Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

A Week of After School Activities Plus the After School Linky Party – Week 38

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It’s After School Linky Party time! Are your kids out of school yet? We’ve got 3 more days left so I’m busy saving lots of ideas for things to do. Luckily, last week’s linky didn’t disappoint. I’ve rounded up five fun ideas for your school-aged kids.

For even more ideas, keep reading to the bottom to find this week’s link-up.

(Pictured left to right)

Day 1: Read a book about the weather. Create Craft Calm has some great choices for you.

Day 2: Make sun prints with pennies and construction paper. Find the instructions here.

Day 3: Practice telling time with a Rock Clock. Find the details at The Jenny Evolution.

Day 4: Make Gummy Worm Freezer Pops. Find the recipe at Growing Up Gabel.

Day 5: Create some art inspired by Thailand at Teacher Mom Plus 3.

Check the linky below for even more great ideas.

Make sure to visit all the After School Activities Hosts:
The Educators’ Spin On It
Planet Smarty Pants
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

Check out the link up below for even more great after school ideas. If you’re a blogger, please link up any ideas for elementary-aged kids (ages 5 and up).

 

A Week of After School Activities Plus the After School Linky Party – Week 37

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It’s After School Linky Party time! For many of us, school is winding down (or may be done already) and we’re thinking about summer. Luckily all of these ideas work as well for summer enrichment as they do for after school enrichment. Choose a few a week and keep your kids learning all summer long.

For even more ideas, keep reading to the bottom to find this week’s link-up.
(Pictured left to right)

Day 1: Plan and design your dream home with Mama Smiles. 

Day 2: Create your own scratch art paper and create beautiful artwork with Teacher Mom Plus 3.

Day 3: Play Words in Words – a fun printable literacy game from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational.

Day 4: Print out your June Math Problem a Day calendar from Math Geek Mama.

Day 5: Write sight word messages to each other with Dabblingmomma.

Check the linky below for even more great ideas.

Make sure to visit all the After School Activities Hosts:
The Educators’ Spin On It
Planet Smarty Pants
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational 

Check out the link up below for even more great after school ideas. If you’re a blogger, please link up any ideas for elementary-aged kids (ages 5 and up).

Geography Fortune-Tellers

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My girls are obsessed with fortune-tellers. Just obsessed. And, who can blame them? I was a bit obsessed myself when I was a child.

When I was a child, they were often designed to actually tell a fortune. Will you live in a mansion, travel to Paris, or have 10 children? We came up with some of the most outrageous fortunes!

But, nowadays, I often see fortune tellers used as a learning game. I just love this re-invention of an old toy.

We decided to use them as a geography activity and my girls just loved this process. They’ve been playing with their Geography Fortune-Tellers again and again and again.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Make Geography Fortune-Tellers, a fun geography activity to help your child learn continents, countries, oceans, US states, or famous cities.

100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids

Recently, my friends from The Educators’ Spin on It sent us a copy of their new book 100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids: Teach Reading, Writing, Math and More with Fun Activities by Amanda Boyarshinov and Kim Vij. My girls have devoured this book. They’ve got activity after activity bookmarked to try.

The book is great for kids in preschool through third grade and many of the activities can be adapted to your kid’s ability. Not only that, but Kim and Amanda have already provided three different variations for each activity. I love how flexible this book is!

Make Geography Fortune-Tellers, a fun geography activity to help your child learn continents, countries, oceans, US states, or famous cities.

Geography Fortune Tellers

All of the different variations provided for each activity was why it was so easy for us to add our own twist to their Continent Fortune-Tellers project.

My third grader already knows all the continents. So, in order to make it more challenging for her, we switched out the continents for individual countries.

We each made our own fortune-tellers. That was part of the fun for my girls! The folding instructions in the book were very easy to follow.

Once it was folded, we lifted all the flaps and wrote “Find (a specific country)” We added numbers to the outsides of the flaps.

Make Geography Fortune-Tellers, a fun geography activity to help your child learn continents, countries, oceans, US states, or famous cities.

One thing I  really loved (and I know you will too) about this book is that the instructions are clear and easy.

Plus, the book is full of beautiful full-color pictures. I always prefer to see pictures to go along with kids crafts and activities – that’s why I love blogs so much. And, this book delivers. My girls are both drawn to the pictures and have leafed through the book many times since it arrived on our doorstep.

Make Geography Fortune-Tellers, a fun geography activity to help your child learn continents, countries, oceans, US states, or famous cities.

My girls scoured the globe to find the countries to add to their fortune-tellers. I made mine easier for my first grader to use, but the girls made some challenging fortune-tellers.

Find Mali, find Somalia, and find Laos. Can you do it? Thanks to their fortune-tellers, my girls can easily find these countries.

If you don’t want to do the continents or even countries for this geography activity, you could try oceans, US states, major cities, or famous landmarks. There are just so many ways to add your own spin on it.

Play this geography activity

To play the game, you choose a number. The person with the fortune-teller moves it back and forth that many times.

Then, choose another number and the person with the fortune-teller will move it back and forth that many time.

Finally, choose one more number and lift the flap. Find that country on a map or globe. Keep going as many times as you want.

Make Geography Fortune-Tellers, a fun geography activity to help your child learn continents, countries, oceans, US states, or famous cities.

I can’t recommend 100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids enough. You’ll find reading, writing, math, science, music, art, and geography activities. It’s a fun source for after-school activities to enforce what your kids are learning in school or a great source for learning activities to help prevent summer slide.

The games are fun. We’ve already tried out more than this in the short time we’ve had the book. I know we’ll have fun all summer!

Thank you Kim and Amanda for writing such a fun book! You can grab your own copy at Amazon here at this link.

Make Geography Fortune-Tellers, a fun geography activity to help your child learn continents, countries, oceans, US states, or famous cities.

You may also like one of these geography activities:

Erupting Mount Vesuvius: Combining History with Science

Travels with Charlie: Loons and the Lakes of Minnesota

Mapping the Olympics

Stop Summer Slide While Learning in the Garden

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Are your kids out of school yet for the summer? We’ve still got a couple of weeks to go, but I’m already getting ideas for summer learning. We like to keep the learning going all summer long in order to stop summer slide in its tracks. And, what better way to learn than to take advantage of all that summer has to offer by learning in nature.

If you’ve ever grown a garden in the summer, you’ve seen what a great learning experience it can be. Simply planting a seed and watching it grow can teach a child so much. Have you ever thought about extending that learning?

Get out in the garden this summer. Look for bugs, observe some worms, explore the plants from bottom to top. Keep learning this summer while doing some science in the garden with one of these activities.

Stop summer slide with some fun and educational learning activities you can do in the garden. Grow seeds, observe bugs, and do more science in the garden.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Learn With Plants

Observe a plant from seed to harvest. Try planting one of these Quick Growing Seeds for Kids at Rainy Day Mum to see the growing process.

Combine literacy and gardening by planting a book-inspired garden. Kitchen Counter Chronicles has plans for gardens inspired by Peter Rabbit and Growing Vegetable Soup.

Track how long it takes your plants to grow. You can track your results with this free printable garden log at Teaching Mama.

Which garden environment will help a specific plant grow the best. Try this plant science experiment from Inspiration Laboratories to find out.

Stop summer slide with some fun and educational learning activities you can do in the garden. Grow seeds, observe bugs, and do more science in the garden.

Learn about the parts of a flower by taking one apart. Try this simple Dissecting Flowers lesson from Playful Learning.

Have a little fun and use your observation skills with this fun Garden Scavenger Hunt from Fantastic Fun and Learning.

Sprout seeds in a unique way by making your own Seed Paper from Outdoors Mom.

There are so many ways to learn with a fairy garden. EdVentures With Kids has some great ideas for STEM Activities in your Fairy Garden.

Can you turn food scraps into soil? Observe the process of composting with this Sandwich Bag Compost activity at CBC Parents.

Tiny Creatures in the Garden

Add some elements to your yard to attract butterflies so you can observe them all summer long. Outdoors Mom has all the hints you need.

Raise your own butterflies. This kit from Insect Lore has everything you need to observe the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly.

Observe the insects that live in your garden. Kitchen Counter Chronicles has a great Insect Investigation Worksheet to help guide your observations.

Attract those insects to your garden by building an insect hotel. Find the instructions at Babble Dabble Do.

Build a habitat for roly polys (pill bugs). I was so fascinated with these little creatures when I was a kid. Wouldn’t it be fun to really observe them? Find all the details at Fantastic Fun and Learning.

Worms are an important part of a healthy garden. Have some fun observing worms by building a wormery. Science Sparks will show you how.

Stop summer slide before it starts by planning some fun learning activities in the garden. Which one do you want to try?

Stop summer slide with some fun and educational learning activities you can do in the garden. Grow seeds, observe bugs, and do more science in the garden.

You may also like one of these nature activities:

Family Bird Watching Club

10 Ways to Learn About Animals

Explore Nature: Leaf Collections

10 Ways to Learn About Birds

A Week of After School Activities Plus the After School Linky Party – Week 36

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It’s After School Linky Party time! I found a lot of fun math ideas last week. There were printable games, math art, and real life applications. I’ve gathered up my favorites from last week and put them in this simple after school activities planner for you. You’ll definitely find something fun to do with your kids this week.

For even more ideas, keep reading to the bottom to find this week’s link-up.

(Pictured left to right)

Day 1: Combine math with art by making Rainbow Number Bonds with Rainy Day Mum.

Day 2: Review your multiplication facts with a game of “Bump” at Teacher Mom Plus 3.

Day 3: Review math while watching sports! Mama Smiles shows you how.

Day 4: Compare numbers with this fun game from School Time Snippets.

Day 5: Get ready for summer by printing out these Summer Book-Based Activity Calendars at Growing Book by Book.

Check the linky below for even more great ideas.

Make sure to visit all the After School Activities Hosts:
The Educators’ Spin On It
Planet Smarty Pants
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational 

Check out the link up below for even more great after school ideas. If you’re a blogger, please link up any ideas for elementary-aged kids (ages 5 and up).