Here are five ideas to get the creative juices flowing (and please, take these ideas, build on them, make them your own, use them as a springboard for bigger and better ideas):
Day One – Take your child on a field trip – take him/her to work with mom or dad. Even the most mundane place is fun and new to a child.
Day Two – Count the number of steps it takes to walk to the corner with your child.
Day Four – Have your child list all uses of math around the house. Take him/her shopping and have the child keep track of what’s being purchased – great lesson about budgeting!
Day Five – Cut pieces of paper into shapes and paste them in a quilt pattern with your child.
Featured Craft of the Week:
4 to 5 year olds
Artwork Jewelry (or use Shrinky Dinks!)
6 to 8 year olds
9 to 12 year olds
Here is a fun activity from the book, “A Lithgow Palooza!”:
This palooza directs our gaze to the sky in search of the art and poetry there.
What to do:
Explore the nighttime sky and find the art in the stars. Translate what you see into images and words.
Take a look at Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. This famous painting isn’t an exact representation of the stars, but an expression of how they made van Gogh feel.
What do you see in the stars?
Start with a little stargazing. Choose a good viewing place and time: a clear night far from a city. If you live in a city, save this palooza for when you’re on vacation, or hop in the car and drive to where the city glow won’t disturb your view.
Turn off all yard lights and inside lights, then go outside with a pair of binoculars. Let your eyes get used to the dark while you’re setting up — it can take up to ten minutes for your eyes to fully adjust to the darkness. Spread a blanket on the ground, lie down on your back and look up.
You’re seen stars so often that you stop noticing them. Try now to really look at them. Let the sky full of stars wash over you and surround you. Think about the stars in relation to your five senses. What do they look like to you? Jewels? Pinpricks of light? Observe how they’re grouped, how they shine. Note the words that come to mind about what you’re seeing.
If stars were music, what would it sound like? Something light and tinkly, from the high end of the piano? Or complex and dramatic – a symphony of sound? Do stars have a scent? Have you ever tasted anything that reminds you of stars? If you could reach up and touch the stars, what would they feel like? When you get back inside, jot down any impressions you had while looking at the stars and any words that describe them. Think about colors, shapes, sounds, tastes, textures; use nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.
Try writing some poetry about the stars. Start with a simple haiku, a non-rhyming poem that has three lines and seventeen syllables. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and there are five syllables in the third. Look at your star word notes and see if there are some that seem to connect well. For example:
Bright stars glimmering
Against the dark sky at night
Are smiling at me.