20 Activities to Keep KIDS' Brains Active in summer

There are plenty of ways to keep kids' minds active during the school break. To help with this, whether a parent, teacher, tutor, instructor, or  all of those in one, this post will provide a list of activity ideas that are educational too! These activities are suitable for most ages and can be tweaked to increase/decrease difficulty if required.

1. COOKING -  Teach kids to cook with simple recipes. Depending on the age, discuss where math is being used during the cooking experience. CLICK HERE to view a variety of kid-friendly recipe ideas by the Food Network. 

2. STORY REENACTMENT - Read some books/short stories and then try to reenact them using toys or other materials found around the home. Play Doh or Lego, paired with a bit of imagination, are simple ways to create characters and props to suit a variety of books.

We used Play Doh in the image below to retell the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. 

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My son loved experimenting with using different materials to see what floated. He then enjoyed testing to see how many of his animal figurines a boat could hold before sinking. 

3. STEM Boat Challenge - Collect materials around the home such as milk cartons, bottles, cardboard boxes, sticks, plastic tubs etc. Fill a large container or small pool with water , then set the STEM challenge to build a boat that floats. Extend this activity by reading the book 'Who Sank the Boat' by Pamela Allen. Then, place some figurines into the boat to see how many it will take to sink it.

4. SAVE THE ANIMALS or DINOSAURS - Use some toy figurines (pick ones that are sturdy). Place them in a large bowl with water and freeze. Once frozen, sit it out to thaw just enough to lift the ice block out of the bowl. Provide some tools and materials to assist with making the ice melt or break to get the figurines out e.g. magnifying glass, salt, picks, sticks, spoons, rocks, sugar, etc. Then set the challenge to save the animals/dinosaurs as fast as possible. You could set a timer on to add to the excitement. ​

5. MATH MYSTERIES - These are a print and go fun worksheet activity. Set the story scene with the video hook, then challenge your detective to use their math skills and powers of deduction to solve the case. Find a free print and go math mystery for multiple levels HERE. ​

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6. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS - provide a collection of items found around the home e.g. recyclable items, pots, utensils, rice, pasta, cereal, etc. Then set the task to make as many interesting musical instruments as possible.  Use the homemade instruments to play a song. ​

7. ROCK COLLECTING - Head out to a park or just the backyard and start the hunt for rocks! Make a day out of learning about rocks and minerals by doing some research on the Internet. Use as an opportunity to learn how to research. For example, explore using Google to assist with finding the answer. ​

8. VIRTUAL TOURS - Become an adventurer! In the comfort of your own home. Use some of these awesome virtual tour links to explore fascinating places of the world and learn some interesting facts in the meantime. I'll link some useful virtual tour links below (you will need FLASH for these):
   - Egyptian Tomb Adventure
   - Louvre
   - Antarctica

9. DIRECTED DRAWING - Grab a pencil, some paper, decide on something to learn how to draw, then see if you can find a directed drawing lesson on YouTube. Look for ones with easy steps. Pause the video after viewing each step to copy on paper.  I'll link some suggestions below to get started:
​    - Dog
    - Penguin
​    - Dragon
    - Dinosaur

Video example:

10. COLORFUL BLOBS - You'll need a clear glass/plastic jar or bottle, container/s, water, a cooking oil, food coloring, a dropper or syringe. Fill the jar/bottle with water. Mix the oil with some food coloring separate containers. Using a dropper or syringe, pick up a colored oil and drop into the water. Observe what happens. Continue to experiment and explore the effects. Discuss how oil and water don't mix. See what happens when you shake the bottle or jar with water and oil. Observe what happens when it settles. Experiment with different sized jars/bottles, adjust the temperature of the water, use different tools to drop the oil in the water to see if it alters the results. ​

11. LOGIC PUZZLE - An easy to prepare puzzle if you want something quick and not messy on a hot summer afternoon. Below are links to three free ones available in my TPT store:
 - Logic Puzzle #1
 - Logic Puzzle #2
 - Logic Puzzle #3

12. ONLINE MATH GAMES - Make screen time not wasted time by keeping it fun and educational. There are plenty of free options available that only require an Internet connection and adobe flash. I'll link some of my favorite go to sites below:
​  - Cool Math Games
  - Math Playground
  - Fun Brain

13. LEGO STEM - Lego is such a fun and versatile learning tool for all ages. There are plenty of awesome STEM Lego challenges available out there. A few ideas to get started include:
 - Create a boat that will really float in water
 - Build an animal and see if someone can guess what it is
 - Make a pattern
 - Build something using exactly 100 (or pick a target number) Lego pieces.

14. MATH PROJECTS - Start off easy with a simple print and go math project, such as the  Pet Shop one found HERE. Extend the activity by setting the challenge to build the Pet store by using some cardboard and other materials found around the home. ​

​15. READ - Set a bit of time aside for reading a book. Follow up with a , discussion about the story.  Reading Rockets has put together some great book lists for summer if you are searching for some ideas.

16. RESEARCH - find a topic of interest e.g. how is chocolate made, and then start researching it together. For younger kids, model how to look for the information and help with the reading. For older kids, require them to inform you about what they discover. ​

17. Alphabet Country Search Game -  A globe and paper is needed for this game. List the letters A-Z on paper. Spin the globe and randomly use your finger to stop it somewhere. Look for the closest country starting with the letter A to jot down on your list. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the alphabet. 
Thank you to Allison Mcdonald for this fun idea.

18. SET UP SHOP - Create some paper money or use some play money, gather some toys or items from the pantry. Set up the shop by placing items selected on a table and mark with a price tag (use post-its or small pieces of paper and a marker to show prices). Then role play shop. One person must be the customer while the other is the cashier. The cashier must work out the total bill. But, the customer must also work out the bill to ensure that they have enough money. Depending on the age level, you could turn this into a math lesson with working out change and introducing decimals. ​

19. PLAY-DOH World - Create an invitation to play station with some Play-Doh and other interesting items. Set a theme or a scene to create using Play-Doh and the items. ​

20. SCATTERGORIES - This fun game needs to be played with at least two people to keep it fun. Create a category list e.g. name, place, food, animal, movie title, etc. Then, either pull a letter out of a hat at random OR go through the letters A - Z, to fill out each category as fast as possible. Earn one point for every category correctly filled and earn bonus points if you didn't get the same answer for a category as anyone else. Increase the challenge by setting a timer for each letter round. ​