Today's Classroom Activities :

Summer Buzzin’ and Summer Fun Activities

Summer Buzzin'
Poetry Read the following poem to the children.

Stripes

by Martin Shaw

The bees have stripes that cover them,
The zebra have stripes too,
My shirt has stripes that cover me,
And they are red and blue.

I play that I'm a zebra wild,
I buzz like I'm a bee,
I sometimes stalk like tigers do,
My stripes do that to me.

Have a class discussion about how much fun it is to pretend that you are someone or something else when wearing special clothes. Read together Eileen Spinelli's book, In My New Yellow Shirt (Henry Holt, 2001), then invite the children to wear outfits to school the next day that help them pretend to be something or someone else.

Summer Fun
Poetry/Phys. Ed. Read the following poem to the children. Then have different children act out lines 1-12. Finally, invite all of the children to act out the last stanza.

Summer Fun

by Jacqueline Schiff

I'm skipping in the sun,
I'm twirling in its glow.
I'm tumbling in the grass,
I'm swinging high and low.

I'm walking on the beach,
I'm buzzing like a bee.
I'm running to a base,
I'm roller skating – whee!

I'm hiking with my dad,
I'm biking with my mom.
I'm kicking in the pool,
I'm floating. I'm so calm.

I'm jogging in the sun,
I'm hopping to-and-fro.
My body's having fun,
Because I'm on the go!

In Fantastic Summer Reading Lisa Von Drasek provides a list of student favorites from the fantasy genre for your summer reading list.