Kids love toilet paper roll crafts. They are usually simple and versatile.
Instruct your kids to paint or color the paper roll. For smaller
planes, use a toilet paper roll or cut a paper towel roll in half. For
larger planes, use the entire paper towel roll. Remind the kids that
too much paint will make the paper roll soggy so only use a little bit
of paint. After the paint dries, glue the tubes together so that one is
perpendicular to the other. Then, split the tail end with a pair of scissors. Add a strip of paper through the slit. You might
have to glue or paper clip the strip of paper in so that it stays in
place while in flight. If weather permits, take the kids outside to
enjoy their planes.
Laundry Pin Airplane
Use wooden laundry pins and
tongue depressors to make this cute wooden airplane. Allow the children
to paint the wooden pins and depressors in whatever colors they like.
After the paint dries, glue the pieces together. Cut tail spikes out of craft foam and let the children paint them to
match their planes.
Play-Doh Planes
Get out the Play-Doh and allow the kids to craft their own planes.
They can mold and shape small planes, large planes, various shaped
planes, and unusual planes. Don’t expect aerodynamically correct
planes. Allow the kids to use their imaginations and create whatever
sort of plane they want. The purpose of this activity is to exercise fine motor skills as they
work.
Field Trip: Air Show
If possible, schedule a field trip to an air show. The kids can see
the planes in motion. They might even get a chance to climb on-board a
grounded plane and learn about the inside and how pilots fly planes.
Read Books about Planes
This one should have been at the top of the list! Read, read, read.
Go to the library, download books on your eReader devices, iPads, etc.
Find all the books you can find about airplanes and read them with your
kids.
Airplane Snack
Obtain the old fashioned pre-wrapped Smarties candies, sticks of gum, Life Savers or any kind of mint with a hole in the middle, and a
rubber-band. Glue the gum stick onto the Smarties candy so that the two
snacks are perpendicular to one another. Then run the rubber band
through the Life Saver holes and wrap them around the candy. Secure the Life Saver wheels in place by hooking the
rubber-band around the ends of the gum-stick.
Just Draw
Give the children crayons, pencils, colored pencils, pens, and a lot
of paper. Allow the children to draw planes. Allow them to use their
imaginations and draw, draw, draw.
Lesson Ideas for Teaching Children About Water Quality
The month of August is known as Water Quality Month. Include lesson plans,
activities, and crafts into your daily lesson plans which encourage
students to appreciate the environment in which they live and help them
learn the importance of good water quality.
Field Trip
Take students on a field trip to a nearby water treatment facility.
Students will learn how water is filtered and recycled into the
environment.
Crafts
Include games, activities, and crafts that help reinforce your lessons.
Encourage children to create habitats, build aquariums, and develop
poster board presentations which demonstrate the water cycle. Instruct
students to create seashore collages, construct rainbows from melted
crayons or tissue paper squares, and “paint” with colored sand.
Test Water Quality
How clean is the water in your home or classroom? Test your water quality using a water test kit.
Videos
Show videos which teach children the importance of good water quality.
Check in your local libraries, school media centers, and online for good
quality videos. PBS Teacher provides great teacher resources.
Websites: PBS Teacher and Lesson Planet
PBS Teacher
provides a wealth of resources for teachers and students. Teachers will
find complete units containing detailed lesson plans which outline
learning objectives. The site provides a complete list of materials,
class organization tips for teaching the unit, a detailed lesson plan,
student hand-outs, rubrics, and assessments. The unit on water quality
provides teachers with eight separate lesson plans and links to great
videos to aid in instruction. PBS Teacher provides everything teachers
need to develop complete instructional units which satisfies state
standards and provides quality instruction which makes learning fun for
both students and teachers. The site is free to use.
Lesson Planet
is another site which provides teachers with good quality lesson plans.
Teachers can access state standards from the site. Simply click on
“standards”, and then choose a state. Lesson plan ideas are provided for
all grade levels from Preschool through higher education. Lesson are
ranked based on the “five star” system. Teachers may browse the site for
ideas, but membership is required to access complete units and lesson
plans. The cost is low and Lesson Planet generally offers the first
month or two for free. Teachers can easily cancel their subscription at
any time.
Summer season is watermelon season. Besides eating it, here are several watermelon activities you can do with your kids.
Make Watermelon Shakers
Provide each child with one paper plate, dried beans, red paint, green paint, and dried watermelon seeds. Instruct the children to fold
the plate in half. Staple the plate together. Leave enough space for
children to add beans to make the shaker. Then, finish stapling the
plate together. Tell the children to paint the rippled, stapled portion
of the plate green to resemble the rind of a sliced watermelon. Then
paint the rest of the plate red to resemble the watermelon fruit. After
the paint dries, instruct the children to glue watermelon seeds to the
red portion of the plate. After the watermelon shakers are complete,
allow the children to shake away!
Watermelon Seed Letters and Counters
Save and dry watermelon seeds. Give each child a piece of writing paper with the first letter of their names already written on it.
Instruct the children to glue the watermelon seeds on the letters.
Make water melon name plates. Give each child a short sentence strip with
their names written on it. Allow the children to outline their names
with watermelon seeds.
Give the children laminated mats with several circles drawn on it.
Provide each child with one slice of watermelon and instruct them to
save the seeds. After eating the watermelon, dry the mats with a paper towel and tell the children to count their seeds. Then tell them to
place two seeds in each circle and count by twos. Do the same activity
with five seeds in each circle and count by fives, and so forth.
Measurement
Make watermelon rulers. Cut poster board into strips measuring
approximately one half inch wide and several inches long. Glue on
watermelon seeds so that they touch end to end. Use the ruler to measure
“watermelon seed length” of various objects around the classroom.
Students might determine that a crayon measures ten watermelon seeds or
the length of a book measures 40 watermelon seeds.
Watermelon Circle Time
Sing watermelon songs and play watermelon games. Before slicing into a
watermelon, ask students to guess how many seeds are in the watermelon.
Ask the children to save the seeds from their slice of watermelon and
then count the seeds. Offer a prize to the student with the closest
estimate. Have the children make up a watermelon rhyme using each letter
in the word “watermelon.”
Watermelon Snacks
Either bake watermelon cookies at home and bring them to share with
your students or ask a parent to bake the cookies and bring them in for a
special watermelon snack. Students might also enjoy watermelon flavored lollipops and watermelon punch. Ask students and parents to share their
favorite watermelon recipes and make a class “Watermelon Recipe Book.”
Send a copy of the recipe book home with each student and don’t forget
to keep one for yourself.
These activities not only teach children to appreciate watermelon,
but they also provide children with opportunities to learn letters,
numbers, counting, measurement, and develop small motor skills. Such
basic skills will provide a foundation for academic success.
You may also like this cute wall hanging flower counter craft.
Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove)
Every teenager should watch the movie To Save A Life. To Save A
Life deals with faith in God (and the struggle to keep it) in the midst
of the challenges teenagers face today: drugs, sex, alcohol, teen
pregnancy, divorce, and teen suicide. To Save A Life
teaches that every life matters – the unborn, the outcast, the popular,
the young, the old – every life is valuable.
The movie is a Samuel Goldwyn film and New Song Pictures production
with Outreach Films in association with Accelerated Entertainment. The
movie features Randy Wayne, Deja Kreutzberg, and Joshua Weigel. The
movie is rated PG-13.
Jake Taylor is a popular teenager with a future including a
basketball scholarship. He is a popular athlete who dates a popular
cheerleader.
Jake grew up with Roger, his childhood best friend. Roger’s young
life is very different from Jake’s. A childhood injury hindered Roger’s
athletic abilities. His skin is a different color. He has no girlfriend
and fewer friends in general. Shortly after entering high-school, their lives take
different turns and their friendship fades into the past. While Jake is
living the dream of every teenager, Roger is pushed aside into a life of
rejection and loneliness. Roger eventually makes a drastic decision
that changes Jake’s life forever.
In the midst of many teen struggles, Jake cannot shake the question, “Could I have helped Roger?"
Jake makes a new friend, Chris, a local youth minister. Chris shows
Jake that there is meaning to life and that every life is valuable. As
Jake reaches out to others who are outcast, lonely, and rejected ,he
finds himself placing his faith in God. Jake’s new friend and his new
faith gives him the support he needs to endure the effects of a life
spinning out of control.
Will Jake’s new-found faith cost him his girlfriend? his popularity?
Will Jake be able to help another new friend, Johnny, who was also a lonely outcast?
Will Jake be able to get control of his life?
How will Jake’s decisions affect his future?
To Save A Life places all the challenges and temptations our
teenagers face on a daily basis into perspective. Teenagers make
decisions every day that can change their future and the future of
others around them.
Teenagers and adults struggle to keep their faith in God when things
are not going well. Teenagers and adults question why God allows bad
things to happen to people.
Worlds fall apart. Faith is shaken. Lives are changed.
God’s love for every life remains steadfast, but not everyone knows
that. It is up to those who know the value of human life and the
importance of faith in an unfailing God to let others know how valuable
they are.
Every teenager and every adult should see this movie.
Getting Help
Find Christian Counselor - Masters Level and PhD Christian Licensed Therapists in Your Area Locates Qualified Christian Therapists Nationwide
Teen Suicide – Adolescent Suicide Statistics and Prevention
- Teen suicide statistics and articles on adolescent suicide prevention
as well as teenage suicide warning signs. Get the stats on teen suicide
today and related issues like teen depression.
Here are 4 activities that will enhance science
lessons involving both historical and newer inventions. Encourage
children to use their imaginations and think about their futures and
inventions that might make their lives easier or more productive.
1. Divide the
children into groups of three or four per group. Give each group a piece
of poster board cut into strips approximately 8 inches by 12 inches.
Assign each group a time period. Instruct the students to choose an inventor and invention significant to the time period assigned to them.
Tell them to either draw, print, or cut out pictures of the inventor and
the famous invention. They must also include a few paragraphs
describing the inventor and his or her invention. Tell them to include
information explaining why the invention was needed or why it was
important. How has it shaped the world we know today? Include the time
period on the poster strip.
After each group
has completed the assignment. Attach the poster strips in chronological
order to create a detailed, colorfully illustrated timeline of
inventions and their inventors.
2. Instruct
students to choose a famous inventor and create a poster display
describing the inventor and invention. If possible, have the student
include props and/or demonstrate how the invention works. Allow each
student to present his project to the class. Display the projects
somewhere in the school for others to enjoy such as the media center.
3. Develop a
lesson plan around Louis Braille. Louis Braille is responsible for the
“Raised Dot Alphabet” that we know as Braille. Provide students with
sentence strips and paper clips or another object sharp enough to create
holes or raised bumps in the paper, but safe enough for students to
use. After studying about Louis Braille, provide students with samples
of Braille material. Contact a local media center or The American Foundation for the Blind
for materials. Allow the students to explore the materials with their
fingers. Have them close their eyes and run their fingers across the
Braille pages. Then, ask them to create a sentence in Braille using the
materials provided. When their sentences are complete, have them switch
with other students and attempt to read the sentences with their eyes
closed as the run their fingers across the sentences.
4. If possible,
take a field trip to a museum featuring inventors and inventions. After
returning to the classroom and discussing the experiences at the museum,
instruct the children to imagine themselves as inventors and work on a
few inventions of their own! Allow them to share their inventions with
the class. You never know, you might be inspiring a future famous
inventor right there in your classroom!
It is never too early or too late to begin teaching children to
memorize scripture. Scripture memorization is a learned skill which
benefits the youngest of children to the oldest of adults. Some find
memorizing scripture much more difficult than others, but some creative
memorization methods might help make scripture memory a little easier.
Scripture memorization doesn’t have to be dull and boring. It can be fun.
Make Scripture Memory a Family Routine
Make scripture memorization part of your daily family routine. Sit
down together and decide on a few shorter Bible verses which are easier for children to understand. You might choose from the following
suggestions:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life. John 3:16
Children, obey your parents in all things for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20
Wherever your treasure is; that is where your heart will be. Matthew 6:21
Be kind and loving to each other. Forgive each other the same as God forgave you in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 4:32
But the fruits of the spirit are these: Love, joy, peace, patience,
goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. There is
no law that can say these things are wrong. Galatians 5:22-23
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13
Once your children memorize a few shorter verses, they will feel
successful, realizing that scripture memorization is not as difficult as
they might have thought. Then, you can add a few more challenging
memory verses to your family scripture memory list.
Make Scripture Memorization a Game
Children love games and the matching game of concentration is a favorite.
Make a Scripture Memory Concentration Game
Choose a scripture memory verse. Cut several index cards in half. Write the words onto the index cards, one word per card. Don’t forget to include the scripture “address,” the place in the Bible where the scripture is found, such as “John 3:16.”
Write several other random words onto extra cards so that you can mix up all the words and lay them all out face down to create a square. For example, you will have four rows of cards with four index cards in each row – or more, depending on the length of the verse.
Tell the first child to flip over a card. If the first flipped card
reveals the first word in the Bible memory verse, he may leave the card
right-side-up and then flip over a second. If the second card reveals
the second word in the verse, he may leave it right side up and collect
two points, one for each card flipped. Then, the next person gets a
chance. If the first person flips over a card which does not reveal the
first word in the verse, he must turn the card back over, collect no
points, and let the next person try. The game continues until all the
words are revealed in order, but each child can only turn over two cards
at a time and collect no more than two points for each turn.
If your children are memorizing longer, more challenging versesyou can
opt to write short phrases on the cards instead of individual words.
Both adults and children can get their creative juices flowing and
create other scripture memory games. Some games might be based on
already well-known games and some games might be completely made up from
scratch. Either way, children will love the games and memorize
scripture verses while they play.
Use Music to Teach Children to Memorize Scripture
Add music and movement to your scripture memory routine. Check your church library for DVDs and CDs which use music to encourage scripture memory.
Encourage children to make up their own memory verse songs. They can use the tunes to songs they already know, substituting the words from their Bible memory verses. They might even like to make up a dance or movement routine to go along with their memory verse song.
Make Scripture Memory Booklets
Help your child create a scripture memory booklet. Create a booklet which suits your child’s personality. Your child might benefit more from a small booklet made from index cards with only a few simple embellishments and bound with a single ring. If you have an especially creative little Bible scholar, she might like to create her Bible memory booklet from a full sized three ring album or scrapbook. She can write her memory verse on each page and then decorate the page to correspond with the verse. The process of creating the pages, whether simple or elaborate, will help children memorize the verses. Then, get out the books each day and spend time going over the verses together. Encourage your child to share her booklet with other children, family members, and friends. The more often she reads and shares her memory booklet, the better she knows the verses.
Add Scripture to Crafts
Add scripture verses to your child’s artwork and crafts. When your child draws a picture, write a favorite Bible verse at the top. Choose one that relates to the picture in someway. Display the picture on your refrigerator or in another visible location to aid in scripture memorization. When your child completes a craft project, choose a scripture verse that goes along with the craft and write the verse somewhere on the project.
Bathe Your Home in Scripture
Posting sight words around the room is a good way to teach children to read. For example, write the word “chair” on an index card and then tape it to a chair. Write the word “book” on a card and tape it to a book. You get the idea. Use this method to teach children to memorize scripture. Once you pick out the verses you want your child to memorize, write the entire verse on several cards. You can decorate the cards and make them all cute or you can just write the words. Then, tape the cards all around the house. Tape a card to the bathroom mirror so that your child sees the card as he gets ready for school in the morning. Tape another one to the breakfast table, the refrigerator, the snack cabinet, his bed-post, and any other place he might look during the day. The more often he sees the scripture memory card, the faster he will memorize the verse and the more deeply he will know it. Learning to memorize scriptures gives children a solid Bible-based foundation on which to build their faith into adulthood.
My daughters love movies. If we aren't interested in any of the movies playing at the theater, we can usually find something on Netflix or we rent one from Redbox. Pick something your daughter will love and enjoy spending a few hours together watching one of her favorite films.
Mother-Daughter Crafts
Crafting is a fun way to spend time with your daughter. When I was a young girl, my mother and I used to make ornaments using Plaster of Paris. We had so much fun painting the ornaments. My grandmother taught me to crochet. I loved the time I spent with her as she showed me how top make granny squares, crocheted ornaments, and afghans. My other grandmother used to make hair bows from ribbons and buttons. Sometimes she let me help and I treasure those memories.
Plan a Shopping Trip
Plan a shopping trip that includes much more than just shopping.
Begin the day with a nice breakfast. Get your hair and nails done.
Younger little girls still enjoy mother-daughter dresses. Older girls
prefer to sport their own style, but you can still get away with
coordinating colors and go home dressed in the latest fashion styles.
Attend a Class Together
Think of a skill both you and your daughter would like to learn
together. Check with your local school system to see what evening
community classes are available. Check local newspaper and magazine
listings. Choose a class you both enjoy such as crafting, sewing,
painting, sculpting, cake decorating, or card making. If you and your
daughter tend to enjoy more adventurous activities, choose a class such
as water skiing or sky diving.
Enjoy a Relaxing Day
You don’t have to plan trips, shop, or spend any amount of money to
give your daughter a special Daughter’s Day. Just spend time with her.
Let her know how important she is to you. Let her know you love her. You
can stay home and enjoy a long conversation with her, spend a quiet day
out by the family pool, or just watch television together. The
important thing is that you take time to spend with her and make her
feel special. Relax and enjoy Daughter’s Day together.
