SMMART READING:  STICKY LETTERS

Got any party blowers lying around the house?  Let's put it to use.  If you don't have a fun party blower, then you can use a wooden spoon, a magic wand, or maybe even a toy backhoe truck.

Lay out alphabet letters.  I used our magnetic plastic letters, but use whatever you have on hand.  You could even just print out or write the alphabet on paper and cut them into squares.  Place a piece of double side tape on each letter, or wrap each letter with tape so it's sticky side-out.

Letter Sounds:  Ask your child to flip out her party blower like a froggie and catch the letter of the sound you make.  "Catch the letter that says 'buh'"

Letter Starts:  Ask your child to use her wand to find the beginning letter of a word.  "What's the first sound/letter in BUBBLE?"  Of course, you can practice middle and ending sounds of words.

Spelling:  "Spell the word BOX" and have your child capture each letter with her wooden spoon to try to spell out a word.

Ribbit..Ribbit...Ribbit

SMMART MUSIC/ART: Mighty Books

Wow! Art masterpieces serenaded by the musical classics...slideshow and animation.  You really need to check it out!

http://www.mightybook.com/art_and_music.html

You can access Van Gogh and Bach, Remington and Dvorak(a personal favorite Czech composer), Renoir and Geig slideshows when you click on the left tab "Art and Music".

I am especially excited about the "Go to the Museum" tab where you can find an artist and see several pieces of his work, read a biography and learn about the art movement of his time. 

There are animated stories, songs, puzzles, animated Beatrix Potter stories and even some great science links "Pexi has a question" and "Pluto Rap".  All of the above is offered free!  You can pay a yearly subscription to open more options, but this is a super start!

Thanks to http://TeachKidsArt.blogspot.com for the heads up on this great educational tool!

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.



SMMART ART:

Stained Glass Sculpture

Since we're in the Dale Chihuly mood, I found this great idea for making a faux glass sculpture at Frugal Family Fun Blog.

Cut a long piece of thin-guage wire and secure into a circle.  Place onto a piece of clear contact paper, so it's sticky side up.

Let your child adhere small pieces of tissue paper that they have previously cut or torn.

Adhere another piece of contact paper onto the back and cut around the edges of the wire.  Let your child bend her masterpiece into an exotic shape and hang in front of a window.  

Lovely!

SMMART ART: Dale Chihuly

We just came back from spring break, tagging along with my husband's business travel trip to Opelika, Alabama...so beautiful!  We had a lovely time swimming, playing on some super-fun playgrounds (hickory dickory and monkey park), exploring the Louise Kreher Ecological Preserve, Auburn University's campus, and visiting a few museums.  We were greeted by a stunning Dale Chihuly glasswork in the lobby of the Julie Collins Smith Fine Arts Museum that hung suspended from the ceiling, bathed in natural light from the skylights. 

You may be lucky enough to admire a Dale Chihuly masterpiece in a museum or garden around where you live.  Locals to the Salt Lake area can visit Abravenal Hall and introduce your children to his works.

Check out this video about Chihuly from the CBS early show:  (Kudos to http://TeachKidsArt.blogspot.com for the heads up on this video...check out her site-you'll love it!)

http://www.chihuly.com/cbs-early-show.aspx

SMMART READING: Letter Matches

Okay, so break out the magnetic letters, or foam letters, or even letter stickers for this activity. Write a few words down that your child can sound out, write down spelling words for school, or write down a few letters that your child can match.

Have your child place the magnetic letters on top of the written letters in each word, or place a letter sticker above each letter of a word.
Easy fun!

SMMART READING:

LETTER HUNT

Scrabble? Bananagrams? Magnetic letters, perhaps?  Any of these will do.

Hide one letter tile or magnetic tile in a plastic Easter egg.  Hide the letter filled Easter eggs throughout the yard or living room.  Let your child go for a letter hunt and fill her basket.

Now as you open the eggs together, have your child say a word or two that starts with that letter.  Encourage your child to sound out the word and spell it.

Refill each egg, and let your child hide the eggs this time.  Now, hunt!

SMMART MATH:

Tube Tunnel and Chocolate Bunny Ears Probabilities
Nothing like probability to jump right into the Easter Candy festivities!...as I've said before, it's always a triumph when our children "work" for their candy.

This was a super fun activity to do with my girls. The 2 1/2 year old LOVED rolling her gumball down the tubes over, and over, and over... She would hear the "plink" of the gumball into the plastic bowl and run over to see which bowl it landed in.

At times one side was favored, but after some adjusting it was hard to say just what side the gumball would shoot out.
So, first you need to build your tube tunnel. Hopefully you've been saving up those paper towel and toilet paper rolls! Use masking or duct tape to secure the first tube to the back of a chair, the counter, or somewhere elevated.

Tape tubes together until you have formed a tunnel. For a little fun and variation, you can even make a tunnel with several entrances and exits for more variation. When you feed two routes together, cut a hole in one tube and snip off the end of the other tube at an angle. Insert the angled tube into the hole. This allows for a pretty clear tube route (so the inserted tube doesn't block the route). Be sure to secure the tube tunnel onto an object for stability in a few places along the tunnel route. Place a bowl under each exit.
Now let your child roll a small rubber ball, gumball, holiday candy or other small round object through the tube. Keep track of how many times the ball falls into the right/green bowl or into the left/red bowl during 10 runs. What number of times did the ball roll into the green bowl? ...and into the red bowl? Multiply that number by 10 and this is the percentage of times that outcome was realized.  So, the ball rolled and landed in the right/green bowl 4 times out of 10...that's a 40% outcome! 
Probability is the measurement of how likely an event (one or more outcomes of an experiment) is. (http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol16/intro_probability.html)
Probability of an Event Equation:
The probability of event A is the number of ways event A can occur, divided by the total number of possible outcomes.
P(A)= The Number of Ways an event can occur
...........The Total Number of Possible Outcomes


P(red bowl) = 1 (#ways ball can fall into red bowl) =1/2
......................2 (Total number of bowls)
This is a bit over a young child's head, but it's helpful to understand a bit of the concept so you can teach PROBABILITY.
Now, this Chocolate Easter Bunny activity will help illustrate the principle of Probability again.

Cut off the tips of the ears on a hollow chocolate Easter bunny.  Have you child drop a jelly bean into one of  the bunny's ears.  Ask your child to predict which ear the jelly bean will drop out of.  Will it be the ear that is closest to the face or to the tail (on a sideways looking bunny-If you have a forward facing bunny, you need to mark one ear to differentiate between the two...maybe an extra notch or bite from the top).

Flip the bunny upside down, taking care to not tilt one way or the other.  Notice which ear the jelly bean drops from and record your observations during 10 different attempts/trials.  Your child can keep track on a piece of paper.

Now help your child label a piece of large square grid graph paper (http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/grid%20paper%20large.pdf) at the bottom with the two possible outcomes..."Nose-side Ear"/or "Shorter Ear" or "Tail-side Ear"/ or "Longer Ear".  Let your child glue a jelly bean onto each square that this outcome occurred.  Now you'll have a very yummy graph.

Keep in mind, these activities are for learning purposes and obviously, the flip of your hand on the chocolate bunny or the sleek exact glide of the ball/Easter candy in the paper towel tunnel are not going to offer the perfectly exact and equal settings....but eating the candy after these activities sure will be fun!