Summer Book Camp - Day 6

We are continuing with our adventures of Summer Book Camp. Adventures with library books that are not preplanned and not scheduled. If we have something else fun to do, we skip Book Camp. This week, J and Kaleb went to the beach with their Daddy so no reading that day. We had visitors - no Book Camp. I am not stressing over not being able to do it, we are still reading and having fun.

This day's book was chosen by Kaleb and he picked Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd. It is a cute book about Dog who spends his day getting colorful spots from his adventures. Kaleb loves dogs, so this was a natural choice.

I found a cute color by number page for the book that we made into a game. With two dice, the kids rolled and colored the number bone the correct color. It was a race to see who could color the all of the bones first. This printable came from Happy Brown House (link below).

I also found a simple color word matching game that I printed. They took turns matching the dot and the color word. We also discussed what caused each dot on Dog.

They also made simple dog puppets using paper plates and construction paper.

Then, I read the book and they listened. While they listened, they colored each dot on the Dog. This printable dog came from A Special Kind of Class (link below). Too cute. I had a few more projects planned but it was lunch time. This is definitely a cute book. Kaleb loved it and the copy from the library was well loved! This book is well timed since this week our library has a free program with some dogs who do tricks. Looking forward to that! Hope you are having a great summer so far:)

Links

Happy Brown House - has a free Dog's Colorful Day printable pack where I found the dog bone color by number sheet.

Making Learning Fun - has a ton of ideas for this book with free printables.  This is where I found the cute Dog envelope craft that I had planned to make but the kids were hungry:(
Plus a cute dog paper bowl craft.

A Special Kind of Class - cute Dog printable which we used for our reading/following directions.

Summer Book Camp - Day 5

We are on day 4 of our Summer Book Camp and the book of the day was chosen by J. She picked a book about Abraham Lincoln.

The book was Abraham Lincoln by Wil Mara. It was an easy reader about Abraham Lincoln that J read all by herself. It wasn't the first time we have read about Lincoln but this was the first book that had real photos of him.

J read the book to us while I was feeding the baby. I love this:)

Then, we did and information sort that I found from Deceptively Educational (link below). I didn't use paint sticks for her printable - remember no planning. I just printed off the items, cut them out and had J sort them under each president. She was somewhat unsure if she would know which ones belonged under George Washington but I assured her that she could use the process of elimination. This was a great review of each of the presidents.

Well, I truly wanted to do more for this book like make a stove pipe hat and a popsicle stick log cabin along with a pretzel stick cabin snack.....so much for best laid plans. There was a craft day at the library and that pretty much won out. Oh, well. Maybe next time....J and I will be studying American History this year so the hat might still come up:)

Links

Education - has a cute Abraham Lincoln hat craft.

Mama Smiles - has a cute "log cabin" craft using popsicle sticks.

Deceptively Educational - has another Lincoln hat but also free printable fact cards that you can hide in your hat just like Lincoln did! Another post has a free printable to compare the presidents Lincoln and Washington.

Preschool Playbook - has a cute log cabin snack using pretzel sticks and frosting.

Summer Book Camp - Day 4

We are onto our next book for our Summer Book Camp. We have been reading books from the library and doing fun activities for each one. This is no-plan summer fun. The kids pick the books and I do a quick search of activities and then we do them. No fuss. If I don't have it on hand, I substitute or we just can't do it. I try to sneak in some learning or reviewing when possible. And all of these books go towards J's goal of reading 100 books this summer. If we have plans for the day, we don't do it and we don't worry about it. No fuss, just fun.

Our next book was chosen by Kaleb - Carrots Grow Underground by Mari Schuh.  This was a timely pick since we are currently growing carrots in our box garden as we speak. They weren't, however, ready to pick. I have been collecting carrot activities to do with The Carrot Seed for some time now, so finding activities for this book was easy. The hard part was picking just a few activities!

We started our activities with a simple cut-n-paste of the growth of a carrot seed. This printable was found at Education.com. I had to sneak some science into this:)

A simple and easy craft we did was to make carrots prints using corks and orange paint. After the paint dried, they added green tops.

Here is a completed photos of our carrot garden. I couldn't take any photos of the process since I was trying to prevent orange footprints on my floor! But I even had the chance to add baby Riley's piggies to the mix.

J's carrot garden picture using the corks. Pretty cute. My favorite, though, is the footprint picture which is hanging up in my dining room/homeschool room.

Links

My Pinterest Board for The Carrot Seed

My Pinterest Board for Summer Book Camp

Education - has the free printable carrot seed life cycle.

One Kreiger Chick - has the idea for the carrot footprint.

Crafty Morning - has the idea for the fingerprint carrots, we just used corks for less mess.

Pamela Holderman - has a super cute idea for a garden picture. I really wanted to do this but time wouldn't allow. I like that you could take this farther and discuss/make other veggies that grow underground.

Summer Book Camp - Day 3

We are continuing on our Summer Book Camp journey - reading library books and doing fun activities for each one. We are working toward our goal of 100 books read by the end of the summer. This is day 3 and J had picked a book from our library bin - From Milk to Ice Cream by Stacy Taus-Bolstad.  Ha, this is an easy one! No problem here finding activities for this book!

Again, I did not plan for this book. She picked the book before breakfast and I did a quick search of fun things to do. We used what we had on hand and nothing more.

Since I was feeding the baby, J decided to read the book to us. She has definitely become stronger in her reading skills and I love that she will read to us!

We then watched a movie about how ice cream is made on the internet from Year Round Homeschooling (link below).

I printed a quick and easy math game from B-Inspired Mama. It was a simple toss and cover game which was a good review for Kaleb.

I also found an ice cream coloring sheet. I thought it would be nice to use watercolors since it has been awhile since they have painted with them. Kaleb is in a "blue" phase. He wants everything blue.

We had some ice cream play dough accessories. I thought it would be fun to make an ice cream store and practice our counting of money. J is making a menu complete with pictures of the cost for Kaleb.

We used play dough to make the cones. If I had the ingredients on hand to make ice cream dough, I would have loved to make it but no planning  - remember?

Each child took a turn playing the shop keeper and scooping out the ice cream. We eventually added several different flavors to our shop by adding more play dough.

Kaleb brought a friend - Snoopy in for ice cream and "counted" the money for him and his friend to each have a cone.

I printed an ice cream cone and scoop for their names. Then I hid the scoops around the house. This idea came from Tot Schooling (link below).

They had to find the scoop with the letters from their name and put their name in correct order. To make it easier, I color coded J's and Kaleb's letters - his were blue and hers were red. That way Kaleb could figure out which ones were his.

After they found the scoops, they put them in order on top of their cone. This was a great review for Kaleb and his name. J already knows her name so I made hers somewhat harder to find. I didn't want to waste the colored scoop leftover so I just added an exclamation mark at the end for fun.

Here are the finished ice cream cones. I love watercolors. We also had to have ice cream cones after lunch! Luckily, I had some in the pantry! I love when things work out:) Have I said that before? What's our next book? Who knows - it is Kaleb picking next.

Links

Tot Schooling - has the free printable ice cream cone for name recognition.

B-Inspired Mama - has a free printable ice cream themed math game.

Counting Coconuts - has cute and easy idea for a pom pom ice cream sensory bin.

Year Round Homeschooling - has a free mini unit on Ice Cream which is where I found the video of how Ice Cream is made. It also has some links for other printables.

From ABCs to ACTS - has a cute number matching game as a free printable with an ice cream theme.

Scientific American - has a recipe to baggie ice cream. I really wanted to do this but I didn't have half and half on hand and I promised no preplanning. So we didn't make ice cream.

Smart Schoolhouse - has a recipe for edible ice cream play dough.

Summer Book Club - Day 2

Day 2 of our Summer Book Club is on the way. Caleb's turn to pick the book and he picked Bailey at the Museum by Harry Bliss.

This had a ton of themes and ideas to go along with it....if I was planning, I could have had many things to choose from. But the most time that I had was an hour, so this is what I came up with very little planning time. We read the book first thing. Then we discussed proper manners at a museum as well as different items found there.

In the Museum, Bailey comes across several Native American items such as a totem pole and a dream catcher. The first craft they did was a totem pole. This idea came from Hative (link below) and there were free printable pages to make it easier.

Karen asked me to make Bailey the dog for the top of his totem pole like int he book. So, I drew it and he colored it.

J and her finished totem pole.

Then, they worked on heart shaped dream catchers. These were super simple to make - pipe cleaners, and yarn. I doubled the pipe cleaners to make the unit more sturdy for the yarn wrapping. We decided to call them love catchers instead of dream catchers!

J made two love catchers and hung them in her room. Kaleb made one which hangs from our living room fan.

I had intended to make a teepee from a paper plate but we decided to use the rest of our time at a local museum. We are within walking distance to an art museum which had free admission today. I love when thing work out! So we spent about 2 hours in the art museum looking at pottery, modern art, but our favorite were pictures of international families from all over the world and their world possessions. It was truly an eye-opener to see what people owned as well as ate through the world. We even found one from our other country! For lunch, as a special treat we watched Night at the Museum 3. It seemed fitting for the book :)

Other Possible Topics for this book:
(1) Manners - what are the expected manners for a trip to the museum? What did Bailey do that shouldn't have been done? How to say thank you for a gift.
(2) Dinosaurs - anything dinosaur, make a tooth that is over 9 inches long wow!
(3) Darwin - what did he do and is he correct in his thinking? I am not saying have a creation vs. evolution argument with your child. But I think your child should know who he is and what he stood for as well as what you believe. No hate comments please.
(4) Clown fish - watch Finding Nemo, make a paper clown fish or an ocean scene.
(5) Indian Culture - totem poles, dream catchers, read about them. Make a teepee tent.
(6) What to do if you ever get lost. This is an important talk for your kids no matter what age. Who should they look for and what should they do. Have a plan if they get lost in a museum or library etc...If they are younger, make a bracelet with phone number so if they get lost, someone can contact you.
(7) Museum Visit - if time permits, visit a museum. We have an art museum which allows free entrance on certain days. It might not be like the museum in the book but it would be an experience.

Links

Hative - has some awesome pictures of totem pole crafts for kids. I would have loved to make the plastic jug one but I didn't have time.

An Everyday Occasion - has a cute paper bag totem pole. I love the colors!

Easy Child Crafts - easy teepee craft from a paper plate.

Naturally Educational - a simple dreamcatcher craft using a paper plate.

Yarnspirations - if you don't want to do the typical dream catcher, here is one using pipe cleaners and yarn with basic shapes.

Summer Book Camp

What to do when school is over but you have the whole summer ahead of you?  I was looking for an simple way to incorporate learning into our day without it feeling like "school." I had checked the internet for ideas of "summer camp" with a different theme each week. Too complicated that required lots of planning.

I wanted something simple and easy to do. No planning, no scheduling, nothing. I plan for school. I did not want to plan for summer. Easy - that was my key word. So I came up with an idea..... an hour each day, was all that I asked.

We went to the library to pick out some books. They chose any books that interested them. I did not interfere. We came home with about 20 books - 10 for J and 10 for Kaleb. The next day, I had J pick one book for our story time. (The kids will take turns picking one book for the day.) Then, based on the book we read, we would do a craft or two, maybe play a game, or even do some cooking.

There was no plan. I had no idea what book they would choose for the day. One child would choose the book before breakfast which gave me time to see about a cute craft or game. I had to have the stuff on-hand - no planning. If I didn't have it, I substituted or found something else. No stress, no plans, just fun. One hour - that's it. If we don't have time to do it one day, we skip it. No worries. We pick it up the next day.

This way I didn't feel like all they were doing was playing on the iPad, watching T.V., or fighting. We were learning, reading, doing something fun. And each book that we read went towards J's reading goal of 100 books for the summer - which certainly made her happy (one less book).

So, here is our first book on the fly...... (not every book will have so many crafts but they were so cute, we couldn't stop ourselves)

J borrowed Madeline's Tea Party from our local library. Just the title calls for a tea party! It was a cute book about Madeline hosting a tea party and how Pepito isn't very pleasant during the whole event. We talked about how rude Pepito was being and how kind and forgiving Madeline had been in the end. We also touched on manners - how Pepito was lacking in them! He came an hour late, spit out his tea at the table, and even tried to remove the tablecloth like a magician. 

So, with little time to plan, this is what I came up with. 

We began our Book Camp by making a cute pocket card from Messy Little Monster (link  below). It was a free printable teapot with a cute pocket for a tea bag.

We added an apple tea which is very popular in the other country and seems to be a hit with our elderly neighbor.

J will deliver the cards to our neighbors for a little treat. They turned out cute.

Then, we made mini tea cups from tp tubes. These were super simple to put together and I already had a tube on hand. This idea came from KroKotak (link below).

We made mini tea cups from some left-over plastic Easter eggs. This cute idea came from Multi Crafting Mummy (link below).

I didn't have the large buttons on had to add to the bottom of the cups so we used water bottle lids and a ton of glue. We added marbles for some weight while they dried. Make sure you use eggs that don't have a really pointy end or it could be a problem. 

I had some mini popsicle sticks so they made a mini spoon for their new tea cups.

They made the tea bag catch game as well from All Kids Network. This craft uses a water bottle, pipe cleaner, and a marble. We used a soda bottle for a larger cup to make it easier for catching the tea bag.

They made the tipping tea pot craft from Danya Banya's free printable (link below). We used these for decorations for our own tea party.

J had a plastic tea party set that I placed on a towel complete with water. They played tea party for a good hour, taking turns serving each other as drinking the "tea."

Here are the crafts we did minus the plastic egg cups because they were still drying. Not bad for an hour of fun.

Then, we had our own tea party. The kids didn't want hot tea so we used iced tea. But we still used the tea cups. I used whatever treats we had on hand - a few muffins and some cookies. No massive prep.

Daddy even joined in the fun! Not bad for the beginning of our Summer Book Camp. Kaleb"s book is tomorrow, I wonder what he will pick:) Hope you join us for our Summer Book Camp! 

I didn't read the book prior to finding all the tea party crafts. After reading, there are a few more ideas that came to me...

(1) time - practice time, they leave the house at half past nine, the tea party was at half past three but Pepito arrived at half past four, make paper clocks and practice half hour time

(2) manners - work on table manners, who doesn't need a brush-up on manners?

(3) geography - the story take place in Paris, take a picture look around Paris, talk about the Eiffel Tower, make one from spaghetti noodles and marshmallows or legos

(4) measurement - in the first few pages, Madeline is being measured with a tape measure, have some fun measuring items around the house

(5) baking - make a cake, if you are adventurous make a three tiered cake, or make a cake from play dough

(6) writing - make invitations for your own tea party, decorate with whatever!

(7) bible - forgiveness, Madeline forgives Pepito in the end, talk about forgiveness

Lastly, you could watch the movie Madeline or even the cartoons. It used to be on Netflix but it has been removed. We were planning on watching it as a treat for lunch but we had to find a different movie! 

Links

All Kids Network - has the cute catch the tea bag in the cup craft idea. 

KroKotak - has the idea for the tp tube tea cups with saucers. 

Creativity in Progress - has the idea for turning plastic eggs into little tea cups.

Messy Little Monster - has the free printable teapot card complete with pocket for a tea bag.

Multi Crafting Mummy - has the idea for using a plastic tea set for water play. She even added dice to use as sugar cubes!

Danya Banya - has the free printable tea pot paper plate craft - to make a tipping tea pot.

Red Ted Art - has a cute tea cup printable. You have to subscribe to the newsletter and it takes about an hour to receive but they are super cute. We hadn't received the file so we didn't do this. She also has a few game ideas to play with the tea cups.