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Use boxes, paper, string and other scrap items to make a creature, robot, a building - any structure, really. How creative can you be?

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Use items like berries, spinach, and turmeric to create natural paints. Make a painting using these homemade colors! How creative can you be?

After you make your paints, try this:

Mix two or more natural colours together. What new colors do you get?

Try painting on different papers (like plain paper, cardboard, or fabric). Does the color look different?

Watch how the colors change when they dry. Are they lighter or darker?

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Build a cosy reading corner or blanket fort.

Choose a book and read inside with a torch or teddy.

Enjoy some quiet reading time or have a listen to some books being read aloud: Storyline Online - Home

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Read a story or fairy tale.

Act it out using voices, props or toys. If it's too long, just choose one part to act out.

Can you find an audience to perform to?

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Visit the local library.

Choose 5-10 books for summer reading.

Join a summer reading challenge if your library has one.

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After reading a story, draw what happened in order.

Include characters, setting, and events.

If you want, you can even make your story into a book or comic strip. Go on, give it a go.

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For some online language fun, explore this site.

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At Starfall, children have fun while they learn. Educational games, movies, books, songs, and more for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade learners.

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Gather small natural items like twigs, petals, grass, seeds etc.

Arrange them on the ground or glue them on cardboard to create a collage picture (like a tree, animal, or abstract art).

What pictures and patterns can you create.

Think about form and position as you get creative.

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Plant some sunflower seeds in different pots - upcycle some old containers like yogurt pots and decorating them. Now watch your sunflowers grow. Keep a growth diary with photos and notes. Measure them at regular interval as they grow over the summer. Can you compare the sunflowers as they grow, which is tallest, which is growing the slowest etc.

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Take a nature walk outdoors. As you walk, sketch what you see. What interesting plants and animals can you find as you walk and notice what is around you. Can you draw arrows and label the different parts of what you're sketching? For example, the parts of a plant or tree. Create a nature diary for your sketches. Have fun!

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Let’s use our ears to calm our minds and bodies. Take a moment to stop and hear all the sounds around you - even the ones we don’t usually notice!

Sound Detective

Close your eyes and listen carefully.

Try to identify 3 different sounds nearby (like a clock, birds, or a door closing).

Share what you heard and where the sound came from.

Inside vs Outside Listening

Sit quietly and listen to sounds inside the room for 3 minutes. Use a timer if you need to.

Then, listen to sounds outside (if possible) for another 3 minutes.

Think about how the sounds were different or similar.

Now draw:

One picture showing the sounds you heard inside (like a clock, footsteps or voices).

One picture showing the sounds you heard outside (like birds, wind or cars).

Use colors and shapes to show how the sounds made you feel - were they loud or quiet, fast or slow?

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Every day this summer, try to do one kind thing for someone in your family. It could be helping with a chore, saying a nice thank you, sharing your toys or giving a big smile!

When you do something kind, you’re helping everyone feel happy and loved. Can you see how many kind things you can do this week? Are you ready to be a kindness superhero? Let's go!

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Ready to go on some yoga adventures? Click on the link, choose from the yoga videos and get ready to stretch, breathe and have fun! Let’s get moving and feeling great. You might need a responsible adult to help you log in to You Tube Kids to see the videos. It doesn't take long.

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YouTube Kids - An App Created for Kids to Explore Content

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Discover a safer way to explore all types of content on our app made just for kids. Learn more about how YouTube Kids works.

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This summer, you can be a helpful helper at home and in your community! Helping hands make a big difference - and everyone loves a little teamwork.

Here are some ways you can be a helping hand:

At home: Help with small chores like tidying up toys, setting the table, watering plants or feeding pets.

In the garden: Plant seeds, pull out weeds or pick up litter.

With family: Cook a simple snack together or share ideas about saving energy (like turning off lights).

In your neighborhood: Help collect recycling, smile and say hello to neighbours or make a card for someone who might need cheering up.

When you work together with your family and friends, you’re not just helping - you’re making your home and community a kinder, happier place. Plus, helping others feels great inside! Are you ready to use your helping hands this summer and make a difference? Let’s do it!

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What you need:

Cushions, chairs, ropes, toys, boxes or any safe items you can move around.

How to set it up:

Create an outdoor or indoor course with different challenges like:

Crawl under a chair or table

Jump over cushions or small objects

Balance on a taped line or a row of books

Weave through toys or cones

Run around a chair or a tree

How to play:

Start at the beginning and move through each part of the course as quickly and safely as you can.

Time yourself or race a family member.

Change the course or add new challenges to keep it exciting!

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Outdoor or Indoor - the main thing is that you are safe.

Jump and Reach:

Find a wall, a fence or tree.

Jump and reach as high as you can.

Mark your highest reach and try to beat it! How can you mark how high you jump - that's up to you to think about.

Long Jump:

Stand behind a line and jump forward as far as you can.

Measure your jump or count your footsteps.

Try to jump further each time.

What is the furthers you can jump.

Practice each week. Can you jump further at the end of summer than you could at the start?

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Can you be a smart shopper?

You have 10 euros to spend. Look at prices in a real shop, a market, or even online with an adult. Can you choose things to “buy” without spending too much?

🧠 Your challenge:

Choose a few things and add up the prices.

Will you have money left over?

Can you spend exactly 10 euros?

✏️ Think like an inquirer: What do things cost in different places? Can you find the best deal?

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Shapes are everywhere – can you find them?

Wherever you are this summer, shapes are hiding all around you!

🔍 Your challenge:

Find 3D shapes: cubes, spheres, cones, cylinders.

Find 2D shapes: circles, triangles, rectangles.

Can you name them all?

Draw or take photos of the shapes you find.

✏️ Try this: Make a list or a little shape book. Can you sort your shapes into groups? Can you describe them (e.g. "It has 4 corners and 4 sides")? Can you make some artwork with the shapes?

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How good are your time guesses?

Let’s see how well you can estimate time—that means making a smart guess and then checking to see how close you are!

⏰ Your challenge:

Guess how long it takes to:

Walk to the beach

Eat an ice cream

Pack your suitcase

Swim across the swimming pool

Cook your dinner on the barbeque

Then use a timer or a clock to check!

✏️ Be a thinker: Was your guess close? What was the biggest surprise?

Extra challenge:
Make a "Holiday Time Challenge" for your family! Ask them to guess times too—who's the best estimator?

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During your summer holiday adventures, observe, record and document the different living things and environments that you discover.

Take photographs using a digital camera or your school Ipad.

Print your photos or use PowerPoint presentations to make a photo collage.

Write your observations for each photo, if you visited different places, what do you notice about the similarities and differences between them?

Did you see any animals in these different habitats? What do you know about these animals? How do they survive here?

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Observe, record and make predictions about the weather in a daily diary! On the website above, you will find many different types of weather stations you can make at home to enhance your observations.

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Having your preschool or early elementary age child or students do daily observations of the weather is a great way to engage them in science, and how understanding science affects the choices we make each day, such as what to wear or what to do outside. (Check out my post full of kid activities related to weather.) You can enhance that weather observation with these simple DIY tools, made of materials you have at home or in your recycling bin!

Weather Vane

What it can tell you: This tool tells you which direction the wind is blowing from, which can indicate whether the weather is likely to get warmer, cooler, wetter, or dryer. (In the northern hemisphere, if the wind is from the north, the weather will get colder. If it's from the south, it will get warmer. From the east means rain or snow is coming. From the west means the weather may clear.)

How to make one: Make the base: Take a cup with a lid. Label the 4 cardinal directions on the lid (NESW). Insert one straw, and cover the top end of the straw with a piece of masking tape. Make the top: Take a second straw - cut slits in each end, and insert a cardstock flag in one end and a cardstock arrow in the other. Balance that straw on your finger to find the center of gravity. Push a pin through that point, then through the tape on top of the straw. Make sure the top straw spins freely. (Find more details and design options with alternate materials here.)

To use: Fill the cup with water to weigh it down, then put this outside in the wind, with the letter N on the cup in the north.

Anemometer

What it is, and what it can tell you: This tool measures how fast the wind is blowing.

How to make one: Make the base, as described in the weather vane instructions. Make the top: Take four dixie cups. Punch two holes in each, across from each other. Then take two straws. Make a plus sign (+) with the two straws. Poke a pin through the center of both straws, and then tape them together. Slide a cup on each straw end. Make sure they're all facing the same way around the circle. Mark one cup in some way (like choose a different color cup, or mark an X on it.)

To use: Fill the cup with water, then put this outside in the wind. Each time the marked cup passes you, count one rotation. Set a timer for one minute and see how many times it rotates in one minute. (Find more design options and learn how to calibrate your anemometer here.)

You could also test them inside with a fan, as we did in this video (note, you'll also see some weather vanes at work):

Wind Sock

What it can tell you: Approximately how strong the wind is blowing.

How to make one: Just search online for countless ideas! Most are made of paper, and wouldn't survive rainy weather. I THINK you could make a working wind sock by cutting off the bottom of a plastic cup, tying a string to four holes punched around the bottom of the cup to hang it up by, and tying lots of fluttery plastic ribbons to holes punched around the top of the rim. Someone try this, and let me know if it works!!

Rain Gauge

What it can tell you: This tool measures how much rain has fallen over a period of time.

How to make one: (Directions from education.com, which cites What's Up by Hixson.) Cut the top off of a two liter plastic bottle. Put pebbles or glass beads in the bottom of the bottle. These prevent it from blowing over in the wind. Turn the top of the bottle upside down, so it forms a funnel, and put it in the bottom part of the bottle. Tape the two cut edges together. Put in water so it just covers the pebbles.

Make a vertical line of tape from the top to the bottom of the bottle. Draw a horizontal line on the tape where the water line is above the pebbles. This will be the bottom, the "zero" point of your rain gauge. Now draw horizontal lines going up the tape, every centimeter (or ever quarter inch) above that zero point. Then label them from bottom to top.

To use: Put the gauge outdoors, someplace level that's open to the sky, and not under any trees or other things that would cause extra drips to fall in. 24 hours later, check your rain gauge to see how high the water is now. That's how much rain has fallen in those 24 hours.

Thermometer

What it it can tell you: The relative temperature... is it warmer or colder than when you last checked? Look at the level of the water inside the straw. It will rise as the air gets warmer, and lower when the air cools.

How to make one: My original directions, and the picture at the top of the post, are from What We Do All Day. (The picture to the right is from Life Hacks.) Take a clear plastic or glass bottle. Fill it 1/4 of the way with rubbing alcohol. Then add water till the bottle is half full. (Note: you could use just water, but it responds more slowly than with the alcohol.) Add food coloring or liquid watercolor so it's easier to see the water level. Place a clear straw in the bottle so that it is suspended where the bottom end is in the liquid, but not touching the bottom of the bottle and the top end is poking out the top of the bottle. (In the picture, the straw just barely reaches the top of the bottle - it's fine if yours sticks out a little or a lot.) Now anchor the straw in place with clay (we used Model Magic, but play-dough or silly putty would work). Do not seal the top end of the straw - it needs to be open to the air in order to work. (When the water and air in the bottle heat up, they expand, but can't escape the bottle, so the water is pushed up the straw.)

To use: Test it - what level is the water in the straw at? Place it somewhere cooler - like in the refrigerator. What happens to the water level? Now take it back out to room temperature. How does the water level change?

Finesse your design, or calibrate it: it's easiest to see the changes in level if "room temperature" is about in the middle of your gauge. To get it there: when the bottle is at room temperature, use an eye dropper to drip some colored water into the straw, just enough to raise the water level to halfway up the straw. If it's cooler than room temperature, you'll be able to see the temperature drop down the straw.

To prevent evaporation, use an eye dropper to add a few drops of vegetable oil into the straw. This will float on top of the water, and minimize evaporation.

To calibrate your home-made thermometer. Use a regular thermometer to check the temperature. Where is your straw's water level when it's at 70 degrees? Mark and label that on your bottle. Where is the water level when the bottle is at 50 degrees? Mark that...

You can find a more detailed tutorial, including info on how to calibrate it, on Scientific American's website, or on Wikihow.

Sundial

Check out my post on making a DIY Sundial.

Barometer

I haven't tried this yet, but here's instructions for a DIY barometer.

Pinecone Weather Station

For a fun nature connection, add a pinecone to your weather station. If the scales are open, the air is dry and getting dryer. If they close tight, the air is wet and getting wetter. Learn more about this phenomenon in my Pinecone Experiment post.

Weather Chart

When we teach our children to observe the weather, we're teaching one of the key science process skills. When we use these tools to make comparisons in how the weather changes from day to day, we're teaching measurement, another process skill. Designing a weather chart is all about communicating our observations. Ask your child what types of weather they want to track. Ask them what drawing they could use to represent each type of weather - it's easy to come up with icons for sunny, cloudy or snowy, but kids may discover it's harder to come up with an icon to depict fog or wind. I searched online for "kids weather chart" or "preschool weather" and found several examples for us to examine and talk about. Once kids have drawn their weather chart, you can either fasten an arrow to the center of the chart with a brad, then they can spin the arrow to point at the weather or you can clip a paperclip to the outer edge of the paper, near the icon that depicts current conditions.

I also designed another weather chart that allows kids to separately track: cloud level, wind speed, precipitation and relative temperature. You place a paper clip along each side of the chart, and slide it to the icon which best represents current conditions. You can find your free printable weather chart here. If you would like to keep a record of your observations from day to day, consider making a table to track the data on, such as this sample weather table or a simpler version, such as you'll find here.

Setting Up Your Weather Station

You may make one or all of these tools. Or, you could buy one or all of these tools on Amazon, for not a lot of money. ( Thermometer , Rain Gauge , Weather Vane , Anemometer, and wind socks) Once you've got your equipment, set up a station outside, where your child could check it each day. (Or whenever the whim strikes...) The rain gauge will, obviously, need to be out from under cover so the rain falls on it. The other tools can be out in the open, or under cover.

Media Extension

Watch the TV weather with your child. Then, watch this video on weather forecasting, which provides a nice overview of weather, the job of a meteorologist, and info on how green screen weather maps work.

More Weather Fun

For lots of other fun weather related STEM activities for kids, check out our lesson plans on Weather, Rainbows, and Wind and Flight.

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Kids can make weather tools using simple materials you have at home: make a rain gauge, a wind vane, an anemometer, a thermometer and more.

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What to do:
Imagine it’s summer holiday time, and you have a special robot to help you with your chores at home. Your job is to design this robot!

1. Think about a chore you might find a bit tricky or boring during summer holidays. It could be watering plants, picking up toys, or even helping with cleaning.

2. On a piece of paper, draw your robot. Be creative! Give it arms, wheels, buttons, or anything you think your robot needs to do the chore.

3. Label the different parts of your robot and write a sentence or two explaining what each part does. For example, “This arm picks up toys,” or “This button starts the watering system.”

4. If you want, use recycled materials like cardboard, bottle caps, or paper rolls to make a 3D model of your robot.

5. Share your design with your family, and explain how your robot helps with summer chores.

What you will learn:

How technology can help solve problems

Using your imagination and creativity to design machines

Thinking about how parts work together to do a job

Have fun building your summer helper robot!

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Here are some links that you may find useful: ictgames - Home Page

mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/category/22/most-popular

Key Stage 1 Maths - Topmarks Search