Summer

Books- Have not read all of them, but viewed summaries on the library website.

• Mama, Is it Summer Yet?- Nikki McClure
• Morgy's Musical Summer- Maggie Lewis
• Carl's Summer Vacation- Alexander Day
• Summer Beat- Betsy Franco (Two friends celebrate the sights and sounds of summer)
• Mouse's First Summer- Lauren Thompson
• Summer is Summer- Phillis and David Gershator- (Summer from a child's perspective)
• Four Friends in Summer- Tomie DePaola
• The Encyclopedia of Summer Olympics-David Fischer

Crafts

The link below has some fun and amazing summer crafts including a paper plate sun, popscicle matching game, ocean flower pot, watermelon craft, a homemade butterfly net and more.

http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/summer/

Baking

• Vanilla Pops (See below for recipe)
• Blueberry Yogurt Treats (see below)

Vanilla Pops- from Highlights High Five Magazine

1. One cup of milk

2. 6 oz container of vanilla yougurt

3. Tablespoon of honey

Blend ingrediants and pour into paper cups.

Freeze for 30 mins to an hour and then insert Popsicle stick.

Freeze until frozen!

Eat!

Blueberry Vanilla Treats

1. Break up graham cracker and pour in bottom of cup

2. Add vanilla yogurt

3. Place blueberries on top

Build it Yourself from Lowes

Zachary received this bird house kit from Lowes. It' a good starter kit to learning how to do woodwork and it was fun too.

Catapult

Here's a home made catapult that my husband made for a science experiment for our son. A cup, a small pvc pipe and part of our extra blinds.

It was interesting to watch Zachary. As a four year old he had to learn which side of the catapult had to be up in order to fling the object up in the air. He thought the cup had to be up at first and then thought he had to hit the side with the cup on it. He got it after trying a few times. We really enjoyed seeing things fly across the room!

Maps and World Structures

Books

Music

• The Continent Song- Tim Pacific from www.Songsforteaching.com
• The 50 States and Captials Song- Tim Pacific

Crafts

• USA map coloring- color and place stickers on all of the places you have visited
• World map coloring
• 7 Continents Mobile- Picture of the world at the top with each of the 7 continents hanging from each other. On the back of each continent glue a picture of a famous world structure that can be found there.

Activities

• Study a map of the state and write a letter for each major city. Observe all of the places you have been to.

Baking

• Pick a country, state or city and make some ethnic foods.

We used this world map to color. It came from google images.

We used this map to color and label all of the places we've been. This one also came from google images.

We cropped the pictures below to be the same size in Microsoft Word and glued them together. The other continent pictures hung from the world.

Pick Your Theme Table Runner Craft

Decorative Table Runner

We got this idea out of the Highlights High Five Magazine. We really enjoy reading that magazine and Zachary always looks forward to it coming in the mail each month. There is always a craft and a baking activity in it. There is also counting, short stories, hidden pictures, Spanish, and more.

Table Runner Craft

You will need: Wax paper, contact paper, and colored tissue paper

1. Unroll the contact paper onto the length of a table sticky side up.

2. Cut squares out of selected tissue paper and place them on contact paper.

3. Unroll wax paper onto contact paper.

4. Display!

Farms

http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/farm/

Music

• Down on Grandpa's Farm
• Down on the Farm- Greg and Steve
• Old MacDonald
• Here we Go Round the Mulberry Bush
• Shortnin Bread

Earth Day Books

Books to Celebrate Earth Day!

These are some books we checked out and really enjoyed. There are much more than this at the library of course, but here's a few ideas either to get started or to add to your family's knowledge.

This Tree Counts by Allison Formento

In this book a teacher brings his class out to listen to the sounds and observe nature around a tree. He also tells them about what trees are used for. It concludes with them planting more trees.

How Groundhog's Garden Grew- Lynne Cherry

One of my personal favorite children's stories by Lynne Cherry. Groundhog learns about planting his own garden from his friend Squirrl. This can be very inspiring for children to grow their own gardens. I learned a little about vegetable gardening myself from reading this. It also made me hungry for fresh produce!

Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres and Nadine Bernard Westcott

Another great children's gardening book. This book helps them understand how different vegetables and fruits grow.

Stuff! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by Steven Kroll

In this story, Pinch the pack rat is reluctant to give up his stuff which is spilling out of every door, window and hole of his house. He learns about how others may have excellent uses for stuff he no longer does.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Plastic

Haven't read this one but it looks good! Saw it online! Looks like it is about how plastic is made, how it is used, and how it affects the environment.