KinderTown, Author at KinderTown

End of Summer Activity: Hammering Cotton Balls

What child doesn’t enjoy the act of smashing and breaking? Try this easy activity with your child and enjoy the hammering together and develop gross motor skills in the process.

Hammer Away: Master hammering skills with a toy hammer to smash water beads, hammer golf tees into the bottom of an egg carton, mounds of clay, foam trays, or into the ground. Place flowers (wild flowers, dandelion weeds, etc…) between a folded piece of paper to hammer into flower prints. Try the recipe for making baked cotton balls and have fun crushing them into pieces. (Science)

Materials

1 cup flour
1 cup water
Food coloring
Cotton balls
Medium bowl
Small containers
Spoons
Aluminum foil lined baking sheet or pan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° F.
Mix together the 1 cup of water and the 1 cup of flour in the large bowl.
Spoon the mixture into the smaller containers.
Add a few drops of food coloring to each container. Stir and mix well.
Place a cotton ball into each container.
Coat the cotton ball completely in the mixture.
Scoop the cotton ball onto the baking sheet.
Repeat to make to several cotton balls.
Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.
The cotton balls will have a hard coating on the outside when ready.
Allow the cotton balls to cool thoroughly.
Let the smashing begin!

Note: If the outer coating is too hard or thick the smashing may require a real hammer. This can be done as a demonstration by an adult or with a small hammer that the child can manage easily at the parent’s discretion.

End of Summer Activity: Homemade Zip Lines

Race homemade rockets, airplanes, birds, or your own creation on homemade zip lines. Discover how the length and steepness of the line affect how the items move.

Materials

Paper tube
Craft supplies (paper, tape, markers, paint, feathers, duct tape, glue, craft sticks, etc.)
Fishing line or thread

Directions

1. Create an original “racer” by decorating the paper tube as a car, bird, airplane, rocket, or other items with the craft supplies you have available. Allow drying thoroughly if necessary.

1. Locate two sturdy objects to which you can secure the fishing line.
2. Secure the fishing line to one object.
3. Thread the racer on to the other end of the fishing line.
4. Secure the fishing line to the other object.
5. Slide the racer to one end of the fishing line (the side that is higher).

1. Release the racer and watch it zip across the line.

Repeat and experiment with different lengths of line and by changing the heights of objects to which it is secured.

End of Summer Activity: Bird Feeder

Create a decorative, mobile-inspired bird feeder from items found in your back yard, recycling bin, and around the kitchen.

Materials

Paper towel tube or a cardboard cereal box
Several sticks of different shapes and sizes
Corn syrup or molasses
Basting brush or paint brush
Birdseed
2 open containers (one to hold the bird seed and one for the corn syrup)
Single hole punch
String or yarn
Tape
Scissors
Oat cereal rings

Directions

1. Fill one container ½ full with bird seed.
2. Fill the second container with corn syrup or molasses (enough to paint with).
3. Cut the paper towel tube into several rings. If using a cereal box, cut the cardboard into several strips and form into loops, securing each with tape. Make sure the plain side of the box shows on the outside of each ring.
4. Punch a single hole into the center of each ring.

1. Paint a thick coat of syrup onto each ring and then roll thoroughly in the bird seed.

1. Allow the bird seed to set on the rings for about 10-15 minutes.

1. Cut a variety of lengths of string or yarn. If using yarn, wrap a small piece of tape tightly around the end to help thread it more easily.

1. Tie a knot at one end of a piece of string. Begin stringing a few pieces of oat cereal on to it.

1. Slide the string through the bottom hole of a ring with bird seed. String more oat cereal onto the string and then slide the remaining string through the top hole of the ring.

1. Continue to string with oat cereal or add another bird seed covered ring. Create different arrangements.

1. Tie the completed strings to the stick.
2. Hang the bird feeder outside and watch the birds enjoy a snack.

Create Sea Snacks for the Whole Family

Create some healthy under-the-sea-themed snacks to share during a picnic, barbecue, or any time that suits your family. Here are some ideas to get you started. See if your child can come up with some of his own creations to add to the list.

Family Activity

Focus: Health

Playful Dolphins

Ingredients

- Bananas (not peeled)
- Grapes
- Cups
- Marker

Sea Star Sandwiches

Use a star-shaped cookie cutter to transform your child’s favorite sandwich, toast, waffle, pancake, or slice of cheese into a sea star.

Fish in the Sea

Ingredients

Fish-shaped crackers
Cream cheese
Rice cake
Blue food coloring

Directions

1. Mix a scoop of cream cheese with a drop or two of blue food coloring. Stir well.
2. Spread the blue cream cheese onto the rice cake.
3. Place several fish-shaped crackers into the “sea” of blue cream cheese.
4. Take a picture of your creation. Then eat and enjoy.

Extension

Add baby carrots standing upright or florets of broccoli to create a coral reef for the fish to hide in.

Clams

Ingredients

Round crackers
Peanut butter, cream cheese, hummus, or cheese spread
Yogurt-covered raisins (white)
Raisins

Directions

1. Spread peanut butter, cream cheese, hummus, or cheese onto one cracker.
2. Place one yogurt-covered raisin off center in the peanut butter, cream cheese, hummus, or cheese. This is the bottom of the mouth of the clam with the “pearl”.
3. To make the eyes put two small dollops of peanut butter, cream cheese, hummus, or cheese onto the top of the other cracker about thumb width apart. Place a raisin on each.
4. Set the cracker with the eyes on top of the cracker with the pearl.
5. Take a picture of your clams. Eat and enjoy!

Quality Educational Apps with a Nature Theme

Summer is a great time to get outside and enjoy nature. Enjoy these Nature Themed Apps.

Educational Apps with a Nature Theme

Domi Domi Nature Shapes (iOS, Google Play)

Domi Domi Nature Shapes – Matching and Sorting for Toddlers works to develop early childhood skills in a calming nature environment. Children must match the outlines of the creatures to the fully colored animals including crabs, owls, sea turtles, and sea horses. As your child progresses throughout the five different areas, the difficulty level increases from marching shapes to sorting the objects by color, type, and size. Sorting objects is a key skill for early childhood development. The app only has five games areas, and children may progress through them quickly. Many children would enjoy repeating the games again and again. The app has wonderful graphics and a soothing quality to the music and nature scenes. The app costs $2.99 and is appropriate for children ages 2-4.

Grandma Loves Bugs (iOS only)

Grandma Loves Bugs is an app that practices different types of skills that are appropriate for children ages 3-5. The app includes 10 mini-games and 8 educational videos for children to enjoy. The app works on skills such as matching letters, memory skills, identifying groups, and looking for differences. Grandma is charming as always and needs help finding the bugs in her hair. This app offers great basic skills practice for the summer. Children can also catch fireflies, draw a spider web, and eat caterpillar leaves with Grandma. The app costs $1.99.

WWF Together (iOS only)

WWF Together is beautifully created with stunning pictures of endangered animals. It would be valuable to sit with your child and discuss “endangered species” while looking at the pictures on the app. Each endangered animal is displayed through origami and includes information on creating your own origami creatures. You can even pose with the origami creature for a unique selfie! The app also provides a few interactive activities that coordinate with some of the animals featured in the app, including racing a jaguar and outjumping a snow leopard. The app includes facts about the animals, but these are not read aloud. There is a 3-D interactive globe which pinpoints exactly where endangered species exist, and children can calculate their distance from the species. Our child testers loved discovering the videos embedded within the app of endangered animals. This app is appropriate for children ages 4-8 and is a wonderful learning experience for the whole family.

3 Math Apps to Help Prevent the Summer Slide

Summer is here, but the learning shouldn’t stop. We have gathered 3 great apps that will help prevent the summer slide for your children in the area of math. These apps track your child’s progress and can be purchased on a monthly basis to supplement any curriculum your child has completed during the past school year.

Prevent the Summer Slide with These Math Apps

Todo Math

$Todo in Spanish means “all” and is designed to inspire play with all the early childhood math concepts. Read the KinderTown review.$

Todo Math is a free app designed to practice early childhood math skills. Todo in Spanish means “all” and is designed to inspire play with all the early childhood math concepts. It includes 20+ multi-level games. It has two different types of play: free choice and mission. In mission mode, the app gives a brief overview of each game and guides your child through each game one at a time. In free choice mode, all games are presented and your child chooses which one they would like to play. It includes multiple levels of math games and adaptive play, where the games automatically adapt to your child’s skill level. Other options for children are the Mathematical Missions, designed to motivate children to engage longer with the mathematical concepts. Parents, you can sign up for a parent account which will provide you with a more detailed look at how your child is progressing through the app. Compared to most apps, Todo Math does contain a worthwhile amount of free content practicing many different areas of math for children ages 3-6, or levels PreK-2nd grade. There are additional in-app purchases to access more content. The additional content would be beneficial to support your child’s math practice over the summer months and help prevent the summer slide.

myBlee Math

My Blee Math offers a wide variety of elementary math lessons on topics such as measuring line segments, working with money, mental math and multi-digit addition for students ages 5-8. KinderTown likes how the app gives initial instruction on a particular concept before the child is asked to practice or apply it. The instruction is given with a unique robotic-like voice. Another great feature is the use of “MyScript” technology that can identify a child’s handwriting as she writes her answer directly on the screen. Children will also find the use of the digital manipulatives which include movable rulers, blocks, protractors, etc. both interesting and helpful for solving problems. My Blee is an app that would benefit students who need additional practice with math concepts. The app offers communication to parents about their student’s progress through frequent emails. The app is free for 10 minutes each week. Subscriptions can be purchased for students who need more time per week for $9.99 a month or for $74.99 for a year.

Splash Math

$splash math full$

Splash Math is an interactive workbook style app where you’ll find all the math practice your child needs to reinforce what they have learned throughout the school year. There is a nice mix of multiple choice, fill in the missing pieces and choose an answer problems. Kids will find some questions that require reading, so parents will want to stick close when starting the app. Parents get complete customization of what math concepts and skills are presented to multiple children in the app. Splash Math comes in a variety of levels from PreK-5th Grade and reinforces math concepts learned during the corresponding grade level. You must purchase each level as an individual app for $9.99 and it includes the entire year’s worth of skill review.

Summer Creativity

Paper Bag Painting

My daughter loves to paint. She wants to paint every day, and paint supplies can become expensive. Today, I had a brown paper bag around, and it turned out to be the perfect canvas for paint because it is extra thick and stands up to the paint well. We used regular and glitter paints and different size brushes. She decided to paint a nature scene. This is a great way to spend a summer day!

Lazoo Art Box (iOS)

Lazoo Art Box is a fabulously creative digital coloring book for children ages 3-5. The app presents a child with a starting place for adding creativity to an existing scene or page in the coloring book. When your child is finished, watch the page come alive as the objects perform short animations. The app is extremely easy to use and kid-friendly. There are 3 interactive areas; Let’s Squiggle, Let’s Color, and Let’s Draw. For each area your child is prompted to draw with their finger and then press the Play button to view the animation. The app does a nice job of providing directions and vocabulary to accompany the picture. There are a variety of coloring tools provided at the bottom of the screen including stickers, markers, spray paint, and paint rollers for a variety of effects. There is also a blank page where children can create their own pictures. This would be a great app to keep on your phone to use when you are on the go this summer! Lazoo Art Box is $1.99 and available for iPhone and iPad.

Coding Gift Guide for Kids

We’ve recently talked about apps that promote coding skills, so here are some less techy gifts that will inspire that same higher-level thinking and problem-solving required for programming.

Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding by: Linda Liukas

Hello Ruby is a captivating story about a little girl named Ruby who has to solve a puzzle. She is spunky and bold. She is given a map to solve the problem and must travel to different locations in an adventure world. Along the way she is solving different clues in order to gain the rubies she needs. The book is organized into chapters and each chapter includes a problem to solve and introduces a special character. In the back of the book, there are activities to complete with your child that go along with each chapter and use the type of thinking skills presented in the chapter. For example, Ruby learns how to repeat the task of connecting sticks with rope to create a ladder, and uses that skill to solve the problem of reaching the ruby. Overall, the storybook is delightfully crafted and appeals to children ages 6-9, with parents interested in facilitating learning activities.

Robot Turtles: The Game for Little Programmers!

Robot Turtles is a board game for kids that revolves around the concepts of the Logo programming language. Players as young as 4 can dictate the movement of their turtle on the board by using cards that give commands to the turtle. The commands tell the turtle to turn, move forward, or side to side. The goal is for your turtle to reach its own jewel. The game has other components that can be introduced gradually once your child has a basic understanding of how the game works, such as obstacles, repeat cards, and lasers. These additional components make the game interesting and challenging for older children. Lastly, Robot Turtle has done a great job of making programming understandable for parents, and providing clear directions in the booklet that accompany the game. I especially appreciated the Quick Start Guide and the additional resources provided online. The game is well developed for parents as well as children.

Around the Kitchen: Closing Campfire

Summer Camp is for parents and kids to work together, exploring the world around you with activities that will take you outside, inside, and as far as your imagination will go! Learn more by reading the Welcome to KinderTown Summer Camp! blog post.

Thank you for participating in KinderTown Summer Camp!

We hope you found the week a valuable learning experience for your family. Please post your accomplishments on social media using the hashtag #KTcook.

Here is a printable certificate that you can share with your kids!

Raddish Kids is offering a coupon for 25% off the first kit with purchase of a 3, 6, or 12 month membership. The code is KINDERTOWN.

Related Blog Posts

Around the Kitchen: Opening Ceremony
Around the Kitchen: App Connections
Around the Kitchen: Grab Bag
Around the Kitchen: Demme Learning Day

Around the Kitchen: Demme Learning Day

Make a Treat!

Math-U-See® is a complete K-12 math curriculum produced by Demme Learning. This unique program develops by level, rather than by grade, presenting mathematical concepts incrementally. Students use manipulatives at most levels to establish an understanding of the concepts, and then move on to solving problems until they have demonstrated mastery.

The kitchen is an excellent place for practicing real-life math skills. Young children can identify basic measurement tools and help with counting, while elementary level children can practice multiplication by doubling or tripling a favorite recipe with this printable.

Older elementary children can use division and fractions to halve a recipe with this printable.

Choose one of the following no-bake recipes (or find one of your own) and help your children sharpen their math skills in preparation for the upcoming school year.

RECIPES:

Peanut Butter Butterscotch Bars

15 graham crackers, broken up

3 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1 11-oz. package butterscotch chips (about 1 3/4 cups)

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil, making sure the foil extends up over the edges.
Process graham crackers with sugar and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Pulse in butter until moistened. Transfer to lined pan and press crumbs down evenly and firmly.
Place butterscotch chips in a large bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove and stir until smooth and creamy. (Do not overheat, or mixture will turn stiff.) Stir in peanut butter. Blend well and spread evenly over graham-cracker crust. Cover and chill until firm (1-2 hours).
Lift bars out and remove foil. Use a sharp knife to cut into squares.

Chocolate No-Bakes

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Large pinch salt

1. Line a baking sheet with wax paper or parchment paper.
2. Bring the sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally; then boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Add the oats, peanut butter, vanilla, and salt and combine.
3. Drop teaspoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and sit at room temperature until hardened.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preschool-Early Elementary: Tell your child which tool you need (measuring cup, teaspoon) and have him find that tool for you. Point out the relationship between the tools (ex., two half cups fill a whole cup). Have your child count as you add the correct number of cups, tablespoons, etc.
Elementary: Ask your child to double the recipe by multiplying each ingredient by 2. (You may need to help with any fractional measurements.) Then have him multiply the yield by 2 to predict how many bars or cookies he will have at the end.
Upper Elementary: Ask your student to halve the recipe. Depending on his ability level, have him divide by 2 (helping with the fractional measurements) or multiply by ½.

Around the Kitchen Giveaway

Take photos of your family enjoying a summer/cooking activity at home and upload them to social media with the hashtag #KTcook or upload them below to enter.

Raddish Kids is also offering a coupon for 25% off the first kit with purchase of a 3-, 6-, or 12-month membership. The code is KINDERTOWN.

Related Blog Posts

Around the Kitchen: Opening Ceremony
Around the Kitchen: App Connections
Around the Kitchen: Grab Bag
Around the Kitchen: Closing Campfire