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Listening with My Heart: A Story of Kindness & Self-Compassion | Kids Books Read Aloud-SEL 

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Listening with My Heart: A Story of Kindness & Self-Compassion | Kids Books Read Aloud-SEL 

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Listening with My Heart: A Story of Kindness & Self-Compassion | Kids Books Read Aloud

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Continue writing in your summer journal! Make sure to write in complete sentences.

1. Imagine you had a hundred dollars, but you couldn't keep it. You had to give it away to a person or charity. Who would you give it to? What would you want them to do with it?

2. Describe one time when you were brave.

3. If you could cook any meal for your family, what would you cook? Describe the meal and tell how you would make it.

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Everyone loves balloons~so have some fun with this experiment making them MAGIC!

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For ages 4 and up.

For the past month, my 6 year old son has been a balloon blowing machine. He was thrilled when I pulled together this fun kids' science experimentshowing him four ways to blow up a balloon WITHOUT his mouth. Ready to give these magic balloons a try too?

To Prep

I grabbed my supplies:

2 clean bottles

yeast

a teaspoon of sugar

vinegar

baking soda

a packet of Pop Rocks candy

a roll of mint Mentos

a couple bottles of soda

a funnel

and balloons {You'll want the big, regular sized balloons rather than water balloons.}

Magic Balloon #1: Warm Water and Yeast
In our first bottle we poured in about an inch of warm water and then dumped in the entire packet of yeast. We swirled the yeast around a bit and then added the teaspoon of sugar and gave it another good swirl. We put the balloon over the mouth of the bottle and then let it sit in the sun. It only took about five minutes for the yeast to start bubbling and our balloon to start inflating!"Ew, what is it?" C asked, looking at the foam that was starting to bubble. "Yeast is a type of bacteria so it's actually a living thing," I explained. "It's eating the sugar that we added and when it eats the sugar, it creates a gas called carbon dioxide that makes all those bubbles. That carbon dioxide is filling up the balloon."
Magic Balloon #2: Vinegar and Baking Soda
In our second bottle, we poured a couple inches of vinegar. We prepped the balloon by using the funnel to fill half of it with baking soda. I put the balloon over the mouth of the bottle and then C dumped in the baking soda. The effect was instantaneous and the balloon quickly inflated as the bicarbonate baking soda reacted with the acetic acid in the vinegar making carbon dioxide.
Magic Balloon #3: Diet Coke and Pop Rocks
Our third bottle was half filled with Diet Coke. I liked the Diet Coke because it didn't leave a sticky mess, but any soda would work. We found that we got a better reaction if we opened a fresh bottle and poured out the soda we didn't want rather than pouring soda into an empty bottle - I think it stayed better carbonated.

To prep this balloon, we dumped a pack of Pop Rocks into it. I stretched the balloon over the mouth of the bottle and C dumped them into the Diet Coke.

This one was definitely the noisiest! You could hear all the popping going on in the bottle as the Pop Rocks released their pressurized carbon dioxide.
Magic Balloon #4: Diet Coke and Mentos
For the last bottle, we filled half of it with Diet Coke again. We put two Mentos in the balloon, stretched it over the mouth of the bottle, and then dumped them into the Coke.

We actually ended up doing this experiment twice because the first time we didn't have enough soda in the bottle so it produced a pretty weak reaction. Half a bottle seemed to work just fine and the Mentos were a great catalyst, causing the Diet Coke release its carbon dioxide.

We lined up our bottles to check out the results.

"Which bottle do you think blew up the balloon the best?" I asked C.

"This one!" he exclaimed, pointing to the yellow balloon of the vinegar and baking soda bottle. I explained to C that all of these combinations created carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide fills the bottle and then moves into the balloon, blowing it up. Each reaction produces a different amount of carbon dioxide. Which one did he think made the most?

"The one with the yellow balloon," he said. "It's the biggest." We tried the experiment a couple times more to see if our results were the same. We used the same color balloon for each reaction to make it easier to compare past and current results. The bottle with vinegar and baking soda was the clear winner again.

Find More

Ready for more fun with science? Make a rainbow in a jar, create bicolor flowers and walk on eggs.

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For ages 4 and up. For the past month, my 6 year old son has been a balloon blowing machine. He was thrilled when I pulled together this fun kids' science experiment showing him four ways to blow up a balloon WITHOUT his mouth. Ready to give these magic balloons a try too?

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Non-Fiction: Camping tips for your backyard!

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Non-Fiction: Camping tips for your backyard!

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Make the most of these summer days with some backyard camping tips!

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instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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Instantly access 40,000 high-quality books for kids

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

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Do you like to camp during the summer vacation? Read about Zack and his adventure at boys camp!

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instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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Instantly access 40,000 high-quality books for kids

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

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Using items easily found in your kitchen, create a great underwater scene. There is a great short video that shows you how to get started. Enjoy!

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Foil Sea Turtle and Fish Collage | Deep Space Sparkle

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This tin foil sea turtle and fish collage was a huge hit with my third grade class. The kids loved how the sea turtle and fish looked, swimming in the

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Have fun using things around your house that may not seem very strong to make something incredible!

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Science Max | Pasta Bridge | Season 1 Full Episode

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Do you like exploring shapes? Here are tons of fun games to explore geometry skills. Enjoy!

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Learn math the fun way with our free educational games! With animation, music, and lots of fun- kids can enjoy practicing math and increase their math skills and math memory.

Topics include: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, numbers, geometry, shapes, early math, integers, time, measurement and much more!

Game types involve puzzles, action games, arcade style, driving games, swimming, matching, memory and many more varieties for all kinds of learners and abilities.

You can also find math videos and math game demonstrations at our math channel on youtube:

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Practice matching equivalent fractions.

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An amazing math game designed for Fourth Grade kids to teach them fractions in a fun way. In this game, kids need to match the values of dominoe tile with the adjacent domino tile and finish the dominoe tiles as soon as they can. This game is an excellent way to increase their concentration level and attention span. This game also enhances kids' logical thinking and analytical skills. So, kids play, learn, and have fun!

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An amazing math game designed for Fourth Grade kids to teach them fractions in a fun way. In this game, kids need to match the values of dominoe tile with the adjacent domino tile and finish the dominoe tiles as soon as they can.

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Learn ways to be kind to yourself and others.

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8/21 Days of Mindfulness Bootcamp What does being Kind Mean: Mindfulness For families and educators

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Come on! How can you not fall in love with that lazy little smile? Read and watch to learn about the SLOWEST animal in the world.

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Ball up 3 pairs of sock and follow along as you learn how to juggle!

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Learn to JUGGLE 3 BALLS - Beginner Tutorial

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Learn some cool and amazing facts about spiders.

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Neat Things About Spiders

Eeeek! The mere sight of a spider can strike fear in the hearts of millions. Arachnid means spider, and arachnophobia means fear of spiders. One of the most common fears among humans is arachnophobia, but there really is nothing to be afraid of. Spiders are actually very helpful creatures to humans. They help plants reproduce by pollinating them. They help recycle dead trees and animals back into the earth. They are a source of food for birds, fish, and small mammals. And, they eat many harmful insects, helping to keep your garden pest-free.

Spiders are not insects. Insects have three body parts and six legs, whereas spiders have eight legs and two body parts, the abdomen and the thorax. With eight legs, they can run pretty fast across a wall or the ground and that is probably what scares most people.

Where are they going and what are they doing? Spiders spend most of their day spinning webs or searching for food to trap in those webs. So when you see one scurrying across the sidewalk, watch to see where she is headed. It's probably a high insect location.

Here are some other neat things to know about spiders:

Spiders are invertebrates, which means they don't have backbones.

Spiders have silk spinning glands called spinnerets, at the tip of their abdomen, which they use to spin their webs. Spiders spin webs to catch insects to eat. The insects stick to the sticky threads of the web. Spiders don't stick to the web because of oil on their bodies. Not all spiders spin webs. Some spiders track down prey by running after it.

Spiders naturally produce seven different kinds of silk for webbing. Each type of silk, comprised of genetically-produced proteins, serves a particular function: one to wrap its prey, one to wrap its eggs, and five to form the spider's web.

There are more than 30,000 species of spiders in the world.

All spiders have fangs that eject venom when they bite. Spider bites can be quite painful, and a rare few even fatal.

Tarantulas, daddy long legs, and black widows are all from the spider, or arachnid, family.

Even though they have six to eight eyes, most spiders are very nearsighted. They use the hair on their body as sensors to feel their way around and sense when other animals are near.

Because webs can get dirty and torn, most spiders build a new web everyday. What do they do with the old web? Roll it up into a ball and eat it. Yummy (to spiders)!

Male spiders are usually smaller than female spiders.

Charlotte, from the book and movie called Charlotte's Web, is the most famous fictional spider in literature and cinema. The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Little Miss Muffet are two famous nursery rhymes about spiders.

Creating a Butterfly Habitat Neat Things About Spiders

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Neat Things About Spiders--Just for Kids at American Humane Association

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Neat Things About Spiders Eeeek! The mere sight of a spider can strike fear in the hearts of millions. Arachnid means spider, and arachnophobia means fear of spiders. One of the most common fears among humans is arachnophobia, but there really is nothing to be afraid of.

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Mythbuster: Which is stronger... Steel or Spider's silk?

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Mythbuster: Which is stronger... Steel or Spider's silk?

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Is Spider Silk Stronger Than Steel? | MythBusters Jr.

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Learn about photography and make your own Pinhole Camera with Academy Award winning photographer, Jimmy Chin.

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Adventure Photography with Jimmy | The North Face

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The North Face Summer Base Camp is here! Campers join camp counselor and The North Face team athlete Jimmy Chin for a crash course in adventure photography, including how to make their very own pinhole camera from a shoebox.

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Write your own creative story and submit it for use on Story Pirates!
*Parent/Guardian permission required

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Please take a moment to fill out the form below. This form should only be filled out by a parent or guardian over the age of 18. To view our privacy policy, click here. Thanks!

Story Guidelines:

1. Stories must be totally original. We aren't able to perform stories that are inspired by or include characters and plots from movies, television or books. Use your imagination!

2. Stories should be in kids' own words. Adults can help kids get their stories down on paper, but there's no need to edit or correct spelling or grammar.

3. Please fill out our standard release form here.

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Please take a moment to fill out the form below. This form should only be filled out by a parent or guardian over the age of 18. To view our privacy policy, click here. Thanks! 1. Stories must be totally original.

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Draw a picture of your family and write their names.

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Collaboration is a big word that means "work together". Think of ways you work with your family at home and how your family members feel when you all work together.

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The Very Quiet Cricket (The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Stories) | Made For Kids | Eric Carle

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Ants have to work together to live just like humans. Watch this video and think about what ants do to stay alive.

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Open the picture, count the bugs. Make a math sentence with the bugs.

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Open the picture and count the bugs.

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1. Open the bug identification chart

2. Talk about what differences the bugs each have and what things they have that are the same.

3. Go outside and try to find some of these bugs in your own yard!

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Try to build a house, town, or city out of just two materials!

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Make a copy of the Google Slides, watch this short film and do the activities provided.

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This week we are going to ask an adult at home to write us a letter of love. There task if they choose to accept it is to write a letter to you about all the things they love about you. Here is my sample letter to my daughter Lacey.

Dear Lacey,

I have really enjoyed all of our extra time together this summer. I love going on adventures with you and learning with you! There are so many things that I love about you, but the number one thing is your hugs and kisses. I love that you have such an amazing imagination. I love your sense of humor and listening to your laughter. Keep being you and sharing your caring heart with all of the people around you.

With Love,
Mom

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Go Fish: Fun Addition Math Game

Information:

Players: 2

This game is played like traditional “Go Fish.” Four cards are dealt to each player and the remaining cards are left in a pile, face down.

1. Player 1 asks player 2 for a card needed to be put with a card already in his/her hand that would make 10. For example, “I have a 3, do you have a 7?”

2. If the opponent has the card asked for, it is given to the player who asks for it and the pair of cards is placed next to the player. If the opponent does not have the card asked for, he/she says “Go Fish” and the player who asked picks up the top card from the deck.

3. Whoever has the most pairs at the end, wins.

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Continue writing in your summer journal! Make sure to write in complete sentences.

1. How did your parents choose your name?

2. Describe yourself in four words. Why did you pick these words?

3. Write a story about a puppy with a very special superpower.

4. Who is your hero? Why?

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Do you love to watch fireworks? If you do, make your own with this activity!

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by -
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy.

If you have a little one who is fascinated with colors and fireworks, this simple experiment is for you (and your child). The idea for this experiment originally came from Action Pack. You most likely have everything you already need in your cupboard for these fireworks in a jar: oil, water, and food coloring! If you haven't already, be sure to download my FREE Fascinating Science for Kids eBook with this experiment and 14 equally-engaging others!

1. Fill your jar 3/4 of the way full with warm water.

2. In a separate bowl, mix a 3-4 tablespoons of oil and several drops of different colors of food coloring (I used 4 drops of each color: red, yellow, blue, and green).

3. Use a fork to gently mix the oil and food coloring together.

4. Gently pour the oil mixture into the jar.

5. Watch what happens-the food coloring will slowly sink out of the oil and into the water. When this happens, it will expand and begin to mix with the other colors.

The Science Behind It:

Food coloring dissolves in water but not in oil. Because the oil is less dense than the water, it will float at the top. The colored droplets will begin to sink because they are heavier than the oil. Once they sink into the water, they will begin dissolving into the water (which looks like a tiny explosion).
Download your free Science eBook with this idea and many others by clicking below and entering your e-mail address. You'll immediately receive an e-mail that will have the link to the eBook! If you would rather not be an e-mail subscriber, "like" us on Facebook and then send us a private message to claim your FREE eBook.

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Fireworks in a Jar - I Can Teach My Child!

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by - This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy. If you have a little one who is fascinated with colors and fireworks, this simple experiment is for you (and your child). The idea for this experiment originally came from Action Pack.

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Travel to the African Savanna to learn about all of the animals that share their home with the Lion.

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Animals of the Savanna - Learning Ecosystems for Kids

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Use recycled paper and cardboard to make an incredible paper mache Lion mask.

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This was such a fun project to do! The most challenging parts were to wait for the layers to dry so I could continue with the next steps. So, for this project you will need... patience, patience and Patience!

Here's the tutorial:

The papier-mâché will need to dry over night before you add the next layer. I added two layers, and surprise surprise: the more layers you add - the stronger the sculpture. I made quite a solid base out of cardboard, so it did turn out quite thick and strong only with two layers.
Three steps:
1. Sketch your animal on a paper, so you can understand the shapes better and see what type of structure you will want. Create a strong base out of cardboard and tape it together well, using masking tape. Take your time with this step. Like the skeletons in our bodies, this is what defines the shape of the sculpture.

2. Create the paste. I used wall paper paste - simply follow instructions on the package. It will need 3-4 minutes to thicken, so meanwhile you can rip the paper strips as shown in the tutorial above.

You can recycle newspapers or packaging papers for this, as that type of paper sucks up the paste quite well. Rip longer thicker strips for bigger surfaces and thinner smaller ones for more detailed areas, such as eyes, nostrils and ears.

Then place a few of the strips inside the paste, but most on the side. Leave a thin layer of paste on the strips and start covering your base thoroughly. When your hands get too messy, simply wipe them off on one of the dry strips.

Again, take your time. Be mindful not to add too much paste as it will get soaked and take a very very long time to dry. However, too little paste will not get the papers to melt together. Use just about enough to make the paper wet.

Gently smoothen out the strips so there isn't any air or paste lumps stuck underneath. That will also get rid of any unwanted wrinkles on the paper. Place the strips in different directions to get a stronger base (vertical and horizontal).

Leave to dry over night and add more layers if the sculpture still feels week, or if you want to fix the shape.

When left to dry, I placed a soup bowl underneath the lion head. This will give the sculpture more of a face shape, compared to drying on a flat base.

3. Once you are happy with the shape of the sculpture and it has dried, you can continue to the last step: Painting! I used water based acrylic paint, that turns water resistant when dried.

Mix the shades you want to use and make magic happen with those brushes! Again, if needed, leave to dry and add more layers of paint later.

I hope this project inspired you to get creative!

This is another of our recycled art projects: art out of a delivery box.

For any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch in comments below or on YouTube.

Let's get those brushes out! :)

Charlotta Xx

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This was such a fun project to do! The most challenging parts were to wait for the layers to dry so I could continue with the next steps. So, for this project you will need... patience, patience and Patience! Here's the tutorial: The papier-mâché will need to dry over night before you add the next layer.

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Meet real-life lions and learn how you can take action to save these amazing endangered creatures.

Epic Books code:  ikg7373

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instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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Instantly access 40,000 high-quality books for kids

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

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August is the birth month of Leo the Lion. Travel to the savanna of Africa to learn about the King of the Animal Kingdom.

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Create a collage using a picture of yourself, and things you have around your house.

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The perfect mixed media art for kids. Collage a photograph & paint an imaginary world on plexiglass in this creative self portrait project by Catalina Gutierrez of Redviolet Studio.
I love to spark children's imagination with a book before we start an activity. I find it to be a great way of connecting and silently starting to provoke them while I read and share the illustrations.

The book that inspired this fun activity is "A World of Your Own" by Laura Carlin, a n amazing children's book that I love. If you ever get your hands on it, you will be surely captivated by the beautiful illustrations and the magical story behind it.

It narrates the life of a child who imagines a world of her own. In this world, houses are off the ground, factories are the shape of whatever they make (for instance a pencil factory, has the shape of a pencil), attendance to school is only once a month, passengers sit on top of trains...and so on.

I t's the most wonderful imaginary world one can think of.

After reading this book, we got into a really fun conversation that started from one question: "What would a world of your own look like?" As you can imagine they were on a roll!

I had to curb their excitement a little, because they had lots and lots of ideas as to what their worlds would look like.

Anything from faucets running with chocolate instead of water, unicorns as pets, showering once a month, rainbow trees, living in a jungle home surrounded by wild animals, eating popsicles for breakfast and ice cream for dinner...

I jotted down just a few but the list was never ending and oh-so mind blowing!

How to Create Mixed Media Art for Kids

I really hope you give this mixed media art for kids a go, because it is so much fun!

You don't have to have the book I mentioned to get the kids into the fun of it. You can talk about what your own ideal world would look like. Then ask them to think about what theirs would look like and portray these ideas on the plexiglass.
MATERIALS
1. Print photo

Begin by printing out a B&W photo of the child. Cut around the edge of the photo. Add clear contact paper to the back of it (sticky side up). Leave a border of contact paper so you can stick the photo to the back of the plexiglass.

2. Draw outlines on plexiglass

Give each child a sheet of plexiglass with his/her picture stuck to the back of it. Invite them to start creating their Dream World around their photo using black Sharpies.

Talk about outlines, and let them know this is just the first step. They will be filling in their drawings with paint markers.

3. Paint with paint markers or acrylic paints

Bring out the paint markers and encourage them to cover the whole surface, except for the part that has their photo, adding even more details to their Dream Worlds.

Note:: If you want to use acrylics instead of paint markers, they work great too. We did both and loved them.

Ask questions about their worlds to engage them even more:

4. Add stickers

Finally, bring out any fun stickers you may have around. Animals, insects, fairies, flowers, geometrical shape-anything works!

Invite the children to add any stickers they want to include in their Dream Worlds.

We really enjoyed this mixed media art for kids activity! I hope you enjoy it just as much!
Pin It For Later
Catalina is the founder of Redviolet Studio, a mobile art experience for children. She is originally from Colombia but has been based in Miami for the past 10 years. Catalina teaches after school art classes for preschool and elementary kids and sensory art & play classes for toddlers. She is very interested in the Reggio Emilia approach to education where the children lead their own learning process with the teacher being more of a facilitator rather than a voice who shows them where to look and what to find. She loves crafting with her boys and a good process art session. Catalina also has an amazing art & play activity guide for purchase through her website that The Artful Team highly recommends! Red Violet Studio

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Dream Worlds: Imaginative Mixed Media Art for Kids

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The perfect mixed media art for kids. Collage a photograph & paint an imaginary world on plexiglass in this creative self portrait project by Catalina Gutierrez of Redviolet Studio. I love to spark children's imagination with a book before we start an activity.

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Here are lots of fun activities to use those extra toilet paper rolls you might have around your home.

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If you have an abundant supply of toilet paper rolls, why not let your kids have fun with them until they are needed? I've put together a fun list of things your kids can do with toilet paper rolls that will get them thinking creatively and keep them busy.

Toilet Paper Roll Building Challenges

Since STEM activities are my go-to boredom busters, why not try these challenges?

You probably knew this one was coming. Build a toilet paper tower! How high can you make it in just 60 seconds? The fun doesn't have to stop there. Make it more interesting or challenging by trying something like an arch, a staircase, or a tower with only ONE roll as the base (you might need two or more people to get this one to work!):

Once the TP tower is built, test its strength by designing and creating something to knock it down! Maybe you will create a slingshot or a catapult, or something more complicated like a trebuchet.

One of my favorite set of books for kids who like this type of activity is the Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction series (this is an affiliate link, read our disclosure here):

Make Something Useful?

Why not take this opportunity to try and design a better toilet paper roll, storage system, or way to keep the toilet paper protected from inevitable sneezes in the bathroom?

A Toilet Paper Roll Adventure

Imagine the toilet paper roll is Frosty the Snowman and he'd like to go sledding. Design and create a sled for the toilet paper roll to make it down a flight of stairs without flying off the sled!

Get Nerdy with Science and Math

When I taught a Grossology class, this was a favorite activity of my students! If you have multiple kinds of toilet paper, even better. You'll need a dropper or some way to measure liquid (a measuring cup is okay if that's all you have). See how much liquid ONE SQUARE of toilet paper can hold before becoming saturated. Go for the full effect - use yellow food dye on your water.

Take it one step further - once the toilet paper is saturated, how much solid mass can it hold before it fails? I like using metal washers for this but pennies work well too.

Want some more guidance on how to do this? Lemon Lime Adventures has a nice write up with useful visuals.

More Science with Toilet Paper

For another fun toilet paper science demo check out Steve Spangler's Flying Toilet Paper.

Toilet Paper Math

No, I'm not going to suggest you wrap your brain about single, double, or triple rolls, with one, two, or triple ply squares. No one needs that madness! However, you can absolutely do some simple math activities with a TP roll as your starting point.

In addition to the ideas above, once the volume of a TP roll is calculated, find out how many rolls would fit in the room you're in.

Measure the height of a roll calculate how far away the moon is in toilet paper rolls. If you can do with unraveling one, then compare that number to an unrolled roll of TP to see how many you would need to reach the moon.

Cardboard Tube STEM Activities

Once the TP rolls are all used up, the fun has just begun! There are a number of other activities waiting for you! I created this resource of STEM activities you can do with the cardboard tube that's left when the TP is all gone.

Here's a quick preview of some of the activities included (exploring cross sections, marble run, symmetry art, ball floating with Bernoulli's principle, and cardboard tube structures:

Pin these ideas for later:

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Fun Activities to Try with Toilet Paper Rolls! - STEM Activities for Kids

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If you have an abundant supply of toilet paper rolls, why not let your kids have fun with them until they are needed? I've put together a fun list of things your kids can do with toilet paper rolls that will get them thinking creatively and keep them busy.

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Use your writer's notebook, and choose one or more of the writing prompts to practice sharing your opinion. Make sure to provide three or more reasons to support your opinion.

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Do you like math? Do you like being fit and active? Then this video is for you. Check out this fun way to practice place value.

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Grade 4 and Grade 5 Fitness With Place Value: Active Math Games: Math Brain Breaks and DPA

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Play this math racing game to practice your addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts.

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A math game for young students on a racing platform.

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7/21 Days of Mindfulness Bootcamp - Mindful Listening : Practicing Meditation on Sounds.

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Click on the links to watch video exploration of these amazing underwater communities, and read about how they formed and the amazing animals that live there.

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Meet author Mary Pope Osborne and listen as she shares her amazing stories. You can either create your own free account or enter as a guest.

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The #1 bestselling Magic Tree House series is ready to whisk you away across the world with Jack and Annie–this time as World Turtle Experts!

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Hi friends! Grab your book club books and a blanket to read Biscuit Goes Camping with me!

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Biscuit Goes Camping [Book Clubs Week 3]

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try this experiment to learn more about rocks, and then try to find some in your backyard!

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During our project study on rocks, we explored a hands on experiment with the rock cycle for kids. Easy, fun, and yummy. A simple experiment you must try.

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Create a tweet review of one of your favorite books!

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Skills targeted: Mindfulness, Coping Skills, Self-Regulation
How to try it: Explain that kids will be practicing mindfulness, which is a skill that helps us stay calm and in control. Have kids look around their room to find 5 things they can see, 4 things they can touch, 3 things they can hear, 2 things they can smell, and 1 thing they can taste. This is a grounding exercise that can help manage tough emotions and provide a mental reset when needed. After giving it a try, you can move to another room and try the same.

Check out the link below for more ideas for Social Emotional Learning around the house!

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Social emotional learning isn't just something that should be practiced and taught at school. SEL skills are life skills, of course! These include skills like empathy, self-control, and decision-making.

Before I even get started, while I was writing this post, I decided to also create a set of SEL printables you can send home with parents and families right away. Of course, if you're a parent looking for extra activities, I would encourage you to use them on your own, too! They include four choice boards covering skills like responsibility, friendships, strengths, and managing emotions. You can download your free printable SEL activities here.

It's important to mention that you don't have to be an expert with social emotional skills to teach and practice them with kids. Even small activities, like reading books and playing games, can strengthen social skills and teach kids important skills along the way. This matters.

Whenever you are doing a new activity, it's important to let kids know what skills they are working on. This makes every SEL activity more purposeful and targeted. For example, if you are playing board games, just briefly remind kids that they are working on important social skills like taking turns and showing fairness. This can lead to a good conversation about what those skills mean and why they matter.

Here are some SEL activities you can encourage parents to try, or do with your own children!
Empathy in Action
Skills targeted: Empathy, Perspective-Taking

How to try it: Spend some time watching a show or movie. At any given time, pause and discuss how the characters are feeling. You might ask: "How are they feeling?" and "How would you feel if that happened to you?" Use this conversation to build on considering how others feel, discussing social cues, and caring about their emotions.
Acts of Kindness Challenge
S kills targeted: Kindness, Empathy

How to try it: Use this free printable random acts of kindness challenge to encourage kids to be kind to others. For each kind act they do, have them color in the picture. Another option is to have them give an example of each kind act before they color it in.

Just Chat!
Skills targeted: Self-Awareness, Conversation Skills, Relationships

How to try it: Start by asking kids questions about anything from their favorite foods and activities to what three items they might bring on a deserted island with them. Many questions can help work on conversation skills, turn-taking, and self-awareness. You can start with this free printable list of conversation questions or consider these social emotional learning task cards to chat and focus on the skills more explicitly.

Mindful Breathing
Skills targeted: Mindfulness, Coping Skills, Managing Emotions

How to try it: Let kids know that they will be practicing mindful breathing. Explain that mindful breathing is just focusing on breathing in and out to help calm our minds and bodies. There are many different mindful breathing exercises to try out. One of my favorites is "Cool off the pizza." In this activity, have kids pretend they have a hot slice of pizza in front of them. Slowly breathe in to smell the pizza and breathe out to cool it down. Another one of my favorites is bubble breathing. If you have bubbles on hand it is even better, but you can also pretend! Practice breathing in and out as you blow bubbles. Learn more about other ideas to practice mindful breathing.

Mindful Scavenger Hunt
Skill targeted: Mindfulness, Attention

How to try it: Explain that mindfulness is learning to focus on the present. This can help our minds and bodies feel calm and in control. On your own, create a list of 10 or 12 items you want kids to find. Note that this can be done inside or outside. For example, if outside, you might want them to find a plant, a pine cone, something blue, and something bumpy. If inside, you might want them to find something yellow, something in the shape of a square, and something that makes noise. You can create your own scavenger hunts (or skip the prep with the ones I've made), so it's entirely up to you and what you have! Give kids time to find these items and have them write them down on a piece of paper to document them.

Kindness Share
Skills targeted: Kindness, Confidence

How to try it: Discuss what it means to be kind and give compliments. come up with some examples together. Then, have each person (kids and adults) write their name on a piece of paper. Pass that paper to your right. When you get someone else's paper, write something kind and thoughtful about that person.

Organize It
Skills targeted: Planning, Organization

How to try it: Discuss what it means to be organized and how we know when something is organized and tidy. Gather a set of supplies for each child or team. Set the timer to a certain amount (five minutes, for example) and see if the child can return those items to the correct spot.
Mindfulness 5-4-3-2-1
Skills targeted: Mindfulness, Coping Skills, Self-Regulation

How to try it: Explain that kids will be practicing mindfulness, which is a skill that helps us stay calm and in control. Have kids look around their room to find 5 things they can see, 4 things they can touch, 3 things they can hear, 2 things they can smell, and 1 thing they can taste. This is a grounding exercise that can help manage tough emotions and provide a mental reset when needed. After giving it a try, you can move to another room and try the same. More free mindfulness activities and ideas can be found here.

Optical Illusions
Skills targeted: Perspective-Taking

How to try it: Find any optical illusions online or use this free printable worksheet. Have kids review the optical illusions. First, have them think about what they see and write it down. Then, share. Kids should quickly notice that what they see isn't always what others might see. Explain how optical illusions are like situations; sometimes you and someone else can see the same situation in different ways. As a follow-up, kids can find their own optical illusions online.
SEL Read Alouds
Skills targeted: All SEL skills (varies depending on book)

How to try it: Choose any read aloud. As you read through the book, stop and discuss the social emotional skills embedded in the book. One skill that carries across all picture books, for example, is empathy. You can talk about how the character might feel, what they might be thinking, and how you can tell. Depending on which book you choose, many different social emotional skills can be discussed from confidence to decision-making and beyond. Grab this free printable SEL Read Aloud List to help you get started.

Board Games
Skills targeted: Turn-Taking, Sportsmanship

How to try it: Use any board games you have on hand, such as Monopoly or Candy Land. These games can help support a number of skills, including taking turns, having conversations, and showing good sportsmanship. Check here for some other ideas for social emotional games you can use.
Mindful Coloring
Skills targeted: Mindfulness, Coping Skills

How to try it: Set the tone with some calming music. Have kids color or doodle quietly as they breathe in and out. Note that you can use any coloring pages or books on hand, or grab these free printable mindful colori ng pages to start.

Charades
Skills targeted: Social Cues, Emotions

How to try it: Discuss that our body language and facial expressions can often hint at what we're doing and how we're feeling. Have each person or child come up with an activity, such as making a sandwich, and then act it out. See if others can guess the activity. Note that you can also do this with emotions, by having kids act out different emotions and seeing if others can correctly guess.
Journal Writing
Skills targeted: Emotions, Self-Regulation, Self-Awareness

How to try it: Explain that writing in a journal can help express our feelings and thoughts. Set the timer for 5 or 10 minutes, and have each person just write what is on their mind. Give time for kids to share their thoughts afterward if they want. Another option is to use open-ended prompts for kids to write about. You can learn more about mindful journaling here as well.

Inspirational Quotes
Skills targeted: Kindness, Perseverance, and many more

How to try it: Find a couple examples of your favorite inspirational quotes. This will vary depending on the age level of the children. For example, you might read, "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." Discuss the quote and what it means. Then, give a topic and have kids find or create their own quotes on that topic. Have them write them down and share them. You can even have kids design their own posters for the quote.
Practice Positive Affirmations
Skills targeted: Positive Thinking, Confidence, Self-Love

How to try it: Explain that positive affirmations are kind and supportive words we say to ourselves to lift us up. For example, before a big test, we might say, "I can do this!" Ask kids to think of their own positive words they might say. Use this free printable positive affirmation s list to have kids find their favorite positive self-talk statements. Practice saying them, writing them down, and creating cards for each of their favorites.

I-Spy
Skills targeted: Attention, Mindfulness

How to try it: This is probably a game you've played before, but it's important to mention because SEL skills can be easily integrated! Start by saying, "I spy with my little eye....". For example, you might spy something green. Have kids stay just where they are and look around for the item. Instead of just guessing, it's helpful to have them ask questions that really cause them to think. For example, they might say, "is it something you can play with?" and "is it something you can write on?" After giving some time for questions, allow the child to guess what it is. Whoever guesses it right can by the next to spy something.

Need more ideas? I've put together a massive list of 100+ FREE social emotional learning activities, printables, ideas, and more. Use it for yourself or share it to help someone else in need.

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10+ Social Emotional Activities for Home

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Social emotional learning isn't just something that should be practiced and taught at school. SEL skills are life skills, of course! These include skills like empathy, self-control, and decision-making. Before I even get started, while I was writing this post, I decided to also create a set of S

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1. If you could take one part of summer vacation and make it last all year long, which part would you choose?  Why?
2.  Would you rather go swimming in the ocean or in a pool?  Why?
3. If summer were a person, what type of personality would he or she have?

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Materials to Make Your Own:
Index cards
Marker
Instructions:
Make a deck of 40 cards with index cards by writing the 1st ten multiples out and do this 4 times.
Deal out fifteen cards from your deck to each player. This becomes each player’s draw pile.
Place two stacks of an additional 5 cards in the center of play.
Each player draws 3 cards from their individual draw pile. This becomes each player’s hand during play.
To start play each player turns over the top card from each stack of 5 cards in the center of play and places it face up.
Players choose a card from their hand that is either a multiple higher or lower than one of the cards in play. Players can play on either stack and place a card as soon as a number from the player’s hand can be played. Players do not take turns.
As soon as a player places a card, that player draws a card from their draw pile so that each player holds 3 cards at all times.
If players cannot play one of the three cards in their hand, then each player turns over the top card from the 5-card pile and places that card face up in play. Play resumes.
The first player that uses all cards from their individual draw pile wins

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Practice counting by 5's.  If you are ready, write them down.

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The Counting by Fives Song | Counting Songs | Scratch Garden

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Get moving with the GoNoodle team and their variations of a great routine needed for a positive "wake up" practice.

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Wake Up! | Acivities For Kids | Exercise | GoNoodle

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Have fun making a beautiful suncatcher to hang in one of your windows.

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When we get on a roll, we go with it. That's been the case lately with all of our flower petal and contact paper suncatchers. We've made nature suncatchers in the past, but have never quite gotten into it as much as this past month with the flower petal art box, the flower stained glass door, and subsequent flower mandalas.

And we're still going strong!
We're loving all these flower suncatcher crafts!
Flower Suncatcher Mandalas
MATERIALS
Step 1: Create flower suncatcher frame
INSTRUCTIONS
Begin by making a frame for your flower suncatcher by cutting a hole in the paper plate.

Step 2: Add a center of transparent contact paper

This time I cut some frames out of paper plates (the centers will be used for spin art) and then cut circles from contact paper to fit over the opening (overlapping the paper plate by about half an inch).

Step 3: Press flower petals and leaves to the sticky contact paper.

Maia and I arranged flower petals, petal pieces, and leaves in outwardly concentric designs on the contact paper to create our mandalas.

Step 4: Protect and hold the flower design in place.

We added another circle of contact paper over the top to protect and hold the flower design in place.
(Daphne worked on one, too, but mostly just explored the sticky nature of the contact paper and eventually crumpled the whole thing up.)
Step 5: Hang the flower mandala suncatcher.

We hung Maia's (for me) in the living room window and mine (for Maia) in her bedroom window.
Punch a hole at the top of the frame and tie a loop of string for hanging.
More About Mandalas

I love how well these circular frames hold the mandalas, perfectly, in the center! And I also love some of the meaning that has historically been connected with mandalas.

Here's a description (found on The Mandala Project's website) that I especially like:

There are so many examples of mandalas found in nature: daisies, oranges, onions, the iris of the eye, starfish, and snowflakes just to name a few.

Not to get to woo-woo on you or anything, but I'd love to learn more about mandalas. More about them as an art form. About the meanings associated with them. And about how they've been used in cultures around the world.
The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself-a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.
Have you ever made a mandala, either yourself or with your kids?

Children's Art Enabler, Mother of Two, Lover of Cherry Pie and Nature
Pin It for Later

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How to Make a Flower Suncatcher with a Paper Plate + Contact Paper

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When we get on a roll, we go with it. That's been the case lately with all of our flower petal and contact paper suncatchers. We've made nature suncatchers in the past, but have never quite gotten into it as much as this past month with the flower petal art box, the flower stained glass door, and subsequent flower mandalas.

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Try using items around your house to build your own sports equipment.

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Do you play or watch a sport where you use something (other than your hands or feet) to hit a ball? Golf, baseball, tennis, hockey-there are many different sports where players use something to hit a ball or a puck. In this activity you will design, build, and test your own sports equipment made from recycled materials.

This activity is not appropriate for use as a science fair project. Good science fair projects have a stronger focus on controlling variables, taking accurate measurements, and analyzing data. To find a science fair project that is just right for you, browse our library of over 1,200 Science Fair Project Ideas or use the Topic Selection Wizard to get a personalized project recommendation.

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Build Your Own Sports Equipment | STEM Activity

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Do you play or watch a sport where you use something (other than your hands or feet) to hit a ball? Golf, baseball, tennis, hockey-there are many different sports where players use something to hit a ball or a puck. In this activity you will design, build, and test your own sports equipment made from recycled materials.

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Math games to play with a deck of cards.

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Math games to play with a deck of cards.

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Here are some great games to play to practice things like place value, multiplication, and fractions.

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This website has tons of fun games to practice a variety of math skills! Have fun exploring!

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Math Games, Math Worksheets and Practice Quizzes

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Math games online that practice math skills using fun interactive content. Over 1000 free skill testing apps and games - tablet and chromebook friendly.

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Using your writer's notebook, choose one or more of these topics to practice your narrative writing. Share your writing with someone in your family.

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6/21 Days of Mindfulness Bootcamp - Diphragm breathing

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Check out the night sky and try and recreate the moon phases using oreos!

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Moon Phases are dependant on the Moon's relative position to the Sun and Earth. To find out more about the Moon Phase Cycle, read this friendly infographic below!

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Hi friends! Find your favorite stuffed animal and your copy of Henry and Mudge the first book and read along with me!

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Click on the links to read and watch more about our world's 7th and amazing continent of Antarctica. Learn why they call it "the continent of extremes!!"

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Learn more about the moon and why it has craters.

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Breathe Like a Bear: Storytime and Exercises

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Breathe Like a Bear: Storytime and Exercises

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Instructions:

Divide the deck equally among the players. Players place their deck face down in front of themselves. Players take turns turning over their top card and putting it, face-up, in the middle of the table. When the card played can be added to any other card, which has already been turned over, to make 10, a player yells, “snap 10” and takes the two cards. The first player to do so keeps the cards. The element of speed that results from any player being able to be the first to yell “snap” helps to dissuade students from counting. At first, you can play without this speed factor. In this version, instead of having any player shout “snap 10” only the player who places a card should look for a match and can “snap” the match. The player who takes the cards says the number sentence such as “2 and 8 make 10.”

Whoever has the most cards at the end, wins.

Variations:

Snap 5

*Match a numeral card with a spatial pattern card, regular or irregular

*Match two 5-frames with equal quantities (same or different dot organizations)

*Match a 5-frame with the numeral that represents it.
*Match two 5-frames that make 5 total dots.
*Match a numeral card and a 5-frame card that go together to make 5.
*Match two numeral cards that go together to make 5.

Snap 10

*Match two 10-frames with equal quantities (same or different dot organizations)
*Match a 10-frame with the numeral that represents it.
*Match two 10-frames that make 10 total dots.
*Match a numeral card and a 10-frame card that go together to make 10.
*Match two numeral cards that go together to make 10.

Snap 20

*Match two 20-frames with equal quantities, either the same or different dot organizations.
*Match a 20-frame with the numeral that represents it.
*Match two 20-frames that make 20 total dots.
*Match a numeral card and a 20-frame card that go together to make 20.
*Match two numeral cards that go together to make 20.

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We are currently read, “Puppy Pirates:Search for the Sea Monster” by Wednesday July 22nd, please read Chapters 1-4. We will discuss those chapters and read Chapter 5 at Book Club on Wednesday. Please connect Mrs. Handschumacher at melissa.handschumacher@clarencevilleschools.org, if you have any questions.

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Continue writing in your summer journal! Make sure to write in complete sentences.
Write directions for how to make your favorite lunch. Don’t forget the snacks and drink!
Write a fiction story about the summer fair. What do your characters do at the fair? What is the problem in your story? Don’t forget to include your solution.
What would you do if you heard the ice cream truck coming down the street right now? What ice cream would you choose? How do you think it would taste? 

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A moose, a mouse, and a dragon...Can they fix the magic and keep the world from a chocolate invasion? Listen along to the stories at the link below.

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Podcast

Deep in the woods of Maine, Montgomery the Moose was stuck. And so begins... Tales from the Moosiverse! This weekly series will explore tales of moose, mice, dragons, frogs and an Unpredictable Horse. Ideal for family listening

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children kids podcast ios apps education science discovery sharing

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Podcast Deep in the woods of Maine, Montgomery the Moose was stuck. And so begins... Tales from the Moosiverse! This weekly series will explore tales of moose, mice, dragons, frogs and an Unpredictable Horse. Ideal for family listening

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Practice your math skills with a choice board. See how many you can complete this week.

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Choose one of the following topics (or choose your own informational topic) to write about. Don't forget to include the juicy facts and details.

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Watch videos and read some great articles to learn all about the many species of turtles in our world.

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STEM-fun with building boats and a pool!

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STEM-fun with building boats and a pool!

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Activity for ages 4 to 8.

Science Technology Engineering and Math {STEM} activities for kids are all the rage right now and junk boats rank at the top of our favorite projects under the sun. With just a pile of clean recyclables and a kiddy pool, little engineers can design, build and race their own batch of junk boats too!
This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
Building Junk Boats

After reading the book "Toy Boat" - a story about a boy who creates a boat out of a can, a cork, a yellow pencil and a white cloth - the kids were eager to build a boat of their own.

I pulled out our huge collection of clean recyclables, a roll of duct tape and scissors and invited them to get to work. After pairing up into teams of two kids dug through the pile and picked their supplies: empty paper towel rolls, old newspapers, plastic tubs, straws...

After 15 minutes or so, the mini engineers were eager to see if their boats would really float.

We headed outside to a kiddie pool I'd filled with water. I gave each team a straw to make "wind".

One person blew the boat across the water and then a second teammate blew it back. The first boat to touch the edge of the pool was the winner.

After one round, the kids were hooked!

They took their boats out of the water and, using what they'd learned from watching the other junk boats perform in the water, they made adjustments to their designs to make the boats faster.

Then they headed over to the pool for round 2.

More STEM Inspiration

Try out 40 of our favorite STEM projects under the sun!

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Activity for ages 4 to 8. Science Technology Engineering and Math {STEM} activities for kids are all the rage right now and junk boats rank at the top of our favorite projects under the sun. With just a pile of clean recyclables and a kiddy pool, little engineers can design, build and race their own [...]

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Using items around your house, build a wind-powered car.

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Build a Wind-Powered Car | STEM Activity

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Check out the webcams available at the Georgia Aquarium.

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Indo-Pacific Barrier Reef Webcam | Live from Georgia Aquarium | Visit Now

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Check out our live stream webcam from our Indo-Pacific Barrier Reef Webcam from Georgia Aquarium. Just glimpse of what you’ll see in person, when you visit.

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Try this simple painting activity to create some amazing works of art!

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Using your writer's notebook, choose one or more of these prompts to practice your writing skills.

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Do you love thinking and talking about math? Then this website is for you! Check out all of these fun math photos and questions! When you get to the website, make sure you scroll down a little bit to find the photos. Have fun!

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5/21 - 21 Days of Mindful Bootcamp - Guided tree Mindfulness

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SafeYouTube lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

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Hi friends! Go grab your copy of Pete the Cat: Pete at the Beach and read along with me!

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Pete the Cat: Pete at the Beach [Book Clubs Week 1]

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Try making a catapult out of Legos and learn which tension is the best to help you launch your object the furthest!

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Launching LEGO with a LEGO Catapult Building Project

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It's always right before bed when my son asks to build things like a 'castle catapult' out of LEGO®. Terrific, I thought, but time for bed! What do you know, bright and early the next morning, he was ready to make one. We built an awespme LEGO catapult using basic bricks for an easy STEM and physics activity.

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Do you love unicorns? Try this fun art project!

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Bobble Head Paper Unicorn | Paper Crafts for Kids

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Do you love animals, and learning new things? Check out these pictures, videos, and articles to read.

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Cute or gross, fuzzy or slimy, amazing or strange, we love seeing awesome photos of animals and nature, and we know you do too. Now you can find all these great photo galleries in one place.

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Use items around your house to design a satellite that could be sent to space to help study the Earth. Be creative and have fun.

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Build your own spacecraft!

Build your own spacecraft!

How would you like to be the chief engineer for an important NASA mission? In this activity, you get to design the latest and greatest satellite. Your satellite could help study things happening on Earth, take pictures of planets in our solar system, keep an eye on our sun, or even find planets elsewhere in the universe!

You get to decide how to make your satellite-its all up to you. While you are building your satellite, though, keep in mind that your satellite must have a couple of basic things:

Click on the image to see what a real satellite looks like!

This is the GOES-N satellite. It keeps watch over weather on Earth.
(Click image to return to the previous illustration)

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Try these fun math games to build your math skills!

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10 Math Games That'll Boost Your Brain Power By 80%

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Feeling stressed or upset? Try this video to calm your body and mind.

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5/21 - 21 Days of Mindful Bootcamp - Guided tree Mindfulness

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Are you up for a challenge?! Do you like Sudoku? Arrange the numbers in the spoke wheel so that they always total the "target product". Click the ? help for visual directions.

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Brain Workout One Product | Math Playground

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Interactive Brain Workouts at MathPlayground.com! Can you make the target product?

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Science & Reading:  Let's Learn About Dolphins!

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Science & Reading:  Let's Learn About Dolphins!

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Open the Google Slide show and click on the different links to read and watch videos all about our watery friend, the Dolphin!
(View in present mode for best results)
For EpicBooks, use class code ipg7373

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Behind the Mask: A Super Kid Self-Portrait

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Behind the Mask: A Super Kid Self-Portrait

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We're all wearing masks lately. Learn how to draw a "Masked Self Portrait" using character traits.

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Hello, friends!
I have created a lesson for my students and any kiddos who wish to create titled Behind My Mask! When my students return in the fall (and, yes, I said 'when' as I am very hopeful and optimistic), they will be asked to mask-up. We always seem to start out school year with a selfie so I was bummed when I thought of the idea of my students drawing themselves with their best facial feature hidden. And that's where the idea of this surprise drawing came from. Here's a video! Feel free to use and share (with credit given, please and thank you):

I simply used paper, permanent marker, coloring markers and crayons. If I happen to teach virtually this fall, this lesson could also be done by my students at home.

This video is a short and simple one...when teaching, I plan to share with my students a variety of self-portraits and talk a lot more about lettering, fonts, skin tones, craftsmanship, good character...the list goes on! As you can see, I'd have a hard time fitting it into a video short enough to capture their attention. So, if you use this video, feel free to add on whatever you wish to include!

No one is excited about wearing a mask but...it's for our safety. And the best thing we can do for our kiddos is to put a positive spin on it, right? I hope to do that with this lesson. Enjoy!

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Behind My Mask: A Super Kid Self-Portrait!

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Hello, friends! I have created a lesson for my students and any kiddos who wish to create titled Behind My Mask! When my students return in the fall (and, yes, I said 'when' as I am very hopeful and optimistic), they will be asked to mask-up.

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Find a good book to read.

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.

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Virtual Field Trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Virtual Field Trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Watch the live happenings on the coral reef at Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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Goodbye Coral Reef Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Welcome back members. Reserve your tickets now and start planning your special day. You won't believe how much the kelp has grown!

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Time for Kids reports on the rising popularity of graphic Novels.

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When Raina Telgemeier was a kid in the 1980s, she fell in love with comics. "They were the perfect combination of all the things I liked: characters and stories and humor and artwork," she told TIME for Kids.

But she had a problem: a shortage of reading material. At the time, two types of comics were widely available to kids. There were comic books about superheroes, which weren't her thing. She wanted comics that told stories she could relate to as an ordinary kid. And there were newspaper comic strips. Telgemeier loved some of them, especially Calvin and Hobbes, but she wanted more.

At around 10, she started drawing her own comics. Twenty-three years later, she published Smile. It's a graphic about Telgemeier's middle school experiences with braces and dental surgery.

Before Smile was published, in 2010, it wasn't clear the book would succeed, Telgemeier says. Some people who worked in the publishing industry figured that kids wouldn't enjoy a graphic novel about an average girl. But Telgemeier suspected they were wrong. "I knew I couldn't possibly be the only kid interested in people and emotions and everyday problems," she says.

She was right. Smile became a Number 1 best-seller. Since then, Telgemeier has published several more popular graphic novels. There are more than 18 million copies of her books in print. Telgemeier's success has made a big . Industry experts say she paved the way for many more graphic novels for kids.

Then and Now

Comics have been around since at least the 19th century. Traditional comic books are short-around the length of a magazine. They're mostly published monthly, and are often about adventure or superheroes. "Comics have this history in the United States of either being very funny and silly or having a lot of punching of things," Gina Gagliano says. She works on graphic novels at Random House, a publishing company.

Today's graphic novels are different. In a graphic novel, the author uses comics to tell a book-length story. It can be any . Many tell a serious or realistic story.

Until recently, most graphic novels were for adults. Not anymore. In 2018, sales of graphic novels for kids and teens jumped by more than 50%, according to Publishers Weekly. Compare that to the sales of printed books across all categories: They increased by about 1%.

Real Reading

As the sales of graphic novels boom, attitudes about comics are changing. Charell Coleman teaches fourth grade at Woodward Academy, in College Park, Georgia. She often uses graphic novels in class. "They help students visualize the scene, and see who's talking, and what the characters look like," she told TFK Kid Reporter Jack Doane.

This year, New Kid became the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in children's literature. The book is about an African-American boy who feels out of place at his mostly white school.

New Kid author Jerry Craft says that when he was young, he read only comics. His parents were supportive, but he knew some adults didn't approve. "In certain schools, if they saw you reading a comic, they would confiscate it, because they thought it was rotting your brain," he says. "They didn't realize the amount of imagination and storytelling and vocabulary in those comics."

But New Kid 's Newbery confirmed what many kids already understood: that graphic novels are real books. "It's a victory for all graphic novels," Craft says.

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When Raina Telgemeier was a kid in the 1980s, she fell in love with comics. "They were the perfect combination of all the things I liked: characters and stories and humor and artwork," she told TIME for Kids. But she had a problem: a shortage of reading material.

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Materials to Make Your Own:

Homemade Game Board

Game Pawns

Dice

Instructions:

Instead of moving forward what you roll, you are moving forward the number that goes with your roll to make the number 6!

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Continue writing in your summer journal! Make sure to write in complete sentences.

1. Write a letter introducing yourself to your 3rd grade teacher.

2. What do you think is the best thing to do on a summer day? Describe it in detail using a lot of adjectives.

3. Ask your parents what they used to do on their summer vacations. Is your summer vacation experience similar or different? Do you wish that you lived in the same time as your parents or do you like living in this time period?

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Read this passage about a hike and answer the questions on the last page.

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Time for Kids has come out with some great activities to do virtually. Scan the QR codes below to see all the fun at Camp TFK.

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Log into your Google account to take a virtual field trip to the tropical island of Maui, Hawaii. Learn all about the land, animals, and people of our country’s 50th state.

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Click on the link below using the PIN: tqhw
Then choose a photo prompt to write an adventure story. Try to use as many of the provided words as possible.

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WORD BANK paragliding soaring ellipticalparachute tranquil glider Pick a Photo Prompt * Adventure Click Next.

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WORD BANK paragliding soaring ellipticalparachute tranquil glider Pick a Photo Prompt * Adventure Click Next.

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Click on the link and use the PIN below:
PIN: zh6n

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Boom Cards FastPlay lets learners start playing right away using a pin from a teacher. No login is required.

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Listen to the story, “Have You Filled A Bucket Today?” Try and make it a goal for the week to be a bucket filler. You can write messages of kindness, appreciation and love on the cards throughout the week to fill up the bucket. At the end of the week, spend a few minutes sharing these notes of encouragement to end the week on a positive note.

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Materials to Make Your Own:
Index cards
Marker
Instructions:
Choose the multiplication facts you want to work on. Make a deck of 40 cards with index cards by writing the 1st ten multiples out and do this 4 times. For example, 4, 8, 12, all the way to 40.
Deal out fifteen cards from your deck to each player. This becomes each player’s draw pile.
Place two stacks of an additional 5 cards in the center of play.
Each player draws 3 cards from their individual draw pile. This becomes each player’s hand during play.
To start play each player turns over the top card from each stack of 5 cards in the center of play and places it face up.
Players choose a card from their hand that is either a multiple higher or lower than one of the cards in play. Players can play on either stack and place a card as soon as a number from the player’s hand can be played. Players do not take turns.
As soon as a player places a card, that player draws a card from their draw pile so that each player holds 3 cards at all times.
If players cannot play one of the three cards in their hand, then each player turns over the top card from the 5-card pile and places that card face up in play. Play resumes.
The first player that uses all cards from their individual draw pile wins.

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How to Play Quick Draw:  Fun Math Card Game

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Continue writing in your summer journal! Make sure to write in complete sentences.
1. What would you do if your summer vacation was a trip to space? Where would you want to go? What would you want to do once you arrived at your galactic destination?
2. Who is your favorite person? Describe them. Why are they your favorite person?
3. Write about your least favorite rule in your house. Then, write three reasons why you think your parents should get rid of that rule.

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Make your own 'Feel wheel' to help you when you don"t have the words to explain your feelings.

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This lesson is a simple daily check using a feelings wheel to helps students indicate how they are doing at that moment or that day without having to say a word.

At some point, we all struggle to put our feelings into words, and it can be even more challenging for kids. When it happens, it can be frustrating and cause a domino effect. Kids may have a poor reaction, an outburst, or blame someone else simply because they don't know how to express what they are feeling.
Materials:
Optional: Laminate feeelings wheel after students complete worksheet
Prompt: "Everyone has different feelings and sometimes it's hard to explain how we are feeling and what we may need at that moment.
How are you feeling today? I'm feeling happy because I had my favorite breakfast [pancakes] this morning.
* Hand out the worksheet *
Now, I'd like you to think about the following: 'How am I feeling today? Am I feeling sad? Angry about something? Happy? Just blah/OK?'

Sometimes checking in with a friend or teacher and letting them know how you're doing can make all of the difference. But sometimes, it's hard to say how you're feeling with words. Today, we're going to make a feelings wheel to make it easier to tell someone how you are feeling.

Start by coloring in your emojis. Once you're done coloring, cut out your wheel, and I'll pass out clothes pin [or push pins]. Think how you're feeling right now and put the pin on that part of the wheel."
* Give students time to work *
Once students complete their wheels, hand out the corresponding worksheet.

Prompt: " Now, we're going to write about how we are feeling today and draw a picture to represent that feeling. It can be something that made you feel happy today or something that made you mad."
* Give students time to work * * Group discussion *
Talk about what we can do with our feelings.

If I'm feeling happy, I can do something nice for a friend or make them laugh with a funny joke. I can spread that happiness.

If I'm feeling sad, what can I do to maybe make myself feel better?

Additional Resources: Lessons: Books:

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Feelings Wheel Worksheet to Help Students Explore Emotions

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This lesson is a simple daily check using a feelings wheel to helps students indicate how they are doing at that moment or that day without having to say a word. At some point, we all struggle to put our feelings into words, and it can be even more challenging for kids.