June Ideas
June 1 ~ National Donut Day-Go get donuts, make donuts, share a donut, write about donuts. Take a donut survey. Ask everyone what their favorite donut is and make a graph.
Try donut bobbing: When playing this game just make sure you don't buy powdered donuts or it will get everywhere. You will need one donut for each participant, string, scissors for cutting string, and staples or tacks to hold the string up. String the donuts up from the ceiling or a tree branch and adjust the length so that each person can easily reach the donut with their mouth. When you say "GO" the players will have to try to be the first person to eat the whole donut without using their hands. If you have set a time limit, then the person who has eaten the most wins the game.
June 2 ~ National Rocky Road Day-Find a news article about someone who is on a "rocky road" (having a hard time) Eat Rocky Road icecream, make Rocky Road brownies.
June 3 ~ National Repeat Day-Find something in the news that is so good you wish it would repeat over and over. Write a story about something that repeats. Start a family exercise night and decide on some exercises you want to do (biking, walking, running) Repeat this night every week.
June 4 ~ Celebrate National Dairy Month-Let kids plan the meals for the family today and make sure they include all the dairy servings.
If you live near a rural area make arrangements to visit a dairy farm.
Arrange a tour of the Dairy Dept. of your local grocery store. Kids love going into the GIANT cooler!
June 5~World Environment Day-Find a way you can help the earth and do it.
Clean out toys for a yard sale or charity and talk about how reusing things helps the environment.
Go on a hike and talk about “Leaving No Trace.”
Go on a nature walk and let the DK’s take their own pictures of things they see. Develop them and make a memory book.
June 6~ International Volunteer Day-Identify ways to volunteer. Little or big ones can volunteer to do a job at home.
Find places that allow children to volunteer and volunteer.
Make a summer craft and take it to the nursing/assisted living home in your area. Visit with the residents or volunteer to sing them a song.
Bake cookies or another treat and take them to random people.
June 7~ Go on a camp-out. You could go on a real one or simply set up a tent and sleep over in your own backyard.
Pretend your camping by getting out a jumbo candle (one with 3 wicks), turn out the lights and roast marshmallows over the candle!
Make smores in a pizza box solar oven as seen here:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/365242/
Go fishing.
Lay on the front lawn after dark and snuggle under a blanket. Watch the stars together and tell stories.
June 8~ Best Friends Day-List the qualities of a good friend. Do something with a friend.
If you have girl(s) call over some little friends and have them dress up in their favorite princess or girlie outfit. Have a “tea party” w/lemonade, and anything else you can find to eat in your house.
Rent a “bouncy thing” and have friends or neighborhood kids over for the day to bounce.
June 9 ~ "Cars" the movie was released on this day 3 years ago. LOL Look in the classifieds and find a car you would like to drive.
Make a car collage from ads or pictures online.
Go for a bike ride since bikes are cars for kids. LOL Talk about traffic rules and safety.
Use a cardboard box and design it into a car. Fold sides of box in on both ends. Attach yarn to go from front of box to back of box and rest over child's shoulders. To attach, poke holes with a pen or screwdriver into the box, then run yarn through and tie off. Spray paint box or paint box with tempera paint. Let dry. Paint the paper plates black. Let dry. Glue 4 of the 5 paper plates onto the box as wheels. Glue the plastic milk jug lids on to the plates as hub caps. Take last plate and cut out a steering wheel. Glue red plastic milk jug lid onto last plate as the horn. Glue plate to box. Cut tail lights from red construction paper, glue on. Cut headlights from white construction paper, glue on. Draw a grill on front with black marker.
Have a movie night and watch Cars. If you can set up a TV in the backyard and watch the movie even better! Your DK’s could even “drive” their box cars like a drive-in. Let the kids each invite a friend.
June 10 ~ Adopt a Cat Day- List the things you need to do to take care of a cat.
Make a cat craft.
Go to the zoo and make a list of all the different kinds of cats you see.
June 11 ~ Cancer from the Sun Month- Watch the weather forecast and find which days will be sunny. Remember to wear sunscreen.
Go swimming at a big pool, a pool in the yard, run through the sprinklers, spray each other with the hose, or put a sprinkler under the tramp and remember sunscreen!
June 12 ~ Practice your ABC’s.
Go on an ABC summer scavenger hunt. Make a list of ABC words and go outside and find them or get a notebook and put one letter in the corner of each page. Find things for each letter, draw or write them.
Go to the library. Read together before you check out. Check and see when if they do story time too.
Use sidewalk chalk to practice letter.
Paint the sidewalk. We use plain water.
June 13 ~ Little League Baseball Week-Go to a little league or other baseball game. Write a pretend sports news story about that game.
June 14~ Flag Day-Fly the flag, make a flag, look for other things that symbolize the U.S.
June 15~ Smile Power Day-Count the number of smiles in the newspaper. Make someone else smile.
Make a smile collage and hang it somewhere that it will make you smile every day.
June 16~ Play with Paint-On a fence or clothes line hang up large pieces of paper (newsprint works really well. You can buy rolls for CHEAP at your local newspaper) and let them paint to their hearts content since clean-up is pretty much nonexistant. Sponge painting is fun this way also.
Tie Dye shirts outside or decorate a shirt with puffy fabric paint.
June 17~ Eat Your Vegetables Day-Find pictures of vegetables in magazines and make a game or collage. Make a menu that includes all your vegetable servings for the day.
June 18~ Science and engineering-Look up science experiments online or in a book and do one.
Build something. This is great for older kids. Last summer Dorien’s DS and 2 friends built a fully functioning catapult from wood. They shot acorns all over the neighborhood!
Read about Butterflies. A great book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Order your own caterpillars from www.insectlore.com . Watch them develop from caterpillars to butterflies and let them go.
Make a sensory caterpillar. Cut out circles of various types of material, such as: felt, sandpaper, aluminum foil, cotton, sponge, etc. Glue them on a paper, add eyes, legs, and antennas (pipe cleaners work great). The kids love them and learn lots of descriptive words about the way things feel.
June 19~ Garfield's Birthday-Read Garfields comics in the newspaper. Find something Garfield would like to eat. Watch Garfield the movie.
June 20~ Ice Cream Soda Day- List all the ingredients to make an icecream soda. Make one.
June 21~ First Day of Summer & Father's Day-Find an outdoor activity you and your dad can do to celebrate the first day of summer.
Go to the park.
Jump on the tramp.
Ride bikes.
June 20~ Ice Cream Soda Day- List all the ingredients to make an icecream soda. Make one.
June 21~ First Day of Summer & Father's Day-Find an outdoor activity you and your dad can do to celebrate the first day of summer.
Go to the park.
Jump on the tramp.
Ride bikes.
Write an ad for the job of being a Dad. Tell and show your dad how much you love him.
June 22~ Science and engineering-Look up science experiments online or in a book and do one.
Build something. This is great for older kids. Last summer Dorien’s DS and 2 friends built a fully functioning catapult from wood. They shot acorns all over the neighborhood!
Read about Butterflies. A great book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Order your own caterpillars from www.insectlore.com . Watch them develop from caterpillars to butterflies and let them go.
Make a sensory caterpillar. Cut out circles of various types of material, such as: felt, sandpaper, aluminum foil, cotton, sponge, etc. Glue them on a paper, add eyes, legs, and antennas (pipe cleaners work great). The kids love them and learn lots of descriptive words about the way things feel.
June 23~ Let it Go Day-Find someone in the news who is angry about a small problem. What could that person do to fix the problem.
June 24~ National Safety Month-Make a list of summer safetly rules and talk to your family about them.
June 25~ Take Your Dog to Work Day-Write a funny story or draw a picture about what a dog might do at a workplace.
June 26~ Toothbrush Invented today 1498-Find pictures of people who take care of their teeth. Remember to brush your teeth today.
Start a tooth brushing chart and record every time you brush your teeth for a month.
Paint a picture using tooth brushes. You can usually get packages of 5 cheapo brushes at the $1 store. Tempera/poster paints work best.
June 27~ "Happy Birthday" song written today 1859-Make up a new birthday song. Throw an un-birthday party.
June 28~ Paul Bunyan Day- Read the story of Paul Bunyan this can be found online at paulbunyantrail.com
Rewrite a story as a tall tale. Talk about how a tall tale is an exaggerated story.
For young kids think of questions that they can develop:
*Paul Bunyan's shirt buttons were made out of (what could be really huge buttons).*Paul Bunyan drank out of a ..... it had to be something very bigCome up with other possibilities and have the children use the phrase such as:"According to the way I heard it ..... "
June 29~ Camera Day-Look at the photos in the paper and cut out the best. Make a pretend exhibit.
Take a camera and pretend to be a photographer. Let the DK’s make a scrapbook of their pics.
Take pictures of all the activities you do and at the end of the summer make a scrapbook ~ Summer ‘2008’
June 30~ Superman's Birthday-Celebrate his birthday by writing a story about him.
Make a cape even if it’s out of a blanket and a clothes pin.
Superman Training CourseTo carry out the job of saving the planet, Superman must be in tip-top shape. You'll need a large safe space, lawn furniture, boards to balance on, ropes to climb over, tires etc. Let them run the course as many times as they'd like.
Decorate an “S” shaped cookie. Bake some plain sugar cookies cut out in the shape of the “S” symbol on his costume. Buy various icings and sprinkles and your kids will have a fun treat while they watch a Superman cartoon or movie.
Take a camera and pretend to be a photographer. Let the DK’s make a scrapbook of their pics.
Take pictures of all the activities you do and at the end of the summer make a scrapbook ~ Summer ‘2008’
June 30~ Superman's Birthday-Celebrate his birthday by writing a story about him.
Make a cape even if it’s out of a blanket and a clothes pin.
Superman Training CourseTo carry out the job of saving the planet, Superman must be in tip-top shape. You'll need a large safe space, lawn furniture, boards to balance on, ropes to climb over, tires etc. Let them run the course as many times as they'd like.
Decorate an “S” shaped cookie. Bake some plain sugar cookies cut out in the shape of the “S” symbol on his costume. Buy various icings and sprinkles and your kids will have a fun treat while they watch a Superman cartoon or movie.
Still bored? Try these:
Play frisbee golf (a great older boy game) Set up laundry baskets in a park if you don’t have a course near you. Play each “hole” like a game of stick and ball golf. Count how many throws it takes to get the disk into each basket.
Have a lemonade sale WITH your kids.
Go the your local museums (natural history, art, childrens etc)
Make Dad something for fathers day....paint a rock
Shop at a local outdoor market.
Picnic in the park.
Feed duck at a lake, pond….
Go horseback riding.
Play outside in the rain.
Play with water balloons.
Make Crispy candy Sushi Snacks
-Get a plastic little fish (like a little bag of them at Big Lots or Walmart), blue hair gel, glitter, ziploc bag (snack size works great) and packing tape.-Squeeze the blue hair gel into the ziploc, until it is a couple of inches full. Sprinkle some glitter in it and put one (or two, however many you like) fish in. Gently close it and get the excess air out. Seal tight, and I like to tape over the top. Now your kiddos have a squishy fidget toy, that they can squeeze and play with for hours on end!!!
Play frisbee golf (a great older boy game) Set up laundry baskets in a park if you don’t have a course near you. Play each “hole” like a game of stick and ball golf. Count how many throws it takes to get the disk into each basket.
Have a lemonade sale WITH your kids.
Go the your local museums (natural history, art, childrens etc)
Make Dad something for fathers day....paint a rock
Shop at a local outdoor market.
Picnic in the park.
Feed duck at a lake, pond….
Go horseback riding.
Play outside in the rain.
Play with water balloons.
Make Crispy candy Sushi Snacks
-Get a plastic little fish (like a little bag of them at Big Lots or Walmart), blue hair gel, glitter, ziploc bag (snack size works great) and packing tape.-Squeeze the blue hair gel into the ziploc, until it is a couple of inches full. Sprinkle some glitter in it and put one (or two, however many you like) fish in. Gently close it and get the excess air out. Seal tight, and I like to tape over the top. Now your kiddos have a squishy fidget toy, that they can squeeze and play with for hours on end!!!
(I have July and August Calandars too*:)*)
