Discover the Sun: Opening Ceremony

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!

This week’s theme is Discover the Sun; download the weekly planner.

Learn a creative way to tell time with this printable from Demme Learning.

Remember there is not one right way to conduct camp. Complete as much or as little as you can. We hope your family engages in many of the learning experiences we have laid out for the week, but the key is to do things together!

Be sure to post your accomplishments online by using the hashtag #DiscoverTheSun. We’d love to know what you are up to! Check back on the blog each weekday to see what others have done, app connections, and additional activities.

Thanks for participating in KinderTown Summer Camp!

Wonders of Water: 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!

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 hashtags #KinderTownSummerCamp and #WondersofWater.

This photo was submitted by @cmarie_demme on Instagram.

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

Wonders of Water: Demme Learning Day

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!

“Fill the Bucket Game”

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.

Students work with liquid measurement in the Gamma level (customary units) and the Zeta level (metric units) in the Math-U-See program. As you prepare to play this water game, you can refer to this printable to review measurement.

MATERIALS:

Tools for measuring liquids– measuring cups, pint jars or plastic containers, quart jugs, half-gallon jugs, gallon jugs; may also want to include liter bottles, 2-liter bottles, milliliter droppers or teaspoons (5 ml)
2-3 identical buckets
Large container for holding water (kiddie pool, large washtub, ice chest) or access to outdoor faucet
3 x 5 notecards

INSTRUCTIONS:

On the notecards, write at least two instructions related to the measuring tools you have, such as “Add 1 cup” or “Subtract 1 pint.” You can tailor the instructions to your students as follows:
- PK/Early Elementary: measures in whole units, using the tools you have
- Lower Elementary: measures that require substitution (ex., “Add 1 pint” but have no pint containers or “Subtract 1 gallon” but only have half-gallon containers)
- Upper Elementary: include metric measures

There should be a minimum of 10 cards for each level, with more “adds” than “subtracts”.

Divide the children into teams, or allow them to compete individually, each one getting a bucket. Put instruction cards into piles.
Children take turns drawing a card from the appropriate pile and following the instructions. The team or person who fills the bucket first wins.

Wonders of Water: Grab Bag

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!

As we continue our camp week focused on the Wonders of Water, I want to share one of my family’s favorite water activities. It’s playing in the creek. The concept is simple: water shoes, old clothes, and lots of cool water in a shady location. We take a few buckets and shovels to discover new treasures and creatures and play in the water. My children love enjoying the outdoors and there’s always something to be learned along the way. No fancy pools or beaches, just the creek in the neighborhood. Here’s an app to enjoy alongside your exploration at the creek.

Meet the Insects: Water and Grass Edition

If you discover an insect near the water, use this app to help you learn more about the insect. Meet the Insect apps are packed with information, videos, pictures and an observation journal. The app includes an Insect Story section which provides diagrams and narration in a storybook format with interactive areas for kids to learn about insects. The See Insects section provides detailed information regarding each type of bug. The scientific name is used and real pictures and facts are read aloud to children. The quiz section offers two different types of interactive quizzes. KinderTown’s favorite section is the observation journal. This would be a great tool to study insects around your home environment, at the park or over a period of time. Children can add their own photos of the insect and record the location, weather and notes about the insect. There are three different editions of Meet the Insects: Forest Edition, Village Edition, and Water and Grass Edition. These apps would be an excellent addition to a study on insects or a resource for writing a report on insects. Each individual Meet the Insects App is $4.99 or you can purchase the app bundle for $9.99. Meet the Insects apps are appropriate for children ages 5-8.

Wonders of Water: App Connections

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!

Explore these great apps about water for virtual water fun as we continue through Wonders of Water.

Tiggly Submarine

Tiggly Submarine works with Tiggly’s new hands-on product Tiggly Words. Tiggly Words includes hands-on vowel letters that interact with the iPad screen to make a multimedia experience for early learners. Travel through the underwater scene and select the correct vowel to complete words such as crab, fox, hen, and sun. Tiggly Words does a wonderful job of introducing the vowels to children in the context of beginning words. Understanding the vowels and their coordinating sound is an important pre-reading skill. Tiggly Submarine is appropriate for children who are beginning to learn to read, ages 4-7.

Science Museum Splash

Science Museum Splash is all the fun and splashing of tub time for your preschooler, without mopping up your bathroom afterward. Does an item sink or float? Test it and find out! Tip your iPad side to side to see the water move, and wipe away the virtual steam. Change the temperature of the water. Want to start over again? Pull the plug and watch the water disappear down the drain. If you are feeling brave try out each of the items in your own bathtub! Science Museum Splash is free and appropriate for children ages 3-5.

Sprinkle Jr.

Have fun with the virtual water, and your child will develop problem-solving skills in the process. Children must spray water to unlock or solve the problem presented. Each scene includes movable items in the scenery that help you extinguish flames or achieve a goal such as picking the fruit from a tree and feeding it to the animals. There are 30 fun levels included. Sprinkle Jr. is $1.99 and appropriate for children ages 3-5.

Wonders of Water: Opening Ceremony

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!

This week’s theme is Wonders of Water; download the weekly planner.

Download the weekly planner for Wonders of Water.

Be sure to post your accomplishments online by using the hashtags #KinderTownSummerCamp and #WondersofWater. We’d love to know what you are up to! Check back on the blog each weekday to see what others have done, app connections and additional activities.

Thanks for participating in KinderTown Summer Camp!

Summer Learning Apps for Your Preschooler

Check out these great apps to keep your preschooler’s skills alive this summer.

Summer Learning Apps

Writing Wizard

Use this app with children who have been introduced to their letters this school year. It will solidify their knowledge of letter names and formations. Writing Wizard offers 5 different fonts to choose from. Choose the one your child is most familiar with. Next, the app has 5 different areas for learning and engaging with writing. The first area involves tracing familiar shapes such as circles, crescents, and crosses. This area is a great place to start for children who are just beginning to write and use a pencil or crayon, usually around the age of 3. The areas include upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and a “My Words” section. All of the different learning areas have many different options for parents to customize the experience for their children, including changing the size, difficulty, and whether to show or hide the model. There is even a setting for left-handed writers.

Children love the different types of markers used to trace the letters such as rainbow, tiger, and bugs! After the letter is correctly formed, children love playing with the pictures that fly off the letters before the next letter appears. This feature keeps children engaged and offers a change to “play” while learning. KinderTown especially likes the “My Words” section for children as they advance their writing skills. Parents, customize the words in this section to include your child’s name, their favorite food, their siblings’ names, and other important beginning words your child is motivated to practice over and over. Another wonderful feature within the app is the ability to print off practice sheets for your child. A great way to make the connection between the app and paper and pencil. The app is $4.99 and appropriate for children ages 3-6. An app that will grow with your early learner!

TeachMe Toddler

TeachMe Toddler is a mixed-practice review app that presents questions in a multiple choice format. The app reviews concepts such as shapes, letters, letter sounds, colors, and vowel sounds. The app has a nice progress reporting area where you can check how your child is progressing through the skills. For every 4 questions answered correctly, the child earns a sticker. This feature excites children and motivates them to continue answering the questions. KinderTown likes how if children choose the wrong answer, the little mouse tells them why the answer is incorrect. Children must continue until they select the correct answer and do not earn a checkmark towards a sticker when they incorrectly answer the question. In addition the app allows for multiple children to have an account so it can be used in preschools or for multiple children in one home. TeachMe Toddler is $0.99 and appropriate for children ages 3-4.

Kindergarten Bingo

Kindergarten Bingo practices three different skills: shapes, letters, and numbers, through an interactive Bingo board. The app allows for up to 5 players to play the game together. Children must listen closely to the narration, as it tells what to identify in the app, like a “green crescent,” or the letter “M.” This is a great way to help your child prepare for following directions, and improve their listening skills. Parents, visit the settings to change the default letters from capital to lowercase, and choose how high you would like your child to practice their numbers (up to 100). Also, parents, you can choose to practice the letter names or the letter sounds. Both are valuable skills for children. The app also has a nice practice area with flashcards that need to be used with an adult because the app does not provide feedback for the child. The app does say the correct answer aloud when tapped, but a parent will need to help their child correctly identify what is pictured on the flashcard.

Learning Wand

Craft stick or Paper Towel tube

Markers/Crayons

Construction Paper

Construct a special wand. Decorate the paper towel tube or craft stick. Make a special star for the top. Let your child lead in how they would like to decorate their special learning wand.

Tell your child that they are going to use their special wand to find letters around your home. Ask your child “Can you find a letter in the kitchen?” Children should use their special wand to search for a letter. If they can’t identify all the letters, don’t worry. Tell your child the correct letter name once they have found a letter. If they need assistance, give them clues. After finding a few letters in the kitchen, switch to another area of your home. By doing this you are raising your child’s print awareness. They are discovering where letters exist within their environment. For older students, you could ask the question “Can you find a word in the kitchen?” You can also repeat with numbers. “Can you find a number in your bedroom?” Use your special learning wand throughout the summer to continue to identify letters, words and numbers in their environment.

Turn your Plastic Easter Eggs into Hands-on Learning

Easter baskets, Easter candy, and a few new spring trinkets entertain my children this week. Easter grass and plastic Easter eggs are scattered over my house as the kids enjoy the aftermath of a busy weekend with family and friends, and several Easter egg hunts over the past few weeks. But, before you throw the plastic Easter eggs away, turn them into a learning activity. If your kids are like my kids, then they seem to never grow tired of the hiding and finding of the eggs.

Upper Case and Lower Case Matching

My daughter attends a local preschool and has begun to identify many letters. At her recent parent conference, her teacher shared her progress and suggested we work on matching all of the upper case and lowercase letters. To create the game, I write with sharpie upper and lowercase letters on either side of the Easter egg. Then hide them around the house. I’ll be sure to include a few I know she knows for review and building confidence as well as a few she isn’t sure of yet. The easiest upper case and lower case letters to match are those that look visually similar such as Uu, Ww and Cc. Letters that are not as visually similar are more difficult to learn and recognize as the upper and lower case version, such as Ff, Gg or Nn.

This game will be perfect for her, and I’ll follow it up with a writing activity, and time on her favorite phonics app, abcPocketPhonics. I’ll space the activities out and repeat them over the next week or two. This is a great learning combination for anyone still learning the upper- and lowercase letters. I’m tapping into multiple senses and experiences to solidify her learning.

PocketPhonics (Basic Edition)

PocketPhonics brings three important language skills together into one app. In PocketPhonics (Basic Edition), children learn to recognize letters, hear letter sounds, form letters by tracing, and use the letter sounds to build words. Encourage your child to repeat the sounds made by each letter. Parents are able to create multiple users, have control over the font, letter types, what letters their child can work on, and how flawless the writing needs to be. PocketPhonics tracks each user’s answer and will not advance a user unless they first demonstrate mastery of the basics. KinderTown recommends the use of a stylus to help in the transfer of letter formation from the iPad screen to handwriting on paper. There is a Lite version to try to see if this app is a good fit for your child.

Thinking About Purchasing an iPad?

Thinking of purchasing an iPad for Christmas? iPads are becoming increasingly popular with children and parents. What does the iPad have to offer children ages 3-8?

App Selection

Many say that the iPad has the best collection of apps to offer, and here at KinderTown we agree. Want to develop creativity? Work on Math facts? Gain assistance with reading? Learn the letter sounds? The iPad has a vast selection of educational apps available. Download KinderTown onto your device so you’ll always have a handy guide sorted by age group, device, and subject area.

Creativity

The iPad allows creativity to the youngest learners. Apps that include pictures, drawing, creating stories and movie making are available for students as young as 3. Check out Draw and Tell for the youngest iPad user, and Toontastic for older children. Have your child create their own book with easy to use apps. You will be amazed at what they will create. Many iPad apps encourage exploration such as Bobo Explores Light and Monster Physics, which explores the use of gears and pulleys.

Portability

The iPad offers a great portable tool for kids. As our lives become increasingly mobile, so are our kids’ lives. In my house, we use the iPad everywhere. Try a great recipe in the kitchen, take pictures or your favorite toys and family members in the living room, and curl up with a digital book before bed. Time yourself in the bathroom while you brush your teeth. Take pictures of the changing leaves outside. The possibilities are endless. And, of course, take it along in the minivan while you wait to pick a sibling up from soccer practice, or turn any waiting room into a classroom.

Access

Access to wi-fi seems to be everywhere now, potentially putting the world at your child’s fingertips. With the iPad, children can reach across cultures and discover new types of people and places without ever leaving their house. Our lives are all now global in nature with most jobs and work opportunities expecting people to work with people all over the world. Read about a few global apps that your child may enjoy.

Easy to Use

Most appealing to many parents is that the iPad is easy to use. Guidance and troubleshooting are rarely necessary. Most 3 year-olds can pick up the iPad and are ready to use apps designed for their age level. They may even discover how to use the apps more quickly than adults.

While KinderTown recommends children use iPads as a learning device, it is a wise move to have a dinner time conversation about the use of the iPad, the responsibility associated with it, and your personal family values related to media. This is time well spent and may decrease conflict over the use of the device in the future. Ask questions like these: Who does the iPad belong to? Is it a family iPad? When and Where can children use the ipad? What do we do if a pop-up box appears? Where is the iPad stored? How long can kids use the iPad?

Share your experience with us. Does your child want an iPad for Christmas?

Artistic Apps by Avokiddo

I love the artistic quality of the Avokiddo apps so much that I would like to highlight both Avokiddo ABC Ride and Avokiddo Emotions. These apps are so beautifully created that you will wonder whether your child is playing and learning with art or an iPad. (Really it’s both!)

Avokiddo ABC Ride

Avokiddo ABC Ride blends the great artistic qualities of cut-paper art design with learning letters. The characters, Beck and Bo, appear in the park, and your child can begin to play with them as he chooses a bike to ride through the park. Along the way, activities included in the scenery prompt your child to play a learning game that is associated with a letter. Once the activity is completed, students must reconstruct a word that starts with that letter. Another way to navigate the app is to use the ABC icon in the corner to choose a specific letter. In the parent section, choose uppercase or lowercase letters, whether to have the app state the letter name or the phonics sound, and other options, such as music and narration check boxes. Avokiddo ABC Ride combines artistic characters and scenes with a healthy dose of play while your child learns letter names and sounds. Avokiddo ABC Ride costs $2.99, is appropriate for children ages 3-5, and is available on iPhone and iPad.

Avokiddo Emotions

Avokiddo Emotions opens with Avokiddo’s signature artistically created characters. Tap on the zebra, sheep, or giraffe to play with the character. Next, objects fall onto the screen, and your child gets to choose which ones to attach to the character. For example, a big straw hat turns the character into a beach-loving animal. With each object and scene, the characters display emotions associated with the scene and objects. Decide which foods to feed the characters to see how they will react. (Do they like pumpkin, watermelon, or a sandwich?) You can save your picture to your camera roll while playing or pull the lever to have all new objects come into the scene. Through this type of play, young children are learning about emotions, cause and effect, and body language. Avokiddo Emotions is available for $2.99,is appropriate for children ages 3-5, and is available for iPhone and iPad. Enjoy the artistic characters and explore their emotions as you add fun props.

Show What You Know: Cut Paper Art

The app, Beck and Bo is designed in a cut paper style. Grab all your paper scraps around the house and have fun creating a cut paper masterpiece and incorporate letter-sound associations, too.

Supplies:

-scraps of paper or full sized pieces of paper

-glue

-1 larger piece of paper to use as a construction base

-scissors

Have your child begin to cut paper to design a picture. For example, cut out a circular shape for a ship, circles and squares for windows, and long rectangles for the mast. Arrange the cut pieces on the larger piece to create a picture. While creating this with your child, attach the beginning letter or word to objects. For example, write the letters “Sh” on the ship, and “M” on the mast. Talk about the beginning sounds with your child. Provide the letters and sounds if your child is at the beginning stages of learning their letters. If your child knows most of their letter sounds, write the word and ask “What else begins like the word sun?” This activity can be tailored to many different levels. Also, allow your child to experiment and explore with different abstract shapes that may not have a direct letter or word correlation.

We would love to hear from you…. Does your child love one of our apps? Did you try the “Show What You Know” activity? Let us know what you thought at sayhello@kindertown.com.

Blog

Summer Learning Apps

Learning Wand

App Selection

Creativity

Portability

Access

Easy to Use

Show What You Know: Cut Paper Art