My aunt got me the best gift for my birthday! A subscription to some amazing titles from Cricket Magazines! And I’ve already put the first issue into good use. Try these activities from cricket magazine this week!
I had never heard of Cricket magazines before and I love them. LOVE! Each magazine focuses on a different theme and is age appropriate. The little tree below explains things pretty well.
I created a week of fun activities to go along with the July/August 2014 issues of Spider and ask magazine.
Monday:
We made “Berry Tasty Roll-Ups” (pg 34). You’ll need ripe berries (we used blueberries), bowl, potato masher, knife, jelly roll pan, parchment paper, rubber spatula and a storage container.
Wash the berries then mash.
The kids loved doing this!
Spread the mashed berries on the parchment paper in the pan, and leave in a warm dry place for 24 hours. I put the pan in our small top oven.
The Berry Tasty Roll-Ups weren’t completely dry in 24 hours. I turned on the oven to 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. Then I turned off the oven and left them inside till they were completely cool. (The recipe originally calls for plastic wrap so I had to transfer ours to parchment paper then bake. Just do the parchment paper from the beginning!)
Next we talked about a book summaries and the rule of underlining the title of a story when you write a title on paper. We read Odin’s Firefly Goodbye on page 27, and I had the children summarize the story. Then we wrote a short summary together.
Tuesday:
We read the poem Summer Sunset Song on page 26 aloud, then we made a list of all things we love most about Summer sunsets. The children picked their two favorite things on the list to write their own Summer Sunset Song. We had fun thinking of rhyming words to go with our favorite sunset activities.
Eli’s Summer Sunset Song
The sun begins to fall,
Daddy and I play baseball.
We watch Cake Boss for fun,
When the day is done.
Wednesday:
We learned about the way ancient Spartans sent secret messages to each other. We read Secret Message Skytales, then made a skytale of our own.
Cut 1/4” strips of paper. If you use computer paper you will need about 5 strips.
Secure the strip to the TP roll and start wrapping. I would tape as I wrapped.
Write a message from left to right, using only one letter per strip.
When you unwind the paper, it looks like gibberish.
But when you wind it back up, you have a message!
Thursday:
Today we learned about Moose! We read The Elusive Moose of Yellowstone and The Little Fly and the Great Moose: A Native American Story. We talked about our trip to Yellowstone and Old Faithful. Then we worked on our cutting cutting and stapling skills while making Moose antlers from the back of the magazine. It was fun! 
While we were cutting we learned all the jokes from page 20!
The kids think they are hilarious.
I hope you do too!
Friday:
We got the July/August issue of ask magazine in the mail during the week and it was just too fun not to include!
Vikings.
The whole thing was about Vikings! How sweet is that!?!?
Did you know Vikings didn’t have horns on their helmets? (Those were added for theater costumes in the 1800s). And that Vikings were the first people to land in North America?
I didn’t.
But now I do, and so do you!
You’ve just been (home) schooled!
(pictures snipped from ask magazine clockwise from left p 19, 4, 11 & 26)
We devoured the whole magazine. The whole thing!
How I love to see Eli excited about learning! This is a big deal.
Receiving this magazine was icing on the cake for our week! Since we read the whole darn thing, I decided to have the kids write key words from each article instead of doing separate learning activities for each article. But we really could have done a week of educational activities. Maybe I’ll save that for another post!
You can do something like this with any magazine. But the cricket ones are pretty amazing. We have Babybug, Ladybug, Spider and ask. We love them so much, I think I’ll incorporate at least one activity into our homeschool routine once a week.
This gift is really a something that keeps on giving! It’s especially special to me because it’s something my mom would have given me. My aunt knows this… her mom died when she was only 19. I’m so thankful for people who have gathered around our family. Makes this life seem less lonely.
Is there something you can do for someone to make their life less lonely?
That thing… that thing you thought of right now.
Do it!
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Stephanie Hoaglund says
IT’S SO GREAT TO SEE OUR ACTIVITIES IN ACTION. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING!
steph h
Olivia Taylor says
You make these magazines extra special by taking the time to read them with your kiddos!