Me on the Map – Smart Summer Challenge Week 1 #SmartSummer

The first Smart Summer Challenge theme is “Me on the Map”!

What is the Smart Summer Challenge? Amy of teachmama.com, MaryLea of Pink and Green Mama, and I are challenging our community to beat the “summer slide” (the learning loss that can happen over the summer).

Starting MONDAY, June 27, we’ll be posting our activities daily, loosely following this calendar of educational summer ideas, and hosting a weekly linky (with PRIZES) for other bloggers to share their ideas and activvities.

The first linky will go up FRIDAY, July 1! And the prize will be a $100 credit to your local book shop or toy store of choice, thanks to Juice in the City.

There’s also a Smart Summer Challenge facebook page so we can all add our own tips, links, and photos!

A GRAND ADVENTURE!

Since this project is a grand adventure for your hostesses (and hopefully for you and all of our students and children), it is only fitting that we begin by finding ourselves on the map!

Here is my plan for next week…subject to change based on the weather, sudden brainstorms, children’s moods, or just random whims.

Day 1: Life-sized Portrait: We’ll trace ourselves on butcher paper and then paint and color to make a life-sized portrait. Journal Prompt: One of the things I am very good at is…
Day 2: Reading books about maps and travel. Journal Prompt: If I could travel anywhere, I would go to…
Day 3: Map Your Favorite Neighborhood Places: We will be printing out a local map, locating our favorite places, and then tracing and measuring the route from our house to these places. Journal prompt: My favorite place to go in my neighborhood is…
Day 4: International Music: We are going to choose styles of music, enjoy the music, find videos of dances to that music, and then locate the places of origin of those styles of music on the map. Journal prompt: My favorite instrument is…
Day 5: Compass Practice + Linky: We are going to head outdoors with our compasses and practice orienteering with geocaching. Journal prompt: When I go outside, I like to…

Some other activities you might try:

Ages 3-4

Find the letters of your name in a magazine, cut them out, and then paste them in order on a piece of paper.
Make a collage of your favorite things inside your silhouette.
Make streets on your floor using painter’s tape. Drive toy cars along the streets and ask your child, “Who is in the car? Where are they going? What will they do next?”
Mail a letter to a friend or family member in another city or state. Where does the recipient’s address go? What is a return address and why do you need one? What is a stamp and where do you put it on the letter? Look on the map to see how far the letter has to travel. See how long it takes for the letter to arrive.
Find all the places your family members have traveled on a map of the United States or the World.
Identify your location in expanding zones. For example, what is your town? your state? your region? your country? your continent? your planet?
Find the North Star at night.

Ages 5-8

Use a watch or a stick to find North.
Hide a treasure in your backyard and make a treasure map. Can your friends and family find the treasure?
Gather travel postcards and then tape them to the places they depict on a big wall map. Try the same thing with images of famous buildings, animals, people in traditional dress, or other images that give a sense of place.
Make a map of a fictional world of your own. Make sure to create a legend and use a compass rose.

Ages 8+

Use scale to create a floor plan of your bedroom. Redesign your room by rearranging furniture on the floor plan.
Create a scavenger hunt using compass directions and clues or place your own geocache and see if your friends can find it.
Sculpt a mountain out of clay and then make a topographic map.