Play Outside - PBworksuwacampusschool.pbworks.com/w/file/.../PLAY_OUTSIDE... · Backyard Archeology Map Your Own ... would rather play outside. With the game, you get the best

Play Outside

It's summertime! And that means it's time to get outside and play. After all, it'soutdoors where some of the best learning happens. With treaure hunts,

extreme hopscotch, Syllable I Spy, and so much more, you'll have a week'sworth of outdoor fun that will keep your kid's mind and body active this

summer.

Table of ContentsWeek 7: Play Outside

Builders and BulldozersPlay Twist and Turn

Play Extreme Hopscotch!Go on a Hike with CURIOUS GEORGE!

Sight Words Water GameRead Rover, Green Rover

Play Syllable I SpySummer Bucket List: Get Outdoors!

Outdoor Scavenger HuntDINOSAUR TRAIN Nature Treasure Hunt

Backyard ArcheologyMap Your Own Treasure HuntReading Activities for the Park!

More to Explore!

It's summertime! And that means it's time to get outside and play. After all, it's outdoors where some of the best learning happens. With treasure hunts, extreme hopscotch, Syllable I Spy, and so much more, you'll have a week's worth of outdoor fun that will keep your kid's mind and body active this summer.

10-20 traffic cones

Large flat open space

Note: If you don't have traffic cones, you can make your own using the following materials: 10-20 plastic water bottles, 2-liter soda bottles, or tennis ball canisters (all with lids), play sand, and duct tape

Sidewalk chalk

Pen or pencil

Slips of paper

2 small paper lunch bags

Pail of Water

6” damp sponges

Stopwatch

Several energetic kids

Large construction paper shapes in a few primary colors

One safety pin for each player

Hat

Paper, ripped into small strips

Trowel

Whisk brush

Strainer

4 wooden dowels

Twine

Notebook

Assortment of everyday household items

Small token to serve as the treasure (This can be anything, from a toy from the dollar store to a handful of small rocks coated with a metallic spray paint to resemble gold or silver)

Black felt pen

Sheet of white paper

Colored pencils

Coffee grounds or black tea (optional)

Lighter or matches (optional)

Lots of imagination!

Builders and Bulldozers

Play Twist and Turn

Play Extreme Hopscotch!

Sight Words Water Game

Read Rover, Green Rover

Hike with Curious George

Play Syllable I Spy

Summer Bucket List: Get Outdoors!

Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

Backyard Archeology

Map Your Own Treasure Hunt

Reading Activities for the Park!

The PBS KIDS logo is a registered mark of the Public Broadcasting Service and is used with permission. All Rights Reserved.

Play Builders and Bulldozers

Help your child stay healthy, fit, and active with this high-energy aerobicactivity that strengthens the heart and lungs. In the game, two teams, thebuilders and the bulldozers, work at cross-purposes to try to earn points bystanding traffic cones up or tipping them over. Since each child must keeptrack of her own score, this game also offers some good mental mathpractice. Invite the neighborhood kids over to join in the fun for a crazy,exciting, and healthy afternoon.

What You Need:

10-20 traffic conesLarge flat area2 or more participants

If you don't have traffic cones, you can make your own using the followingmaterials:

10-20 plastic water bottles, 2-liter soda bottles, or tennis ball canisters (all with lids)Play sandDuct tape

What You Do:

1. If you are using real traffic cones, skip to step 2. If not, you can easily make your own traffic conesout of plastic water bottles, 2-liter soda bottles, or tennis ball canisters. Fill each bottle or canisterwith about a cup of play sand to weight the bottom. Screw the cap back on the bottle, and securewith a strip of duct tape to prevent the children from unscrewing it.

2. Place the traffic cones around the flat area, spacing them about 4-5 feet apart. Place half of thecones on their sides and half standing upright.

3. Organize the participants into two even teams. Designate one team the builders and the otherteam the bulldozers.

4. Give the teams their tasks: the builders must stand up the traffic cones that are on their sides andthe bulldozers must tip over the cones that are standing up. Make sure the bulldozers understandthat they are not allowed to hit or punch the cones to knock them over; they must gently tip themover on their sides.

5. Have the teams begin playing. Organize play in to rounds, with each round lasting only two orthree minutes. Have each player keep track of her own score; players get one point for each coneeither tipped over or placed standing up.

6. At the end of the round, have the players on each team combine their individual scores todetermine their group score.

7. Before round two begins, have the players switch teams so they have a chance to try both roles.8. Continue playing until the participants are tired out from all that exercise!

© Copyright 2006-2012 Education.com All Rights Reserved.

Play Twist 'N Turn!

Practicing shapes is important for preschoolers, but most preschoolerswould rather play outside. With the game, you get the best of both worlds:shape practice masquerading as a fun sidewalk game. Draw shapes onthe ground, and let your preschooler walk, hop, and skip her way tolearning all about rectangles, triangles, and circles. All you need is somesidewalk chalk and a bit of concrete to get started.

What You Need:

Sidewalk chalkFlat, paved area such as a drivewayPen or pencilSlips of paperSmall paper lunch bag

What You Do:

1. Choose 5 shapes you want your preschooler to become more familiar with, such as triangles,circles, rectangles, squares, diamonds, ovals, stars, pentagons, or cubes.

2. Write 10 simple instructions, each one on a small slip of paper. Try to incorporate color, shape,and direction. Here are a few ideas:

Put your left foot on the pink triangleHop to the yellow pentagonWalk backward to the blue squarePut your right hand on the purple circleHop on your left foot to the green diamond

3. Place the slips in the small paper lunch bag.4. On the pavement outside, ask your child to draw the 5 shapes with sidewalk chalk in the

corresponding colors you used to create the instructions. Remember, the shapes need to be large,so you’ll want to guide your child’s chalk work.

5. Ask your child to pull a slip of paper from the bag, and get twisting and turning, or hopping andrunning! Encourage your preschooler to help “read” the instructions.

6. Take this activity to another level by letting your child make up movements for you to carry out. Nowritten directions needed, just let your child be “boss” and get creative!


Play Extreme Hopscotch

This is not your grandmother's hopscotch! Take the classic game toa whole new level, by including some super fun and active directionsinside the traditional, chalk-drawn boxes. This entertaining game ofhopscotch becomes an obstacle source of sorts, as it provides anexciting challenge for your child and her friends.

What You Need:

ChalkSidewalk spaceLots of imagination

What You Do:

1. Have your child use chalk on the sidewalk to draw several connected boxes in a row, like thoseshe might make for traditional hopscotch. The boxes should be rectangle shape, and each boxshould be large enough for a child to jump in it and to fit several words of directions.

2. Instead of numbers that are usually in hospcotch boxes, tell your child she should come up withsome creative activities for players that jump in the boxes to do, before advancing to further boxes.A list of examples is provided here to give your child a head start:

Pose like a ninjaCount backwards from 10 to 1March in a CircleHop twice (like a bunny)Do a jumping jackHop on one foot for five secondsDo the chicken danceTry to whistleDo a ballerina twirlBe a swaying treeMeow like a catMoo like a cowRub your belly and pat your head at the same timePose your body in the shape of an alphabet letterYodel

3. Encourage her to come up with some ideas of her own, too.4. She may want to add illustrations to help clarify her directions inside some of the chalk boxes.5. Now that your child has exercised her imagination, help her invite friends to play Extreme

Hopscotch. She’ll exercise her body while having a blast!


The PBS KIDS logo is a registered mark of the PBS and is used with permission. • TM & © 2011 The Jim Henson Company. All Rights Reserved. Sid the Science Kid airs daily on PBS KIDS with funding provided by The Boeing Company and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding provided by MetLife Foundation, The Rose Hills Foundation, the S.D. Bechtel., Jr. Foundation, the Johnny Carson Foundation and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.

Find more games and activities at pbskids.org/read.

Weekdays on PBS KIDS

®

The PBS KIDS logo is a registered mark of the Public Broadcasting Service and is used with permission. • CURIOUS GEORGE is a production of Imagine, WGBH and Universal. Curious George and related characters, created by Margret and H.A. Rey, are copyrighted and trademarked by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company and used under license. Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing LLLP. Television Series: © 2012. Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. Curiousgeorge.com/PBSKIDs.ORG/curiousgeorge.com. CURIOUS GEORGE airs weekdays on PBS KIDS, with funding from public television viewers. National Corporate Sponsorship is provided by Chuck E. Cheese’s® and Stride Rite®. FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY.

Go on a Hike with George!Using the compass below, help George decide which direction he should go.

Then circle the correct answer in the bubble.

2. To see the lake, George should go:

or

To visit the moose, George should travel:

or

1.

Learn Sight Words with a Water Game!

All through first grade, teachers will work hard to help your child learn asmany “sight” words as possible. Sight words are short words that appearagain and again in our language that children should recognize instantly,and learning them thoroughly is a big boost for any young reader. Here’san outdoor activity that uses chalk and a wet sponge to help reinforcerecognition of common written words and assists your child's spellingabilities. This is a great game for a hot, summer day and a great way tobuild their spelling and reading skills!

What You Need:

Sidewalk ChalkPail of Water6” damp spongesStopwatchSeveral energetic first graders

What to Do:

1. Find an empty, clean spot of pavement, perhaps on a driveway or local playground.2. Have your child help you write out some common first grade spelling words like, "with" or "there"

or "that." (There are many possibilities. Take ideas from her spelling homework!)3. Dunk the sponge in the pail of water, and take turns throwing the wet sponge at each the word.

See how long it takes to "melt" away the sight word.4. For an extra twist, you can challenge your child to some “selective” melting too—for example, only

vowels, or only first letters. Mix it up any way you want as she starts getting better at reading.5. Once the word is completely gone, have a little contest to see if your child can remember how that

meltaway word was spelled. If she's not sure, pull out that chalk and those sponges again and beprepared for hours of fun.


Red Rover, Green Rover

Red Rover is one of those classically fun children's games that neverseems to go out of style. But with just a couple of twists, you can bring it upto date to bolster the shape-recognition and reading skills of yourpreschooler, too. This version works especially well with a group of kidsplaying at a park or at a kids' party.

What You Need:

Large construction paper shapes in a few primary colorsOne safety pin for each playerLarge flat open space

What to Do:

1. Give each child a different colored shape and pin it on his or her shirt.If there are several players, it's OK to have more than one kid with the same shapes or colors.

2. Divide the children into two even teams. Players on one side hold hands and invite another kid ortwo over, identifying them by their colored shape. They might say, for example, “Red Rover, RedRover, let the yellow triangles come over!” This is the cue for the children on the other team withyellow triangles to rush over and break into the line. If they succeed, they get to choose a playerand bring him back to their home team; if not, the “rovers” must join the opposing team until thereare no players left on the other team.

3. Alternate back and forth between the two teams for who is the calling team and who is the rovingteam. As kids get more comfortable, add in one last feature: try changing the “action words”(verbs) and giving the kids one more piece of learning practice. “Red Rover, Red Rover,” the kidsmight say, “Let the green circles jump on over!”

4. Keep playing until those color words, action words, and shapes seem automatic, or until someoneflops down in exhaustion. Kids should take away a sense of good clean fun—and hopefully anever-more solid grasp of important kind.


Play Syllable I Spy

At some point in your life, you’ve probably played the game “I Spy.” It’sperfect for boring waits at the grocery store, or long car rides. But with alittle tweaking, the game can also help kids practice a key first gradeconcept…syllables. Here’s how to play:

What You Need:

HatPaper, ripped into small strips

What You Do:

1. Start the game with a little refresher. Tell your child that just asmusic can be divided into beats, words can be divided into syllables.Spend a few minutes talking about a few multi-syllable words,clapping at each syllable to show your child where the “breaks” are.

2. Let 'er rip! With your child’s help, tear a piece of paper into a bunch of small strips. On each pieceof paper, write a number from 1-4. When you’re finished, throw them all into the hat.

3. Time to play! The first player picks a slip of paper from the hat. Just like in “I Spy,” he must comeup with an object for the other player to guess. But in this version of the game, he must come upwith an object with the number of syllables on the slip. For example, if he picked the number 2, hemight choose “table” or “teaspoon” or “stapler.” With children this age, the number of syllablesitself probably isn’t enough of a hint to keep the game from getting frustrating, so give clues thatincorporate other hints as well, for example, “I spy something black with two syllables” or “I spysomething you eat on that has two syllables.”

As your child gets the hang of it, don’t be afraid to throw a bit more challenge into the hat. Or, hat aside,just ask your child to think of a word with five syllables, or even six! He’ll look at your refrigerator in awhole new light.


SUMMERB U C K E T L I S T

Build a bonfire

Run barefoot on a beach

Catch fireflies in a jar

Camp in the backyard

Play in the sprinklers

Go to a drive-in movie

Host a chili cookoffDo tie dye

Build a tree house

Take a family road trip

Wage water balloon war

Watch fireworks

Do something nice for a friend

Skip a rock into a lake

Make a cool fort out of blankets

Carve your name into a tree

Visit a theme park

Make root beer floats

Take a surfing lesson

Set up a homemade lemonade stand

Eat a snow cone

Make s’mores outdoors

Watch a sunset with the family

Play nighttime capturethe flag

Have a cannonball contestat the pool

Go to a baseball game

Dance in the rain

More worksheets at www.education.com/worksheetsCopyright © 2012-2013 by Education.com

More worksheets at www.education.com/worksheetsCopyright © 2013-2014 by Education.com

Scavenger HuntHikingCan you find the following on your hike? Circle the item when you find it.Remember to be safe! Only look and don't touch.

Draw the answers to the questions on this page, or have an adult or older child help.

The PBS KIDS logo is a registered mark of the PBS and is used with permission. TM & © 2012 The Jim Henson Company. JIM HENSON’S mark & logo, DINOSAUR TRAIN mark & logo, characters and elements are trademarks of The Jim Henson Company. All Rights Reserved.

Find more games and activities at pbskids.org/read.

Nature Treasure Hunt

1. Find 2 different kinds of plants. Draw a picture of each one below.

Pay attention to the shapes of leaves and the colors of any flowers.

Plants I Found

What is a question you have about one of the plants?

2. Find 2 different kinds of animals. Draw a picture of each one below.

Show as many details as you can.

Animals I Found

What is a question you have about one of your animals?

Backyard Archeology

Is your kid interested in Indy? Taken with Tomb Raider? This activity is agreat way to stretch your child’s imagination and creativity and build upthose all-important critical thinking skills by bringing the fascinating world ofarcheology right into your own backyard. All you need are some everydayhousehold items and some outdoor space!

What You Need:

TrowelWhisk brushStrainer4 wooden dowelsTwineNotebookAssortment of everyday household items (see below for examples)

What You Do:

1. Begin by gathering an assortment of everyday household items or small parts of them—thebroken handle of a cup, a button from a coat, the cap from a plastic water bottle, etc. For older kidsit’s best to choose items that are difficult to identify without their context, such as the spring from apen, or the spool from a dental floss container.

2. In your yard, bury the items at varying depths in a plot of dirt about 2-3 feet square. Dry, sandy soilis best, as moist soil can make filtering the items through the strainer difficult.

3. Mark off the boundaries of the area in which the items were buried using wooden dowels andstring.

4. Plot the “dig site” with your child in a notebook before beginning the "excavation" so that she willhave a place to record her findings.

5. Equip your budding archaeologist with a notebook—and clothes that can take a little dirt!—theninvite her to begin digging for “artifacts”. Use the trowel to gently scrape away layers of dirt, whichcan then be sifted through for relics using the strainer. Use the whisk brush or toothbrush to gentlyclean away dirt from small objects. Once an artifact is found, it can be recorded in the child’snotebook: object description, where it was found, and at what depth etc...Encourage her to becreative with her descriptions! Where does she think this particular artifact came from? Whatcould it possibly be used for?

6. Once your child has found all of the items, spend some time with her guessing what the itemswere used for. Objects taken out of their usual context may be foreign and captivating to children,who often come up with an entirely different purpose for them. Pretend you’re looking back fromsometime in the future and ask your child: What do you think this item was used for? Why would ithave been important to this society? Chances are that you’ll be impressed by their boundlesscreativity!

This is a great activity to try during the summer or fall when the weather is perfect for spending timeoutside!


Plan a Treasure Hunt

What young kid could resist the pull of an outdoor adventure, and thepromise of hidden treasure? It's easy to turn your home or backyard into afar away land with secrets to unfold—set the stage, and your kid'simagination will do the rest. And in between all that bounty-chasing andtreasure digging, he'll get a taste of how to use a map, and begin toconnect how images and symbols on a map correspond to things in thephysical world.

What You Need:

Small token to serve as the treasure (This can be anything, from atoy from the dollar store to a handful of small rocks coated with ametallic spray paint to resemble gold or silver)Small paper bagBlack felt penSheet of white paperPencil (colored pencils will also do)Coffee grounds or black tea (optional)Lighter or matches (optional)

What to Do:

1. Bundle your rocks or other treasure in the small paper bag and write a bold X on the outside.Aaarg, matey!

2. Once you’ve got your pirate booty lined up, choose your location—inside or out—for the hidingspot. Hide the treasure well, but make sure it won't be too hard for your child to discover.

3. Now it’s time to make the treasure map. This can be as simple or elaborate as you wish, butremember, your child will need to read it independently in order to find the treasure. Keep words toa minimum and use pictures to the max. Let your artistic side shine, but don’t get too intimidated—this is just silly pirate fun! A simple sketch of the area where the treasure can be found is sufficient,with an X marking the spot of the booty.

4. If you have the time, consider creating a more authentic-looking map by soaking the white paper incoffee grounds or black tea. To give the paper a brittleness, try drying it in a 200° oven. For a trulyspecial touch, carefully burn the edges of the paper with a lighter or matches.

5. Once you’ve got the main locations on there (bushes, the house, a favorite tree), add a dotted linethat shows the path for finding the treasure. This is a visual cue to reinforce simple directions.

Now sit back and enjoy watching your child’s excitement as he uses the clues provided on the map tofind the treasure. Amid the pure pirate fun, he'll get an intro to map reading.


Reading Activities for the Park!

Planning a trip to the park? PBS Parents has some literacy building tips for your next trip. Click here tocheck them out!


http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading-language/reading-activities/reading-activities-at-the-park/

More to Explore!

You and your littlest kids can keep exploring every day with PBS KIDSâ€™ Daniel Tigerâ€™sNeighborhood.

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Image Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Tigerâ€™s Neighborhood Â© 2013 The Fred Rogers Company.

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http://www.pbs.org/parents/daniel

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Play Outside - PBworksuwacampusschool.pbworks.com/w/file/.../PLAY_OUTSIDE... · Backyard Archeology Map Your Own ... would rather play outside. With the game, you get the best