There are so many reasons that I LOVE summer! Certainly, time off is one of them, but it’s not so much about the “time off” as much as time off of the hamster wheel. Summer is when I can be rested AND creative instead of one or the other 😉
Today we are preparing of the onslaught of the ankle biters: a six year old, a five year old, and a two year old, in addition to the teen crew. My niece and nephew are coming to stay for several days, and I also have the delightful task of watching my neighbor during the week. I love this time of family and enthusiasm for learning and exploring. I’ve convinced the young ‘uns that everything is an adventure. We go to museums, the zoo, we play, we invent things, we learn scientific method by making paper airplanes and launching them off the landing… and we take naps. Lots of naps. 🙂
As a result of this mini invasion, I am on the hunt for fun things that we can do together, and it’s a bonus if they are free-cheap and have application for class. Today I bring you one of those activities: a paper cutout mini city. Most of us do some form of an “around town” unit, and make maps too. This has the potential to change that activity up a little in making it 3D. I love that one of the cities is Paris and is already labelled in French. What fun!
At home, I think we’ll color them and build a city together… and then it will only be a matter of time until the hot wheels cars make an appearance Seeing as how all but the youngest are boys, it would not surprise me if Godzilla makes an appearance and the city gets attacked shortly afterward, but I’m certainly not going to discourage their creative play time!
In class, I could see something like this used for a 3D model for practice with giving directions, describing relative locations, etc., all would be more fun/engaging with a city that they assembled themselves. Alternatively, this could be a problem solving exercise where students follow directions to create the model, placing the various buildings in specified locations compared to each other (the bank is next to the grocery; the movie theater is across from the bank…)
And now off to another reason I love summer: The World Cup! I’m torn–I love both Spain and Chile and they are playing each other. Win-Win? I think so!
Aventuras Nuevas 