I am so excited to share a FREE resource to help teach your child the 10 commandments. These mini-posters are such a great visual aide! For example, for this picture.
See the eight? The eighth commandment is "Do not steal."
See the five? The fifth commandment is "Honor your mother and father."
After my kids and I review the posters, I have my children cut out the pictures and write under each one the corresponding commandment. They know their commandments so well after this activity. This teaching tool belongs in every parent's toolbox!
Am I the only one experiencing a bad case of summeritis? I've heard of children showing signs of it but this homeschool momma has it full blown! The weather is just perfect right now in SWFL and I want to be at the pool or the beach with my kids, not at our kitchen table completing school work gazing outside my windows. So this is the time of year that I have to pull out all of my "back-up teaching tools" to keep their (and my) enthusiasm going strong, well, just going. :)
Today my kids were writing adventure stories so I decided to try something different. Instead of having them write their stories on regular writing paper, we created books without any glue, tape, or staples. Yes, it is possible! I found this tutorial on You-Tube on how to make a simple book with only a sheet of paper and scissors. Instead of using a standard size sheet of paper like in the video, we used a large sheet of construction paper to make bigger and thicker pages. The kids thought it was very cool! They even spent extra time on their stories, which turned out wonderful! See how a different approach to teaching can spice up learning? I just love that!
Since my kids went absolutely crazy over the marbled eggs we made from paint and shaving cream, they wanted to use the same method for Earth Day to create the most awesome earths ever!!!
Is that not the coolest earth you've ever seen?
They were such a hit that six neighborhood kids wanted to join in on the fun and make them, too!
For all the details on how to do this art project, {Click Here}. The only thing we did different was we used blue and green paint only and we cut circles (instead of ovals) from construction paper.
Each creation is unique! I love that part!
This art project is sure to be a hit with your kids!
UPDATE:
This project became so popular that Fox asked me to film a segment about how to make these shaving cream earths.
My kids are so hooked on shaving cream art that they have made:
As I was teaching my kids about Earth Day and discussing how you can reuse things to make new creations, I remembered learning about Solomon's Castle. It is located in South Florida, not too far from where I live. I'd seen a short episode about it on television a few months ago so I looked on-line to see if I could find it. Lucky me, I found it on You-Tube! It is produced by a local television program called Curious Kids, and the children visit Mr. Solomon to learn more about turning trash into treasure. He even made a castle from trash! Take a look!
For more Earth Day activities, click HEREand then SCROLL DOWN to see all the posts.
Here are my family's favorite activities to celebrate Earth Day:
Watch the movie Wall-E which is about a garbage collecting robot that has been left behind to clean up an abandoned, polluted earth.
Watch the movie The Lorax, which is made from a treasured Dr. Seuss classic. It teaches young children about the importance of caring for our Earth and not polluting. I love the vibrant colors and images in this movie which makes it one of my favorites to watch with my family for Earth Day.
Read the book The Wump Worldby Bill Peet. It is a pro-environment book that is entertaining and captures the child's complete attention. I personally like all of the strong vocabulary words that are used, which can lead to many impromptu vocab. lessons. The Wump World was a required read aloud when I taught third grade in a public school.
Read the book Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel, which is a super cute book with colorful illustrations. Michael Recycle tells the adventures of a young superhero whose power allows him to teach people about recycling. My kids really like this book. In fact, they liked it so much that we've read other books in this series, too.
Recite the scripture- "People are the caretakers of the earth." Genesis 1:28
Play "Litterbug Wars." This is fun! Have your children crumble up used sheets of paper. We usually look through our office trash can for these. Then divide a large room into halves with a line of masking tape on the floor. I move our family room furniture to the side to create more space. Give Team A and Team B the same number of pieces of crumbled paper. Ten is a good number for a team of two people. Add more paper for larger teams. Have Mom and Dad get involved, too. Tell the teams when to begin. Each team throws the paper off of their side onto the opposing side as fast as they can. Stop the clock in 1-2 minutes. The team with the cleanest side (least number of paper) wins!
Take a walk around your neighborhood picking up trash.
Teach your child the three R's- Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle. {Click Here} to see a short video of a castle is made entirely from recycled products. This is a fantastic way to teach children how to reuse things to create new things.
Watch this really cool way a man makes a castle from recycled materials.
Have fun with free printables and books from education.com, such as these:
Make a "Save the Earth" art project. I love this one! Give your child a sheet of white construction paper. Wet a coffee filter and lay it on the paper. Paint the filter with water colors. The colors will bleed and go through the filter onto the paper. After painting, gently lift off the filter. The paper should now resemble the earth with white gaps for the clouds in the atmosphere as it is seen from space. This is so cool! When the paper is dry, cut out the circle and glue it to a sheet of black construction paper. Have your child use white chalk to make stars or use star stickers on the black paper. Now you can take the dry coffee filter and fold it in half with a pipe cleaner or clothespin to make an Earth Day Butterfly.
You can also make an earth from shaving cream and paint! {Click Here} for more details. This project is completely AWESOME!
You can also visit Mama Jenn for some cute printable cards with the Jelly Bean Prayer. Below is a beautiful Jelly Bean Poem for Teachers written by Mrs. Coe
This is a beautiful art project that looks like stained glass. First, draw a cross in the middle using a pencil. My kids traced a ruler both ways. Next, make an outline of a border along the edges. My kids traced a ruler again for this part. Then make random shapes in between the cross and the border. Next, trace all the lines with a permanent marker. Last, paint with watercolors and glue on construction paper for a frame.
I have recently seen this idea all over blogland, so I just had to give it a try and I was not disappointed at all! This has become one of my favorite Easter egg art projects, and I think this will be a recurring art project each year since my kids absolutely LOVED it!
First, spread shaving cream (foam not gel) all over a pan or tray. Next, squirt some acrylic paint, poster paint, or food coloring on the shaving cream.
Use a spoon, popsicle stick, or toothpick to swirl (but not too much) to create a marbled effect.
As you can see this is FUN for all ages, even two-year-olds!
My kids traced an egg template onto cardstock and then cut it out. They gently pressed their paper egg into the shaving cream and let it sit for 10 seconds.
I helped them remove their eggs and I sat them onto paper towels for about five minutes to let the paint soak into the paper.
Now here is the cool part- using a squeegee, carefully scrape the shaving cream off of the paper egg. Look at the awesome marbled effect it left behind!
This activity represents my favorite art projects- those that are unique every time and that also teach a lesson, too! Yes, this art project teaches about polar and non-polar substances! Polar substances (ex. water) are generally able to dissolve other polar substances (ex. sugar) but not non-polar substances (ex. oil). The paper and paint are polar substance so the paper absorbs the paint but the shaving cream is mostly non-polar, which will not be absorbed. Don't you just love this?
UPDATE:
Check out this segment I filmed for Fox's Mom Squad to learn how to make a shaving cream craft.
My kids are so hooked on shaving cream art that they have made:
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by Bill Peet. It is a pro-environment book that is entertaining and captures the child's complete attention. I personally like all of the strong vocabulary words that are used, which can lead to many impromptu vocab. lessons. 
