Looking for a simple way to engage your children in some fun learning this summer? Why not try a few learning centers!
What is a learning center? Quite simply, a few goodies based on a certain theme that you put together for your children to explore. Yep, that’s it. Easy and intriguing.
Here’s the latest summer center at our house. The topic for the next couple of weeks is the good ol’ USA!
Everything on the table (almost) was under $1.00 or free! I’ve told you many times before how much I love curriculum sales, yard sales and Goodwill. Well, when I find something cheap, I usually buy it. When I decide on a theme for my center, I go on a treasure hunt around the house to see what goes with the theme. Even the star fabric was 1/4 yard of $1.00/yd fabric = 25 cents!
I can’t wait to hear about the centers you put together this summer!
Another unit bites the dust! We’ve been motorin’ on the schedule so far and it makes me smile!
This unit took only two weeks. We simply read a book everyday about past presidents, being the president, the White House and Washington D.C. Each kiddo had to choose five presidents to research and complete a project about each one. At the end of the two weeks, they presented their projects – short, sweet and simple for me!
They were able to choose from the following project choices:
a file folder report
a photographic poster
a sculpture and mini-report
a cereal box report
a newspaper article
a mobile
I gave them very little direction in completing projects this time around. After the presentations, we talked about each project and the good points. We also evaluated what could’ve been better. My children were pretty hard on themselves – harder than I would’ve been! But, it was good for them to notice what they might improve on next time.
The Projects
Mahayla’s (7th grade)
Before presentations, the projects were displayed for viewing.
This photographic poster uses clipart from the internet and color copies from books as visuals with colorful note cards for information about the pictures.
A cereal box report utilizes all the sides for various bits of information and stores a fun object inside to show-n-tell during the presentation.
The mobile uses clip art from the internet and photocopies from books to hang on the strings from a hanger. Descriptions of the pictures are written on the back of each picture.
These are simple written reports.
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Caleb’s (4th grade)
This is another display of all the projects before presentation time.
Like above, this is another photograph poster.
This is a file folder report. The inside holds two pages of writings and drawings.
We took some time to learn about famous national landmarks during the unit, too. For a final project, I gave the kids a list of several landmarks from which they had to choose eight to research. They created informational postcards to highlight what they learned. You can see the front of each postcard shows a picture and the name of the landmark. On the back, they had to write a paragraph of interesting information for each. It was a simple project, but a nice way to ease into the new year.
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We’ve been motorin’ on the schedule so far and it makes me smile!
