• Make cookies together and have your children measure and put in the ingredients
• Create a height chart on an empty wall in your home and measure how your children grow
• Put different amounts of water in glass bottles and experiment with the different tones you can make with them

For more measuring fun ideas visit this website:

Check out this booklist for books about measuring, and other interesting ways of classifying things.

-Lauren Bangerter, BYU Student, Department of English

Encourage your little one to find their favorite stuffed bear (or animal in general) and choose some friends to invite to do the same. Prepare a picnic together using teddy bears as your theme. Cut sandwiches with bear shaped cookie cutters, pack berries and maybe some homemade biscuits to eat with honey from a honey bear, and you can even buy teddy bear shaped graham cracker, gummies or crackers.

With your child and their invited friends, stuffed and human alike, layout a picnic blanket at a park or on your floor and enjoy your meal. Once you have eaten you can then enjoy story-time with your guests by asking each child to bring their favorite book about a bear or the type of stuffed animal they brought.

–Lauren McMullan, BYU Student, School of Education

Deciding to leave the phone home? Try teaching kids leaf identification the old fashioned way and check-out a book on it from the local library. Though identification may seem like a simple thing it opens the doors to all kinds of questions; “What do leaves do? Why are they green? Why are they shaped like that?” All of which cultivate a child’s inquisitive mind and foster a sense of scientific questioning that will carry over into their school work and for-fun explorations.

-Lauren McMullan, BYU Student, School of Education

Need more inspiration? Check out this list of Pop-up books.

-JilliAnne Jensen. BYU Student, School of Family Life

For those of you in the Utah area, mark your calendars for the Utah Festival of Books!

Fans of literature from throughout the state will be celebrating the beauty and power of the written word while enjoying fun activities and entertainment.

Saturday, June 4^th, 2011-10a.m.-6p.m.

Brigham Young University (Brigham Square and the Wilkinson Student Center)

Author signings by:

James Dashner, Ally Condie, Brandon Mull and more

Performances by:

White Elephant Band

Rocky Mountain Express Bluegrass Band,

Josh Wright and many more

Kid’s activities, guest speakers, booths, food,

literacy activities and much, much more!

Visit www.utahfestivalofbooks.com for more information.

You can create a template on a word processing program, or print and make copies of the blank example cards below. Point value can be determined by death toll, number of countries invaded, etc. Depending on the amount of cards made your child can probably think of a way to play a game based on higher point values beating lower ones.

For an added measure of creativity suggest that your child come up with a secret power for any of the leaders/people they choose to do on their cards based on information they discover about the individual. Information for the cards can be gleaned from historical fiction and informational books on the topic.

For a bonus family history activity try making a card on ancestors who were involved in the chosen event.

–Lauren McMullan, BYU Student, School of Education

A big part of the common core is finding text that are properly complex for your child. Three factors determine text complexity; qualitative dimensions of the text, the quantitative dimensions, and reader and task dimensions. Qualitative dimensions are assessed by asking, “How thought-provoking is this text meant to be? What levels of understanding are required by the content?”, quantitative dimensions are assessed by asking “What kind of words are used? How much variety is found in sentence structure?”, and the reader and task dimensions are assessed by simply knowing your child.

Appendix A of the common core explains this book judgment process more fully. Appendix B of the common core contains a list of books organized by grade and text type. When choosing books with your children also remember the five finger test; one finger up for every word they do not know, if they can’t make it through a page without lifting five fingers try finding a three or four finger book instead.

–Lauren McMullan, BYU Student, School of Education

A majority of rappers are not typically the kind of ‘artists’ a parent would be thrilled about their child trying to emulate or aspire to be. However, the idea of rap can be used in positive ways as a connection to poetry for children. Understanding that rap is merely poetry put to a beat can help eliminate some of the possible negative emotions children have about poetry and also help parents direct their child’s attention to more productive uses of rap and how to write personal or silly or even educational lyrics. Try suggesting that your child get together with a friend or a group of friends and write their own poetry and put it to a beat. They can even go so far as to make a music video with their self-written rap.

Try checking out educationrap.com where you can find examples of educational raps as well as good beats for children to put their own creations to. Teachers and parents can also read this article published on Scholastic.com by a sixth grade teacher and his experience with rap and poetry in the classroom.

–Lauren McMullan, BYU Student, School of Education

One place to start their instruction is asking questions. “Is there ever a good reason to go to war?” or “Did the Union and the Confederate sides have no choice but to go to war?” Such questions improve your child’s reasoning abilities, and open their eyes to dual sides of serious issues. Try reading some historical fiction or nonfiction books about the Civil War with your child to spark conversation or enrich knowledge.

–Lauren McMullan, BYU Student, School of Education

If you need some suggestions check the list of some of our favorite Mother’s Day books.

–Lauren McMullan, BYU Student, School of Education