SMMARTideas

SMMART READING/MATH:

STONE SOUP

"THREE MONKS, Hok, Lok and Siew, traveled along a mountain road.  They  talked about cat whistkers, the color of the sun, and giving.  'What makes one happy, Siew?' asked Hok, the youngest monk. Old Siew, who was the wisest, said, 'Let's find out."...  And so begins the story told and beautifully illustrated by Jon J Muth.

Stone Soup will be the story that I share this summer with the children who are part of our summer reading group.  There are 10 moms who are each sharing a different story each week over summer break.  Each of us are hosting 20 kids one time at our home and then the kids get to visit a different home each week for another story book adventure.  The mom who is hosting the summer reading group that week prepares two hours of learning activities and a fun snack to go along with the book.  It's a great way to continue structured learning over the summer!  Email your friends today to organize your own summer reading group!  Below are some of the activities I'll be sharing this summer.  Here is a link to past summer reading group ideas: http://smmartideas.blogspot.com/search?q=summer+reading+group

STONE SOUP TUNNEL BOOK

I loved this idea when I saw it on Teach Kids Art.  She has the exact details on how to craft this fun style of book.  I put the story title and author on the front, and a picture of each child holding a wooden spoon.  The next page, each child glues three stones onto their pot and tapes the pot to the corner of the "window".  The next page shows the three monks.  The next page is a pile of vegetables that the villagers share to complete the soup.  The backdrop is a brown tree that each child glues little pieces of pink tissue paper on with the back of a pencil eraser.  I love how these storybook tunnel books turned out.

VEGETABLE FRACTIONS

Get out those extra plastic knives...and some carrots, celery sticks, cucumber slices...  Let's practice fractions!  Have everyone cut their cucumber slice in half.  Now help everyone cut their halves in half again so they have 4 pieces.  You can talk about 1/2 and 1/4.  You can have the children put two 1/4 together to make 1/2.  You get the idea.  Cut the celery stick into 3 equal pieces.  Have the children put 2 pieces together to make 2/3.  Each child can eat their fractions when they're done.

MATH ROCKS

Yes, I know it's math, but I'm telling you that it's a lot more fun with rocks, or "stones".

Gather 20 stones for each group of 10 kids.  With a paint pen, paint the numbers 1-10 on half of the stones and paint dots to represent the numbers 1-10 on the other half of the rocks. 

GAME 1: Let each child grab two stones from a bowl or bag.  Each child then lays down one stone, number or dot side up.  Then they each try to find the stone lying on the floor that matches the stone in their hand and lay it down beside the one on the floor. 

GAME 2: Memory Match.  Place all of the stones number and dot-side down.  Each child can take turns turning over the rocks to make a match.  If they don't make a match, it's the next child's turn.  When a child makes a match, they can try again.