fathers day 2012 magazine: Summer Scholar Sunday #5

Each week, I will feature an activity found in the Sun Scholars Summer Program and share some highlights from our Summer Scholar Families. We'd love to have you follow along. If you like what you see, and would like to learn more about my Sun Scholar Summer Program, click HERE.

Rocket Snack Packs

Subjects: Art

Time: 10+ mins

Supplies: Paper Tube (Toilet Paper Roll), Foil, Glue, Tissue Paper (red/orange/yellow), Scissors, Sharpie Marker, String or Ribbon, Snacks

1. Glue a small piece of foil to cover one end of your tube.

2. Fringe the bottom ⅓ of a rectangle of tissue paper. Glue the top ⅓ around your tube.

3. Glue a rectangle of foil around your paper tube.

4. Create a triangle out of foil. Add glue to your triangle and lay your rocket on top.

5. Fill your rocket with candies or dry snacks.

6. To finish, tie a ribbon around the tissue fringe to close. Use a Sharpie to decorate.

this is from Week 9 - Space Explorers of the Sun Scholar Summer Program

What have the Summer Scholar Families been up to?

Amy

For Sun Scholars this week, we chose to do The Great Outdoors. This is the week my kids have been looking forward to the most, and finally the weather cooperated. The activities we did were:

Story Time: books about different climates: desert, rain forest, beach, arctic, etc.

The kids enjoyed learning about the differences in each area and then drew pictures of what they thought it would look like.

Picnic of Shapes:

We enjoyed eating foods of all shapes. We cut sandwiches into squares, cheese into triangles, carrots into rectangles, oval chips, grapes, bananas cut in circles and ice cream cones.

Nature Hike:

We went on a nature hike up the local canyon. The kids enjoyed hunting for things from nature. They found more rocks than we could carry, bugs, shells, leaves, etc. We had a busy week (my little brother got married), so we are looking forward to painting the rocks and doing the rocks around the clock next week.

Miniature Terrarium:

The terrariums were such a fun project and turned out so cute. The kids had a great time building their mini forests and even added tiny plastic animals, bugs, fairies and army guys.

Crafty Clocks:

This project was a great one for us, since my kids are very good at digital clock reading, but not so great at reading analog clocks. We have been working on this the past few months, so we really enjoyed this project.

Fairy Homes and Elf Hotels:

To go along with this project, we watched Tinker Bell & the Great Fairy Rescue. Princess wanted her fairy house to look exactly like the one in the movie, so we came as close as possible. It was so fun to listen to the kids imagine what fairies and elves would be visiting soon. Luckily we had plenty of doll furniture to borrow from. They left a fairy tea party set up in the house, with mini marshmallows. The hubby and I snuck out after the kids were in bed and left tiny footprints and half-eaten treats. The kids were amazed in the morning.

Tree Through the Seasons:

This was a fun project. It was especially interesting to see how my little ones perceive the seasons. We used different mediums for each season, cotton for winter, tissue paper for fall, pussy willows for spring and grass for summer. Handsome thought in terms of holidays more than seasons, so his trees were decorated with stickers. Stockings and ornaments for winter, pumpkins for fall, watermelons and beach gear for summer and Easter eggs and bunnies for spring.

We had a great time this week! Due to the wedding we didn't get to do as many activities as usual, but that's what I love about this program. You can just do what fits your schedule and save the rest for another time. They are great boredom buster activities.

Melissa

We were off of school this week but I wanted to send you some photos of our Movie Night that we held in conjunction with last weeks teachings! We showed the original Toy Story. We had about 6 families over. Served Popcorn, Cracker Jacks, Twizzlers and drinks! Had a blast. Also had the bonfire going!

Emily

I really enjoyed this week, do I say that every time? This week was perfect for us. We were able to go camping with a friend for a week, and I was nervous to how I was going to work out the Sun Scholars Activities. This weeks plans added structure and fun to our trip. Plus it was a blast to have extra kids and hands to accomplish it.

Picnic of Shapes. I was doing a quick lunch and just cut the food into different shapes. The kids loved the picnic and all the different shapes they could eat. Instead of asking them to eat their bananas, it was funner for the kids to eat their circles. Plus it was easier to plan the food by shapes.

Nature Hike & Hunt. We did this a couple of different times. They loved learning about the different plants and looking for the objects. The kids would run to an object and then run back with grins.

Painted Rocks. I love how these projects all lead into one another. I used fingernail polish to let the kids paint. they loved the little brushes and their own paint without making a huge mess.

Rocks around the Clock

Nature Words & Story Time. Since we were camping we only had a couple of books, so we reread these a couple of times. Then the kids would use the words they learned when we went on our hike.

Mapping the way. Since we were in a new place, this was a great idea for the kids. They complained about it at first, but were super proud of themselves afterwards. Plus it helped for them to make a map to the fire where we got to eat smores.

Writing with Sticks. We did this on our hike. The kids loved writing their names. We also wrote different words with the sticks.

Over all we loved this lesson. I wish we had more time to do all of them, we'll just have to come back to this lesson. We loved running around the woods with each other and can't wait to do it again. Thanks for this week.