Slide-A-Story

The Star Wars Story Dice activity was such a hit with my son that I figured it was time to create a new story starter activity to get him writing more. I designed the Slide-A-Story activity and manipulated one of two dice to read either “UP” or “DOWN.”

The Slide-A-Story board contains four questions: who, what, when, and where. Pull tabs are threaded through the board, each with 12 different answers.

Give your son or daughter some blank handwriting paper or print some from DonnaYoung.com. Hand over the dice and get ready for a silly story to unfold.

Your child will roll the two dice four times. If the die read “UP” and “4” the child moves the tab up four times to reveal a person, thing, time, or place. Each of these answers will be incorporated into the story.

My son rolled “Astronaut,” “Tractor,” “Bed time,” and “At a museum.” What was almost more fun than creating the story was discussing the why and how behind the answers he’d ended up with (e.g. why would an astronaut be riding a tractor? How did he get in the museum? What was he doing there?).

Make Your Own
Download and print the UP/DOWN page onto sticker paper to manipulate one of your dice. The Slide-A-Story board and slides are available for download as well. Simply print on cardstock, glue to a thicker piece of paper for added sturdiness (I used a colored file folder), use an Exacto knife to cut the slits for the slides, and thread them through.

Want to make your own Slide-A-Story board and slides? A blank Slide-A-Story board is available for download (perhaps your child would love to decorate this themselves) and empty slide templates can be downloaded, too. Simply click on the red text.

Let’s Go Fishing (Snacktime Subtraction)

What can you make with colored Goldfish crackers, peanut butter, and pretzels sticks? A snack AND a math game, that’s what.

First I had my son cut out a pond from blue construction paper. Then I gave him a small bowl of colored Goldfish crackers and asked him to put some fish in his lake.

Then he started reading and answering questions on a custom-made worksheet, counting the total number of fish in the pond, as well as the number of red, orange, yellow, and green fish.

Then the real fun began.

Dowload this worksheet here.

I asked my son to dip his fishing rod (a pretzel stick) in peanut butter and "catch" the number of fish specified in the next question. After these fish were caught, how many remained in the pond? What about after you throw some back in?

This was the yummiest math activity we’ve ever done. I know this because my son said, “I like to eat the fishing poles, Mom.” HA!

Wondering what to do with all those leftover pretzels? Have your child make pretzel letters!

How to Make a Rainstick

If you’re teaching your son/daughter about rain or the rainforest, making a rain stick is a great craft to complement the lesson.

I’d seen this project ages ago and thought it would be fun but my son’s fine motor skills simply weren’t up to the task. Now that he’s older, I figured we’d give it a go. I’m glad I did.

What you need:

A bare paper towel tube

40-50 wooden toothpicks

School glue

Posterboard or heavy construction paper (trace the opening and cut 2 circles ¼ bigger than the tube; make several snips all around the circle from the outer edge in to the traced line)

1-2 tbsp. of rice, lentils, or other small beans

Push pin

Hot glue gun

Paint/markers

Nippers or cutters to cut off the toothpick ends

Directions:

Use a push pin to make holes in the paper towel tube about a ¼-inch apart. I used the seams on the paper towel tube as a guide and added another row of holes between these seams. Then I gave my son the box of toothpicks to feed through one hole and out a hole on the other side. You’ll end up with a downward spiral of toothpicks on the inside of your tube.

If your rainstick looks something like a medieval torture device, you’re on the right track. Once about 40-50 toothpicks are stuck in the tube, put a dot of school glue on each of the holes where the toothpicks are sticking out (this will prevent the toothpicks from falling out).

When the glue dries, snip off the ends of the toothpicks (be careful, they could go flying). Run a bead of hot glue around one of the ends and fold down the flaps you cut on one of the posterboard circles until the end of the tube is capped.

Have your child measure the beans/rice/lentils and pour into the tube. Hot glue the other circle of posterboard around the open end. Give your child paints, markers, or strips of paper to glue over the tube to decorate it. Now, slowly turn the rainstick and listen to the sound of falling rain!

I practically had to beg my son to decorate his rainstick. All he wanted to do was play with it!

After we were done with this craft we read two great books about rainforests: “Amazon River Rescue,” an Adventures of Riley book by Amanda Lumry and Bonnie Worth’s “If I Ran the Rainforest” from the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library.

To read the original directions for this activity, visit FreeKidsCrafts.com. 

Crayola Colors Word Roll

Give a kid a grid of 36 words and two dice – one manipulated with the letters A through F – and let the fun begin! That’s what Melissa over at Wishes Dream Love did with her son and it seemed like such an amazing idea, I thought we’d try it at my house.

Instead of practicing sight words, I used the color names printed on the crayons in a box of 24 Crayola crayons. (We had a brand new box leftover from the school year.) I used sticker paper to print A, B, C, D, E, and F stickers to alter one die and Microsoft® Excel to create the grid. All that was left to do was to hand it over to my son.

When he rolled an A and a 2, he found the box on the grid, read the color words, looked through his crayons, and colored that rectangle with “carnation pink.”

He caught on immediately and didn’t stop until every square was colored – even the white ones!

This was a fun activity that got my son reading and taught him a few things about color (e.g. violet is purple so “blue violet” must be a bluish purple color, “apricot” is peach, etc.). Click on the red words above to download the Crayola Colors Word Roll grid or download a blank template here to make your own.

Swimming Lessons + Math Lessons = FUN!

We waited forever to put our son in swimming lessons, so long that I worried his fears would stifle his progress. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. My son loved his swimming lessons this summer. (Whew!)

To piggyback on this interest, I designed a fun math activity around swimming. First, he read “Swimming” by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed. This level one reader was easy enough for my son to read on his own and echoed many of the things he experienced over the last few weeks in swimming lessons (e.g., wearing goggles, floating, pushing off, etc.).

After he finished reading, I gave him three small cut-outs of swimmers of varying sizes and a large worksheet picturing the profile of a swimming pool. Answering the questions meant that my son had to move the swimmers across the pool and down to the bottom, counting their strokes.

If they swam two laps, how many strokes was that (while this introduced the idea of multiplication, my son is hardly ready for that so we stuck with 8 + 8 + 8 = what)? This could easily be adapted for older kids to introduce (or practice) multiplication.

The activity was a success. How do I know? He asked to keep the swimmers so they could hit the pool again another day.

Just before we headed out for my son’s last lesson at the pool, we read Jonathan London’s “Froggy Learns to Swim.” I could tell from his recitation of the book’s “bubble bubble, toot toot” in the car that the story had struck a chord.

Download Bill, Kate, and Alex (the swimmers we used) and the pool profile here. Simply print, trim, overlap the two pages, and tape together to make your own indoor “swimming pool.” Click on the red phrases in the previous sentence to access the PDFs.

Jellyfish Tunnel Book

When I asked my son what he wanted to learn about, I don’t know what I was expecting him to say. But “jellyfish” certainly wasn’t it.

Our local library was equipped with tons of books, but the real conundrum was what to do other than just read them. That’s when I stumbled on Teach Kids Art, a wonderful resource written by a California blogger whose tunnel books were the ideal way to take learning about jellyfish beyond books. Check out the original post here.

Before my son dug out his art supplies, though, we read two great books, both titled “Jellyfish” by authors Martha E.H. Rustad and Carol K. Lindeen. These books feature amazingly beautiful pictures of jellyfish both big and small and are ideal for early readers like my son.

Once we’d learned a thing or two, I gave my son three pieces of cardstock which had a rectangle cut out in the center (the “cover” also included a scuba diver) and another piece with no cut-out that included a jellyfish graphic. Download a PDF of the front and back pages of our jellyfish book and/or blank pages by clicking on the red words in this sentence.

On the top of each of the four cards, he wrote a short fact he’d learned about jellyfish. Then he colored the jellyfish and scuba diver as well as some graphics of fish which he glued to the edges of the window on the second and third pages.

Next, I cut two 8 ½ x 11-inch pieces of cardstock in fourths. He folded six pieces in half and then folded the edges back to meet the folds again. Lastly, he glued these between the pages of his tunnel book.

When it was complete, he could look down on his book and read his jellyfish facts or look through his book to see the fish and jellyfish scene.

To say that my son loved this activity is an understatement. He was enamored with the finished product and couldn’t wait to show off his creation.

Thanks Teach Kids Art for helping me teach my son about jellyfish!

Dinosaur Counting and Measuring

In the second book of the Dinosaur Cove series, author Rex Stone’s main characters, Jamie and Tom venture back to Dino World on a mission to make a map; it was their quest in “Charge of the Triceratops” that inspired this activity.

I created a worksheet mapping out some of the landmarks mentioned in the story and in order to answer a series of questions, my son would need to count the steps from one to another.

Download this worksheet here. 

After counting his way around Dino World, I gave him two large dinosaur footprints I’d cut from posterboard; I used the theropod footprint on Nestlé Family’s website as a guide. The finished footprints were approximately 20 inches in height and 15 1/2 inches wide (I estimated the size based on a photo I found of a person standing with one foot inside a theropod footprint).

We talked about how the T-Rex was a theropod, how big their feet were, and how large their stride must have been.

Lastly, he answered some questions I’d prepared, estimating how many of his own feet would fit inside a theropod footprint and measuring with the “footprints” how many steps it would take a T-Rex to get around our house.

Download this worksheet here.

This was a fun activity to get my son counting and measuring and helped us both realize just how big dinosaurs really were.

Practice Makes...More Practice!

My daughter's dance recital was this past weekend. The kids & staff did a fantastic job! All the care, creativity & hours of preparation & practice were obvious in each and every performance.

A few days before the recital, my daughter was getting frustrated because she could not execute this one particular movement to her own liking. She remarked to me that: "After the months and months of practicing, I should have this perfect!" 

I used a comparison that even though she has learned her multiplication tables & spelling words, that she still needs to practice them or she will forget them, like she has in times past over the summer break. She agreed with me. We talked about her dance classes and my yoga programs being the same in that respect. Its not a one time activity. Its an ongoing thing. Its about building skills slowly until we are confident enough & proficient enough to perform the activity. There is always practice. Practice does not make perfect. It makes more practice.

It may not be a very popular opinion, but I think that as much as we plan & move towards perfection and we strive for perfection-we never actually reach it. There is always something more to explore and learn no matter how much we know. That is why practice makes more practice.

As with any activity or discipline, yoga, karate, Tai Chi, cooking, writing, dance, music, art or competitive sports, the ones that excel on their fields continue to practice even after they have 'mastered' their skills. Even those who are considered 'gifted' commit every day to getting better at what they love or at what they need to do for their careers or well being. Each skill builds on a previous one, and leads to a new one to be acquired. This continues indefinitely or for as long as we'd like it to.

I see practice as so much more than becoming good at one particular thing & the refining & retaining of those skills;  I see it as as process of self-awareness & growth. Its an important, character building, conscious step for children to take as they begin to feel rewarded, self confident & successful  in academics, sports, arts and relationships. It can mean the difference in meeting-and exceeding-their goals & dreams. Things they (and you) thought they could never do can be achieved through consistent practice.

As the school year draws to a close, its good to keep kids busy in activities they love or need to build skills in. Its tempting to slack off now as the excitement of 'summer freedom' comes, but keeping the mind, body and senses alert and sharp encourages fuller participation in activities & Life experiences & makes the transition to the new school year in the fall much easier. For kids, practice does not require long hours of tedious drills. Rather, make it unique and fun, whatever the activity. One topic or skill at a time for 10-15 minutes a few times a day. That's all that is needed.

Without consistent use of skills, we will lose what we are building on. This is especially true for children in ESY or receiving school based therapy, that lose those services for a time in the summer. Its frustrating for parents & a challenge for students to build those skills back to the level they were at prior to the end of school. As parents it is up to us to take control of the situation & for a few minutes a day find the fun in the practice & keep those skill levels consistent and where they need to be.

My daughter is learning in a very real way that practice does not guarantee that we suddenly become an expert and have learned all we need to learn. She is learning that it means that we are committed to our own personal growth & always striving towards our goals; becoming, doing & being our very best.
I hope that one day, she will be able to look back and appreciate how far she has come. I know I do.



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Planets Winding Word Puzzle

This activity was inspired by a game on the back of a kid’s meal menu. No joke. 

I used a book my son picked out earlier this year at the school book fair on the 8 planets in our solar system, to produce a series of word clues.

Before we started the puzzle, we read "8 Spinning Planets" by Brian James. Then, I explained the activity and gave my son his markers to get started. He needed to begin at the START square and count spaces down, right or left following each line of the directions, and write down the words he landed on as he wound his way around the puzzle page. The words formed a complete sentence – a clue – about one of the planets in our solar system. An example follows:

Right 4 spaces.

Down 3 spaces.

Left 4 spaces.

Down 3 spaces.

Right 6 spaces.

CLUE: You call this planet home.

ANSWER: Earth

When my son landed on the correct space, he colored it using a different color for each clue. He crossed off each line of the directions after it was completed. After he wrote all the words from the clue down, he answered, "What planet am I?" When he wasn't absolutely sure of the answer, we looked back at the book.

I wrote clues for all 8 planets, although our time was limited and we only completed the first three. The clues and answers follow:

#1  Icy rocks make up my rings. ANSWER: SATURN

#2  I am made of gas and spin on my side. ANSWER: URANUS

#3  I am the red planet with two moons. ANSWER: MARS

#4  I spin fast and am the biggest planet. ANSWER: JUPITER

#5  It is hot and dry here every day. ANSWER: VENUS

#6  I am the closest planet to the sun. ANSWER: MERCURY

#7  You call this planet home. ANSWER: EARTH

#8  It is cold here since I am so far from the sun. ANSWER: NEPTUNE

Download your own Planets Winding Word Puzzle Grid and Directions today. This was a fun activity that combined counting, reading, learning about space, right/left practice and writing.

You can do this activity on virtually any topic, using any short sentences that you’d like. A blank winding word puzzle grid is available for download here.

Ice Cream Party Math (a SMMARTidea)

Hello! I’m Lisa and I share learning activities for kids on my SMMARTideas blog (Science, Math, Music, Art, Reading and Time-out for Tidbits). I’m excited to share this SMMART Math learning activity with Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational readers!

Ice cream can be a great motivator for your child to demonstrate his/her math skills.  You’ll need some ice cream and little candies, marshmallows, chocolate chips … whatever you have in your pantry.

Display all the fixins in fun glasses and jars out on the table. Then, BRING OUT THE ICE CREAM!

Okay, now for the math. Have your kiddos answer math questions to earn candies and add-ins.

"4 + 6 = the number of chocolate chips you can add into your ice cream."
"50% of 12 is the number of gummy bears you can add to your ice cream."
"Count 7 lemonheads and put them into your ice cream ... good counting!"

Put the add-ins right into a large ceramic bowl and mix it up with two large spoons, then dish into waffle cones. 

I suppose you could even touch on a little geometry ... the cone shape of the ice cream cone, sphere shape of the malted milk balls, or oval jellybeans.

Cool summer fun!

- Lisa at SMMARTideas

Tips to Keep Kids Hydrated

I talk to parents & educators alot about hydrating children-especially on these high heat days that we will be experiencing for the rest of this week. Most of us initially think "water" when we hear the word 'hydration' but its really more than just drinking water. Proper hydration replaces the salts and electrolytes lost during heat, sweating or exertion.

Electrolytes are substances that carry electrical charges such as sodium, potassium, or chloride. They are needed to balance the flow of water molecules across cell membranes, as well as other functions of kidneys, brain, muscles & heart. It can cause poor performances & loss of body weight. Just a 2% drop in weight due to sweating & other forms of water loss, can lead to a 20 per cent drop in the functional capacity of muscles & brain. Hydration must be an ongoing process and not used just as an intervention when signs and symptoms are present. By the time symptoms are present, dehydration has already begun.

When you rehydrate with only water, this can actually 'dilute' the electrolytes left in the body and decrease the ratio of salts to water, so its important to ALSO replace the salts lost by eating foods with a high water & mineral content. Water along with, *fruit juices or Gatorade, a handful of salted nuts (especially dry roasted almonds), fresh fruits (especially kiwi, grapefruit & watermelon-all high in potassium & vitamin C)  & fresh vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes)  are the best choices.  (Fruit juice & Gatorade are only helpful if there is water to dilute & carry the sugar/potassium & other ingredients to the body tissues. Otherwise the large molecules will not pass through & hydrate the cell membranes. This puts additional strain on the kidneys. A general rule of thumb is to drink equal amounts of each, such as one bottle of water for every bottle of fruit juice or Gatorade.)

Adults & children have different hydration needs. Children will dehydrate before they feel the sensation of thirst. For children with limited language skills and medical conditions, its extremely important to observe your students & children & hydrate with water & the above mentioned snacks at intervals throughout the day-every day and especially when its hot and humid.

The first signs of dehydration are thirst, decreased saliva, and trouble swallowing. If more electrolytes than water are lost, the cells will pull in more water, and the thirsty sensation will go away. Later, tissues will begin to shrink, including the skin and eyes. There may be a mild fever as the heart puts out less volume of blood. Perspiration decreases or stops, driving up the body temperature. Urine output falls, and the kidneys cannot filter wastes from the blood. At this point shock can occur that may be irreversible. Water and electrolytes must be given in the correct proportions.

There are many factors that influence how much hydration an adult or child may need on a given day, so the amounts can very. However, you can use these amounts below as a guide:

• Children aged 1-3 years: about 4 cups
• Children aged 4-8 years: about 5 cups
• Girls aged 9-18 years: about 7-8 cups
• Boys aged 9-18 years: about 8-11 cups

*Reference: Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference

Signs & Symptoms:

• No tears
• Dry mouth and tongue
• Sunken eyes
• Dry Grayish skin
• Sunken soft spot on an infant’s head
• Decreased urination
• Confusion/Coordination problems
• Headache

If your child experiences any of these symptoms, contact your health care provider.

Tips:

• Have children drink fluids before heading out to play, and call them in regularly for beverage breaks.
• Offer beverages that your child will enjoy. Several studies show that children consume 45% to 50% more liquid when it’s flavored.
• Remember that many foods have high water content and contribute to total fluid intake. Fruits, vegetables, soups and even Popsicles are all high in water and are good sources of hydration.
• Pack several beverages & hydrating snacks in your child’s backpack and lunchbox before school & other activities.

More Information:

http://kidshealth.org/kid/watch/er/dehydration.html





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Word Scramble with Letter Magnets

Unscrambling words is a fun activity for kids of any age. To make it easy for my son to move the letters around and try different sequences until he unscrambled the word, I made letter magnets. These were simple and affordable.

I used Microsoft Excel® to create a grid with letters in each square (download my template here). I printed the page on cardstock and using a glue stick, attached it to a recycled cereal box for sturdiness. Then I cut the squares out and attached a small piece of magnet tape to the back of each. For the magnet board, I used a cookie sheet.

The words he unscrambled were:

Zip

Rat

Kid

Hot

Cry

Jam

Play

Fish

Gold

Quit

Race (letters can also be reconfigured to spell ‘care’)

Run

Web

Fan

Nest (letters can also be reconfigured to spell ‘nets’)

Jet

Milk

Bump

I scrambled each of the words on the cookie sheet in groupings of six words, starting with three-letter consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

My son did great and only needed hints to get the words ‘gold’ and ‘milk’ unscrambled!

Gratitude & Attitude for This Body

I woke up this morning and noticed my ankles were sore. I asked myself :  "What the heck did I do yesterday?".  As I started moving around  I felt the sunburn on my arms and shoulders & I remembered yesterday's long day on my feet, out in the sun at my daughter's class trip to a Civil War Reenactment. I started to hear that self-pitying whiny complaining voice in my head that we all tune into into from time to time, so after a minute I stopped and realized that its not my body's fault. I should have used more sunscreen and I need to get a better quality sneaker to stand/walk in all day.

'Harriet Tubman' & Lauren

There were several children with walkers and in wheelchairs there yesterday, all having fun.  I however was physically able to stand on my feet all day-and in addition, I had a great time with the kids, especially my daughter. (We met "Harriet Tubman" and learned how to weave lace, march in formation and of course, shoot a cannon. ) I am grateful for the whole experience! Even the sore ankles & sunburn.

So today, as your day begins, and every day from now on, I want you to take a moment each morning -when you feel those aches & pains and recognize that complaining attitude in your head- and thank your body, no matter how it feels or what condition its in. If you have health challenges, then thank the parts of your body that are healthy.  If it sounds silly, or is a difficult thing for you to do, bear with me & do it anyway. Here is why:

We tend to focus so much on what our bodies cannot do-on our pains & limitations. We constantly remind ourselves that we are 'getting old', we ache, are out of breath & can't remember things. But think for a moment of what an amazing engineering masterpiece our body really is at any age: for starters, more than 200 bones that are stronger than concrete, that hold us upright, 600 muscles that can move in any direction and speed we want and a pump that circulates life supporting blood 1,000 times a day through more than 60,000 miles of blood vessels. We have a brain that controls it all and has the capacity to process 400 billion impulses through 45 miles of nerves in one single second!

Science tells us that our bodies also have the amazing power to regenerate all cells & tissues including cardiac & nerve fibers. With every single breath, and at every moment, renewal is going on somewhere in the body or brain.

Every single hour, one billion cells die and new ones are made to replace them. We get a new stomach and brand new skin every month. Our 206 skeleton bones renew every three months. Our liver will be brand new in about 6 weeks. In fact, in just one year's time, about 98% of all our body cells die and are replaced. Every single thing we eat, think and do, at every moment, (especially what we think) contributes in some way to our physical and emotional health so that we literally are not the same person we were a year or even a week ago.

Reflecting on just these few feats makes it clear that our bodies deserve a little-no- rather much gratitude. We were designed to experience health, movement & vitality. Health is our natural state of being, regardless of our situation or abilities, everyone can obtain health to the degree they desire, starting with gratitude then working on attitude. We have the ability & unlimited opportunity to direct our growth & our health at every moment.

For children who are developing in every way by leaps and bounds, as well as those who have delayed development due to medical or other conditions, we as parents & educators can be encouraged to know that their bodies are renewing at even a faster rate. The more we nurture their growth with healthy ideas & thoughts, nourishing natural foods, pure hydrating water, varied movement and unconditional love, the better the environment for their bodies & brains to grow more healthy.

We need to start having gratitude and appreciation for our own bodies first so that our children can learn from us. We are the example they will follow and teaching them health habits that begin with the way we think & perceive our own bodies-as naturally renewable instead of limited by physical or cognitive conditions- is where we start.

Our thoughts and comments about our health-or lack of it-become their thoughts, and that becomes their belief and ultimately their wellness programming. This programming will become their habit. Their habits will determine how far they move forward or are left behind in becoming their optimal healthiest selves. Every adult & child deserves to reach their highest, healthiest potential, and it starts with our own attitude.

For the last 10 years, I have enjoyed teaching health in the form of adaptive yoga, to children with challenges & their siblings, families & peers. By using stories, movement & art we engage & calm & ensure that all kids - of all abilities - move all those muscles; strengthen all those bones & use all possible nerve connections to learn & reach their highest, healthiest potential.

When designing this program I wanted it to be fun, something that could fit seamlessly into any schedule or environment and something that everyone could enjoy. The purpose of  "adaptive" yoga, or dance or sports is exactly that: to adapt it enough to include every one who wants to participate, so they can enjoy the many physical and mental benefits of that activity.

 Special Olympians from Perkiomen Valley

If you have ever watched a Special Olympics or a Miracle League game or adaptive dance recital you will see that the children participating are not focused on the limits they have. They just are happy to be doing what they are doing! Having fun, playing, moving-pure gratitude in the form of happiness! That is how each one of us needs to be, especially those of us who are healthy and able-bodied.

I encourage you to explore your own attitudes about your body and your health and notice what messages you are sending your students & children, especially children with adaptive needs. Be aware of your attitudes, have gratitude for your own abilities as well as those of your students & children & guide them to enjoy exploring as many forms of healthy adaptive movement as they want and as they can as the summer begins!


More Information:

BodyLogique Adaptive Movement for Kids:

Hope Dances Adaptive Dance:

Special Olympics NJ:

The Miracle League

Philadelphia Center for Adaptive Sports

 Dorothy Hamill Adaptive Skating

Surfer's Healing-A foundation for Autism
 
 
 
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Erupting With Fun

Volcanoes are one of the coolest natural wonders; just ask any 5-year old. My son knew a little about their eruptions, but when I started to ask him more detailed questions like, “What is lava and where does it come from?” a blank stare was his response. To give him a better understanding, I figured we’d read a few books, make an eruption of our own, and journal about what he learned.

I got the recipe for making our “volcano” from Linda Hetzer’s book “Rainy Days & Saturdays.” Here are the steps:

1. Stir 1 tablespoon of baking soda into ¼ cup of water.
2. Using a funnel, pour the mixture into a plastic bottle; I used a 16.9 oz. water bottle, but a shorter bottle would work better.
3. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap.
4. Put the bottle in your kitchen sink.
5. Carefully add ¼ cup distilled vinegar to the bottle; keep your face away from the bottle top.
6. Watch the eruption!

We had all the ingredients on hand and making the eruption was a snap. My son was thrilled that our afterschool activity took us somewhere other than the table.

Our eruption was an impressive (yet slow) bubbly overflow.

Dowload this worksheet here.

After our eruption, my son cut out the scrambled instructions I’d typed up, read each step, put them in order, and glued them in his new journal. Then, we read Dana Meachen Rau’s book, “Volcanoes: Wonders of Nature.”

To wrap up our “science class,” I asked my son to write about a few of the things he’d learned in his journal. At the top of the page I wrote “What we learned about volcanoes …” He added two sentences about the things that surprised him the most: that lava is really melted rock and that volcanoes are mountains.

For another great book to read with your child about volcanoes, check out Gail Herman’s “The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top: A Book About Volcanoes.”

B D P Q Practice

Curse those darn lower case letters that look similar; they’re always tripping my son up. He’s mastered ‘p’ and ‘q,’ but ‘b’ and ‘d’ are a different story. To do some drills with him, I made a spinner featuring all four of these letters (download the template here).

I printed the first page of the spinner on heavy-duty colored construction paper, the second on regular office paper. Then I glued both to a recycled cereal box for sturdiness, cut them out, made a hole in the center, and threaded a brad through the center.

When he came home from school, I gave him the spinner and quizzed him asking:

What does (one of the words listed below) start with?

Quail

Dab

Pop

Dog

Bad

Quick

Play

Dunk

Ball

Door

What does (one of the words listed below) end with?

Map

Mad

Scab

Stop

Dab

Bad

Bob

Sob

Said

Lap

I randomly switched between the starts with/ends with questions so my son would have to listen carefully. To answer the questions, he turned the spinner to the appropriate letter.

I’d like to thank the I Can Teach My Child blog that inspired this idea.