Art For Kids Hub! - Daily Art Lessons

I started following this channel on You Tube a while ago, and I have been repeatedly impressed with the art lessons that are shared here.  Super fun to share with kids as a daily drawing lesson or as a reward once in a while. Also can provide you will some fun lesson ideas and activities to do based on themes and holidays.  They do lots of drawings, but they also do painting, finger painting, origami, clay and more.  Check it out!

Remember, if you are getting great content from a You Tube channel, watch the whole commercial and "Like" the video. That helps support their channel.

Activity Village -Free Website Resource

I'm fairly certain that I have posted about Activity Village in the past. They have some great stuff on their site.  Lot of international stuff as well.  They have just updated with lots of new FREE resources. 

From their email....

Activity Village News 9th September 2015 ​ Here's a special quickie newsletter just to let you know that we have... LOTS New!

It's not too late to enjoy some of our new Longest Reigning Monarch and Queen Elizabeth activities, to celebrate this special day.
Longest Reigning MonarchThe Queen

Queen Victoria

With Roald Dahl's birthday coming up we've added a few new fun worksheets and printables:
Roald Dahl Printables
Roald Dahl Worksheets

New Autumn (and Fall) worksheets just added - handwriting included:
Autumn Worksheets

And here are some lovely new Autumn (and Fall) posters too:
Autumn Posters

Elizabeth I, James I ( and VI of Scotland) and Charles I - what have they got in common? We've produced some new activities aimed at younger children, that's what! The kids can even learn to draw these Tudor and Stuart monarchs...
Elizabeth I

James I

Charles I

Lots more has been added to our Colour topic, including bright word cards, fun sorting cards, and a brand new collection of useful colouring pages:

Colour Printables

Colour Worksheets

Colour Mixing

Colour Collection Colouring Pages

Or explore the whole topic here: Colour

Our new Farmyard Stepping Stone Puzzles give kids some fun practice with early skills - the alphabet, vowels and consonants, odds and evens and skip counting 2 to 12.

Farmyard Stepping Stone Puzzles

While on the farm theme - we've added new
Farm Puzzles

Farm Animal Worksheets

Farm Animal Games

We've added a new set of simple colouring pages for London for younger children, to add to our existing detailed pages for older children:

London Colouring Pages

And finally, we've also added a set of London I Spy booklets which could be used when sight-seeing or perhaps taking a virtual tour of London. Sarah designed these for her Guides, putting up our London posters around the room and sending them off on a London hunt!
London I Spy Booklets

ABCya.com - Games for K-5

www.ABCya.com is a site with lots of learning games for Grades K-5

Wonderapolis - Daily Wonders - Free Website

 

Wonderopolis is a free website with a different wonder everyday.  They have a topic and information related to the topic.  These would be great quick little lessons while kids are eating snack or before a transition time. 

Learn languages FREE with Duolingo

If you have access to computers or a computer lab, you can get your kids involved in learning languages, for FREE with www.duolingo.com. The site is fun and has a classroom component that is like a game. 

You could make a progress chart, and even offer prizes for students when they reach certain goals.  It could even be used as a year long theme!  Oh the ideas......

Scientific Fun - Taking Things Apart!

One of the things my brother loved to do, as a child, was to take things apart to see how they worked and then to try to put them back together.  Although he usually took apart things that he wasn't supposed to be using as play things, like the VCR or Hair Dryer.  As an adult he loved to work on cars, mostly by taking things apart and then putting them back together with some parts left over! Oops!

My point is that he was very inquisitive, as many children are, and was always looking at things and wondering how they worked.  He eventually turned that into a career in Research and Development.

Remembering a time when he took apart my clock radio gave me the inspiration to bring in a few old appliances and some tools for the kids to tinker with.  We had a group discussion about the tools, I demonstrated their use, and we talked about tool safety.  I then set out some appliances, with their cords cut off, for my little friends to take apart and tinker with.  Several kids lost interest in it almost immediately, but those mechanically minded kids had those appliance apart in no time, examining each item, setting out their pieces on a tray, and even trying to put things back together again.  Of course, I admonished them not to use tools or try this on anything at home without Mom or Dad's permission. 

One boy was so interested he begged me to bring in something with a cord so that he could see if he could take it apart and make it work again.  I explained to him, and the others, that I cut off the cords because putting something back together incorrectly could be quite dangerous and might cause a fire.  That led us into some intricate discussion about electricity and how that worked and they came up with some amazing questions that we had to go to the computer lab and research to find the answers.

If you decide to do this....

• Bring in only basic appliances with no batteries fuses inside. 
• Remove cords so that they can't get plugged in and start a fire or electrocute. 
• Teach tool safety. 
• Closely monitor the activity. 
• Encourage girls to try it out as they may feel like it's a "Boy Thing".  

I found this great blog post about taking apart a stuffed animal to see how it's put together.  This would work great if your kids are younger and couldn't work a screwdriver or pliers.  Click on the photo to go to TinkLab and check it out!

 

 

TinkerLab is a great site with lots of activity ideas.  Bookmark it or sign up for their newsletter to get lots of ideas!

PaperToys.com

If you have older kids that are mechanical or need something to keep their interest and keep their hands busy try www.papertoys.com .  They have lots of interesting 3-D models to intricately cut and paste. 

This Kids Should See This + Make a Hot Air Balloon

I've recently found this site called The Kids Should See This.  It's a great site with images and videos that kids would love and become inspired by.  They have found a lot of amazing videos that would fit into any of your themes or just something cool to show the kids as a reward or a way to get the crowd calmed down.  You can subscribe to the site and they will send you a weekly email with lots of fun!

One of the awesome videos that I've found on the site is this one about Hot Air Balloons.  It talks about the science behind them and shows you how to easily make your own with 2 garbage bags and a hair dryer.  Neat project the kids will be amazed by!

Mailbox Resources on Closeout $3 each or 5 for $10!

I'm sure you are somewhat familiar with Mailbox.  They now have some of their resources on closeout for $3 each or 5 for $10.  Some of these include centers that would be great for homework time.  There are also theme activities  with games and more.  Check it out!

1. Click this email and shop for Closeouts. No coupon code is needed. 2. Add 5 or more Closeouts to your shopping cart and each Closeout item will drop to only $2!

While supplies last. No adjustments on previous purchases. Subject to change without notice. Qualifying items are found on the page titled "Closeouts".

Holiday Printables

Sometimes you just gotta give 'em a coloring sheet! 

It's not my favorite.  I like activity sheets , activities and games that teach and enrich.  But, sometimes a fun coloring sheet that goes along with a theme is a perfect time filler, especially when they can help decorate a bulletin board or make the room more lively.  Coloring is fun, improves motor skills of little ones, can be a creative outlet, and is an easy activity.  Just don't depend on it day after day. Please.

 www.Reading-With-Kids.com has a great Thanksgiving page loaded with activities, puzzles, cards and even coloring sheets. 

I haven't gotten to explore much of the site yet, but it looks like a fun one with lots of good resources.  Add it to your favorites!