School is Out! Now What? Activities for Ages 6+

School's out! Now what? Here are some rainy day activities for your elementary aged children:

MATH ACTIVITIES

Make Your Own Board Game
Give your children a piece of cardboard, construction paper, dice, markers or paint and let them design their own game. Commit to sitting down to play them when they are finished.

Race for $1.00 (money addition)
You need 30 pennies, 10 nickels, 20 dimes, 1 quarter, a dollar, 2 dice, and a partner.
Take turns. On your turn, roll the dice. The sum tells how many pennies to take. When you have 5 pennies, trade for a nickel. When you have 2 nickels, trade for a dime. When you have 2 dimes and one nickel, trade for a quarter. The first player to reach $1.00 is the winner.

Guess My Number (number logic)
You need: paper, pencil, partner
Player one picks a number from 0-99 and writes it down. Player two makes a guess and writes it down. Player one gives a clue: "Your guess is greater than my number" or "Your guess is less than my number". Continue playing until player two guesses player one's number. Switch jobs and play again.

War (addition)
Divide the deck of cards evenly. Each player will put out two cards and add them together. Whoever has the highest total will take all cards. The object is to take the whole deck
 
Make 10 (Grades K-2)
Remove the face cards from a deck. Deal 12 cards face up. Players take turns finding and removing combinations of cards that add up to 10. When both the players agree that no more tens are possible, more cards are dealt. This game helps students recognize parts of 10, an important step in learning to add and subtract base 10 numbers.

More or Less (Grades K-1)
Each child gets a set of cards Ace through 10 (for the numbers 1-10). One child selects a "secret card" from his or her hand and places it face down. The second child tries to guess what the number on the card is by selecting a card from his hand and placing it face up. The first child then tells whether the secret card is greater or less than the face-up card. The second child continues to make guesses until he has discovered the value of the secret card. Players then switch roles.

Pattern Blocks and Mats (Geometry - printable)
If the mats are too easy, challenge your child to make their own design. If you don't have any pattern blocks, you can cut them out of craft foam.

READING and WRITING Activities

Wordo (printable)
Wordo (bingo with words) is a great way to review words from the previous school year. Teach Mama explains how to play and has the printables you'll need to get started.

Set a Reading Goal
Set individual or family reading goals. For example, when 50 books is read you get to go out for ice cream. You could really make this a big deal and have a poster up in the house for everyone to write their books or chapters on.
How will you know if they REALLY read it? Have them tell you what they liked best about it, draw a picture of it, what character is their favorite, or how they would change the ending. Keeping these ideas in a journal is a great idea too.

Readingeggs.com
I'm a big fan of this website. You can sign up for a free trial and can have more than one child on your account. They email you progress reports too.

Starfall.com
Another great reading website for all ages!

CRAFTS and OTHER Activities

Paper Mache
Follow these directions to create a paper mache object and then paint.

Lego Creations
Printable directions for different lego creations here.

Recyclable Building Challenge
Save different recyclable containers, lids, paper towel rolls, etc. Give your children glue and tape and challenge them to create and build something out of the recyclable containers.

Treasure Hunt
Hide the pieces to a simple puzzle around the house. Make a treasure map of your home with an X where each piece is located. Challenge your child to find the treasure and complete the puzzle. If you have more than one child, make it a race!

Painting
Here is a list of different, creative types of painting to try!

Obstacle Course
Set up an obstacle course for your children or encourage them to create one for you or each other. Home Grown Hearts has a great set of printables to help create the obstacle course.

My Favorites - A Photo Book
Buy an inexpensive disposable camera (or let your child use yours if they are old enough) and have them take pictures of their favorite things. Put them in an album and have them write a few sentences about why it is their favorite. Display the book on your coffee table.




Resources used for this post:
www.mrsgoldsclass.com/mathgames.htm
http://www.teachingk-8.com/
http://www.prekinders.com/
http://www.make-stuff.com/
http://www.creative.lego.com/
http://teachmama.blogspot.com


Sharing this idea at: What Works for Me Wednesday