Educational Tools

Science Activities: Solar System

Books (library or local bookstore) :
- Dr. Seuss’s There’s No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe
- Magic School Bus Lost In the Solar System by Joanna Cole
- Stanley in Space by Jeff Brown
- Magic Tree House #8 Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osborne
- Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian
- Space Boy by Leo Landry
- The International Space Station by Franklyn M Branley
- Usborne’s First Encyclopedia of Space
- What’s Out There? A Book about Space by Lynn Wilson
- Me and My Place in Space by Joan Sweeney
- Star Seeker: A Journey to Outer Space by Theresa Heine

Local Events:
- Planetarium Show: Orlando By Night at the Science Center: First & Third Saturday of each month at 1pm.

Other Activities:
- Make a Solar System Model http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/astronomy/


Science Activities: Weather

Books:
- Oh Say Can You Say What’s the Weather Today? By Tish Rabe
- I Face the Wind by Vicki Cobb
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
- How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer
- DK Weather
- What Will the Weather Be Today? By Lynda DeWitt
- Clouds by Anne Rockwell
- Weather Forecasting by Gail Gibbons
- The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm by Nancy White
- Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn Branley
- Groundhog Weather School by Joan Holub
- Fairy Books: Pearl the The Cloud Fairy, Crystal the Snow Fairy, Hayley the Rain Fairy, Storm the Lightning Fairy, Goldie the Sunshine Fairy by Daisy Meadows
- The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola


Local Events:
- Orlando Science Center has a hurricane simulator, tornado machine, and wind tunnel


Other Activities:
- http://www.weatherwizkids.com/
- Weather Art Projects such as paper bag kites, pinwheels, http://www.teachingheart.net/weather.htm


Book Suggestions related to Open Court Instructions:
http://www.opencourtresources.com/

For Unit 6 Journeys
- Toot & Puddle by Holly Hobbie (Orange & Seminole Library)
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Orange & Seminole Library)
- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson ( Orange & Seminole Library)
- Boundless Grace by Mary Hoffman ( Orange & Seminole Library)
- Just us Women by Jeannette Caines (Seminole Library)
- Let’s go Traveling in Mexico by Robin Rector Krupp ( Orange & Seminole Library)
- Squanto’s Journey by Joseph Bruchac ( Orange & Seminole Library)
- The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear ( Orange & Seminole Library)
- Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe by Vera Williams ( Orange & Seminole Library)
- Zoom! Zoom! Let’s Soar to the Moon by Alice Kaplan (Orange Library)
- Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins ( Orange & Seminole Library)
- Amelia’s Fantastic Flight by Rose Bursik ( Orange & Seminole Library)
- Ferryboat Ride by Anne Rockwell (Orange Library)

Spelling Practice Ideas:

Website: Spelling City www.spellingcity.com allows you to put in weekly spelling list and play games with the words for free.

Buy Alphabet Rubber Stamps (Joann’s for $5-10)…have children stamp out their spelling word as fun practice


Math Activities

Card & Dice Game:
- Dealing with Addition: http://educatingrisa.com/2011/01/21/dealing-with-addition-math-game-part-2/
- Math War
- Three Strikes, Face Off, & Free the Animals http://mathwire.com/games/addsubgames.html
- There are many math card / dice games on this website to teach addition and subtraction http://www.mrsgoldsclass.com/MathGames.htm

Board Games:
- Sum Swamp (amazon)
- Dino Math Tracks (amazon)
- Sequence Numbers (amazon or toys r us)

Website: Xtramath -https://www.xtramath.org/ free math quizzes for addition and subtraction with a progress report card to parents.

Apple App: Rocket Math


Other Activities:
- Daily Word Ladders
- Logic Puzzles

CandyLand Party

We held a CandyLand Theme Birthday Party for my daughter's second birthday. It was a lot of fun decorating and coming up with things for the kids to do. There are many ideas out on the Internet around this theme but not a lot of pictures. I am a visual person who desires to see pics of other people's creative ideas. So I will be sharing a lot of pics today.

The CandyLand path was the repeating decor item through the party. I used construction paper and duct tape to make a path on the front sidewalk of the house. Then, I made lollipops by duct taping cardboard circles on metal lawn stakes. I covered the circles with sparkle scrapbook paper and wrap it in cellophane.

Inside, we repeated the candyland path on the walls with smaller construction paper squares and gingerbread man. I also had cardboard peppermint candies wrapped in cellophane hanging on the walls along the candyland path. Up my stairs, I cut out gumdrops from the same sparkle scrapbook paper from the lollipops outside.

For the table, I purchased glass jars from Old Time Pottery and filled them with different kinds of candies. Our party was hosting kids from 6 months old to 5 yrs. We stuck with gummie bears, twizzlers, skittles, soft peppermints, and valentine heart candies. I also had apple chips, grapes, strawberries, and goldfish for the kids along with rainbow colored cupcakes. For the adults, I had a 3 tier platter of chocolates from the local chocolate factory in town. Mommies always need chocolate!

Within the entryway, I placed the lollipop tree that I created using a foam topiary and dum dum lollipops. It took about 6 bags. I have more candy sitting on the entry table. Instead of gum balls, we filled the candy jar with bouncing balls for the kids to take home as part of their gift bags. In the little favor bags, I included toothbrushes for the Mommies didn't hate me too much!

As for activities, we had the kids decorate "Candy Castle". My husband got a dryer appliance cardboard box from Lowe's. We cut out a door and windows and then covered the box with
pink bulletin board paper. I had cut outs of gumdrops, gingerbread man, peppermints for the kids to decorate with. They loved using the glue sticks for this task. I also had washable markers for them to draw with. This was the biggest hit of the party I believe.

We played two games at the party. I had some non helium balloons which the kids popped in the air to music like Frutti Tutti, Sugar Sugar, CandyMan, and Good Ship Lollipop. I purchased from ebay the Candy Land DVD Game. I had the kids play Gramma's Nut Musical Squares. Basically, the kids walk around in a circle which the music plays. When the music stops, each child jumps on a square with a face like Mr Mint. Gramma Nut calls out a square and that child wins a gingerbread man. The dvd game is slow which was perfect for this age of kids. Older kids would need something a little faster.

To slow the pace the party after cake and gifts, I had planned to read the Gingerbread Man story but I lost track of time. If I had it to do over again, I would not skip this step. The kids really did have a "sweet" time and I had a blast putting it all together.