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Sample Lesson Plan Activities
For Grades 8-12
Weeks 1, 2, & 3
OVERVIEW
These are Sample Lessons of what you would see, each week, as a Subscriber to our online homeschool magazine.
These Sample Lesson Activities are based upon Curriculum Guidelines for Grades 8-12. Adapt the ideas to best suit your child's abilities and current skill levels. Weekly lessons build sequentially upon previous lessons as the weeks progress through the year.
Below are Samples for Weeks 1, 2, and 3 only from the Homeschool Year 2005-2006. Subscribers have access to all Weekly Lesson Plans and educational links.
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WEEK 1 LESSONS
WEEK 1: Monday - Friday for Grades 8 - 12
Week 1 Language Arts
- Take a reading field trip! A good way to start the homeschool year is by taking a reading field trip to the library. The library is one of the homeschooler's best friends!
- Allow teens to select books that especially interest them. Encourage teens to discuss books with the family, or to retell portions of the book or stories they read. You might also want to read the same book they're reading, so that you both are "on the same page," so to speak.
- Ease in to critical reading (analyzing, evaluating, and processing content) by allowing teens to read and discuss books that interest them, or books that they have selected for pleasure reading. Let them talk about the books, rather than pressuring them to "analyze and evaluate" literature from the start.
- For possible reading selections, see Recommended Reading Lists for different ages, gender, and categories. For descriptions of teen and young adult books, see the American Library Association. This list includes Best Books for Young Adults, Books for College Bound Teens, and Teens' Top Ten. [Note: Links will open for Subscribers.]
- Teens can draw illustrations to pictorially describe the current books they're reading. Some teens may even want to draw several pictures per chapter, to illustrate favorite books.
- Take turns reading chapters aloud to each other. Remember, no matter how old your child, everyone loves being read to!
- Enhance vocabulary skills by using the dictionary for any unfamiliar words in the current books being read. Discuss the context in which the unfamiliar words are used. Make a point to use the "new words" in sentences throughout the week.
- Have fun with the dictionary and increase dictionary skills by playing games with it. See how quickly a certain word can be found. Have teens find a word beginning with a certain letter that is a verb. Find one that is a noun. An adjective, etc.
- To better understand verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, articles, etc., use current, favorite books. Dissect a favorite sentence, categorizing each of the words as articles, verbs, nouns, adjectives. Continue this style of understanding sentences on a regular basis. Finding the parts of speech will soon become second-nature to teens.
- By now, "spelling practice" usually isn't a weekly event. However, misspellings can still plague teens (and adults). Focus on those words that "always throw you". Is it its or it's? Is it allot or a lot? The Carribean or the Caribbean? Have fun checking each other's misspellings!
- See how well teens understand the "parts of speech" by playing the Grammar Gorilla game (Click here). [Note: Links will open for Subscribers.]
- Also, use our Daily Creative Writing Idea (featured on our Home page) each day to stimulate creative thinking, writing, and communication skills on a daily basis.
Week 1 Social Studies
- Discuss the things you did this summer that had a positive influence or impact on the community, neighborhood, friends, or relatives.
- What were the favorite aspects, or benefits, of helping others? In what other ways can one help in the community this month, or in the coming months?
- Read Linda Duper's 160 Ways to Help the World, Bernard Ryan's Community Service for Teens, and Marie Watkin's Service-Learning: From Classroom to Community to Career.
- Discuss the trips you took this summer, or the museums or areas of interest you explored or toured.
- Write about the favorite parts of the summer trips, activities, or explorations. Then draw illustrations depicting favorite activities from this summer.
- Select another community, neighborhood, culture, or customs to study, research, and learn more about. For instance, a different city, state, or region of the country; a neighboring country and its culture; or a country overseas and its culture.
- Read Katherine Wagner's Life in an Amish Community, John Stickler's Land of Morning Calm: Korean Culture Then and Now, Ike Rosmarin's South Africa (Cultures of the World), or Discovering World Cultures: The Middle East and similar books on different cultures.
Week 1 Math
- For math fun and learning, read George Watson's 190 Ready-to-Use Activities That Make Math Fun! and Martin Lee's 40 Fabulous Math Mysteries Kids Can't Resist.
- For math tips, read Edward Julius's Arithmetricks: 50 Easy Ways to Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide Without a Calculator.
- For challenging activities, see Judith Muschla's Math Smart: Over 220 Ready-to-Use Activities to Motivate & Challenge Students, Grades 6-12.
- Create your own daily math activities to enhance or challenge math skills, by using everyday events around the home: baking, cooking, measuring, building, constructing, designing, drawing to scale, grocery shopping, saving and budgeting money, and more.
- Do the Hands-On Math Activity on Money-Spending Fun (Click here).
- For math review purposes, browse these math worksheets for Algebra I, Algebra II, or Middle School Math to Advanced Math Skills (Click here).
- With your teen's help, create your own math pages based on your teen's learning style and interests.
- For math skills practice and review, play the Math Magician Games (Click here).
- For math fun, play Baseball Math (Click here) and Baseball Science (Click here).
- For more math fun, play the Funbrain Math Baseball Game. Select from Easy to Super Brain, addition to division (Click here).
Week 1 Science
- Explore and observe nature in and around your home, parks, state parks, and recreational areas.
- Or go on a "Virtual Field Trip" to a habitat and see the actual animals, birds, reptiles, plants, and flowers. Then follow up with the suggested activities there. Remember to send us a photo, too. (Click here.)
- Discuss the different types of animals, birds, and plants that are found in these areas. Discuss the different types of habitats, environments, and ecosystems, such as woodlands and forests, freshwater lakes, salt water oceans, deserts.
- Start and keep a "Journal Sketchbook". Use the sketchbook to draw pictures of nature observations, animals, and habitats.
- Go on a hunt for living and nonliving things. Discuss what designates "life" or a "living thing".
- Collect rocks, shells, leaves, flowers, etc. Start a nature collection and add to it each week.
- Read Allan Cobb's Super Science Projects about Animals in Their Habitats, W. Wright Robinson's Animal Architects, Kristin Pratt-Serafini's A Walk in the Rainforest, and the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals.
- It may have been a while since your teen made a diorama. But they're fun, at any age! So, make a forest diorama to complement your animal habitat study. (Click here for instructions.) Use your imagination to create other animal habitat dioramas.
- For worksheets, if desired, use printouts such as Rainforest Habitats and Freshwater Habitats (Click here).
- Have teens use the computer to create their own worksheets or science pages about their favorite animals and habitats.
- Select a favorite animal and habitat to study and create activities around, such as: a report and illustrations of the animal and habitat, sculptures of the animal and habitat, dioramas, table-top displays, backyard replicas of the animal and habitat.
- Play "Drag & Drop Animal Habitats" (Click here) and more Habitats Games (Click here).
Week 1 Safety & Life Skills
- One of the most important subjects to handle, with children of all ages, is "stranger danger." It can be difficult for any child to know who is their friend and who is not.
- Contact your local law enforcement about "stranger danger" or "safe kids" programs they might offer. Encourage your community to create a program to help teens learn more about protecting themselves.
- As parents, read articles such as "Stranger Danger" (Click here), or "Stranger Danger for Teens" (Click here), or "Stranger Danger Education" (Click here).
- Engage professionals in law enforcement, child psychology, and child safety who can speak to your homeschool groups on how to handle this topic with children or teens of all ages.
- Go over all safety rules and family rules with teens, to ensure that they know exactly what steps to take if faced with questions, uncertainties, emergencies, disasters, or other hazards or problems they may encounter as a teenager.
- Reassure them that, no matter what, they can always come to you with their questions, concerns, or problems.
Week 1 Art & Music
- It may have been a while since your teen made a diorama. But they're fun, at any age! So, make a forest diorama to complement your animal habitat study. (Click here for instructions.) Use your imagination to create other animal habitat dioramas.
- Draw or paint illustrations of animals and habitats, make sculptures of animals and their habitats, or create table-top displays of animals and habitats. Use creativity and imagination by incorporating outdoor, natural materials into the artistic displays.
- Bring art and music into every subject area as often as possible. The more fun and "hands-on" the activities are, the more your teens will enjoy them and learn from them.
- Sing or hum happy tunes while working around the home or when involved in projects.
- Listen to classical music or soothing music when involved in artwork or crafts.
- Learn more about classical music by Clicking here.
- Read about the benefits of classical music by Clicking here.
WEEK 2 LESSONS
WEEK 2: Monday - Friday for Grades 8 - 12
Week 2 Language Arts
- Remember that the library is one of the homeschooler's best friends! Visit each week and continue to allow your teenagers to select the books that interest them.
- Read the books your teens are reading and discuss the stories with them. This not only helps you determine their reading-comprehension skills and comprehension of vocabulary words, but provides opportunities to discuss issues that arise in books.
- Encourage teens to attend any Reading Programs, Teen Book Clubs, or other events hosted by your local library or bookstore.
- Reading Comprehension Practice: Print out the stories, sentences, and activities for practice in reading comprehension. It's more fun to do the sheets together, or read them and discuss them together (Click here).
- Vocabulary Practice: Use this online quiz to see how quickly older teens can match the definition with the list of vocabulary words (Click here).
- Grammar Practice: For extra practice, print out sheets on parts of speech, parts of sentences, punctuation and mechanics of English (Click here).
- For fun, play a game to better understand the parts of speech. Create silly sentences by choosing nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and articles from a jar. Write the words on slips of paper ahead of time, put them in the jar, and have teens pull them out, then create silly sentences. Refresh your memory of the parts of speech by clicking here.
- Poetry Activity: Write a fun poem online by using Virtual Poetry (Click here).
- Start a Classics Reading Club among family members or friends. Check out favorite classics from the library or read them online by clicking here or clicking here. You'll find online books by Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost, the Brothers Grimm, and many more.
- Read and Think: Print out this sheet and let teens determine their best learning styles (Click here).
- For possible reading selections, see Recommended Reading Lists for different ages, gender, and categories. For descriptions of current bestsellers, see New York Times Bestsellers. This list includes Series Books and Paperback Books, as well as Chapter Books and Picture Books.
- Also, use our Daily Creative Writing Idea (featured on our Home page) each day to stimulate creative thinking, writing, and communication skills on a daily basis.
Week 2 Social Studies
- Do you know who discovered and settled your city, town, or community? Who were the first settlers in your area? When did they settle there, and where did they come from? What impact did the early settlers have on your area?
- To learn more about the early explorers and settlers in your area, visit your local museum or historic society. Ask the museum's curator if he or she could answer your questions on your community's early explorers and settlers. Ask him or her to show you photos, exhibits, and artifacts about those early explorers and settlers.
- If allowed in your museum, take photos of exhibits, or ask for flyers about the exhibits. Then create your own photo exhibit of the early explorers and settlers from your community.
- For your personal exhibit, use heavy poster board, cardboard, or foamboard. Mount the photos or flyers on the display board. Write descriptive captions on white, or colorful, index cards. Mount the captions beneath or near each photo.
- On white or colorful paper, write additional details about your area's early explorers and settlers, when they settled in your area, why they settled there, and the impact they had on your area.
- Take several close-up photos of your exhibit from different angles. Keep the photos and descriptions for your homeschool portfolio. Those who see your portfolio in the months or years ahead will be surprised by all you've learned about your area's history!
- If you need additional information on the early explorers and settlers in your community, visit your local public library. Ask the librarian to show you the section of books on your area. Many are often written by local authors. See if you can meet the authors, talk with them, and have your picture taken with them, to add to your exhibit.
- Determine what else was going on in your country and nation during the time your town was being settled. Read history timelines by clicking here.
- Create your own timeline based on your community's settlements and events through the years. See "How to Make a Timeline" by clicking here.
- Read America's Early Settlers: Moments in History by Shirley Jordan, Life in the American Colonies: Daily Lifestyles of the Early Settlers by Jeanne Munn Bracken, or Explorers and Settlers: A SourceBook on Colonial America by Carter Smith.
Week 2 Math
- Discuss Prime Numbers and Prime Factoring. For explanations and examples of Prime Numbers and Prime Factoring, Click here and Click here.
- For math fun, read Hard-to-Solve Math Puzzles by Derrick Niederman, on prime numbers and prime factoring, and Math Challenges: Puzzles, Tricks and Games by Glen Vecchione, using logic and reasoning skills.
- Discuss Composite Numbers and Rational Numbers. For explanations and examples of Composite Numbers, Rational Numbers, and Irrational Numbers, Click here and Click here and Click here.
- For virtual, interactive Prime Factoring practice, Click here. For worksheet Prime Factoring practice, Click here.
- For additional practice with composite numbers, rational and irrational numbers, integers, and more, read Homework Survival Guide: Math by Teri Crawford Jones.
- Geometry: Discuss the benefits of using Geometry. For explanations and examples, Click here.
- Geometry made-easy books: Read Dr. Math Introduces Geometry: Learning Geometry is Easy! by the Math Forum, and Pre-Geometry Brain Teasers: Challenging by Sylvia Connolly.
- Algebra: Discuss the benefits of using Algebra and Algebraic Language. For explanations and examples, Click here and Click here.
- Algebra made-easy books: Read Dr. Math Gets You Ready for Algebra: Learning Pre-Algebra Is Easy! by Jessica Wolk-Stanley, and Algebra to Go: A Mathematics Handbook by Great Source Education Group.
- With your teen's help, create your own math lessons and assignments based on your teen's learning style and interests.
- For math review purposes, browse these math worksheets for Algebra I, Algebra II, or Middle School Math to Advanced Math Skills (Click here) and (Click here).
- For math fun, play Baseball Math (Click here) and Baseball Science (Click here).
- For more math fun, play the Funbrain Math Baseball Game. Select from Easy to Super Brain, addition to division (Click here).
- If Math textbooks are desired, the Saxon math books have been designed and written to help children teach themselves. They also continue to keep skills fresh and provide practice of those skills, week after week, rather than moving on and leaving newly learned skills behind. The books continue through Advanced Math, Geometry, Algebra, Calculus, and Physics.
Week 2 Science
- Have a discussion on how parents care for their young. Then discuss the different ways that animal parents care for their young.
- Read Animal Parenting by Jill Bailey and the Zoobooks Series on Animal Babies and various other animals that their series covers, such as Big Cats, Little Cats, Elephants, Owls, Penguins, Seals, Snakes, and more.
- Go on "Virtual Field Trips" to visit the zoo several times this week (Click here and Click here).
- Watch Live Zoo Animal Videos! (Click here.)
- Make a collage and photograph it. Draw, color, or print out animal pictures. Cut them out and paste onto poster board. Decorate the collage with images, drawings, or paintings of the animals' natural habitats or surroundings. Take photos of your collage.
- Play Animal Games! Click here and Click here for Jungle Animals, Safaris, Animal Tracking, and more.
- To learn more about various animals and to increase reading comprehension, read the pages under "Mammal Reading Comprehensions" (Click here).
- Make "Animal Trivia Cards" by drawing and cutting out pictures of animals featured on the above page ("Mammal Reading Comprehensions"). Paste their pictures on construction paper or poster board. Add fun facts about the animal to the back of the cards. Hold up each card with the picture for others to see. Ask them to tell you three facts about the animal they see on the card.
- Research and study the ways that veterinarians care for animals (Click here).
- Consider a career in veterinary medicine (Click here and Click here).
Week 2 Safety & Life Skills
- Review your family's Home Safety Rules. Read more on safety and take part in teen safety activities this week by clicking here.
- Take a Walking Tour through your home and discuss safety tips for each room or space in your home. Don't forget the porch, garage, yard, or other areas surrounding your home.
- If your teen has visitors to your home, discuss your family's Rules for Visitors.
- Likewise, if your teen visits other homes, or works outside of the home, discuss the rules for those scenarios, too. See Teen Job Safety by clicking here or clicking here.
- For fun, encourage teens to draw or paint representations of each room in your home, as well as areas outside the home. In each room, illustrate the areas that present possible safety issues or that need special safety considerations. Discuss how to properly handle each issue, according to your family's Home Safety Rules.
- Read Safety at Home by Lucia Raatma. Discuss the safety procedures and safety tips for teens to practice in your home.
- As parents, read up on various topics relating to teen and child safety issues by clicking here.
Week 2 Art & Music
- Create a movie of your artwork. See examples here and listen to the descriptions by artists (wait for images to load fully). Then upload your images into the timeline for your own video (Click here).
- Get "Inside Art": Take an adventure in art history. Read the stories, view the artwork, and click on the Who, What, How, and Where (Click here).
- After viewing the above two Web sites, begin your own painting, drawing, or other type of artwork.
For art ideas, Click here.
- Make interesting paper crafts for fun! Select buildings, houses, animals, and more. Then create your own paper crafts (Click here).
- Bring art and music into every subject area as often as possible. The more fun and "hands-on" the activities are, the more your teens will enjoy them and learn from them.
- Continue learning more about classical music by clicking here.
- Listen to classical music or soothing music when involved in artwork or crafts.
WEEK 3 LESSONS
WEEK 3: Monday - Friday for Grades 8 - 12
Language Arts: Week 3
- "Smart Ideas: Smartest Card Campaign." September is Library Card Sign-Up Month. Help to increase awareness and support for your local public library. Visit the Public Library Association by Clicking Here.
- Remember that the library is one of the homeschooler's best friends! Visit each week and continue to allow your teens to select the books that interest them.
- Continue to read the books your teens are reading and discuss the stories with them. This not only helps you determine their reading-comprehension skills and comprehension of vocabulary words, but provides opportunities to discuss issues that arise in books.
- Continue with Reading Comprehension Practice. Read the many stories and poems here, then print out, read and do the activities together for increased comprehension. It's more fun to do the sheets together, or read them and discuss them together (Click here).
- Read and discuss the morals of these Aesop's Fables (Click here). Create your own fables and include the moral of the story. Do follow-up activities on the Fables (Click here).
- Vocabulary Practice: Select words from the online Aesop's Fables to create your own fables (Click here). Look up any words in the Fables that might be unfamiliar to you. When creating your fables, double-check your spelling of the words.
- Review grammar skills in fun ways by playing the "Language Detective Game" by Creative Teaching Associates, or the online Power Proofreading Game (Click here and wait for page to fully load).
- Grammar Practice: For continuing practice on the parts of speech, parts of sentences, punctuation and mechanics of English, print out these sheets and do them together (Click here).
- Read more Classics from Bartleby (Click here) or from Online Books (Click here). You'll find online books by Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost, the Brothers Grimm, and many more.
- View the free online study guides and get insight on a variety of topics at Spark Notes (Click here). Or browse the Cliff Notes (Click here) for reading and literature ideas.
- Reading Comprehension Skills: Improve reading comprehension with books such as Reading Stories for Comprehension Success by Katherine Hall; 501 Reading Comprehension Questions by Learning Express; Thinking Critically by John Chaffee; and Strategies for Success on the SAT 2005: Critical Reading & Writing Sections by Lisa Muehle.
- Poetry Thinking Skills: Write an acrostic poem online. Use your thinking skills and creativity to compose your acrostic poem Click here.
- Also, use our Daily Creative Writing Idea (featured on our Home page) each day to stimulate creative thinking, writing, and communication skills on a daily basis.
Social Studies: Week 3
- For a variety of multicultural insights, read Celebration of Customs and Rituals of the World by Robert Ingpen; Ethnic Folklore by Ellyn Sanna; Afromation: 366 Days of American History by Michael Woods; and Fishing for Chickens: Short Stories about Rural Youth by Jim Heynen.
- Study the cultural and ethnic diversity of your local community. Visit local museums, art galleries, and other community centers to view the contributions of ethnic groups in your area.
- Study the backgrounds and homelands of various ethnic groups who have migrated to communities in your part of the country. What customs, traditions, or festivals do they continue to celebrate?
- Have teens choose a culture, ancient or modern, to study, research, and report on. Use the Report Planner to help you organize and write your report (Click Here).
- Use this "Alike-Different" page to compare other cultures, customs, and traditions with those that you observe and practice (Click Here).
- Have teens create a new holiday, based on their cultural studies. Have them determine who the holiday honors (a person or a group of people), the purpose of the holiday, and how the holiday will be recognized, honored, and celebrated. Have teens design a logo for the holiday, as well as greeting cards to be sent on the holiday.
- Use the Venn Diagram to help you compare different types of holidays, how they are alike and how they are different (PDF file for printing: Click Here).
- Craft books that you might want to keep on-hand for holidays or multicultural themes are Easy-To-Do Holiday Crafts by Sharon Dunn Umnik and Art From Many Hands: Multicultural Art Projects by Jo Miles Schuman.
Math: Week 3
- Try these Math Games for fun and practice. Solve an algebraic math riddle (Click here). Or take Math Challenges on algebra, geometry, statistics and probability, and more (Click here).
- For thought-provoking math challenges, read Mental Math Challenges by Michael Lobosco; Math Challenges: Puzzles, Tricks and Games by Glen Vecchione; Real Life Math Mysteries by Mary F. Washington; and Hard-to-Solve Math Puzzles by Derrick Niederman, on prime numbers and prime factoring, and using logic and reasoning skills.
- Continue practice with Prime Numbers and Prime Factoring. For explanations and examples of Prime Numbers and Prime Factoring, Click here and Click here.
- Continue practice with Composite Numbers and Rational Numbers. For explanations and examples of Composite Numbers, Rational Numbers, and Irrational Numbers, Click here and Click here and Click here.
- For virtual, interactive Prime Factoring practice, Click here. For worksheet Prime Factoring practice, Click here.
- Geoboard Activities: Use this virtual geoboard to do these geometry activities Click here.
- Geometry: Discuss the benefits of using Geometry. For explanations and examples, Click here.
- Geometry made-easy books: Read Dr. Math Introduces Geometry: Learning Geometry is Easy! by the Math Forum, and Pre-Geometry Brain Teasers: Challenging by Sylvia Connolly.
- Algebra: Discuss the benefits of using Algebra and Algebraic Language. For explanations and examples, Click here.
- Algebra made-easy books: Read Dr. Math Gets You Ready for Algebra: Learning Pre-Algebra Is Easy! by Jessica Wolk-Stanley, and Algebra to Go: A Mathematics Handbook by Great Source Education Group.
- With your teen's help, create your own math lessons and assignments based on your teen's learning style and interests.
- If math review worksheets are desired, browse these for Algebra I, Algebra II, or Middle School Math to Advanced Math Skills (Click here) and (Click here).
- If Math textbooks are desired, the Saxon math books have been designed and written to help children teach themselves. They also continue to keep skills fresh and provide practice of those skills, week after week, rather than moving on and leaving newly learned skills behind. The books continue through Advanced Math, Geometry, Algebra, Calculus, and Physics.
Science: Week 3
- Discuss the approaching end of Summer and the beginning of Fall. Are there already signs of this in your part of the country? Are the crops taller or showing signs of needing to be harvested? Or are leaves drying up, or is the grass losing its green luster? Search for other signs marking the end of the growing season or end of summer.
- Determine when the fall equinox begins (September 22) and mark it on your calendar. Plan a special end-of-summer bash for the last day of summer (September 21). Savor those last minutes of the last day of summer.
- Study the changing seasons and the reasons for the change. Explain that the seasons change as the earth rotates around the sun. Summer is the time when our area of the world receives more direct sunlight and heat. As the earth tilts away from the sun, we receive less heat, and the earth grows cooler, as we move into Autumn.
- Read "What Causes the Seasons" by Clicking here and "Reasons for Seasons" by Clicking here.
- Use a globe to demonstrate the changing seasons. Set the globe in a patch of warm sunlight streaming in through a window, with your area of the world facing the sun. Feel the warm spot on the globe where the sun touches it. Slowly turn the globe away from the sun. Feel how the warm spot has now cooled. This is similar to the earth tilting further away from the sun in the fall and winter.
- Read more about seasons and chlorophyll (Click here).
- Go on a "Seasons Scavenger Hunt" (Click here).
- Read Complete Book of the Seasons by Sally Tagholm and read and do Elementary Science Activities for All Seasons by Julia Spencer Moutran.
- Do a Seasons Crossword Puzzle (Click here) and Seasons Word Search (Click here).
- Make a leaf collage. Go for a nature walk and identify leaves and trees in your area. Collect green and yellow leaves to glue onto poster board or construction paper to form an attractive leaf collage. Label the different types of leaves you collect. Use these printouts for identifying leaves and trees (Click here).
- Make a leaf rubbing. Collect assorted leaves, place plain white paper on top of the leaf, then color over top with crayons of different colors. The image of the leaf will be visible on the paper. Label the backs of the leaves, then test others on their leaf knowledge. Display leaf rubbings on bulletin boards.
Life Skills, Health, Safety: Week 3
- Encourage teens to help with daily meals and to contribute their own ideas and recipes. If they'd prefer to have pizza or fast-food every night, explain why that's not healthy.
- Read Food Facts for Teenagers: A Guide to Good Nutrition for Teens and Preteens by Margaret Belais Salmon; Fueling the Teen Machine by Ellen Shanley; and Nutrition-Fitness Link: How Diet Can Help Your Body and Mind by Charles Salter.
- For books with cooking tips and recipes, try Teens Cook: How to Cook What You Want to Eat by Megan Carle; It's Cool to Cook! by Elizabeth Anne Downing; and Vegetarian Cooking for Beginners by F. Watt
- Encourage experimentation in the kitchen with recipes and meal-planning. Have teens take photos of their dishes, and compile a cookbook of favorite recipes. Include the photos in the cookbook, and illustrate the cookbook with drawings of kitchens, cooking, and dining.
- Remind teens to clean up after cooking, baking, and experimenting. Assign them responsibilities with everyday meal planning, preparation, and cleanup.
- Submit recipes or read more on kids cooking by Clicking here.
- For a treat and to celebrate the end of summer, make cupcakes that reflect summertime fun. On the top of one, create a sun. On another, a pink flower. On another, a beach ball. Use creativity to design summertime-fun cupcakes.
Art & Music: Week 3
- Make Organic Art by "spilling" paint onto a large sheet of paper. What does your "spilled paint art" look like to you? Allow to dry, then add details to your artwork with paint or markers to better define what your organic artwork represents to you. See Instructions: (Click Here).
- View this Timeline of Art. Select an era and try to duplicate the art, such as Cave Paintings or Cubism or Abstract Art (Click Here).
- Make a Color Wheel with Primary and Secondary colors, then another with Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary colors. Refer to your color wheel when painting, coloring, or designing (Click Here).
- Visit "Inside Art" to continue learning more about art history. Read the stories, view the artwork, and click on the Who, What, How, and Where (Click Here).
- After viewing the above Web sites, work on your own creations, paintings, drawings, or other types of artwork.
For art ideas, Click Here.
- Choose a musical instrument to learn to play. Read "How to Choose a Musical Instrument to Play" (Click Here).
- Contact music instructors in your area and interview them. See if they would be a good fit for teaching you how to play the instrument of your choice. Read "How to Pick the Right Music Teacher" (Click Here).
- Listen to different musical instruments: Click Here.
- Continue listening to classical music or soothing music when involved in artwork or crafts.
More Activities
- Remember to visit these areas, too:
- "Virtual Field Trips" (Click here).
- "Hands-On Activities" (Click here).
- "Worksheets Page" (Click here).
- "Educational Games" (Click here).
- "Fun Games" (Click here).
Time Spent on Core Skills
For this age group, here's an average of how many minutes per day are normally spent on the core skills: Reading, Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, and Science.
Older Elementary Ages: About 75 to 90 minutes
Middle-School Ages: Between 1 to 3 hours
High-School Ages: Between 2 to 4 hours
The amount of time can vary, depending on the child, his or her age, current skills, abilities, attention span, etc.
The "teaching time" need not occur all at one time. It can be spread out over the course of the day or evening.
Just as important as "teaching time" (or perhaps more so!) is free time for pursuing areas of interest on one's own. See the article below.
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