* A good cooking activity for Beach week would be sand pudding.... Make vanilla pudding... Have the children crush up vanilla wafers in a plastic bag and then put on the pudding.... Add a gummy fish or worm or any beachy thing. *Another activity I just heard about is to take a zip-lock bag... get some hair jel like dippity-do in green or blue... have the children put some of the jell into the bags and then add shells or sea related objects. Zip up the bags and there's your ocean. * One other easy activity is to collect the 8oz. water bottles witht the tops. Fill the bottle up half full... Fill the rest with cooking oil...Add green or blue food coloring... Tape up the top and then it will look like an ocean in the bottle when you tilt it back and forth. THis is a great math and science activity... The water is lighter than the oil and the food coloring gets stuck in between them. * A good way to start out a watermelon day is to hide the watermellon in the house somewhere and go on a "dinosaur egg hunt". :-) What a surprise for the kids to find out its a watermellon. Good hiding spots are in the yard, under the sand box lid, or in the bathtub. Kids could even don hunting gear such as safari hats and waterbottles, etc. Especially if the hunt is outside. You could give clues, leave small dinosaur figures around or make giant dino foot prints, etc, for the younger kids. * During the summer I work with the school aged children. They are always very energetic. To expend some of the energy, we make a maze on our black topped parking lot with road construction cones (the orange ones) and have relay races through the maze. After everyone is sufficiently worn out we close with a water gun soak. The kids love it and they are ready for quiet time when we go in. * Let the kids create their own sunglasses! This is a great "summer fun" project. Materials: Craft cellophane (many colors are available at your local craft store) Large sheet of poster board Colorful markers Beads, buttons, sequins, yarn (or whatever!) Instructions: 1. Trace a pattern for the Fun Glasses onto the posterboard (I used a pair of 3-D glasses that came with a computer program that my kids have). 2. Cut out the cellophane to fit the "eyes" and glue to the back of the glasses. 3. Bend the "arms" of the glasses as appropriate to fit the face of the child. You may want to reinforce the folds on the inside of the glasses with craft glue. 4. Let the fun begin! Have the child create his or her own Fun Glasses with the beads, buttons, sequins, yarn etc. * Ocean/Sea Life - the Pacific is our backyard - dum dum here comes Jaws * Hawaiian Week - we'll be making our own grass skirts, flowers leis * Camping - rather be at the Holiday Inn with room service than in a tent WaterPlay - pools, sprinklers and a chance to wet the teachers * Teddy Bear Day - I'll be using the Teddy Bear Health Certificate * PJ Day - yes teachers will be wearing PJ's to school * Backwards Day - I can't even dress myself normally * Movie/Theater Week - popcorn, puppets, acting our our favorite movie * Explore a watermelon- Serve the watermelon for snack. Talk about the color of the outside which is the rind. Next cut the watermelon into pieces. Give each child a piece to look at. Examine it. What color is the inside? Are there seeds? Do we eat the seeds? What can we do with them? Let the children remove the seeds and enjoy the watermelon. Wash the seeds and dry. Use them for for a collage. You can also make watermelon popsicles. Remove the seeds and rind, puree the melon in a blender. Place the juice in small cups and freeze. Insert a popsicle stick when the juice starts to freeze. When frozen remove the cup and serve. * A simple but fun art project to go along with your watermelon day is to give each child 1/2 of a paper plate. I used small torn pieces of construction paper- green and red. Have them glue green paper around the crinkled edge of the paper plate then fill the center in with the red. After eating your watermelon save some seeds to glue onto your paper plate melon. These are cute and look very realistic. * 1. To begin your watermelon unit, bring in a box large enough to fit the watermelon in. We call it the surprise box. It's covered with question marks. The children play 20 questions to try to guess what's in the box. (We use the surprise box all year and by the end of the year the questions are really quite advanced.) 2. Next, I would take out the watermelon and weigh it on a regular bathroom scale and say something like "wow" or "oh, my". I WOULD NOT share what the weight of it was. Then, I would place the watermelon on the floor next to the scale and watch as during free time, the children surround the scale to find out for themselves how much the watermelon weighs. Later you can compare the weight of the watermelon to the weights of the children. 3. Measure a whole watermelon with string, math links, etc. ask the children if they can find something in the room that is larger, smaller, or the same size as the watermelon. ex: is the circumference of a 5 year old's head the same as the circumference of the watermelon? 4. Give each child a slice of watermelon. Have them predict how many seeds are in their slice. After all the watermelon is eaten, give each child some small portion cups. They can count their seeds placing 10 in each cup. As a whole group, they can count their seeds starting with 10's and then counting the ones. The next day, we combine all of the seeds and count again - this is a great way to introduce 100s. * Watermelon art - Cut a 9" paper plate in half. Use crayons, paint, crinkle paper, or other materials to color the edge of the paper plate green. Use some red materials to "color" the inside red. Then glue the watermelon seeds to the inside of the paper plate. * Usually, I set out lots of materials: colored rice, colored sand, watercolors, colored macaroni, tissue paper, green and red contact paper, markers, etc. along with the seeds and pre-cut paper plates and say "Let's make a slice of watermelon." The children take it from there. * A really cute centerpiece to use with watermelons is to cut it in half lengthwise. Scoop out all the pulp and use as a treat. Then fill shell of melon with planting soil and plant red, white and blue annuals in it. Extra nice for the 4th of July. After a few days, the melon gets soggy, so you will need to replant them elsewhere. * The Watermelon Patch Song tune: Are you Sleeping? Watermelon, (Make a circle with your arms.) Watermelon, On the vine, (Curve hands and arms beside body.) On the vine, Sweet and red and juicy, (Rub your tummy.) Sweet and red and juicy, Please be mine! (Palms together as though pleading.) Please be mine! Watermelon, (Make a circle with your arms.) Watermelon, Thump, thump, thump, (Make a thumping movement with thumb and middle finger.) Thump, thump, thump, I think you are ready- (Point, resting finger on your temple.) I think you are ready- Big and plump! (Make a circle with your arms.) Bug and plump! * June Adopt-A-Shelter Cat Month *Call the Education Department of your local Humane Society and find out what type of information they might be able to send you regarding care of cats. Dairy Month *Have an *Dairy Appreciation* day ... your local dairy association may have some information. *Make a collage from magazine pictures of dairy products. 1 - National Safe Boating Week 1 - Oscar's B-day (S.Street) *Oscar the Grouch Trash Cans This is made as a magnet to hang up and remind everyone that litter should thrown in the trash can. Glue a large green pompom into the bottom of the film canister. The pompom should be sticking out of the top. Glue on wiggly eyes and a construction paper mouth. Glue the top of the film canister onto Oscar's head. On the bottom of the canister tape the words - "Toss It In The Can". Add a magnet to the back. *Garbage spaghetti for lunch. This is spaghetti with sauce with anything-you-can-find in the fridge in it. For dessert how about mud pies. You'll have to come up with these on your own. At the moment I don't have any ideas for them. 7 - National Family Day *Good day to start a theme or focus on families, remembering diversity, and remembering to be inclusive, for the sake of the children in your care. *Make a list of quick, easy and fun things for families to do on weekends (local parks, recreation centers), during the work day (leaving notes for each others, sending a story narrated by Mom and/or Dad to child care for everyone to listen to), in the evenings (popcorn/movie feast in the frontroom with sleeping bags all night... bedtime stories...) etc. 7 - the Amazing Mumfords B-day (S. Street) 9 - National Little League Baseball Week 9 - Donald Duck's b-day 11 - Robert Munsch ( Thomas' snowsuit, etc.) 13-Dollars Against Diabetes Week 14 - Flag Day *American flags. Get some extra long pencils for the pole (that way they are useful) with plain white paper for a backround cut 6 red stripes 3 short 3 long. Cut the blue field out of construction paper. Glue red stripes onto white paper leaving alternating white stripes. Glue blue field in appropriate corner of flag. Then using white paint and a pencil eraser make dots on blue field for stars. I reccomend using glue sticks there is less mess. * American flags About a week before flag day, we used an old sheet cut into 10 x 14 rectangles. We then used masking tape to tape off the white stripes and let the kids paint the red stripes, and blue background. When paint was dry we peeled off the tape and using a small artists brush, let the kids dot stars onto the blue. We then stapled them onto clean paint sticks (donated by a local hardware store). The kids also made red white and blue drums from coffee cans, and shakers from empty Pringles cans. We had all the kids wear red white and blue on Flag day, and called the local paper, telling them we would be having a flag day parade at 10am. The kids marched around 8 blocks banging their drums, and waving their flags. Many parents showed up to watch, and neighbors came out too. We even had some traffic stop and watch! Best of all we got a large front page photo and write up in the paper too!! It was great fun, and wonderful, free advertising!!! *For flag day make American flags. Get some extra long pencils for the pole (that way they are useful) with plain white paper for a backround cut 6 red stripes 3 short 3 long. Cut the blue field out of construction paper. Glue red stripes onto white paper leaving alternating white stripes. Glue blue field in appropriate corner of flag. Then using white paint and a pencil eraser make dots on blue field for stars. I recommend using glue sticks there is less mess. *I had the same idea, did it with my dck's last year, but instead of dots for stars, I bought the foil star stickers and let them go to town. *Ok I did this and then had them paint squares of strafoam blue or red and stick the flag down in it and it became the centerpiece for the table.. *Memorial Day Windsocks Materials Needed: Blue Construction Paper Flat Sponges (the kind after you put them in water raise up to a regular sponge) Paint Cookie Cutter in the shape of a star Red Crepe Streamers White Crepe Streamers Clear Contact Paper String or Yarn Cut out star shapes on the sponges. Then put them in water to make them regular size. Glue a 35 mm canister to one end of the sponge. This will keep the paint off the children's hands. Dip the star shaped sponge in white paint and then onto the construction paper. If you do not want to use the sponges you could use the star shaped cookie cutters instead. When dry you can add contact paper so that you can put it outside but I found the crepe paper runs in the rain and doesn't look good. (You can try it) Fold the blue construction paper into a cylinder and staple together Then add the red and white streamers. A very patriotic symbol for Memorial Day. *Flag Day Have a decorated bicycle parade!! Have the kids decorate their bicycles (or tricycle, or stroller)....Tape streamers, (don't forget about those mini American flags) colored paper, ribbons, flowers, pinwheels, twisters, (all red, white, and blue of coarse!!!). Draw the American flag on a piece of cardboard, and tape it to the side of the bike! Have a parade!!!!! sing "Your a Grand old Flag"!! We used to celebrate flag day in elementary school and this song was a big part of it *Your a grand ole Flag your a high-flying flag and forever in peace my you wave. Your the emblem of the land I love the home of the free and the brave. Every heart beats true for the red, white and blue and with never a boast or brag should ole aquantence be forgot keep your eye on the grand ole flag!!" the young kids love this because it is real catchy. 15 - Fathers day see separate file 19 - Juneteenth 21 - first day of summer 23- Midsummer Eve (Denmark) 25 - Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar & others) *The Official Eric Carle Web Site (Keyword to: http://www.eric-carle.com/) *If you haven't done Insects/Other Little Critters yet, you could pull out the caterpillar and butterfly ideas and do some of these today! 26 - Maria's b-day ( S.Street)