Show us how you’re having a Smart Summer!
The prize this week (Water Fun Week) is from a company that is a staple in classrooms across the country and has really reached out to education bloggers to share their learning toys: Guidecraft.
Before we get to the prize and the linky for Water Fun Week, let’s see what our community of learners has been doing for Forest-Friendly Week!
Last week’s Forest-Friendly Linky really made me want to get out and explore the nature surrounding us! Some of the ones from our participants (and other hostesses) that caught my eye were:
Learning About Forests: Tree Shape Sorting and Forest Food Chain from Life in the Unknown
Nature Mandala from Our Creative Day (We’ve tried these before but their mandalas turned out so lovely…and symetrical!)
Introducing the Forest to Preschoolers from Teach Preschool
Discover Box: Pine Cones from Imagination Tree
Nature Scavenger Hunt from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
One Small Square from Harvest Moon by Hand
Summer Seasonal Tree Painting from Red Ted Art
Pine Cone Bird Craft from Pink and Green Mama
I’ve shared my own family’s Smart Summer activities this week for our Forest-Friendly Week:
We’d love for you to share your ideas–you can add a link to a post on your blog or even a photo set on Flickr, photos you’ve uploaded to the Smart Summer Facebook page, or any types of publicly viewable “journal” entry on a social media or community site.
Not a blogger? If you do not have access to posting entries on any public site, you can also leave a comment on this post, sharing the learning opportunities you incorporated into your week with your children.
Your post (or comment) can be something from your archives that speaks to our theme for the week (Water Fun) or it can just be a general post about how you are fitting fun learning into your summer activities. You can find our weekly themes on our calendar of ideas but ANY learning activities, big or small, are welcomed!
Just add your link(s) (as many relevant links as you would like) to a specific post or page (i.e. http://www.naturallyeducational.com/2011/06/fight-the-summer-slide-with-the-smart-summer-challenge/ NOT http://www.naturallyeducational.com) to the link widget below.
WIN PRIZES!
Every link you enter in the widget below (or your comment) during the week will also enter you to win our AWESOME prize of the week: a $200 credit to Guidecraft–they’ll even cover the shipping in the US.
I’m part of Guidecraft’s Education blogger and they’ve sent us a number of their learning toys to review. I really appreciate that they are building an eco-friendly line of wooden puzzles, made from renewable rubberwood.
I also have the Kitchen Helper, which features prominently in our kitchen sink experiments and cooking fun. And, if you are a classroom teacher or homeschooler, you’ll drool over the classroom furniture available at Guidecraft. Personally, I’m eying the puppet theater.
Official Rules
The linky and giveaway closes at 11:59 PM EST on Thursday, August 4…and then we’ll see you back Friday morning for more fun! You may enter as many links as you wish and each will count as an entry. Comment entries are limited to one per person, per site (total of three (3) possible comment entries). US Shipping only for prizes, due to sponsor requests, but international friends are still encouraged to play and add their links! Winner will be chosen at random from valid entries.
You retain the rights to all entries but grant us permission to share your links along with a short excerpt and thumbnail image.
We reserve the right to disqualify entries at our sole discretion and change the rules or prizes without notification beyond updating the page.
Spread the Word!
We’d love you to help spread the word–please feel free to link back and/or grab the code for the button below. And don’t forget to visit us on Facebook where we are sharing some more ideas from the community! Feel free to also post photos, questions, and ideas on the Facebook page, too: http://www.facebook.com/smartsummerchallenge.
Thank you for taking the Smart Summer Challenge!
Your hostesses,
Candace at NaturallyEducational.com, Amy at teachmama.com, MaryLea at PinkAndGreenMama
<a title="smart summer button '11" href="http://www.facebook.com/smartsummerchallenge"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5194/5829107237_2558c61bf9_m.jpg" alt="smart summer button '11" width="150" height="150" /></a>
We read A Sick Day for Amos McGee and went to the zoo ourselves to find all the animals from the book.
How I incorporated Math to my children is when we were at the bank we counted the cars in line, then subtracted as a car left and added as a car came.
This past week we made a new pinecone/peanut butter birdfeeder. The birds around our house LOVE them and we needed to make a new one.
We play “store” at our house and help teach our son about how to count money and hopefully instill the value of money in him.
We sing the alphabet song with our 2-year old daughter while she is washing her hands. It teaches her both an appropriate amount of time to wash AND she learns her ABCs at the same time. Win – win!
We go to the library every week and check out new books. We read at least two books per day.