         Dampen the arrangement by sprinkling or spraying with water.

·         Gently place the jar over top of the arrangement and screw into place.

·         Find a safe place to keep your terrarium for all to enjoy.

  

Note:  I found these great little jars (in the photos) at Michael's for $1 a piece.  I thought they added some nice character, but you could just as easily grab something from your recycling bucket.

    

We didn't find any brightly colored berries to throw in this time, but the kids really enjoyed this project.  From our picnic, nature hunt at the park, to the building of their terrariums.  A great project for the kids!

What have the Summer Scholar Families been up to?

Amy

This week our family chose Week 3 - Animal Fun. The activities we did were:

Story Time

Learning About Animals

Newspaper Math

Movie Party Planning

Movie Invitations

Movie Snacks

Movie Review

Lost Pet Poster

Learning About More Animals

Birdwatching

 

For Story Time, the kids chose books about wolves and mammals. We also got a bird watching book to identify the birds in our backyard. The kids enjoyed learning new facts about their favorite animals and creating their animal fact sheets afterward. We had a very stormy, rainy week, so we didn't see many birds. We'll continue this next week with nicer weather.

We had a great time with the newspaper math. It was fun to see what kind of menus my kids would put together. It was also good for my older kids to see how much a meal can cost. The younger boys enjoyed trying to find the numbers in the paper.

Our family LOVES movie parties, so we had a great time planning our animal themed one. We decided to watch Bolt. We did animal themed

snacks: Puppy Chow, Gummy Bears, Swedish Fish, Pigeon Feed (popcorn), etc. They made puppy beds on the floor and convinced me to serve their drinks in bowls so they could lick it up like puppies.

We had a great time with animal week! There were so many activities in this week that we weren't able to squeeze in, so we will have another animal themed week soon.

Many friends and family have asked how the Sun Scholar program has been going. So far, we all love it. My kids are still in school right now, but as soon as I pick them up, they ask what Sun Scholar activities they get to do today. In fact, it has been hard to get them to do their regular homework first. We have all loved the activities so far and can't wait to enjoy the rest of the them. 

Melissa

Mailmania was our topic this week:

Address book:  The first assignment the kids completed was adding another "person" to their address book.  Zachary added his "Bubby", aka grandma.  One thing that surprised me was that he never knew her "real name"....lol...we then added a picture to it and put it into his address book!  We talked how important it was to have all the correct spelling and zip codes on the address so that the mail would get to her.

Mail Sorting: on Monday, we received quite a lot of mail from all around the US, which worked out great for our 1st assignment this week!  1 First I laid all the mail out on the table and read to them the states they came from (Printed out the map of the US that is provided with the program). Then the children found that state and marked it with an X.  After going through all the mail I asked a few questions:  What piece of mail came the furthest?  Closest?  Any of the mail come from states that border us?  We had 1 piece from CA and several others from out in the west (we are east coast).   

   

Graphing our mail - I printed out the graphing sheet provided and the kids graphed the TYPE of mail that was received.  Magazines, junk mail, bills, notes & cards etc.  This was fun for them to see how much JUNK we get...lol...

BONUS IDEA: I had for my preschooler was to take the envelopes (we had all sizes) and put them into order according to their size.  She had fun with this one!

  

- after a quick lesson on what stamps are, what they mean and how they are used, the children made their own stamps. (We did not use the printable sheet provided as I was out of ink that day in the printer so we made our own).  Molly made a flower and put $ 10 as the postage!  Zachary made a Lego Man (of course) and put $ .20 on his...lol....they were very proud of them!

They loved this unit and I can see spending another week on it for sure!

Heather

The kids favorite activity this week was the ABC Scavenger Hunt

Our daughter loved finding all the letters of the alphabet on the back of cereal boxes. When she was done, she had moved on to cracker boxes. When I poured the cereal this morning, she asked if she could try finding the letters on the milk carton. 

  

Just as we had sat down to work on this activity, a neighborhood friend knocked on the door to see if our son could play. Instead of canceling the activity, I sent our son and his friend on the scavenger hunt around our block, to find objects, signs and words starting with each letter of the alphabet. They not only played together, but learned together, and had a great time creatively finding ways to fill in Q and Z.

I am continually amazed at the versatility of this program. The age of the child does not matter. The activities have been so well chosen and thought out, that they can (with little stress and effort on my part) be adapted to children of all ages.

The activity this week also reemphasized to our children that learning is everywhere, in everything. And that learning is fun. 

Emily

This has been a crazy week and I'm so thankful for the Sun Scholar Summer Program.  I had sick kids this week, it was so nice to pull out an activity for the kids and have it be worth the extra effort.  Our activities were from week 3, Animal Fun.

Learning about Animals.  I'm glad that I had reserved a bunch of books about animals last week.  We sick littles, they loved cuddling on the couch reading about different animals.  I was amazed all the different books our library had on animals, books I've never really borrowed before.

  

Newspaper Math.  This was a huge hit.  We did this twice.  The first time I had the kids cut out what they wanted and the price. Giving us a chance to talk about value.  I also used this opportunity to make a shopping list for what I wanted at the store.  When I did go shopping, the kids were excited to hold my "list" and help me find what I needed.  The second time we looked for numbers and it was fun to have the kids help each other.  If one couldn't find an 8, another would give him one from his page.

Squishy bag Fun.  I was more excited about this then the kids, but it turned out fun.  We put in different colors allowing the kids to mix the colors and knowing whose bag belonged to which kid.  I didn't use duct tape, and my son squished his out of the bag. :(  Live and learn.

Bird Feeders/Bird Watching.  My kids loved, LOVED this.  I didn't have birdseed so instead used cheerios.  My birds (kids) loved eating the treats as we prepared the bird feeders.  We hung them on a tree outside our front window and every time one kid pass the window he/she had to look out for birds.  If one kid looked out the window for birds, they all had to come running.  It was soo exciting when the birds did come and eat our trees.  There was cheers all over the house. :)

Things to know about me.  I really enjoyed sitting down with each child and talking to them all about themselves.  It was funny to hear what they thought my name was, to see the world in the kids eyes.

Thanks to the Summer Scholar Families for sharing with us.

We'll see you back next Sunday for more Summer Scholar fun!

Summer Scholar Sunday #2

Each week, I will feature an activity found in the Sun Scholars Summer Program and share some highlights from our Summer Scholar Families.  We'd love to have you follow along.  If you like what you see, and would like to learn more about my Sun Scholar Summer Program, click HERE.

Bird Feeders

Subjects:    Art & Science

Time:         10+ mins

Supplies:        Pine Cone or Wooden Bird House, Peanut Butter, String, Bird Seed

No matter what time of year, you can attract birds to your home with a simple bird feeder.  Have your child create their own bird feeder and see what kinds of birds stop by for a snack.  On your next outing to a park, make sure to grab a couple pine cones, or how about a wooden bird house!  We found our bird house at Hobby Lobby on sale for $3.50.

How to Make a Bird Feeder

·         Tie a string around your pine cone, giving yourself enough to allow you to hang it when it is complete.

·         Fill a shallow bowl with bird seed.

·         Using a butter knife, cover the pine cone in peanut butter (suet, vegetable shortening, or lard will also work).

·         Roll the peanut-covered pine cone in bird seed until well covered.

·         Your bird feeder is done!  Be sure to hang it where you can see it.

For the bird house, we used a tray, and the children pat the bird seed onto the sides of the house.  We also added a fancy red flower we had left over from the holidays.

Note: If you can, make a few bird feeders each with a different type of seed. What kind of birds will you attract to each bird feeder?  You can extend this activity by keeping track of your bird visitors using THIS birdwatching worksheet!

from week 3 of the Sun Scholar Summer Program

Let's hear from our Summer Scholar Families...

Amy

This week we did Mail Mania.  The projects we did were:

Story Time

Doorknob Mailboxes

What's In Your Mailbox

Mail On the Map

Stamp Art

Math In a Bag

Card Creations

Letter Writing

My kids loved checking the mail everyday and graphing it. The doorknob mailboxes were tons of fun. They enjoyed sneaking notes in and finding them in their boxes. They even used them to send invites for a movie party Friday night. The stamps were fun and creative. Math in a Bag was probably the favorite. It was easily adaptable to all ages. The older ones did fractions and addition/subtraction, the younger ones did sorting and color identification. We had a great time this week.

Melissa

This week we used The Great Outdoors as our theme!  Since we went Camping for Mother’s Day it fit right in!

Story Time: We read Let’s Go Camping with Mr.Sillypants! Discussed any words that were “hard” for Zachary. The book is great and we recommend it for sure!

Painted Rock project. Making our Ladybugs this week as we are into our Insect Unit for homeschool!  The kids had a lot of fun with this project and the pictures turned out great on my Mother’s Day Sunflowers!  I think we will make some for Daddy also for Father's Day fast approaching!

The Nature Hike was AWESOME!  We incorporated this project into camping and also recruited the two children (not homeschooled technically) to do it with us!  The kids had a blast finding the things on the list. Even the dads got in on it!  We found so many things not on the list also!  I would suggest adding more to the printables list for sure!

Our last project from The Great Outdoors was the Map Making!  Zacchary loves to read maps and make them. The kids used their portable chalkboards to draw maps of the campsite!  Loved it!  We discussed how we use maps in the woods and with nature also the use of a compass!

  

Kids loved this unit and we will continuing with some of the additional projects over the Summer!  Overall great unit! 

Heather

This week was fantastic. We focused on all things Mail and all three of the kids had a great time. One of their favorite activities was getting to make their own stamps. Before we started Sun Scholars, we had been trying to teach our children how important it was to write thank you notes. Using their "personalized stamps", we continued to encourage them to write thank you's to grandparents, friends, and anyone else they felt they would like to write to.  

The activity got them extra excited about writing these letters. They each set up a little writing spot in their rooms where they have notecards, envelopes, and their stamps. I have an adhesive machine, so once their stamps were done, I ran it through the machine and made them into stickers, just like real stamps, so they could just peel them off the paper and stick. 

Once they write their letters, they put their own stamps on the envelope and then bring them down to me for a real stamp. All three of the children were especially excited to see their artwork on the front of their thank-you letters. 

I also made a few phone calls and found out that our local post office will allow kids and their parents to come down and see how a real mail room works. Similar to field trips that kids take to the firehouse. Once they are out of school, we are scheduled to go down and take the tour. The kids can't wait.

This activity was fantastic. Another testament to the power of the program. What a great creative learning tool these activities are. And, even though the kids have a week and half of school left, there really isn't a lot going on in their school classes as the year winds down. These activities keep them learning, and from asking to watch t.v. or felling bored. They really do wake up asking what activities we will be doing that day.

Emily

I really enjoyed this last week.  It was so fun and the kids liked it too.

  

We love "The Jolly Postman". We reread this book over and over again and it prepared us for the rest of the activities.  It also helped me explain the different type of mail.

Doorknob Mailboxes.  The kids enjoyed making their own mailboxes, but not as much as they loved getting mail.  This was the first time that my son wrote words without copying what I wrote.  It was a blast.

What's in your Mailbox and Mail on the Map.  Getting the mail was a huge hit at our house.  The kids loved sorting the mail and then looking for up the city and states to mark them on the map.  My kids love geography and this was fun to see how far our mail had come.

hitting

Musical Glasses.  The kids not only had fun pouring the water in the jars and "making music."  I also added some food coloring to the water, letting the kids decide what happens to the colors as you mix them.

Letter Measurement.  We first gather all different objects from around the house, and then measured them.  It was an eye opener for me to see how the kids measured things and what they choose to measure.

Back to Calendar Math.  This was a great with the kids.  I love how I could use this with all their different skill levels of my children.  For my youngest we just worked on recognizing the numbers.  My second youngest worked on his counting skills.  My older boy practiced adding numbers and then used the counters to make sure he had it right.  My oldest worked on her adding skills picking four to five numbers and then used different coins to add up to the sum.  This helped her with her money skills.

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Thanks to the Summer Scholar Families for sharing with us.

We'll see you back next Sunday for more Summer Scholar fun!

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Here is a great way to turn the outdoors into a game your children can enjoy over and over again.  Better yet, they can create themselves!  Use your backyard, playground, favorite park, or campground, in a Nature Scavenger Hunt!

Step 1 - Make a List
Your neck of the woods (ha ha.. get it?) might not have all of the same goodies as another part of the country, or world for that matter, so come up with a list of things that you can find in the places you and your children visit.  Better yet, make this part of the fun!  Visit a favorite spot and ask your child to go out and collect 20 or so different items.  You can then use the items to come up with your list.

Make sure you include some variety and throw in some unusual items. For example, we added something man-made and a bug to our list to make it more fun. You can add items to make your list more challenging, or not.  It is up to you!  We felt that 18 cards were a good number to search for.

Here is our list...

- a pine cone

- an acorn

- a smooth rock

- a dry leaf

- a leaf bigger than your hand

- a "Y" shaped stick

- a clover

- a weed

- something man-made

- a flower

- a feather

- something red

- something shaped like an oval

- a smooth-edged leaf

- something curved

- something shiny

- pine needles

- bark from a tree

- a bug

- moss

- a berry

- a mushroom

Step 2 - Create Your Cards

Design a card for each item you have selected for your list.  You can cut your cards out ahead of time, or simply fold your paper into 9 sections like we did below.

Next, allow your child to write the name of each item, and draw a picture to go along with it.  Have younger children draw the pictures and you can write the item below each picture.  That way they are still able to join in on the fun.

Here are my daughter's completed cards...

Make sure to include a card for the cover of your Scavenger Hunt collection.  I have created a file you can download HERE, like the cover card you see below.

Cut your cards out if you didn't cut them out before you created them.

You can find my pre-made cards HERE.  However, I think that the cards your child makes will be something you will treasure for many years!

Step 3 - Laminate

If you can do so, I recommend it!  It cost me less than $2.50 to laminate 18 cards at the copy shop, and your child's cards will last much longer.  Not to mention the fact that they look so snazzy, don't you think?

Trim around your cards, but be sure not to cut right to the edge.  You want to keep a border of laminate around each one so the sides of your cards don't fray apart or get damaged if they get wet.  Once the cards are cut, punch a hole in the corner of each.

Step 4 - Tie Them Together

Add the cards to a large ring or string them onto a cord.  I chose to use a piece of jute twine since it has a nice "nature" feel to it.  I made it long enough that it could be worn around the wrist during play, and added some wooden beads to finish it off.

I strung all 18 cards, with the cover on top, onto a piece of twine about 15" in length.  I then held both ends of the twine together and threaded on three wooden beads.

Next, I tied a knot on the end, to secure the beads and the cards.

And there you have it!

Step 5 - Make a Bag

It's a scavenger hunt, so you are going to need a place to collect all of your treasures, right?!  You can use a large Ziploc bag, a paper bag or something else you might have around the house.  If you are really crafty, you can create one.

I made a big with some scrap fabric, adding a casing to the top to thread more jute twine through for a drawstring top.

Now you're ready to play!

Children can play alone, race against others, or work as a team.  You may even want to award a prize to your child, or each team, once they have successfully collected each item on their Nature Scavenger Hunt list.

I know I can't wait to get out to do this with my kids!  It's been a long winter!!!  :)

Happy Hunting!