Today’s topic is summer reading activities. What we love so much about reading is that it expands our world! If you have any fun traditions or activities that you share with your kids or students that have to do with reading, today is the day to share them.If you don’t have kids, maybe you have a bookclub that does has some fun traditions or you enjoy organizing your books in the summer. Be creative and share with us!

LEAH: I like to read books with my kids that have something to do with the activities that we are naturally doing. For example, Christmas stories at Christmas time, stories about camping when we are going camping, pumpkin-carving stories in the fall. So for the summer, we will be reading school vacation stories such as “When It’s the Last Day of School,” Fourth of July stories such as “Fourth of July Mice,” and beach stories such as “Swimming With Dolphins.” My mom (Sally, who also writes for this blog) has been great about supplying my girls with all sorts of seasonal books and it is so much fun. Reading books like these add to the anticipation of the events you have planned for the summer.

Because of the way our school year runs here, my girls only have the month of July off for summer vacation. However we will have a week or two where not much is going on. I would like to take advantage of that time to do some extra reading. This year we will be reading about plants and how they benefit human life. I will have my girls help me plant some little flowers or herbs so that their reading can come to life. They can watch the process of growth and be involved in the care of nurturing the plants. (Lord knows I need the help with my serious lack of green thumbs!). This is one simple activity that most people could do during the summer months. SALLY:First, buy and read the book “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” by the wonderful Dr. Seuss. Then make some oobleck! Here is the recipe:

1-1/2 cups of corn starch
1 cup room temperature water
green (or whatever color you want) food coloring

Mix the ingredients and allow children to play with the mixture. When “pushed” together, the mixture will appear dry and solid; as children let go of the mixture, it flows like a smooth liquid.

What can you do with oobleck? Try making it into a ball. Does it bounce? Try to pull it apart, slowly and then quickly. Hold it in your had to see what happens. Does it stick to the table?

Have fun!

What are your summer reading activities? Write up a post and share! Be creative! It doesn’t have to be kid related. Invite your readers to join in the fun by linking back here and then come sign the Mr. Linky with a direct link to your post (and NOT your general URL). Remember, everyday of participation earns you an entry in the contest pool.

Just a reminder that our group discussion of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming starts on Saturday!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am

This post was written byLeah and is filed under Child Reading Development, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.