Hello from Jo! Summer Program - Week One
SUMMER PROGRAM - WEEK ONE: Explore YOUR World
July 6, 2020
Large Motor Activity
Create an Obstacle course in your home, backyard, or at the park. Hop from pillow to pillow, climb stairs, go under tables or chairs, balance on logs or stones, or use whatever you find around you. Pretend you are Rosie going for a walk and your grown up “Fox” can try to keep up!
Arts and Crafts
Take a dark sheet of construction paper and place it in a sunny, dry spot. Arrange objects on the paper and leave it in the sun for a few hours. Come back to it later and see your shadows!
STEM
This is a great game to play anywhere! It’s called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Have your child tell you 5 things they can see, 4 things they can hear, 3 things they feel, 2 things they smell, and 1 thing they taste. You do it too! This is also a great way to calm down or practice patience.
Social/Emotional
Work together with your child on creating a fun outdoor scavenger hunt (2 leaves, 1 flower, 2 stones, 1 stick etc). Or walk around your neighborhood and talk about it. What is the name of your town? What street do you live on? Who are some of the people we see in our neighborhood? What do we like about where we live?
Children need to play alone sometimes, too- in order to make discoveries and learn about themselves. Try to encourage some supervised alone play and don’t worry too much about filling up your day. Children are naturally curious and the world is full of new and beautiful experiences.
Hello from Jo! Summer Program - Week Two
SUMMER PROGRAM - WEEK TWO: Everything is Growing!
July 13, 2020
Story
The Carrot Seed
By Ruth Krauss
Pictures by Crockett Johnson
Song
I Wonder if I’m Growing
By Raffi
Large Motor Activity
Movement Poem. Move your body and pretend to be a growing seed!
I am an acorn. A tiny tree seed. I grow. I drink water from my roots. I reach for the sun. I move in the wind. I am a beautiful oak tree.
Arts and Crafts
Veggie Art: Use any left over celery tops as a paintbrush. Use a lettuce leaf to make prints.
Make garden markers: Find a few smooth, wide, round stones. Have your child decorate the stones with acrylic paint. Then help your child name the plants in your garden and write those names with permanent marker on the stones (Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender, Peas, Pumpkins). Place the decorated garden markers around your garden!
STEM
Do you have a measuring chart at home? Watch your child grow. Compare your child’s height to a tree or a flower. Which is taller?
Place some beans in a bag with a moist paper towel and tape to a window. Watch the seeds sprout roots!
Social/Emotional
Make lunch together. Talk about the food we eat and where it comes from, why it’s important and how it helps us grow. Share how meal times can be a special time to be together.
Hello from Jo! Summer Program - Week Three
SUMMER PROGRAM - WEEK THREE: Bugs and Butterflies!
July 20, 2020
Story and Song
Senorita Mariposa by Ben Gundersheimer (Mister G)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-s4plLc1OM
Large Motor Activity
Be a BEE and visit every flower in a field or garden
Crawl like a caterpillar, curl up like a chrysalis, and fly like a butterfly.
Arts and Crafts
Egg Carton Caterpillars! Get out the paint and decorate your very own caterpillar. Grown ups- help add eyes and legs with buttons and pipe cleaners.
Coffee Filter Butterflys! Decorate a circular coffee filter with markers. Spray gently with water to make the colors run and let it dry. Use a clothespin to pinch the center and spread the wings. Grown ups- help add pipe cleaner antennae.
STEM
Lay a hula hoop or make a circle with a rope on the grass. See what creatures you can find- just in that one little circle. Lift up a rock or use a net and use it to scoop the long grass and see what you’ve caught! Remember to always let your catch go gently and do your best not to harm the creatures you find.
Social/Emotional
Form a caterpillar line. Stand in line (even if its just the two of you) and hold the waist of the person in front of you. Move through the house or garden like this, pretending that together you are a caterpillar! Munch on some lettuce, spinach, or mint leaves just like a real caterpillar!
EFC Summer Program
Week Four
July 28, 2020
Farm Animals
Story
Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. Pictures by Felicia Bond
Song
Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Large Motor Activity
Play Duck-Duck-GOOSE! Sit in a circle. Make it BIG. Add stuffed animal friends to make your circle bigger.
Do wheelbarrow walks. Hold your child’s feet and see if they can scoot forward on their hands. Go Slow! This is a tricky one.
Arts and Crafts
Make a Barn! Find a cardboard box. Grown-ups: cut a barn door that can open and close. Paint the box red. You can use small sponge rectangles and stamp the box with paint to create texture and patterns. Use popsicle sticks to make animal pens and fences.
Make a paper bag piggy! Have your child crumple and stuff a lunch-sized paper bag with paper. Grown-ups: Fold over the top and staple shut Paint or color it pink. Cut out ears, eyes, and a nose for your piggy and have your child glue or tape them on. Add a twisted pipe cleaner for curly tail.
STEM
Make MUD! Get some dirt and some water. Have messy fun! Make it soupy, or sticky, or shape it. Experiment with how much water you add.
Social/Emotional
Try to visit a farm with your child. Play a guessing game where you have the child guess the animal by what sound it makes or what it eats. Keep giving clues until they guess it!
Hello from Jo! Summer Program - Week Five
EFC Summer Program
Week Five
August 2, 2020
All About Me
Story
I Like Myself By Karen Beaumont, Illustrated by David Catrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VjArGrLyQw
My Many Colored Days By Dr. Seuss, Paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR0-5f-L_LQ
Song
It’s You I Like by Mister Rogers
Large Motor Activity
How big can you make yourself? How small? How low can you go? How high can you jump?
Play the mirror game. Stand and face your child and do what they do. Try to have them mirror you as well!
Arts and Crafts
Name Puzzle- Write out your child’s name in big bold letters. Using scissors, cut between each letter. Have fun mixing them up and putting them right again.
Print out some pictures of family and friends. You and your child can create a collage of all the people in their life that love and care for them and are there to support them.
STEM
Trace your child's hand on card stock paper and cut out. Write their name on the back of the hand cut-out. Provide an ink pad and let children make fingerprints on their hand cut-out. Use a magnifying glass to observe their fingerprints.
Social/Emotional
Play dress up! Have fun trying on mom’s dress or dad’s shoes. Put on jewelry, scarfs, hats, or whatever you have around the house. Explore self expression with face paint or body paint. Have fun!
Talk about feelings with your child in the moment so that your child can begin to learn the language of emotion and recognize emotions within themselves. Encourage children to see each feeling as temporary, specifically the “negative” emotions. For example: “I am feeling sad now. But I won’t always feel sad.”
EFC Summer Program
Week Six
August 10, 2020
Water
Story
Hey Water by Antoinette Portis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7XN3k6kcEg
I Get Wet by Vicki Cobb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu5FEo7ghdM
Large Motor Activity
Do the crab walk, be a wave run back and forth, or move your arms in a rowing motion and sing “Row, Row, Row your Boat”!
Arts and Crafts
Grownups, draw fish shapes and cut them out. If your little one can help- that’s great! Decorate with markers, crayons, sparkles, collage materials - whatever you have.
STEM
Fill a large container with water and scoops. Play “Sink or Float” with a variety of different objects.
Paint rocks or even the house with just water and a paintbrush and watch the water evaporate.
Sort the fish you made by size, shape and color.
Attach a paper clip to each fish and use a magnet attached to a string to see if you can catch the fish.
Social/Emotional
Take a field trip to a lake, stream or ocean and observe using your senses. Visit the Quabbin and observe the fish in the river.
Blow bubbles and pretend to be fish.
Play in your hose or sprinkler.
Have fun!
Hello from Jo! Summer Program - Week Seven
EFC Summer Program
Week Seven
August 17, 2020
I Can Do It!
Story
Watch Me Throw the Ball by Mo Willems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIJp9841_R4
Today I Will Fly! by Mo Willems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjlTKFh7ZKo
Large Motor Activity
Painter’s tape is great because it comes off most surfaces easily. Put it on the floor like a ladder. Then have your child see how many rungs they can jump. Can they jump farther with a running start? Make a tic-tac-toe board on the floor and use bean bags to play. Make a hopscotch grid. Grab several rolls of colorful painter’s tape, and set it on the floor in different lines; make the lines zigzag, curvy, straight, or shaped like a circle, square, or other shape.Then challenge your child to walk each colored line from beginning to end.
Check out these instructions for a wiggle jar for when your child needs a movement break. https://www.homeschoolshare.com/blog/2015/09/the-wiggle-jar/
Arts and Crafts
Gather lots of clean recycling and little bits of string, paper, glue, tape, and whatever else you find. This can be your child’s “doodle drawer”. Let your child create whatever they like.
STEM
Play with blocks. Build a tower, knock it down. Let your child explore with the blocks and imagine anything they like. Your very young child may just carry the blocks. This is an important developmental step- play is learning! The big discoveries of life are made in these seemingly insignificant moments of play. You provide a safe space for your child to make their own discoveries and they will build on what they learn.
Social/Emotional
Make a meal together. Let your child help by washing the fruit or cutting bananas or softer foods with your help. Encourage independence in daily activities to the extent possible and invite them to help around the house. Helping out will boost their confidence and have them feeling good about themselves.