Monday, July 28, 2014

Summer Science Fun with Bubbles - EXPERIMENT


What you need:
  • 3 tray containers  or bowls
  • Dish soap
  • Shampoo
  • Bar soap
  • Water
  • Bubble wands and blowers
  • Paper
  • Pencils and colouring/drawing tools

 

What to Do:
  1. Mix 1/3 dish soap to 2/3 water in one container
  2. Mix 1/3 shampoo with 2/3 water in another container
  3. Put water and the bar soap in another and try to later it up into a solution.
  4. Pose the question to your child: “which solution do you think will make the best bubbles (Dish Soap, Shampoo or Bar Soap?)
  5. Write the words “I PREDICT” on a piece of paper and have them draw a picture while you write their prediction sentence on it.
  6. Have your child begin to test each solution (dipping the wand/bubble blower in the dish soap solution and blow and then repeat for the other solutions). 
  7. Encourage your child to talk about what they see and what they notice.
  8. Have your child draw a picture of what happened and which solution made the better bubbles.  You can help them write their sentence about which one.
  9. Let your child continue to play with the bubble solution and finish using them all up. 
 
HAVE FUN.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Summer Literacy Scavenger Hunt Activity


What you need:
  • post-it notes
  • pencil & eraser
  • objects in your home that your child can find

What to do:
  1. Write a letter on a post it note and give it to your child.
  2. See if they can name the letter and tell the sound it makes (help them if they're not sure)
  3. Have them go on a scavenger hunt around the house to find something that begins with that letter (e.g., Bb - banana).
  4. Have them put the sticky note on the object they found.
  5. Have them share with you what they found.
  6. Repeat with other letters.

DIFFERENTIATION:
  • Find an object that rhymes with a word you give them (e.g., duck/truck, loon/spoon, bear/chair)
  • Once they've found the object that begins with the letter they found, have them try to sound out and write a word for it.
  • Give them a letter and see if they can find an object in the house that ENDS with that letter (e.g., Ll = doll, wall, etc.)
HAVE FUN!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

STRUCTURES and GEOMETRY - Summer Learning Activity


What you need:
  • mini marshmallows (white or coloured)
  • toothpicks (or dried spaghetti pieces for longer sides)
  • paper plate to build on
  • imagination

What to do:
  • Use the marshmallows as connector joints and the toothpicks as joists.
  • Build different shapes and structures (cubes, rectangular prisms, pyramids, triangular prisms, etc.).   Create with your imagination
  • Name the shapes created
  • Eat your creation afterwards
  • HAVE FUN!

PLEASE NOTE - Images are taken from the Internet as examples to show.  Your child's results will vary.




Sunday, July 20, 2014

Some Goopy Fun!

Here is a fun sensory activity for children. Is it a liquid? Is it a solid? Let your little one explore and find out.

Materials needed:
Take a cup of cornstarch add to a bowl...
Take a cup of baking s oda add it to the bowl...
Take 1/2 cup of water and add it to the bowl...
Mix with your hands-they will get messy a bit and the "Liquid but Not" will harden-- then soften --then drip while you form and play with it.
It comes off with a little soap and water! It's all in good fun.

Enjoy! Happy Summer from Mrs. Clarke and Mrs. Melo

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Summer Fun Ideas

Looking for some ideas to keep your children engaged, but still working on skills?  Here are some ideas:

  • - draw letters and numbers in the beach sand.
  • - go on a walk with your child and have them gather a handful of pebbles, shells or other items that they find.  Sort them into categories (colour, shape, size, texture, etc.).  Have them count them and practice writing the numeral for them.
  • - look for words in their surroundings that they recognize (on signs, advertisements, the newspaper).
  • - get a Library Card and take out some books together - read, read, read on a daily basis.
  • - start a journal or scrap book of your summer adventures.  Have your child draw a picture and write about what they did.  Take a picture of an activity and glue it into your scrapbook.  Have your child label and write about it.
  • - if your child has a piggy bank, empty it and sort the change by the coins (pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, loonies and toonies).  See if your child can name the coins and tell their value.  Try adding some small coin sets together (e.g., 8 pennies, a nickel and 2 pennies, a dime and a few pennies, 2 or 3 nickles together, etc.).  JKs should be able to add a subtract values to 10, while SKs are working towards adding and subtracting beyond 10 (no higher than 20).
  • - continue practicing the Reading Rainbow Sight Words.
  • - When reading stories together, have your student name and describe the setting, the characters, the plot, the problem and solution.  Have them retell the story in order from the beginning to the end.  -
  • - When reading a story, see if your child can make personal connections to the story (I remember when I ....., That reminds me when I/my brother/my sister/my cousin...).  See if they can make connections from the story to the world and community (I remember when that happened in Bondhead at the....., I remember watching the news and seeing something similar).  Try to make connections to other texts/stories/medias (I remember in Snow White the queen had a magic mirror just like Belle had in the Beauty and the Beast,).
  • - Go on a habitat safari - explore your backyard and have your child make diagrams of what they see living there.  See if they can observe how they've made their homes, what they eat and some of the behaviour they see in the animals/creatures observed.
  • - bake and cook together, allowing your child the opportunity to help measure the ingredients and read the procedures/recipe.