ECS End of Year Activities

June 2020

DirectionsAn activity is provided below for each school day June 1-11.

If an activity is not a good fit for your family, choose one of the extra events from the end of the list.

We hope the variety of activities will give your children the fun end of the school year that we try to offer each year.

Activities will remain posted throughout the summer.

Enjoy!

June 1: The Poetry of NatureTake a walk through your neighborhood or yard.

Collect 10 items from nature which are flat or could be flattened.

Glue the items in a collage arrangement on a piece of paper.

On each of five additional pieces of paper, write a poem about one of the items you collected. Examples of poems can be found on our website on the left side of the Covid-19 page. Some great types of poems for this activity are acrostic, free verse, haiku, tanka, and terquain, You might try one of each!

When the poems are complete, staple them behind the collage cover page. Ask someone to read your poems and guess which object each poems describes.

*If you enjoyed writing these poems, go to https://poets.org/text/poems-kids for more poems for kids!

June 2: All About Sea Turtles Visit The Karen Beasley Turtle Hospital Online https://www.seaturtlehospital.org

Why was the center started?: https://www.seaturtlehospital.org/story/

Learn about Sea Turtle Migration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS0kXtmXuj8

Track a turtle: Choose a turtle to track https://conserveturtles.org/sea-turtle-tracking-full-list-of-sea-turtles/ Discuss with your family all the places the turtle traveled. Does it ever do back to the same place? How far has it traveled? How long has it been tracked?

Write a letter or draw a picture to send to the volunteers at the Hospital:

Mail to: Karen Beasley Rescue and Rehabilitation Center 302 Tortuga Lane, Surf City, NC 28445

Learn to draw sea turtles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DXTWTbd8G4

June 3: Neighborhood Scavenger HuntPrint some checklists and head out to your backyard, neighborhood, or even your favorite nature trail to see what you can find along the way!

Neighborhood Walk Scavenger Hunt checklists

Outdoor Nature Walk and Scavenger Hunt Activities

You can even create a nature collage when you get home with things you collected on your walk: Nature Weaving Craft

Click on links to access resources.

June 4: Rube Goldberg MachinesRube Goldberg was a famous cartoonist who took simple, everyday tasks and over complicated them. Today your learning challenge is to have fun, be creative, and learn about a talented cartoonist!

1) Learn about Rube Goldberg and study his comic creations Rube Goldberg – Home of the Official Rube Goldberg Machine Contests

2) Watch videos of people making their own Goldberg inspired contraption

Rube Goldberg Machines by Hevesh5 The Swish Machine: 70 Step Basketball Trickshot (Rube Goldberg Machine)

Create a contraption of your own! This can be small like a simple path of jenga blocks or dominoes...to a full cause and effect chain reaction like in the videos! Be creative and videotape your final outcome to share with friends and family:) Below are additional sites to check out for suggested ideas and materials to use around your house.

16 Cool Rube Goldberg Machine Ideas Engineering Kids | Rube Goldberg Machine

11 Household Objects You Can Use to Build a Rube Goldberg Machine

June 5: Comic Relief

Research the history of comic strips. When was the first strip created, and who wrote and drew it?

Dramatize your favorite comic strip. You may wish to create a puppet show or your own original play.

What are the qualities that make a comic strip enjoyable? Do all comic strips have to be funny to be good?

Create three scrapbooks, each illustrating a different type of comic strip (such as humor, adventure, and information). Research and collect several examples for each category and paste them into the appropriate scrapbook. What are some of the similarities and some of the differences between these categories of comic strips?

Write your own comic strip using people you know as some of the characters. Try Pixton.com!

June 8 Movie: El Sembrador

Watch the movie “El Sembrador” and create a comparison chart between the classroom in the movie with your regular classroom.

SYNOPSIS: Bartolomé, a teacher in a multigrade school in the mountains of Chiapas in Mexico, knows well that pedagogy is not based only on textbooks and cannot fit behind the four walls of a classroom. A true sower of knowledge unravels his philosophy and method and becomes a beacon of hope for the creation of a humanistic model of education based on curiosity and love for the outside world.

Click on the link to find the movie: https://moreliafilmfest.com/ficm-presenta-en-linea-el-sembrador-melissa-elizondo/?fbclid=IwAR0V3swkutdpy6RSHN-6l1MFJwzMa9K6GQoIbDA6jBOzYGsGRO1JvrJipsM

June 9Downtown Raleigh Mural Walk

Did you know Downtown Raleigh has over 100 pieces of public art?

-Tour downtown Raleigh with your family to find at least 10 amazing murals. Take a picture of each mural that you find!

-Print out your mural pictures to create a book of murals. Write what each mural means to you.

-For your cover page, draw/create your own personal mural that you would like to see on a downtown building.

-Visit https://www.downtownraleigh.org/explore/public-art to plan your mural walk and to learn more about the murals and the artists who created them.

June 10 Baking with your parents or for your parents (even better)!

Easy Banana Bread Recipe

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 bananas

⅓ cup milk

1 tsp. lemon juice

½ walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees2. Mix/beat all ingredients in a bowl until combined and mostly smooth (no

rhyme or reason, just toss everything in)3. Spray mini loaf pans with cooking spray and fill with batter about halfway

full. This recipe makes about 4 mini loaves.4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes (check if loaves are done by

inserting a toothpick in center of loaf, if it comes out clean, bread is done)*Great in the mornings with coffee/tea or for dessert after dinner.

While your banana bread cooks, listen to these books about bananas. Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLYo3Q_UL2UBanana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dobk6ZQgbsPete the Cat and the Bad Banana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obTdemXY1tsBeautiful Bananas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nc_Llb_aFs

After you eat your banana bread, write your own story about a banana!

June 11 Watch a Musical & Create a CostumeMusicals are a fun way to get the whole family together to enjoy a live theatre performance!

1. Choose one of the musicals below and click on the link to watch the performance: a. Aladdin (https://youtu.be/o-gLbgpzCc8)b. Frozen (https://youtu.be/cXY_rrnBkWw)c. Tangled (https://youtu.be/iyFHjQndReY)d. Beauty and the Beast (https://youtu.be/n-swC8Rgz_A)

2. When you are done watching, choose 1 character from the musical and create a costume piece for someone in your family as that character (use only items you have in your HOUSE! Yes! You can create an Olaf costume out of toilet paper! Or use a bed sheet to make a cape!) You can make a hat, dress, mask, or any costume piece you choose!

3. Take a picture of your finished costume and send it to ECS!

June 12 - Get to Know your FamilyDuring this activity, students will learn more about the lives of those they live with and discover the similarities and differences between them.

Part One: Listen to the story, We are Family by Patricia Hegarty.

Part Two: Students will first choose five items that reflect who they are and what is important to them, and place these items in a paper or plastic bag. Then, on index cards or paper, students write notes about each object describing why it is significant to them. Students then present the personal culture bag to their family. Everyone that lives in the house should participate to give students an opportunity to learn about their family members.

Reading Scavenger HuntsHow to Play… 1. Pass out the scavenger hunt form. 2. Decide on how much time you will give kids to play the game.. 3. Set the timer. If more than one child is playing, make it a competition. Whoever correctly finds the most texts that match the clues in the amount of time allowed and answers the most questions is the winner!

After the Hunt… 1. Go over each text found. 2. Give one point for each correct text that matches the clue and one point for each correct spelling of the text title/description on the answer key (2 total points possible per clue). 3. Declare a winner!

ADDITIONAL IDEAS: • Reread the text together if it’s a short text. If it’s a chapter book, reread a favorite part together! Kids can also read independently. • Grab a piece of paper and have your child make a book report summary and present it to the family. Use copy paper or bigger poster paper to draw/summarize/list/describe the highlights!

Click the link below to pick a form! You can choose from 9 different ones!

Here are the scavenger hunts!

Another great idea! Birdhouse with Recycled Materials Take a walk in your neighborhood or sit in your backyard. Look for different kinds of birds. Use these guides to help you identify different species: link or app. Keep a journal to record the different kinds of birds you see. You can use this template as a guide: link

Tally number of birds you see for each species. Take a look at the data collected from your bird observations. Make a graph to show the data you collected. Consider what you want to show: types of birds? Short beaks vs. long beaks? Bird colors?

Design your own birdhouse or bird feeder! You can look here to see many different bird houses and here for simple bird house plans. How can you use recycled materials to build it? Look here for ideas.

Build your birdhouse or bird feeder. See if any of the species youobserved visit your design.

Another great idea! How well do you know your City?Take a trip with your family. Explore and learn about your town/city. Take a picture and make a scrapbook of the following places.

Click on the image of the

town you want to explore to find your scavenger

hunt.

Another great idea! Exploding Rainbow Milk Spiral ExperimentThis is the classic milk, food coloring, and dish soap experiment! This easy science demonstration shows how soap can send colors flying through (2% or whole) milk, and there are lots of examples on YouTube. But this version, an Exploding Colors Milk Spiral, literally puts a twist on it. The secret: A well-positioned line of caulk and a dish soap-soaked string.

The caulk forms a wall that extends halfway across the shallow dish. When the string is placed between that caulk and a row of food color dots, the colors spiral around the dish in the opposite direction. “This video is a variable time-lapse of a reaction that went on for an hour and a half,” YouTuber AutistiVision explains. “You can see when it finally ran out of soap. This was fun!”

For more examples and more explanation go here:https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/exploding-rainbow-milk-spiral-activity

Another great idea! Travel the World from Your Home!

Visit famous cities and your favorite landmarks around the world with the help of 360 degree panoramic photographs. Go to 360 Cities and scroll down to the map. Visit 1 place from each continent.

For each city or landmark you visit, write about what you’ve seen and learned about in a passport. You can create your own passport or download one here PASSPORT (Click and Scroll down to 'Download Your Printable Passport Here'

Include information on your passport about the country’s flag, languages spoken, foods, and culture. Use an online encyclopedia for help.

Want another perspective of these places? Try Google Earth for aerial views!

Another great idea! Be the Photographer!Grab a camera, phone or device to take some pictures of each person and pet in your house. Make sure they know you’re taking their picture!

Action Shot - take a picture of them while they’re DOING something - riding their bike, working at their desk, cooking, etc.

Portrait - ask them to sit or stand still at a certain place in your house - by a window, in the yard, on the floor. Do you want them to look at the camera and smile, or be more serious? Try to make them laugh and have fun!

Look at your pictures, show the person you photographed. Maybe print some of them and put them in a frame or glue them together in a collage. Or put them together into a slide show.

Another great idea!! Music in the Movies

Composers use the music in the movies to make their audiences think or feel different things. You can watch the same video with different music and feel different emotions. Some composers even write specific musical themes called leitmotifs. A leitmotif is a short musical theme that is associated with a specific character, place, or even emotion. This theme is heard every time that character is on screen. With your family, watch one of your favorite movies and try to identify the musical theme that repeats.

For example: In Star Wars the imperial march is heard every time stormtroopers or things related to the empire are seen. In the Lion King there is a family/pride theme that plays every time Simba thinks about his family.

In Frozen 2 there is a hidden leitmotif (or recurring musical theme) Can you figure out what musical themes represent your favorite characters?

Another great idea! Cotton Ball Launcher

Create a cotton ball launcher with stuff from around the house: Some cardboard tubes, a pencil or popsicle stick, and some rubber bands. You’ll need some strong tape, scissors, and a hole punch put it all together.

This simple Science Buddies video demonstrates how to assemble this fun cotton or bouncy ball launcher, an exploration of potential energy, kinetic energy, and conservation of energy.

Follow the link for a few other ideas: https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/how-to-make-a-cotton-ball-launcher

Another great idea! Year in Review/Dear Next Year

Think about all of the time you spent this year during school reading, writing, doing math, practicing your instrument, experimenting, creating art, etc. I’m guessing it was a lot! For part 1 of this activity, calculate the amount of time you spent in ELA, math, science, lunch, recess, and other planned activities. Once you’ve done your calculations, create a graph showing how you spent your school year.

Now that you’ve got a sense of how much time you spent doing school-related activities, it’s time for part 2. Write a letter to next year’s class of incoming students. Tell them about what you liked from this year and give them advice to be successful this coming school year.

Another great idea! Plan Your Family’s Summer Vacation-Ask each member of your family where they would like to go visit for your summer family vacation. Pick your favorite destination from the list and plan the best family vacation with memories that will last a lifetime!

-Visit https://www.aaa.com/travelguides/ to find landmarks, events, places and excursions that you plan to do while on vacation.

-Create a brochure either digitally (https://www.canva.com/create/brochures/) or by hand representing your destination.

- Create an itinerary for your vacation including lodging, restaurants, events, etc. Google “free printable itinerary” for a ton of template options.

Family Field Days!For some family fun and friendly competition, click on the following link for field day activities that you can do at home. From games and relays to water activities, this is a great way to exercise and be active together!

https://www.tptschoolaccess.com/student-view/MjE2NTcyNDE2NzU3MjAyMC0wNS0yOVQxODo1NzoxMy42OTJa

Another great idea- Recreate Famous Works of Art at Home!● Join the ECS version of the #GettyMuseumChallenge

● The Getty Museum has challenged people around the world to recreate famous works of art with materials you find at home while in quarantine.

● Check out Endeavor Art History Challenge website for more information!