Science See what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar. Build a model ecosystem with playdough or clay. Make and organize a collection. Rocks, leaves, shells, bottle caps, rubber bands, coins...or your idea! Look and listen outside for signs of animals. Who lives near you? How can you tell? Build a birdhouse out of materials you have at home. Set up a bird feeder. Count the birds you see visiting and keep a record. Lie down outside and watch the clouds. What shapes do you see? Keep a cloud journal and draw the clouds for several days in a row. Collect objects and test them with magnets. Choose an interesting plant in or near home and make a scientific drawing of it. Include all of the details. Build a balloon rocket. Observe a spider web. Sketch the web. Do you see the spider? Find it several days in a row. Has it changed?
Art and Design Collect leaves and use crayons to make leaf rubbings. Build with Legos or blocks and then draw a picture of your creation. Create a HUGE piece of art. Create a tiny piece of art. Paint with unusual objects- vegetables, toy cars, string, sponges, or your own idea! Create a stop-motion movie with a free stop motion app such as Stop Motion or Lego Movie Maker. Create your own board game. Make it and play it! Collect rocks and paint them to look like creatures. Collect natural objects outside and then make a sculpture with them. Draw a comic strip of something funny that really happened to you. Design and build a pillow fort. Create a chalk mural on the sidewalk.
Learn to fold an origami animal or shape. Make a pattern with beads! Create a patterned necklace, keychain, or your own idea. Plan and make a flower arrangement. Draw the floorplan of your room, then redesign it into your dream room. Visit an art museum and then create a piece of art based on something you saw there.
Technology and Engineering Collect cardboard and then design and build a structure. Fold and test some paper airplanes. Take an old appliance or electronic device apart. Create a tinkering station at home where you can design and build things. Practice coding with Scratch.mit.edu or Tynker.com. Get a D-cell battery, two wires, and a small lightbulb. Can you get the bulb to light up? Think of a problem in your life and draw an invention that would help with this problem. Build a tower out of dry spaghetti and mini marshmallows. How tall can you make it? Would your tower survive an earthquake?
Mathematics Solve a KenKen puzzle. Create a maze- either on paper or with chalk or other materials outside. Solve a Sudoku puzzle. Flip a coin 50 times. First predict then count how many heads and how many tails. Roll dice 50 times. First predict, then record how many times you get each number. Play a math board or card game, like Monopoly, Set, Yahtzee... Take a walk. First predict, then time how many minutes you walked. Take a walk. Count your steps. How far did you get in 100 steps? 1000? Pick a recipe to cook with an adult. Be in charge of all of the measuring as you cook. Make 3D shapes with toothpicks and grapes. How many happy faces can you draw in one minute?
Watch a YouTube video and learn how to draw a cube in 3D. BONUS: Draw the shadow. Measure your shadow at different times of day. How tall are you in inches? Feet and inches? Centimeters? Figure out how many days until your birthday. BONUS: How many hours? Find something in a cookbook you want to make. Halve the recipe. Do the fractions get bigger, or smaller? How many ways can you make 50 cents. Get some coins and find out. Find 100 right angles. HINT: Right angles are square corners like the corner of a book. How many steps around the outside perimeter of your house? Find 10 things that are shorter than your pencil. Find 10 things that are thinner than your pencil. BONUS: 10 things smaller than the eraser! Find 20 things that weigh less than a shoe. A=$1, B=$2, C=$3 How much s your name? What word adds up to $12? What s the most expensive word you can think of? Go to the grocery store. Find fruit that weighs exactly one pound. BONUS: Find fruit that weighs exactly ½ pound.
Cut two strings in different lengths. Find as many objects as you can that are the same length as the strings. Get 21 rocks. Take turns taking 1, 2, or 3 rocks. The last person to take a rock loses the game. How many tiles are on your bathroom floor? I have $100 in my pocket. What bills might I have? Go grocery shopping with your family. Keep an estimate going as you shop to predict how much your groceries will cost. How close did you get? Ask your family to order pizza. How many pieces are in the whole? What fraction of the pizza will each person eat? Red beads are $1, blue beads are $10, green beads are $100, gold beads are $1,000. Draw a necklace worth $4,869. Can you do it a different way? Draw a 2-foot long spiral. How will you do it?
Reading Read a genre you haven t read before. Read a graphic novel or comic book, and then draw and write your own with chalk on the sidewalk. Read a book by flashlight, then have fun making shadow puppets. Read a cookbook and choose a recipe that sounds delicious. Ask a grown up if you can make it together. Dig into a book about how plants grow, then try planting a seed and tending to it. Read a book that is written like a diary and then create a summer diary of your own. Learn about the planets and stars by reading a book, then look for constellations in the summer night sky. Have a picture book picnic. After you eat, share the picture books aloud. Go on a nature walk or birding walk with a guidebook. Then write in your own nature journal about what you saw. Read a book in a silly voice. Read a book of jokes or tongue twisters.
Make a bookmark for yourself or a friend. Make your own book cover. Write your own MadLibs. Prepare a 30-second Book Talk and share it with another person. Make a Best Book of the Year award. Make a to-be-read list and try to read as many books on the list as you can. Create a book tradition for your family. Maybe it s Books and Smoothies or Stories and Crafts Pick a book with an adult and trade off reading pages.
Writing Send a postcard to a friend. Ask a grownup to help you search the internet for your favorite author or illustrator. Find their website and see if they have an address for fan mail. Write them an email or letter about why you enjoy their stories. Write a persuasive note to your family about the type of dessert you want to have after dinner. Write words on the sidewalk with a paintbrush and water. Write and perform a play. Write a letter to a family member about the book you are reading, and ask them to write back to you about their reading! Go to a movie with your family or friends and then write a review. Read a book and then write a review. Write chalk messages on the sidewalk to cheer someone up as they walk by.