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Activities The numerous activities supplied here are only a small sample of learning events that can be
done with the child. They are designed for you to modify, enhance and manipulate to meet your needs. The idea possibilities are endless, limited only by your imagination. "Activities", supplies the parent with activities to utilize with the child in the learning environment. The activities are made comprehensive as they feature grade level compatibility. As a bonus I have added a brain teaser section for you and your child to decipher together. **ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGED ACTIVITIES Literature Handwriting *Children often try to duplicate trade name logos such as Coca Cola, Mc Donalds, etc. This is a great way to introduce them to cursive writing. *Have your child duplicate letters of the alphabet in sand, clay, shaving cream, pudding, pipe cleaners, etc. ask your child about his/her favorite letter. Why is it his/her favorite? *Draw half of a letter. Have your child complete theletter. Spelling Assessment *Look at words your child is continuously misspelling. Are there any patterns? Ask your child to pronounce the misspelled words. Is the pronunciation contributing to the misspelling? Pictures tell the story *Show your child the cover and back of a book. Based on that alone what does he/she think the story will be about. *Look through a book with your child page by page. Have your child tell you the story based on the illustrations and key words from the book. This enables your child to build on prior experiences. Story Maps *Have your child create his/her own story using a story map. Be sure to include setting, problem, events and problem resolution. Oral language support *Listen to your child read a book. *If your child comes to a word that does not make sense have him/her use strategies such as looking at the illustrations, rereading the sentence, sounding out the word. *If your child misses or adds words, suggest he or she read the book slower. *While reading a book aloud, have your child make a list of all the adjectives, nouns, verbs, and pronouns. *While reading a, book aloud, have your child discuss and new vocabulary words. Have your child write down this unusual word along with its definition. Your child can even draw an illustration to help him/her remember the word. *After reading the book either by him/her self or aloud, have your child write a new beginning, ending or sequel. *Have your child create a story map which includes: *Main Characters *Setting- where the story took place *Problem *Events *Problem Resolution *Have your child go through the story using synonyms, substituting words for other words but keeping the meaning intact. Listening Comprehension *After reading a book, have your child retell the story. *After reading a book, have your child summarize the story (Characters, setting, problem, events, and problem resolution). *While reading a book, stop and have your child predict what is going to happen next. *Illustrate the book through drawings, role playing, puppets, etc. Print Awareness *Have your child count the number of words and/or letters in the title. *Have your child name the letters in the title. *Select a letter and have your child tell you how many times that letter appears on the first page, the entire book. *Have the child create an alphabet book, with or without illustrations. Phonemic Awareness *Have your child write down words in a book that rhyme. Have your child write down other words that rhyme with the listed words. *Have your child create a rhyme based on a book. *Have your child write down rhyming word then discuss their spelling patterns. Skills *After reading a book, ask your child what skills he/she used when reading a book. *What did he/she do when he/she can to a word that was not understood? (Did your child reread the sentence? Did your child look the word up in the dictionary? Did your child continue reading on? Did your child look at the illustrations?) Dictionary support * As a parent, write down some words on a sheet of paper or index cards. Next, have your child look these words up and write down their meanings. * Can have your child look up the words in a thesaurus, reference book or encyclopedia. What's in a name * Ask your child if he/she knows how he/she got his/her name. Does your child know what his/her name means? Does your child like his/her name? * Does he/she have a name he/she likes better? Are there any other children in his/her class with the same name? Are there any other people famous or in the family with the same name as your child? KWL (Sample chart included) * Have your child select a topic. Then have him write down what he/she knows about the topic(K), and what he/she wants to know about the topic(W). Discuss what your child has written. Have your child research the topic. Now he/she completes what he/she has learned about the topic(L). Discuss the rest of your child's recording and ideas. TLC (Sample chart included) * Have your child select a topic. Next have him/her write what he/she thinks about the topic (T). Now have your child research the topic. Finally, have him/her write what he/she has learned about the topic and how his/her thinking has changed (C). Discuss all of your child's recordings and ideas. Crosswords * Develop a crossword Puzzle with or for your child. Include his/he name and interests. Let the child know he/she can use the dictionary support. Discuss other strategies used. Have your child create a crossword puzzle. Descrambler * Develop a list of words that interest your child or that he/she is having difficulty with. Scramble the letters and have your child descramble them to their original form. Let the child know he/she can the dictionary for support. Discuss other strategies used. Have your child create a descrambler. Word Search * Develop a word search including a list of words that interest your child or that your child is having difficulty with. Let the child know he/she can use the dictionary for support. Discuss other strategies used. Have your child create a word search. Middle school aged Music * Ask your child about his/her favorite music band/group. What is it that makes it a favorite? Does your child have any CD's of the music band/group? If so ask to see it, alot of times the song lyrics are included with the CD. Does your child know all of the lyrics? Have your child add a line or two to the song. Have your child change a word or two in the song. * Does your child have a favorite member of the music band/group? What instrument does that member play? Is your child currently playing or want to learn to play that instrument? * Does your child know the music scale? Does your child have or like any instruments? Math Support * Have your child count the number of "the's" and "and's" in the book. Compare the two numbers to determine which number is greater. * Have your child create a number book, with or without illustrations. * Have your child read a cookbook. Discuss measurements with your child. * Have your child read a book about shapes. Discuss the shapes. Have your child draw the shapes. Reciprocal Teaching (Modified for the home environment) Reciprocal teaching instructs students how to become successful readers by using strategies to draw meaning from the text. Eventually these strategies are done naturally without effort. (The order of the strategies is not important). * Question - Your child produces questions about main ideas of the story. Check by making sure your child can answer the questions he/she has posed. * Clarify - Your child asks to have a word or concept clarified. You suggest ways to assist. (Look it up in the dictionary. Sound the word out, good readers use spelling patterns to decode words. Reread the sentence to see if another word would fit in its place. Read on then figure out the past sentence. Look at the illustrations. See if the word appears again later). * Summarize - Your child creates a brief summary of the book. * Predict - Stop your child before he/she completes a book. Ask your child to make predictions about what will happen next. MIDDLE SCHOOL AGED ACTIVITIES General activity Have your child summarize(characters, setting, what has occurred so far) a book he/she is reading. Do the characters) remind your child of someone he/she knows? why? Does the setting remind your child of somewhere he/she has been? Why? If not does it sound like somewhere he/she wants to go? Has your child read any books like this one? What does your child think will happen next? Ask your child about any unfamiliar words he/she encountered? Make a list of these words. How did your child figure out what the word(s) meant? Create your own language Have your child create his/her own language. Will the new language include symbols? Pictures? Will one word of the language translate to more than one word in English? For example, &*& means increased happiness or A% means home. Crosswords * Develop a crossword Puzzle with or for your child. Include his/he name and interests. Let the child know he/she can use the dictionary support. Discuss other strategies used. Have your child create a crossword puzzle. Descrambler * Develop a list of words that interest your child or that he/she is having difficulty with. Scramble the letters and have your child descramble them to their original form. Let the child know he/she can the dictionary for support. Discuss other strategies used. Have your child create a descrambler. Word Search * Develop a word search including a list of words that interest your child or that your child is having difficulty with. Let the child know he/she can use the dictionary for support. Discuss other strategies used. Have your child create a word search. Treasure Hunt (See diagram) * Develop a treasure map for your child. Include items from around your home as landmarks. Have your child walk certain amounts of steps. Use synonymous for the word steps such as: paces, strides, etc. You can also say the numbers in another language such as: walk uno step. You can increase the level of difficulty by adding other word from another language. What's in a name * Ask your child if he/she knows how he/she got his/her name. Does your child know what his/her name means? Does your child like his/her name? * Does he/she have a name he/she likes better? Are there any other children in his/her class with the same name? Are there any other people famous or in the family with the same name as your child? KWL (Sample chart included) * Have your child select a topic. Then have him write down what he/she knows about the topic(K), and what he/she wants to know about the topic(W). Discuss what your child has written. Have your child research the topic. Now he/she completes what he/she has learned about the topic(L). Discuss the rest of your child's recording and ideas. TLC (Sample chart included) * Have your child select a topic. Next have him/her write what he/she thinks about the topic (T). Now have your child research the topic. Finally, have him/her write what he/she has learned about the topic and how his/her thinking has changed (C). Discuss all of your child's recordings and ideas. Middle school aged Music * Ask your child about his/her favorite music band/group. What is it that makes it a favorite? Does your child have any CD's of the music band/group? If so ask to see it, alot of times the song lyrics are included with the CD. Does your child know all of the lyrics? Have your child add a line or two to the song. Have your child change a word or two in the song. * Does your child have a favorite member of the music band/group? What instrument does that member play? Is your child currently playing or want to learn to play that instrument? * Does your child know the music scale? Does your child have or like any instruments? GENERAL ACTIVITIES - WORKS IN ALL SUBJECTS * Ask your child what concept he/she is learning in an subject. What areas of this concept does your child like most? least? why? What areas of this concept is your child having the most difficulties in? * Be sure to review the concept yourself if you are unfamiliar with it. Do you have a way of explaining the concept to your child that you found easy to understand? It may be necessary to enlist the assistance of others. (Did this person explain the concept to you in an easy to understand manner?) * Use your child's interests to illustrate and explain the concept. For example, if your child is learning about radius/circumference/diameter of circles and he/she enjoys music find the circumference/radius/diameter of different drums. Field trip * Plan on taking your child to the local fire department, police station emergency call center, or hospital. Have your child develop question ask the personnel. Have one of the employees give you and your child a tour. What did your child learn? Did this trip affect your child? Does your child want to become a firefighters Does your child want to become police officer? Does your child want to become a doctor? Does your child want to become a nurse? Does your child want to become a emergency call dispatcher? Middle school aged Dictionary support * As a parent, write down some words on a sheet of paper or index card. Next, have your child look these words up and write down their meaning. Did your child think the words were going to mean what they did? Did your child find the dictionary helpful? Have your child draw a picture of the word. * Can have your child look up the words in a thesaurus, reference book or encyclopedia and do the same activities as in the dictionary example. Foreign Language * Have your child complete any of the exercises in this section in a foreign language that he/she is learning in school. General activity * Have your child summarize(characters, setting, what has occurred so far a book he/she is reading. Do the characters remind your child of somewhere he/she knows? Why? Does the setting remind your child of somewhere he/she has been? Why? If not does it sound like somewhere he/she wants to go? * What does your child like about the book? What does your child dislike about the book? * Has your child read any books like this one? In what way was that book similar to this one? In what way was it different? * What does your child think will happen next? Does your child have support for his/her prediction? Ask your child about any unfamiliar words he/she encountered? Does this word(s) sound like a familiar word? Make a list of these words. How did your child figure out what the word(s) meant? Create your own language Have your child create his/her own language. Will the new language include symbols? Pictures? Will one word of the language translate to more than one word in English? For example, &*& means increased happiness or A% means home. Field trip * Plan on taking your child to the local fire department, police station emergency call center, or hospital. Have your child develop question ask the personnel. Have one of the employees give you and your child a tour. What did your child learn? Did this trip affect your child? Does your child want to become a firefighters Does your child want to become police officer? Does your child want to become a doctor? Does your child want to become a nurse? Does your child want to become a emergency call dispatcher? Magazine fun * Middle school aged Obtain a magazine that has pictures your child is interested in. Cut different items like all snow boarders, skiers, swimmers, etc. Take a picture of your child and paste his/her face on of that of the athlete your child how he/she might like to try this sport. If the child has tried the sport ask him/her about his/her favorite time when doing the * Elementary school aged Obtain a magazine that has pictures your child is interested in. Cut different items like all snow boarders, skiers, swimmers, etc. Have your child place al of the same items together. Have him/her discuss similarities and differences. * Elementary school aged Obtain a magazine that has pictures your child is interested in. Cut different items like all snow boarders, skiers, swimmers, etc. Take a picture of your child and paste his/her face on of that of the athlete your child how he/she might like to try this sport. Cut out as many funny pictures as you can. Memory * Elementary school aged Make your own memory game cards using a poker deck or cutouts from a magazine, book, or other source. Have your child match the cards by turning over one card then another until all cards are matched. You can also make opposite matching cards. For example, you could color one card black and the match would be white, one card would have a woman and the match would be a man. Matching cards could be used for a number of activities such as teaching your child colors, numbers, words, etc. Personalized Book (Your child's name) ate the cookies from the refrigerator. (Your child's name) ate them now because he couldn't wait 'til later. (Your child's sibling or friend) came in looking around. He/she looked up and he/she looked down. There wasn't a crumb not even a chip But (Your child's name) had cookie all over his lip. (Your child s name) said,"The cookies tasted good and I ate the as fast as I could. Well, Mama heard the commotion and decided to look, She put down her favorite book. Mama said,"Hey, what's going on?" (Your child's name) ate the cookies from the refrigerator. MATH ACTIVITIES Elementary school aged Group grasping * Recommended for lst - 2nd grade Have your child go through a clothes drawer put them into piles. Piles can consist of sorting by color or type. Such as all blue items form one pile ail shirts form one pile. Have the child write down the classification of piles and the number of items in pile. Optional: Ask your child why one pile has more than another? Answer could be blue is his/her favorite color or I have more shirts because I can wear them with shorts or pants. (Note: this activity can be done with almost any household item such as crayons, silverware, toys, books, etc.) Numbers * Recommended for lst - 2nd grade Have your child collect a small amount of crayons. Ask your child to draw you a certain number in a certain colored crayon. Continue until the number twenty is reached. Counting * Recommended for lst - 2nd grade Fill a cup with ten pebbles, coins, marbles, beans or other small objects. Have the child spill out a portion of the objects in the cup. Now have the child count the number of objects that spilled. Subtraction/Addition/Multiplication/Division Stories * Recommended for 2nd - 3rd grade Do the above group grasping activity. Tell your child that you will "take away" a certain number of items. Ask your child how many items "are left"? Use subtraction terminology. * Have the child's make up a story using the new terminology (take away, are left). Do the same thing for the other three operations(addition, multiplication, division). Domino Downward * Recommended for 4th - 5th grade Give your child 20 dominos. Have your child place the first domino horizontal on the table. Then your child places the next domino underneath or next to the first domino. The next domino is places underneath or next to the last placed domino. This continues until all of the dominos are used. Your child draws a diagram of the dominos that are table. Now ask your child to add, subtract, multiply or divide the columns and rows. (Note: you can have your child do two operations at once such as adding rows and subtracting columns). Fractions * Recommended for 5th - 6th grade Do the above group grasping activity except have your child write down the number of red items versus the number of blue items into fractions. Simplify the fractions. * Recommended for 4tb - 5th grade Get a paper circle and mark it off into tenths. Cut the paper into tenths. Have your child roll a die. Take away the number of pieces as indicated by the roll of the die. Have your child tell you in fraction form how much of the pizza is left? How much of the pizza is in your child's hand? Can the fractions be simplified? Calculators * Recommended for 5th - 6th grade Have your child type in the numbers 0 through 9. Each time your child types in a number have him/her turn the calculator upside down and write down what letter the reversed number reminds him/her of. Do any of the numbers remind them of more than one letter? Now have your child create mathematical equations to create words. Your child can even make sentence problems that coincide with the equation. Example: 2357 + 5357 = 7714 (HILL) What did Jack and Jill fall down? ***You can vary the difficulty level of the above activities to meet the level of your child's intellect*** Estimating * Grade 5th - 6th Fill a jar with jelly beans or any other household item you wish. Have your child guesstimate the number of items in the jar. What was the basis for your child's guess? * Grade 5th - 6th Give your child play money in an even denomination ($5, $10, $20, $50). Ask your child to estimate how much change he/she will receive if he/she purchase something like a pizza, a candy bar, etc. You can use bigger money denominations for larger purchases. Middle school aged Community maps * 7th - 8th grade Have your child draw a map of his/her community. Include pertinent structures like school, library, mall, police department, fire department, etc. Have your child indicate the number of mile(s) each of these locations are. Include directions such as North, South, East and West. Shapes * 7th - 8th grade Design a shape on a sheet of paper consisting of a number of shapes such as rectangles, triangles, parallelograms, and different types of triangles. Copy this diagram to a second sheet of paper. Cut the shapes out of the second sheet of paper. * Have your child put the shapes together to form the diagram. Discuss with your child reasoning behind his/her placement. Ask him or her to describe the different shapes and properties of them. Problem of the Day * 7th - 8th grade Create a problem of the day based on your child's mathematics book. Be sure you are able to discuss the steps taken to get to the correct answer. The Concept of PI * 7th - 8th grade Pi is often a confusing concept. Be sure your child knows its symbol and equivalent numeral value. Converting inches to yards to feet * 7th - 8th grade Have your child explain to you what 24" is equal to. Develop other simple conversions from inches to feet. Then advance to more complex ones. Spreadsheets * 7th - 8th grade Take time out to explain a spreadsheet program to your child. Have your child complete a spread sheet. You can create any topic of interest on a spread sheet such as your child's age in days. Your child's height in inches. Investing for everyone * 7th - 8th grade Your child is given a Wall Street journal from which to obtain names of stocks and mutual fund companies. Have your child choose two banks, two mutual funds and two stocks to observe from the lists. Your child can obtain more information on their selection through the worldwide web, or email. Your child is given $2,500 "play money" in which to invest, as most mutual fund companies require an initial investment minimum. Your child may "buy" any amount of their two chosen mutual funds or stocks. Your child should then record the initial "purchase" in a self-created report, and keep record of their daily earnings and losses. Record-keeping can continue for two weeks, with your child logging in the stock and mutual fund prices from the world wide web or email, and plotting the data points. Request that your child use different colors to represent each stock. In addition, red should indicate a loss, green a gain and black no change. In addition, have your child print any pertinent news to their company. * After two weeks, have your child make the following analysis: Note the first day of purchase versus the last. Was there a gain, loss or no change? What was the average rate of return? Did the news received affect the price of the purchase? Providing that the existing trend continues, what will the price of the stock/mutual fund be at the end of one month? One year? Calculate how much money you would gain or lose if you sold the stock at the end of two weeks. What would be your rate of increase or decrease? Knowing what you now know, would you have changed your initial purchase? Do you believe you can predict trends? Evaluation: Have your child explain why he/she chose the purchase he/she did. Secret Coded Messages * all grades Present the concept of secret coded messages to your child: Write the alphabet on a sheet of paper. Below the letters write the numbers 1-26, with 11111 below "A," "2" below "B," etc. Next, write a simple, short sentence on the paper and write the number equivalent of the first word. Have your child write the number equivalents of the remaining words. Devise a code based on some number pattern. On a sheet of paper, have your child write the alphabet and the number that will stand for each letter. Now have your write a secret message (a short sentence) and encode the message on another sheet of paper. You and your child can exchange and decode one another's messages. TECHNOLOGY ACTIVITIES Tracing your Roots * 7th - 8th grade Have your child use the Internet to trace your family's roots. Spend time with your child discussing the findings. Using email to enhance education E-mail is a productive learning tool. Its flexibility makes it even more appealing. In the learning environment e-mail can be used for communication as well as instruction. Following are a few examples of e-mail activities: Math * Your child is given $5,000 in fake money to which he or she must purchase mutual fund or stocks. Your child tracks the daily progress of the stock and determines it's daily rate of return. At the end of a certain period of time your child compares his/her chart with another child via e-mail. * Your child is given $5,000 in fake money to which he or she must purchase an automobile. A child in another part of the country is also given $5,000 in fake money to purchase an automobile. A comparison is made of the two vehicles. Similarities and differences are discussed via e-mail. * Your child looks up demographical information on his or her county. Another child looks up demographical information on his or her county. A comparison is made of the demographics. Items of interest are discussed via e-mail. Funny Money * All grades Obtain a software program that has the ability to make money with pictures on it. Make some of this money. Try different denominations etc. Sports Cards * All grades Obtain a software program that has the ability to make sports cards with your child's picture on it. Try all different sports and looks. Science * Your child makes a weather observation of items such as barometric pressure, rainfall, temperature, and humidity. Another child makes the same observations. A comparison is made of the two. Items of interest are discussed via e-mail. English * Your child can enter a variety of writing contests a e-mail. Your child discuss a recently read book with other child via e-mail. Miscellaneous * Your child can communicate with a variety of people such as elected officials at all levels. This interactive resource allows students to learn about glaciers and Antarctica. Join the researchers as they journey to the southernmost continent and partake in the lessons that give students an eye-opening insight into the unknown continent. |
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