Ready or not… Here come the holidays!
Give the gift of bones.
Not real bones.
Put together a kit containing Qtips, a bottle of white glue, a stack of assorted handcrafted pre-cut imaginary dinosaur skulls, and a stack of black construction paper. Make a sample to put in the kit. And be sure to include a book or two. Here are some ideas recommended by the Smithsonian and others:
-Kim
Common milkweed, when broken, drips a milky sap. Likely this is how it earned its name. The caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly feasts on this particular plant. The nectar of Milkweed is precious. Anyone who has studied this butterfly knows that is is resilient.
Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed opens from the point of view of an orphaned boy on the streets of Warsaw at the dawn of World War II. The metaphorical connection between the title of the book and the resilient young protagonist is not lost on the reader: "Call me thief. Call me stupid. Call me Gypsy. Call me Jew. Call me one-eared Jack. I don't care. Empty-handed victims once told me who I was. Then Uri told me. Then an armband." Read on to discover how resiliency transforms this Monarch of a boy. In the process, you might plant some Milkweed and consider its connection to the story for your Section 5 project.
-Kim
During the fifth week of Discovery, Section 5 encourages each reader to develop a creative culminating project with options that provide a variety of ways to demonstrate deep understanding of the book. Your students will not only have a chance to demonstrate their originality, organization, clarity of purpose, and critical thinking skills, more importantly this culminating endeavor will allow them to show off what they have learned in their own, uniquely creative way.
Students really love sharing their culminating thoughts about great stories. Encouraging readers to create Section 5 projects with a high level of execution teaches them that their ideas are valuable and builds integrity into their work.
This sweet and yummy final project was sparked by our Robert McCloskey Earlybird literature discovery guide. After reading Blueberries for Sal, this student was inspired to do a little research on blueberries and bake muffins for his friends! Learning over great books is so rich!
Take a look at our Flickr page for some great examples of culminating activities. We’d love for you to share your ideas.
-Tracey
This nifty little music maker is a simple DIY project for little hands. Way more like a kazoo than a harmonica, it’s a music maker sure to bring smiles nonetheless. Thanks Housing a Forest for the fun idea!
Most of my boy’s friends are not only scheduled to the hilt with summer activities, the majority of their down time is spent video gaming or surfing the web.
My boys are embarking upon August charging ahead recklessly into the Unplug Challenge.
And guess what?
My boys are enjoying the plummet into low tech!
Today, unplugged is all about wire and divergent thinking.
Here’s what Sir Ken Robinson has to say, “Divergent thinking isn’t the same thing as creativity. I define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value. Divergent thinking isn’t a synonym but is an essential capacity for creativity. It’s the ability to see lots of possible answers to questions, lots of possible ways to interpret a question, to think laterally, to think not just in linear or convergent ways, to see multiple answers, not one.”
So what can you make with a couple spools of wire?
– Kim
Fall always provides inspiration in abundance. Pumpkins are everywhere! But we all know that once fall arrives, it's too late to actually plant. So if you've missed your window for sowing pumpkins seeds in your garden, use this summer to make some cute and easy quilt squares. These can be finished off and used for wall hangings, pillows, buntings, or festive table top decorations.
Materials:
– various fabrics scraps for pumpkins & stems
– background fabric
– fun coordinating fabrics to surround the base square (I used bright blue which is the complement of orange)
– fusible webbing such as Wonder Under or other brands
– sewing machine, needle/thread
– fabric scissors, rotary cutter, cutting mat
Directions:
– fuse one side of the pumpkin and stem fabrics that you have chosen
– draw pumpkins and stems onto the fused backing with a pencil, cut out
– cut your square for the background and border pieces
– following the directions on the fusible web, iron on the pumpkin and stems to the background square
– hand stitch around the shapes or machine stitch about an 1/8th “ from the edges
– apply contrasting fabric strips along edges of square (we used a skewed log cabin technique)
– square up your finished square with an Olfa cutter and mat
– finish edge according to what your final project will be
– Sara
Way back in the fall of 2001 we made several trips to The Getty to marvel at an exhibit of fanciful machines, Devices of Wonder. Back then Søren was barely two-years-old so he made his way via a stroller. But I guarantee, even back then my youngest boy was captivated.
One evening this past week, three weeks into Da Vinci Summer—our family’s DIY summer tradition—twelve-year-old Søren handed me a handmade device.
My husband and the boys have a tinker chest out back that keeps all sorts of cast off gadgets that this mom would not have the vision to keep. For this particular project, Søren chose a piece of square tubing that was once-upon-a-time a bathroom towel rung.
“Look mom,” I made a kaleidoscope, “but you have to look through it in the dark.”
So I followed his instructions and went into the closet, held the tube that Søren had carefully duct taped at both ends, peered through the end baring a peep hole and beheld the geometric activity of seven activated glow sticks, “Wow!”
This was no ordinary kaleidoscope.
And, though I believe my Søren is no ordinary son, I honestly believe that every child possesses certain genius. But certain genius demands certain prodding. And sometimes saying, “No,” is just the thing.
No TV.
No texting.
No Facebook.
No Youtube.
No video games.
No… !
Leonardo said, “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
But the technological world has a pesky way of diverting the child from the world of curiosity, and when the child is diverted from curiosity, then doing, at least the kind that Leonardo is speaking of, becomes quite impossible.
Søren’s kaleidoscope is a product of doing.
And as an aside, pay a visit to the virtual Devices of Wonder exhibit at The Getty, an online activity that deserves a hearty, “Yes!”
– Kim
I never could relate to spring cleaning. The timing just never worked out for me when Evelyn and Wesley were young. March, April, and May were busy with culminating end-of-the-year school activities. I'd say summer purging was more the thing, out with the old, space for the new.
Now that both (yes, both!) my children are off to college, summer purging has turned to summer reminiscing. Anticipating Evelyn's homecoming, I dug up memory lane in my daughter's kindergarten box. Was it really that long ago that I used stitchery to help develop fine motor skills? Did I introduced embroidery to strengthen handwriting or did I use handwriting to strengthen embroidery skills? Now there's a question.
In either case, we did a little embroidery to embellish all subject areas. We stitched a color wheel and discussed the physics of light. We stitched texture as we discussed and observed the elements of visual art. We stitched the ABCs. And we stitched the world when we explored the complexities of geography.
Scraps of fabric, an embroidery hoop, needle and floss will get the process started. It will look funky at first but you’ll see huge progress over the years.
Both my daughter and my son stitched. Looking back their stitching proved quite academic. In the early years they strengthened hand-eye coordination, learned to slowly attend to detail, became comfortable with problem solving. This little habit of being was a way to bring shape to an original idea sparked from some bit of information they were learning to master. When we studied California history, we fashioned an elaborate quilt that stitched together their knowledge of geography in a way that meaningfully stitched what they had learned into their memory.
Embroidery is an art form and like all art forms is a language worth the student's attention. I say summer is just the space to introduce the art of embroidery.
– Sara
