Camp What-A-Wonder Recommended Reading

Yesterday I blogged about a 3 Minutes to Wonder, a new feature this summer at the virtual Wonderopolis Camp What-A-Wonder.  Today I wanted to share about the "Recommended Reading" portion of the camp.

Two of the books on the list are favorites of mine.  I read The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate to my 2nd graders last year.  We LOVED it and I can't wait to read it at the beginning of this coming school year.  It was loved so much that several students went to the local library to finish it because our pace wasn't fast enough.  I also add a student create his own thirty minute movie of the book.

The One and Only Ivan is a great story about friendship which includes many animals that one usually finds at the zoo, not an exit off the freeway.  It would be great book to snuggle up as a family and read together.  I can guarantee that it will spark lots of conversation among all family members, both young and old.



The second favorite of mine is on the Recommended Read list is Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles.  I also read this to my students every year.  It's a great picture book about an Emu that isn't happy with his life.  He spends time trying out being different animals at the zoo before realizing that the best animal at the zoo is an emu.




I checked my local library and all of the books on the list are found there.  I encourage you to visit your library and check out a few of the "Recommended Reading" to go along with this summer's Camp What-A-Wonder.

3 Minutes to Wonder

Today was the first day of Camp What-A-Wonder at Wonderopolis.org.  Don't worry if you missed out today because the free, virtual camp runs Monday-Friday, June 17-July 26.  This week's theme is "Dig Into the Wild Kingdom" and today's theme was "Backyard Creatures Around You".

One feature of this year's Camp What-A-Wonder is "3 Minutes to Wonder".  We had a very busy today;  two tennis lessons, weekly grocery shopping, the grass needed to be mowed and we had to clear our family room for a home improvement project that begins tomorrow.  After dinner, we sat down to read the 3 minute to Wonder questions.  My kids are a bit older and rather than discuss, we decided to write and then discuss.  Plus, Betsy was excited to write in her Camp What-A-Wonder Journal that arrived in the mail today.  (If you haven't signed up for Camp What-A-Wonder, you might want to consider doing so for a chance to receive special Camp extras here.)

Before writing we discussed what creatures we have in our yard.  We live on 6 acres and therefore have lots of wildlife.  Then we took the three minutes to jot down in our journals what the creatures do when it gets cold, hot and where we would find most of the animals in our yard.  I was rather impressed with what both Ben and Betsy wrote in three minutes.  They both wrote about how different animals adapt, hibernate and/or migrate in both cold and hot weather.  We all agreed that most of the animals in our yard would be found in the woods behind our house.  

After a very busy day it was nice spending time reconnecting, thinking, and wondering about the wildlife in our own backyard.  I look forward to connecting as a family and spending three minutes each day Wondering throughout Camp What-A-Wonder.

Wonders to Share on Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Below are some Wonders that you may want to visit as a family on Father's Day.  Cut out some time to read, learn and WONDER together on dad's special day.

#259 Did Father Time Have Children?
#348 What Makes a Family?
#394 What Can Children Teach Their Parents?
#864 Why Are They Called Daddy Longlegs?
#885 What Does It Mean To Be Adopted?

#Bookaday Challenge - Week One

This summer I am participating in the Fifth Annual #Bookaday Challenge.  Below are the books I read last week.  As I often do, I connected the books I read to different Wonders that I could use when reading the books with my second grade class.

Celebrations by Myra Cohn Livingston

Suggested Wonders:
#90 Why Do People Make New Year's Resolutions?
#141 What Is Presidents' Day
#541 Why Aren't There More Holidays?

 Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows

Suggested Wonders:
#641 What Makes Glitter Sparkle?
#968 Does Your House Have a Secret Passage

 A Child's Calendar by John Updike

Suggest Wonder:
#89 How Did the Months of the Year Get Their Names?

 The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds

Suggested Wonders:
#464 What Makes Art Priceless?
#904 What Is Pointillism? (Perfect "Dot Day" activity)

The Bored Book by David Michael Slater

Suggested Wonders:
#598 What Was the Kraken?
#931 Where Is the Biggest Castle in the World?
Do Dragons Live in the Sea?

Are Trees Alive? by Debbie S. Miller

Suggested Wonders:
#702 Are You Sly as a Fox?
#667 Why Are Rainforests Important?
#159 How Do You Tap a Maple Tree?

To Climb a Waterfall by Jean Craighead George

Suggested Wonder:
#352 Where Is the Tallest Waterfall?

Camp What-A-Wonder at School - Day 4 and 5

Read more about day one here and day two and three here.  Below I will detail the activities planned for days four and five of our Wonderopolis inspired Camp What-A-Wonder.  Camp What-A-Wonder was a great way to keep my second graders engaged in learning the last full week of school.

Day 4 - Superific Science

#276 Does Matter Really Matter?

After reading and learning about the different states of matter we made oobleck in order to experiment with both a liquid and a solid at the same time.  We made it in the classroom and then carefully carried it outside to play with.

#327 What Makes Ink Permanent? and #317 How Do You Color Glass?

We learned what makes ink permanent since we used permanent markers to make our creations.  I also thought that these creations reminded me a bit like stained class, so we learned how class is colored.  My students especially liked the video that went along with that Wonder.  We used small scraps of white fabric, put them over a cup and attached with a rubber band.  Then students used permanent markers to draw designs on the fabric.  Students used bottles with rubbing alcohol to spray the fabric.  Easy and fun experiment.

#940 Why Do Some Drinks Sweat?, #454 Why Are Some Drinks Bubbly? and #295 Why Is It Called "Old Faithful"?

My students have been looking forward to shooting off our own Coke and Mentos geysers since I came back with my nozzle from the National Center for Family Literacy Conference. (Be sure to check out the video below that was shot during the conference with the EepyBird Guys.)  After learning what a geyser is and why some drinks sweat, we headed outside so all twenty four students could set off their own geyser.  This by far was the classes favorite activity of the entire camp.

  

Day 5 - Awesome Adventures

#12 Who Came Up With Chewing Gum? and #557 What Happens if You Swallow gum?

This was our last activity.  I had other planned, but because we didn't get to everything each day, we finished about all of the other activities on Friday and at the end of the day had our bubble blowing contest.  Several kids didn't know how to blow bubbles, so we worked on that first.  We learned about what happens to gum when we swallow it and then set out on our awesome adventure.  It was lots of fun watching and trying to decide who blew the biggest bubble.

#57 Why Do Bubbles Float?

We had planned on making our own bubble solution and spending time blowing real bubbles with pipe cleaners.

#756 Do You Like To Play Cards?

I purchased different sets of cards from the dollar bin at Target.  Students were going to get in groups and play Old Maid, Go Fish, Crazy 8 and Memory.  We are planning on playing these the last day of school.

Camp What-A-Wonder at School - Day 2 and 3

This week in second grade we are having our own Wonderopolis inspired Camp What-A-Wonder.  The first day was spent creating crafts.  Below I will detail what activities were planned for the second and third day.

Day 2 - Team What-A-Wonder

Day two of Camp What-A-Wonder was our annual field day.  Before heading out to the high school stadium, we visited several Wonders to get us in the spirit.

#840 Why Do Your Muscles Cramp?
#561 Who Invented the High Five?
#291 How Many People Can Play Tug Of War?

Day 3 - Campfire Cooking

We used the campfire template from last summer's Camp What-A-Wonder to create our own campfires for Campfire Cooking Day.






#894 Can Food Be Art? and #258 Why Do Ants Think They're Invited To a Picnic?
We learned about how to create art using food before creating our very own.  We made ants on a log, which the class named rants on a log.  The students cut the celery using plastic knives and created their own snack.

#664 Who Was the First Ice Cream Man? and #92 Why Do You Get Ice Cream Headaches?
We enjoyed learning about who the first ice cream man was before their own.  Making ice cream in bag was a great, easy treat that didn't require any cooking.  We ended up doing the ice cream on Friday, because we ran out of time on the third day.  There are many fun and easy recipes for homemade ice cream on line.  We used a recipe that called for half and half, vanilla and sugar.

#582 Who Invented Play Dough?
After learning about the invention of play dough, we made something similar called "cloud dough".  All of the recipes for homemade play dough involved some sort of hot water or cooking, so I found a recipe for "cloud dough".  It wasn't exactly play dough, but nobody seemed to mind.  If I do this again next year, I will make this outside.  It made quite the mess.

Camp What-A-Wonder at School - Day 1

This is my last full week of school with my second graders.  I wanted to make it a fun-filled week of learning.  I had decided last summer when I participated in Wonderopolis' Camp What-A-Wonder that I wanted to incorporate something similar into my classroom this year.  Fortunately my teaching partner was excited to do the camp with me.  We have been planning the camp for several weeks.  A couple of weeks ago I created a Googledoc for parents to sign up to donate items needed for our camp.  This made for very little spending out of our pockets.

We borrowed a few of the themes from previous Camp What-A-Wonders at Wonderopolis:

Monday - Craft-A-Palooza

Tuesday - Team What-A-Wonder (field day)

Wednesday - Campfire Cooking

Thursday - Superific Science

Friday - Awesome Adventures

Day one was spent creating Wonder Journals for the students to use during the week to reflect on their learning.

Below are the Wonders we used and the Camp What-A-Wonder activities that went along with the Wonders for the first day.

#45 What Is a Totem Pole?
Students learned about totem poles and spent time making their own out of paper towel tubes and a free template I found on line.http://

#434 Where Does Sea Glass Come From?
After learning where sea glass comes from students used glass marbles (the kind with the flat side), Modge Podge, scrapbook paper, magnets and Gorilla Glue to make some fun and easy refrigerator magnets.

#659 How Do Dream Catchers Catch Dreams?
Students enjoyed learning about the history of dream catchers.  They then used cheap paper plates, yarn  crayons, markers and feathers to create dream catchers.

#904 What Is Pointillism?
We learned about pointillism earlier in the year, but used our learning, water color paints and q-tips to create our own priceless pieces of art.

 I look forward to sharing our camping experiences with you as the week continues!