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Get an Online Play Corner for your school with educational games, reading lists, easy crafts, seasonal celebrations, and more!
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FEATURED GAME
Spring Match Memory game
PLAY NOW
FEATURED BOOK
"The World Needs More Purple People"
A wonderful message about embracing the things that bring us together as humans.
SEE ALL BOOKS
FEATURED CRAFT
Fruit Pen Pots
These colourful summer fruit pen pots are perfect for storing your pencils, pens and paintbrushes.
LEARN HOW
These colourful summer fruit pen pots are perfect for storing your pencils, pens and paintbrushes.
Thanks to Baker Ross
Age: 0 - 2 years
Age: 3 - 5 years
Age: 6 - 8 years
Age: 9 - 12 years
Once Upon A Unicorn
The World Needs More Purple People
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
By Chris Ferrie, Lizzy Doyle (Illustrator)
Kristen Bell, Benjamin Hart, Daniel Wiseman (Illustrator)
by Chris Grabenstein
When Kyle learns that the world's most famous game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, has designed the town's new library and is having an invitation-only lock-in on opening night, he's determined to be there! But the tricky part isn't getting into the library—it's getting out.
Order at Barnes & Noble
Summer Camp in the Backyard
Learning-to-Count Salad
Summer camp can build a child’s confidence, independence, and ability to work with others. But if it’s beyond your budget, try this plan to recreate the learning experience at home.
Recruit Campers
Reach out not only to the parents of kids your child knows, but to others in your community. Assembling kids that don’t know one another well gives them the opportunity to come in with a clean slate and helps reduce cliques. Shoot for kids within a two-year age-range, a balanced number of boys and girls, and around six to 12 campers.
Plan the Schedule
If you’re not able to devote two straight weeks to camp, designate a day throughout the summer to meet. Host your camp at different homes or a local park or pool to add variety and to share responsibility between parents. Assign two adult “counselors” for each day, and recruit teen siblings to lend a hand. Choose a main theme or activity for each gathering, and build a backup plan of indoor games and crafts in case the weather doesn’t cooperate. Sasha Giordano, mother of a 3, 8, and 11 year old, recommends these kid-tested activities:
Outdoor Activities:
Indoor Crafts:
Build Camp Spirit
On the first day, brainstorm a camp name and craft a mural, flag, and T-shirts. Take a group photo that you can turn into printable postcards for campers to send to their relatives.
Ban Media
Collect any handhelds and cell phones from campers when they arrive, and make sure you’ve planned at least four to six activities so that no one gets bored and ends up in front of the TV or the computer. If your campers aren’t engaged, move on to the next activity.
Camp Out
A backyard or campground sleepover will be the highlight of the summer. If you can gather kids around a campfire for songs, stories, and s’mores, all the better. But, if not, pitch tents in a circle and tell (not-too-scary) ghost stories.
Get Outdoors
Camp wouldn’t be camp without romps through nature. Lead a scavenger hunt to collect leaves, flowers, stones, etc. Incorporate these treasures into a craft activity like making cards, stringing jewelry, or arranging a collection.
Break Bread
Camp food is memorable — often for the wrong reasons. Offer healthier takes on camp food, like veggie chili or turkey hotdogs. Have campers help you prepare a picnic or barbeque for their families on “visiting day” or to celebrate the end of summer.
Removing the Parent
The biggest challenge of hosting your own camp may be keeping your counselor hat on. You may want to assign disciplining your child to your co-counselor. The camp learning experience hinges on your child being just another kid and resolving conflicts on his own.
See more at scholastic.com
5 Scoops of Ice Cream
Counting is something adults often do without thinking about it. For example, you might silently count out the number of ingredients you need for a recipe. But your child needs lots of practice with counting — it's how he develops a concept of number. For this salad, invite him to count out loud with you all the ingredients you'll need. For fun and learning, line up the salad ingredients along the kitchen counter to create a veggie number line!
What you need:
1 Cucumber, sliced
2 Red or green peppers, sliced or chopped
3 Carrots, grated
4 Celery stalks, chopped
5 Cherry tomatoes, halved
6 Mushrooms, sliced
7 Cubes of cheese (your child's choice)
8 Pea pods, shelled
9 Croutons
10 Romaine lettuce leaves, torn
Your family's favorite salad dressing
What to do:
1. Invite your child to help you count out the salad ingredients from 1 to 10. If you have the space, ask him to line them up from left to right across your table or countertop. Introduce numerals by writing the numbers 1–10 on paper scraps. He can place the appropriate number with each item in the salad number line.
2. Prepare the vegetables together, starting with the first item in the line. Your child can carefully help you peel the cucumber and slice it with a plastic serrated knife.
3. Follow the line with all the vegetables and other ingredients, inviting him to help wash, slice, or tear whenever possible.
4. Extend the math learning by asking him to estimate how many peas he thinks are inside the pea pods. Count together to see how accurate his guess is. Shelling peas is also great for small muscle building.
5. Challenge him to tear the lettuce into a particular number of pieces. You might say, "Can you rip this one leaf into three pieces?" Add your favorite dressing and serve.
See more at scholastic.com
Learn Shapes with Morphle
I had 5 scoops of ice cream, no less no more.
One fell off and that left four.
I had 4 scoops of ice cream as yummy as could be.
One fell off and that left three.
I had 3 scoops of ice cream, yes it's true.
One fell off and that left two.
I had 2 scoops of ice cream in the melting sun.
One fell off and that left one.
I had one scoop of ice cream sitting on the cone.
I ate it up, and that left NONE!
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