Fun School Friday #1

Fun School Friday #1

Art Challenge - Become a shoe fashion designer and design the latest in trendy footwear. It must be colorful, creative, AND wearable. Use art paper, colored pencils, markers, glitter, feathers, whatever. After the shoe has been created, write or narrate a description of what it is, who would wear it and where it would be worn. ABCTeach has a shoe shape book for teaching counting by 2's. The last page of the .pdf file has a few blank shoes on it, for those with younger children who may want a pattern for this activity.

Language Challenge - Chart stories Use dice to determine which squares on each chart to use. For older children, you can specify a page, word or paragraph limit or a time limit. For younger children, they may prefer to draw out their story, or add illustrations to a story you write as they dictate.

Math Challenge - You have $3 to spend at the bead shop. Purple beads cost 25 cents each, blue ones cost 10 cents each, and pink ones cost 5 cents each. Using all three colors of beads, you must create a necklace with a repeating pattern. Can you create a necklace that has mostly blue beads, begins and ends with a pink bead, and uses up all of your bead budget? Show the math problems, and write or draw a description of your finished necklace.

Science Challenge - Got this idea from the Think! blog
Materials:
2 12-inch rulers
3 sheets 8 1/2 x 11 copy/printer paper
5 pennies
2 pieces of tape, each 3 inches long
Directions: Create a free standing tower using ALL of the materials. Set a time limit of 5 or 10 minutes. (NOTE: We don't have enough rulers, so we'll use chopsticks instead.)

Geography Challenge - Print off or make up an alphabet puzzle page. (To make one, simply write each letter of the alphabet down the left-hand side of the paper, one letter per line.) Give child an atlas. Find one place - country, city, county, state, province, lake, mountain, park, river, etc. - that starts with each letter of the alphabet. You can customize this to match your geography studies by only using a map of the location you're focusing on, or by specifying place names have to be rivers, cities, etc.

Make some fun next Friday!