Nothing But Monkey Business: math game

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SUMMER! Swimming Pools and Ice Cream

Summer is a fantastic time of year! Lots of warmth and sunshine, swimming pools, ice cream, & beach days. What fun we can have during the summer. Some kids are out of school for the whole summer, but we will be here all summer long! Join us for some great summer lessons and activities.

CIRCLE TIME

Summer is the warmest part of the year. The days are longer than in the winter, too. That means more time for playing outside! Summer comes after Spring and before Fall. The holidays Memorial Day, Father's Day and Independence Day fall during the Summer. Well, technically not really, since Summer doesn't actually begin until June 21. Summer weather begins pretty early down south, so that is what we are going by around here! Discuss the types of activities the kids like to participate in during the Summer! Talk about things that make them think about summer!

LETTER: Q q

Q is a very special letter! Q will always be with his best friend, U. Put the book together and review the sound that Qu makes!
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/learning-letters/ib-book-q.htm

READING

On Starfall.com: it's time to move on to the LONG vowel sounds! This week do the Long A lesson and story
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f

On readingbear.org: also work on the long A sound, which is usually made by adding an E to the end of a word
http://www.readingbear.org/Presentation.aspx?PresentationID=68&Part=1

Activity

Index Card Book: Create a fun flip book using some spiral bound index cards. Cut the left 3rd of each card so that it will flip independently of the rest of the cards. Write each letter of the alphabet individually on the left cards. We will use the right portion for the sounds we are working on this week. For this week's lesson, write ane and ake on the right side. When you flip the single letters on the left, it will create new words! Work on the words, Cane, Lane, Mane, Pane, Vane, Bake, Cake, Fake, Lake, Make, Rake, Sake, Take and Wake this week!

SCIENCE

How Hot is the Sun?

Summer is known for being hot! We all dress in shorts, eat ice cream, and hang out in swimming pools to keep cool. So how hot is the summer sun? Here are some experiments we can do to find out!

Materials Needed:

Ice Cubes

Marshmallows

Crayons

Foil

Make sure you pick a hot day with minimal clouds for this experiment. Talk about the sun. The sun is a big, bright star in space. The sun is where our heat and light comes from. When the sun is down at night, the temperatures are cooler. When the sun is up during the day, it is hot.

Different materials can melt because of heat. Allow the kids to touch an ice cube. Its very cold, because it is water that is frozen. If the ice cube gets hot, it will melt and become water again. Set an ice cube in a bowl on the table while you are talking. Check back on it in a few minutes to see what has happened to it.

Marshmallows can also melt in heat. Set a couple out on the table and keep an eye on them. They do not change.

Crayons can melt in the heat as well. Place a few on the table to see what happens.

Now go outside. As soon as you walk outside you should feel the difference in the temperature (especially down here in South Texas!). The sun has made it hot outside. What do you think will happen if we put an ice cube on the ground in the sun? Try it and see if they are right.

Place a few marshmallows on a piece of foil and also a crayon on a piece of foil in the sun. Find out what they think will happen to these items if we leave them in the sun. Let the kids run around a play for a little while, then bring them back to find out what happened to each of the items. The sun heated the items up, and caused them to melt. They should at least be soft and gooey.

For extra fun, allow the kids to color using the melty crayons! It will be a new experience for them and give them a tactile understanding of what the heat of the sun can do.

MATH

Shell Hunt

Fill a bucket or tub with sand. Place shells throughout the bucket, buried in the sand. Allow the kids to dig for the shells (as if on a beach) and pull them out. Once they have pulled all the shells out of the sand, count them up to see how many they found.

Ice Cream Cone Patterning

Use these fun patterns from makelearningfun.com! Print the pattern cards and cut out felt or foam copies. Give the kids a pattern card and the cut outs and ask them to copy the pattern on their cards.
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/IceCreamFeltPatterning.htm

ACTIVITY

Water Fun Day!

There is nothing better for young kiddos. Pick a sunny day and have the kids come to school in their swim suits with shorts over top. Plan to spend most of the day playing in the water! Provide several different stations for them to explore such as a kiddie pool with some pool toys, a sprinkler to run through, big sponges in a bucket to squeeze, water guns or water balloons, sidewalk water painting, etc. You could have a car washing station for toy cars, buckets to pour water into, lots of different things to float in the water, nets to catch things in. You could even create a waterfall by attaching different sized funnels, tubes, and bottles to a board and showing the kids how to pour water into the top to watch it flow down into a pool! You can easily make your play yard like a little water park! Just make sure to put plenty of sunscreen on the kiddos before and during their time in the sun. Sunglasses and hats are also recommended!

PS - request the parents bring a full change of clothes for them. They are going to need to get dried off at some point!

I found this on a search, I would give them a plug if I knew where it came from!

ART/CRAFT

ART - Summer Picture Collage

Collect pictures from the internet or magazines that are images of summer. Cut them out and place them on the art table. Provide a large piece of construction paper and glue sticks for the kiddos and ask them to make a picture of all their favorite things about summer.

Once they have completed their pictures, talk about the things they chose and why!

CRAFT - Paper Plate Watermelon Slices

Materials Needed:

Paper Plates

Green Paint or Colors

Red Paint or Colors

Black foam cut into seed shapes

Glue

Cut the paper plates in half to form semi-circles. If your kiddos can use scissors, have them do it. Show them a picture of a watermelon slice and ask them to make one of their own.

WORKSHEET

What Doesn't Belong?

You can do this fun summer themed worksheet from Prek8.com: http://prek-8.com/holiday/summer/belong1.html

BOOKS

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mouses-First-Summer-Classic-Board/dp/1442458429/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1368551514&sr=1-1

This is a fun story about all the fun you can have during the summer!

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Days-Welcome-Books-Weather/dp/0516230441/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368551711&sr=1-5&keywords=hot+days

All about the summer's hot days!

MUSIC

Summer's Here

to the tune of "Are you sleeping"

Days are longer, sunshine's stronger

Summer's here, summer's here!

Let's jump through the sprinkler, let's make lemonade

Summer's here, summer's here.

COOKING

Lemonade & Watermelon

What could be better? These are 2 things that are perfect in the summer!

Lemonade:

6-8 fresh lemons

1 cup sugar

6 cups cold water

Juice the lemons. This can be a fun activity for the kids to do. To get the most juice out of the fruit, press and roll the lemons on a hard surface before cutting. This will also make it easier for little hands to squeeze! Pour the juice into a bowl and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar crystals disappear. Add the water. Easy as that! Fresh lemonade.

Watermelon:

Provide slices of watermelon without the rind. Give the kids plastic butter knives and allow them to cut pieces off as needed.

You can use seedless watermelon if you are concerned with a choking hazard.

What a refreshing summer snack!

Clouds! Incredible Weather

"April showers bring May flowers!" This is a fairly realistic saying here in the States. During the first part of spring it rains and storms quite frequently which helps to bring all the pretty flowers to life. Rain and storms go hand in hand with clouds. What are clouds? Clouds are made of tiny (smaller than you can see) water droplets. When they all come together they make a cloud. When these clouds become big they get heavy. The water begins to fall out of the cloud and that is what we call rain! Clouds don't always make rain, though. Sometimes they are just fun to look at! They can make all kinds of shapes.

CIRCLE TIME:
Talk about clouds! Ask some questions to see what they know and think about clouds.
1. Do you think you could walk on clouds?
2. How do you think they get there?
3. Are there different kinds of clouds?
4. What colors of clouds have you seen?

Talk about their answers. For a fun display, draw a large fluffy cloud on paper that you can put up on the wall in your Circle Time area. Write some of their answers on the cloud. Also print out some different pictures of clouds and post them on the cloud you drew.

You can visit the NOAA http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/forkids.php wesite for some interesting pictures and coloring pages.

LETTER: U u for Umbrella

When it rains we will use an Umbrella to keep us dry.
U for Umbrella coloring page

READING:

We will begin our phonetic reading this week! I feel that the easiest and most efficient way for preschool kids to begin the reading process is to sound out the letters that make up words. We have been working all year on the sounds letters make, singing the ABC song, coloring worksheets, and so forth. Now it is time to use all that knowledge to try to read some small words.

It is helpful to spend around 5-10 minutes per day on reading. Yup! That's all you need. Too much and they will lose interest. So it is important to integrate a reading activity into each day and only for a few minutes.

Begin this week with "A". It is a word, after all. Find some sentences in their favorite books which have "a" in them. Read the sentences aloud and pause at the "a". Ask them "What word is that?" Each time you get to an "a" in the story, pause and let them "read" it themselves! Great start that will make them feel very proud.

There are a couple of FREE websites that I will refer you to for all our reading lessons. Generally I will provide 1 or 2 reading activities each week and then supplement with these great activities on the sites.

On starfall.com we will use the reading games. BEGIN HERE! This week we will work on "an" and "at".

On readingbear.org we will use their "sounding out" techniques. Begin this week with the "short a" sounds. BEGIN HERE

By incorporating the letter a into many different reading activities, it will help young children begin to understand the concept of reading.

STORY

Drippy The Raindrop

Read this story from First-School.com before doing the science activity! It will help to explain exactly what happens to water from the river to the cloud and back. (the story isn't complete, but it tells enough of it to work. there is an option to purchase the rest of the story if you wish)

http://www.drippytheraindrop.com/DrippysWorldTrialStories/ToMountainsAndBack/Entry.htm

SCIENCE:

Making our own Clouds

Materials Needed:

Cotton Balls

Flat pans or flat containers

Water

Put about a half inch of water in the pan(s). Give each child a cotton ball. Explain that this will act as their cloud. How does the cloud feel? Light and soft? Talk about how water will "evaporate" or become tiny droplets and will rise up into the sky. Ask them to place their cotton over the water. Can you see the water traveling up into their cotton? How does the cloud feel now? Heavy? As they lift the cotton ball up from the water some "rain" will begin to drip from the clouds. This is exactly how a cloud acts when it is full of water! The water comes back down as rain and ends up in lakes, streams and the ocean (represented by the pan of water). Once their cloud in empty of water, the process can begin again.

MATH

Cloud Number Toss

Print numbers 1 - 12 inside an egg carton. Have the kids toss a cotton ball (or craft poms) at the carton and say the number they land on out loud. Then count out that many cotton balls.

Umbrella Grid Game

Print out the umbrella grid from Prekinders.com. Make sure you have clear glass beads (like for fish tanks) and a numbered dice. You can make your own dice by purchasing a wooden block in whatever size you choose from a hobby store. Simply print the numbers on each side with a marker.

http://www.prekinders.com/gridgames/umbrella10.pdf

The kids will roll the dice one by one and place a bead on each umbrella for the number they rolled. This is great for number recognition, counting, and taking turns.

CLOUD ACTIVITY

Cloud Watching

Cloud Watching Window

Print the window on heavy cardstock. You will need craft popsicle sticks or paint stirrers as well. Cut the center of the paper out so that you can see through it. Glue or tape the stick to the bottom and backside of the paper so you can hold it up and look through it easily.

On a nice day with clouds in the sky, take the windows outside to use to look at the different kinds of clouds. It is not really important what each type of cloud is called, it is just fun to try to match up the clouds in the sky with the clouds on the window! You can also begin to find funny shapes that clouds can make. Maybe you can find a bunny, a flower, or even your Mom!

CRAFT

Fluffy Cloud