Last night I woke my two oldest children up at 2:30AM. I led my confused and sleepy babies out onto the golf course behind our house armed with a flashlight and a blanket. I spread out the blanket on the cool, damp grass of the fairway, we all laid on it facing northeast … and hoped that the sprinklers would not go off! Lol!
The children were astonished by what they saw – shooting stars, lots of them! We also saw the Milky Way and several satellites marching in line across the night sky.
Our fabulous unplugged (and free!) show was the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The peak was the nights of August 12 and 13th, but you might still be able to see a pretty good display through the 22nd (especially if you are lucky enough to live in a low ambient light area like we do). Just look to the northeast after midnight.
PS. Most visible in the Northern Hemisphere, sorry!
LINKS:
EarthSky’s Meteor Shower Guide
Excellent Perseid Meteor Shower Expected
How-To: Photographing the Perseid Meteor Shower
Perseid Photo Gallery
For another of our astronomy adventures, you might like to read: The Moon Unplugged? Not For Me!! (Part 1) and Mom Unplugged vs. Evil Sleepy Poser Mom – Lunar Dilemma Part 2.
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(PHOTO: I wish I had taken this great Perseid photo, but it is the work of Mila Zinkova. License information can be found here.)
License Plate Scavenger Hunt
- Download and print a free, printable map of the US (or your country/region).
- Give one to each of your children and see how many license plates they can spot while on the road.
- They can color in the states as they spot them.
- For US mainlanders, a special prize for Alaska or Hawaii makes it even more fun.
The map format (vs. just a list) gives them a real sense of geography. On a recent road trip, I found my kids saying things like: “The farthest state we have seen from where we are now is New York” or “Look! We have all the states that border Arizona!”
TIPS – For extra learning, choose one with state capitals*. Younger children will just enjoy coloring the map.
* For a printable PDF file of a US map with state capitals (free for personal or classroom use), go to this site, scroll down, and click on the link “United States: Capitals.”
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Licensing and author information here.)
Are you without any ideas for organized unplugged things to to do on a nice Spring day but you aren’t feeling ambitious enough for a full blown Children’s Garden? Do you have an old fish tank, or large glass bowl? See if your kids want to make a terrarium!
Very few children can resist the idea of their own tiny little garden. Even I remember making one and being totally fascinated by the magic of such a small scale. To me it was like a little doll house garden. If you have a fairy-lover, call it a Fairy Garden. A dragon-lover, why not make a Baby Dragon Garden! Be creative.
Last Sunday when we had our first gorgeous spring day, I finally told my 9 year-old that she could have the old fish tank in our garage that had been gathering dust in our garage for at least 6 months. She has had her eye on it for some time – but for me, snow and cold are not conducive to warm, green creativity.
We finally pulled it out and I told her she was on her own.
This is what she came up with all by herself (as long as you don’t count my driving her to the nursery to get her plants while I bought mine).
I LOVE the reuse of the little fairy house from our fairy garden of 2 years ago and the path of rocks that lead to it. There is even a pond made out of a food storage container that my daughter wants to put tadpoles in. She put some sea shells in the pond and broken terracotta pots as homes for the future frog residents. Some of the ferns look like trees and there is a small sprig of English Ivy for which she plans to make her own twig trellis.
Very fun and easy!
- Teaches kids not only to be creative about their landscaping ideas, but responsibility in caring for their creation.
- If you don’t have a suitable glass container, try searching yard sales and thrift stores.
Teachers and parents, are you looking for a fun and different math activity for your students or kids? Then you’ll be happy to learn that tomorrow, March 3rd 2010, is World Math(s) Day!
Teachers can sign their classes up to participate in this online math contest with same-aged students (5-18 years) from around the globe for a chance to win prizes. Individual students or homeschooling families can register too. This year for the first time there is even a category for teachers and parents who want to join in the fun. Plus, it is all COMPLETELY FREE!
Here is how it works:
“Students play at home and at school against other students around the world in live games of mental arithmetic. Each game lasts for 60 seconds and students can play up to 500 games, earning points for each correct answer. The students who answer the most questions appear in the Hall of Fame. Students cannot select their level but will move up as they progress.”
(“About World Maths Day,” from the World Maths Day website)
So far there are over 2 million students from 37,000 schools in 200 countries registered for tomorrow’s event. The goal is to beat last year’s world record of correctly answering 452,681,681 questions!
I had fun just browsing the lists of students and classes registered from an amazing array of locations. It would make for a great geography lesson in addition to the math fun!
Head on over right now and register your students, children, and yourself!
LINKS:
World Maths Day 2010 Website
World Maths Day 2010 Official Blog
$1,350.03
That’s how much a class of thirteen 6 to 9 year-olds raised for
with a simple Book & Bake Sale!
If they can do it, you can do it too!
How they did it:
Two weeks ahead of time:
- They hung a sign on the school door asking for donations of books and baked goods for our Haiti fundraiser.
- They placed an empty box in the school entryway for collecting the books.
- They also put a sealed box in the lobby for any impromptu donations.
Day before, set-up:
- The day before the sale they accepted baked goods.
- After school they sorted the books into children and adult piles.
- They organized the children’s books into separate boxes and baskets based on level (picture books, readers, chapter books).
- Everything was set up on tables in our tiny school entryway with a simple pricing system posted.
The Sale:
- The morning of the sale, they set up the baked goods outside the door on a table (it was so cold and snowy that there was no danger of spoilage!).
- The school is on a side street, so they put out a sign on the main road nearby. They also put signs in the grocery store and the library. All signs said clearly that proceeds would be for Haiti.
- The sealed box went to a prominent location on the book table, with a basket nearby with a few small bills and coins for making change.
- They hung a Haitian flag and also posted some information about Partners in Health so any interested people could read more about where their money would be going.
Post-Sale:
- I helped them sort through the leftover books and we separated the ones that were fairly recent and looked pretty new.
- We took these “good” leftovers to our local bookstore so the owner could buy any that would work for her used book section. She ended up buying almost all of them, and even gave us more than her normal cash price since we were doing this for Haiti! (Be sure to let a bookstore know that you are selling for Haiti)
- The kids packed up the other books and we put them in storage for our annual school yard sale.
Counting:
- Practical math lesson: The children counted the cash and were SO excited, especially when they found a $100 bill in the box!
- Their teacher counted the checks for privacy reasons (NOTE: For ease of accounting, we made sure people made their checks out directly to Partners in Health and not to our school).
- I took the cash to the bank and traded it in for a cashiers check made out to Partners in Health.
And voilà! Not a whole lot of effort really, but now we have a nice donation to send off to Partners in Health and the kids feel GREAT!
Why not try it with your school?
For more fundraising ideas, please read Help Your Kids Help Haiti.
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