Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

I am going to do my best to follow and post a theme of activities each week to do during the summer.  These activities will include fun outdoor activities, crafts, reading/storytelling, and other learning ideas. It is important to keep the mind fresh during summer break so kids are ready for school when it is time to go back. I am not taking it too heavy on the learning side, I want summer to be a fun time for exploring and play.  I still want the kids to look forward to summer break. This is the first year I am trying a 'plan' during the summer.  I will be posting our activities here and other activities on my Facebook page Big Energy Little Learners. I hope you get inspired! Here is our first weeks: Week 1- BUGS! Bugs were a ton of fun to explore this week! There are endless bug ideas out there, more then I was able to do.  I wanted to do more but a week only allows for so many activities.   Here is a list of links to the bug activities w...

As soon as I got the plastic bugs out Little Dragon started asking for a bath.  He loves sensory baths and remembers the insect bath from earlier in the year. I set this one up a bit differently.  I used the foam bugs we crafted and stuck them to the wall.  Little Dragon took them down 1 by 1 giving them each a name and something to do.  I also gave him a dirt bin Which was a necessity, as per Little Dragon.   For the dirt I used 1 box of fudge brownie mix and some left over coffee grounds.  The bathroom smelt lovely.   I left him to his shovel, pail, and dirt.  Of course later he added some cars and by the end of the the bath he was taking a 'mud' bath.  As he got out of the tub he says "mommy can we do that again sometime?" Of course!  Thanks for reading and check out more of my bug activities here . 

When learning about bugs what better way to close the week then hunting for them? This was our first bug hunt and my were The Dragons thrilled to be out looking for creepy crawlers.  They were so excited they ran around calling for bugs.  After a couple minutes of excitement I explained to the kids that bug catching was a semi-quiet activity.  We are big, bugs are small.  They are afraid of us especially when we come bounding at them. This slowed things down. The hunt began!  Summer Dragon wanted to look under bricks for bugs.  Little Dragon looked on the patio. Doll Dragon looked in the garden.   I had the jar and kinda looked around with each of them until I realized being split wasn't going to work. Why? Because The Dragons wanted to pick up every bug they saw!  No bug fear Some bugs shouldn't be picked up, so we stayed together so the bugs could be pointed out then scooped with the jar. Together we quietl...

After our fun painting with bugs we brought all the supplies in the house.  While the kids started playing I filled up each paint cup a big and left them on the counter, thinking, I will let them sit so I can rub the paint off later. Then I took a second look at the colored water.  This could be a fun water play activity, plus I won't have to wash the bugs! When nap time was over and we were ready to head back outside I filled up a small bin with some water and a little soap and set all the colored water cups around the bin. Summer Dragon and Little Dragon took turns dumping in water and watching the color swirl around in the bin. They noticed the bugs plopping in the water.  I knew Little Dragon would want to clean the bugs because it bothers him that paint is on them (hehe, yup this was all on purpose) , so I offered him a rag for washing.   Now that all the cups were empty they were great tools for water play!  There was scooping, dump...

Of all the craft ideas with bugs this is my favorite.  It gets messy which entertains my kids.  We did this project outside because the weather was nice enough and to encourage the messiness.   Materials:  plastic bugs paint plastic cups paper painters tape Together we used painters tape to tape off the word bugs on the paper.  I hung up the paper on the garage for an easy access painting area.  We filled the cups with the colors The Dragons wanted most then dropped in our bugs. Then it was time for open painting! At first Summer Dragon tried making bug foot prints, Little Dragon tried using the bugs as more of a paint brush, Doll Dragon is always about the smearing. :)  The bugs ended up being a bit difficult to use to transfer the paint onto the paper.  Doll Dragon liked to goop up the bug with a lot of paint and stick it to the paper and watch until it fell down.  This was very funny to The Drag...

A great book for our Summer week on bugs.  The illustrations are very colorful and busy.  There are also little hidden dressed up bugs throughout the book.  Of course this book also rhymes which makes it awesome! The Dragons took some time looking at each page before we turned it.  There was just so much to look at and laugh at. After we read the book we made... I love this craft because foam sticks to almost anything when it is wet.  These will be perfect for a fun bath later. Materials:  foam scissors sharpie pencil First we drew our bugs with pencil, just in case there was a mistake.  Then outlined them with sharpie.  Next we cut them out.  Foam is really easy to cut, even with safety scissors.  When they were finished we squirted the white board with water so the bugs would all stick.  We did some bug identification using our new bug friends.  The Dragons named all the bugs w...

I love hearing creative stories from my dragons.  They are usually so creative and sometimes so random!  I think this is great.  It gives some insight into how a preschooler things, where they get some of their abstract ideas, and how innocent and unshaped they still are. I always tell myself I will take more time for story telling and fail often.  I give The Dragons opportunities to tell stories with story boards but sometimes the real creativity come out when they have an adult audience. For our summer bug theme I encouraged The Dragons to take on the mindset of a bug and tell me a story from their perspective. This was easier for Summer Dragon, the oldest of the group who is with us during summer break.  Doll Dragon had a harder time putting herself in someone else's shoes per-say, Little Dragon didn't really grasp the concept so he just told me a story. Summer Dragon was an ant in his story.  I started him off by giving him a paperclip to lo...

During bug week we took some time to focus on spiders.  Spiders are not insects but they can be categorized as bugs. We had some fun with a giant spider web on the floor!  Spiders are very intriguing to little one's! I grabbed a couple spider books from the library with great big pictures of spiders.  The books were very informative, not very story based, but The Dragons loved them! Especially the detailed pictures.   You don't often get to see a spider up close. Before the books we made a tape spider web together on the floor.  Now, it wasn't the best spider web, so The Dragons didn't know what it was at first.   With help making the web from The Dragons the lines were very abstract. The Dragons took a couple of guesses at what it was and I told them I would let them know after the books. This helped keep The Dragons attention during reading time. Once we finished reading our 2 spider books The Dragons knew right away what the web was. ...

I picked up this book for our Bugs summer week.  The pictures were big and colorful and there were small pages between the big pictures. The kids had to find the small caterpillars and eggs which was fun for them. It was a simple walk through of how a caterpillar gets it's wings with small words the kids could understand in preschool.  I also liked how the book illustrated how small caterpillars are in contrast to the world.  This was accomplished by having the span of the caterpillars life take place in a small area of a garden, using the small pages inside the big page. After we read this book we made our own butterfly's.  This is a very common simple craft.  Materials:  coffee filter markers clothespin water (optional) pipe cleaner First you decorate your wings.  It is difficult for preschoolers to keep to the same pattern for the wings like a typical butterfly, especially on a coffee filter.  While looking at the pi...

Boats.  It is all about boats this week.  The time Jesus spent on boats and more fun stuff. Bible Our focus is still on Jesus and this week we are taking about Jesus calming the storm and walking on water.  The kids did awesome with this unit.  We did some crafts that I break down below.  During each craft we talked about our bible stories and added something about Jesus to each of them. We used the boat puppet to help illustrate the story of Jesus calming the storm.  We discussed how Jesus walked on water and how Peter walked on water and the differences there.  Are song this week was "I have peace of a river in my soul" I liked this song it was very catchy.  Our bible verse is "those on the boat worshiped him and said 'truly you are the son of God'".   -Matthew 14:33 I checked out a book from the library for us to read some stories of Jesus from a different source. Miracles Crafts Boat puppet materials: ...