Sharks! Activities, books, and sensory play for children

It's time for this month's Virtual Book Club For Kids with author Gail Gibbons! Naturally, while I was contemplating garden themes or a book about the moon, my sidekick grabbed the book "Sharks!".  He also had a very firm idea of what he wanted to do for it. I've also put together a list of shark themed crafts and activities for a potential unit study. The last section includes Amazon book links.

Here's  the very basic but entertaining sensory play bin he put together after reading Sharks:

General shark education:

Learn all about sharks - species, sizes and more - at Smithsonian's Ocean Portal
Watch real sharks live by webcam!


Shark themed Food and party ideas: 
Shark themed food and party ideas:
Shark cookies
Shark sandwiches
Shark fin cupcakes
Jaws watermelon tray
Decorating and invitation ideas

Crafts and activities:

Make shark socks
Shark from a dish tablet tub on The Joys Of Boys
Flowerpot shark on Free Kids Crafts
Paper plate shark craft on Almost Unschoolers

Free shark themed printables and resources:

Powerpoint about sharks
Shark notebook pages
Classroom resources (borders, editable labels, and more) 
Shark award certificates
Shark Playdough mat
Shark role-play mask
Learn how to draw a shark 1
Learn how to draw a shark 2

Sensory bins and small world activities:

Shark sensory bin with aquarium gravel on Taming The Goblin
Jello ocean sensory bin on Cachey Mama
Glass bead ocean sensory bin on My Montessori Moments


Other shark unit studies:

Living Montessori Now has a great Montessori-themed shark unit study
Kidzone has loads of shark themed printables, poems and ideas
Homeschool Share has a free shark lapbook
The shark unit of Our Homeschool Notebook
Homeschooling Heart and Mind offers a free Hammerhead shark unit study

Great books about sharks:
(A side note: You know your child's ability to handle scary topics better than I do. Always preview this kind of book first and make your own judgements.)  

  

Make sure you check out all the great posts by my VBC cohosts:

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Coffee Cups and Crayons - Having Fun at Chelle's House- Love, Play, Learn - Juggling With Kids - Motherhood on a Dime - Growing Book By Book

- This Reading Mama - Fantastic Fun and Learning

Link up your Gail Gibbons book crafts and activities below!
 

Hearts For Home Blog Hop! June 13th, 2013

Welcome to this week's edition of the Hearts For Home blog hop!

The cohosts are: Jill from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, Heather from Upside Down Homeschooling, Sarah from My Joy-Filled Life, Leann from The Hands On Homeschooler, Amy from Bow of Bronze, Kristi from The Potter’s Hand Academy, Jolene from Monsters Ed Homeschool Academy, Heather from Only Passionate Curiosity, and Erin from The Usual Mayhem.

The most-clicked link last week was Our Modesty Transformation from Children Are A Blessing.

There were so many great summer learning ideas last week, it's hard to narrow it down! Here are some of the great ones that I can't resist sharing with you:

1. 3 Dinosaurs/Royal Baloo have their Jump Into Summer program and release a new set of learning printables every week around a different theme. Last week (week 2) the theme was Ocean!

2. WeTeach released their Summertime Learning E-Book (it's also free!) They have a bunch of fun activities for summer, inlcuding, I'm proud to say, my sidewalk sudoku activity!

3. Living Montessori Now shared 10 Ways to Use Montessori Principles for Summer Learning!

4. The Measured Mom released some great printable emergent readers, and throws in some great suggestions for helping your child learn to read.


What wonderful, creative, and fun things have you been up to this week? Share your post(s) below!

Top 10 Ways to Keep Kids Learning About Nature!

As part of the

  

School's Out: A Top 10 Series by KBN, along with all these great bloggers:
 Sunday ~ This Reading Mama | The Educators' Spin on It | Kitchen Counter Chronicle | Rainbows within Reach | Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers | Monday ~ Train Up a Child Learn as We Go | Housing a Forest | Royal Baloo | Living Montessori Now | Tuesday ~ Toddler Approved | Play Trains! | 3 Dinosaurs | Wednesday ~ The Outlaw Mom | Teach Beside Me | Hands On as We Grow | igamemom
Thursday ~ JDaniel 4's Mom | All Done Monkey | Fantastic Fun & Learning | KC Edventures | Playing with Words 365 | Friday ~ Teach Mama | The Usual Mayhem | Nature and Play | True Aim Education | Saturday ~ Creative World of Varya | Craftoart | My Buddies and I igamemom

 I'm offering you my top ten ways to keep kids learning about nature!

1. Let them take the lead.
As soon as you announce that you'll be learning about something, most kids turn off their brains and ears. Your goal here is to display enthusiasm for being outdoors, but let them show you what they see. In real life, this translates to looking at the giant bug they've just spotted on a tree and want to show you, but letting them make the connections between it and other bugs they've seen.  If you're not sure how to do this, hand them a camera and really see the world through their eyes. They will astonish you!

2. Ask questions, don't give answers.
I'm not saying to answer every question with a question! That would drive anybody crazy. But you don't want to spoon feed them the information; rather, you want to inspire them to find out more.

When they comment on all the blackbirds around a pond in spring, you might wonder aloud why they choose the pond to nest at. Then shush! Let them be the ones to consider their food sources. Often my kids will make a note and look up a particular creature's diet, or habitat, or breeding habits, when we get home again.

3. Give them the time to learn.
Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to hike in the woods near their home every day like we are. But everyone, even a downtown urban dweller (that was once us too), can find 15 minutes a day, or one good hour a week, to just head out the door and walk. If you don't go outside, you aren't truly studying nature and no amount of reading nature-themed books will make up for it.


4. Give them the tools.
This will vary greatly by family. I can't recommend putting together a nature journal highly enough; that being said, some kids will balk at the very idea. For a complete list of what I keep in our nature study bag, you can click on this link. All these things fit into a backpack with little weight and room to spare.


5. Keep them fed.
Always packs snacks and water. If they get hungry, they get foul-tempered and their attention is gone. Feed them before you think they need it; don't wait until they have a meltdown! Granola bars are a good one because they can hold the wrapper instead of having to find a place to wash their hands (because, y'know, all woods have bathrooms, right?!). Bananas are another useful snack if you aren't in a mosquito zone. Ditto anything like applesauce or yoghurt that they can squeeze from a tube.


6. DO visit the same place more than once.
Don't always change it up! Part of the learning will come as they see the changes between one week and the next, especially as seasons turn. Kids love to have "their" pond or tree or park!

7. DON'T insist on them looking at something.
You may have just seen the most brightly coloured bird ever, but if you tell them and they don't come running, let it go. If you insist, you may be pulling them away from watching ants drag food to their hole. Don't assume that your observations trump theirs.

8. Pick your times.
 Don't take them out after they've had swimming or dance or a soccer game. This may seem obvious, but with the tight schedules many people have, you may want to add it as just one more thing on your list. If you absolutely must fit nature study in after something like this, do it as a picnic where they can at least sit down for a while!

9. Go outside in all kinds of weather.
If you only go out on warm, dry, sunny days then you are missing a whole range of things to see! For example, fungi just after it rains are much more striking than when it's sunny and dry; winter offers ice crystals and snowflakes to catch on your tongue, and stormy days make for great sky-watching!

10. I can't emphasize this enough: Keep it fun!
If you want to keep your children interested and engaged in learning outdoors, you can not put any kind of pressure on them. As soon as it becomes a must-do instead of a treat, the magic is gone. Wander, run, kick the leaves, jump in the puddles, make snow angels and just enjoy your time outside! The learning will follow along naturally.

PS Don't miss Rainy Day Mum's great post today about the top 10 ways to learn at the beach this summer!

The Outdoor Play Party!

Welcome to the Outdoor Play Party! Along with

Learning for Life

The Golden Gleam

Kitchen Counter Chronicles

Making Boys Men

I am happy to be co-hosting the Outdoor Play Party!

  This week, my favourite post from last time was the frog pond from Le Baby Bakery:

We spent a lovely day at the beach this week with some friends who we don't see as often as we'd like. It was one of those perfect early summer days where time seems irrelevant.

Come and link up your outdoor posts below! (By linking up, you're giving us permission to share one photo with your link, and to pin to our Pinterest board)