This week, I am focusing on providing resources to “Squash the Summer Slide” as ReadWriteThink puts it. Parents often ask me at this time of year for ideas to keep my students challenged over the summer.  ArtsEdge is a great site for classroom ideas, but here are a few links to articles that might be especially interesting to parents who are looking for unique activities to occupy all of that extra time.

5 Activities for the Car and Grocery – I especially liked the idea of transforming a magazine photograph.

Summer Boredom Busters –  I did not see a lot of new ideas in this article, but there are a couple of website resources that could be helpful for finding art events happening around you.

Strike Up the Band; Creating Homemade Instruments – I think I might actually be able to make the straw oboe!

Set a Poem to Music  –  This is an actual lesson for 5th grade and up, but I think it could be modified for any age.  Wouldn’t it be fun to pick a picture book written in verse and make it into a song?

For other summer suggestions, you might want to visit my posts from Monday and Tuesday.