1. Salt dough maps. Nothing helps you visual the how's and why's of history or geography like a 3-D map. You can even use ice cube trays to shape salt dough into squares before baking, then, use the squares to build. Salt dough pyramid, anyone?
2. Make costumes. Kids love costumes, simple or elaborate. If you sew them, you can even cover some basic math skills as you cut and measure, or as you figure out how much material you'll need to make enough costumes for everyone.
3. Do a puppet show or play. From writing the script to building the set, kids can practice many different skills as they prepare a play. Then, they can reinforce what they've learned about scientists, inventors, historical figures and more as they act out scenes from the lives of the people they're studying.
4. Create a Power Point presentation, slide show or photo journal to review and showcase what you're learning.
5. Make a paper mâchè model. These are great for science and history studies. You can build a model of the earth -- or even the whole solar system! -- or, I don't know, a Leaning Tower of Pisa. ;-)
6. Have a themed dinner. This is easily applicable to most things that fall under the headings of "history" or "social studies," but, with some creativity, it could apply to science, math and more.
7. Do a "paper bag" book report. These are so much fun! You simply place into a paper bag items that are representative of some aspect of the book (or a person's life or a time in history or an invention). Then, you simply use the items to help you present your report orally.
8. Make a lapbook or notebook. The idea that Lorri shared on The Homeschool Classroom this week could be easily adaptable for making a notebook of your topic of study.
9. Build a diorama or other model. We need to do one of these, because it's been awhile and my kids enjoy them. Dioramas are really fun for doing studies of different biomes, but can be adapted for many different purposes.
10. Create a collage, painting or sculpture that represents some aspect -- or multiple aspects -- of your topic.
11. Build a time machine. Visit an appliance store and see if they'll give you a large box. Then, go home and build a time machine. Once it's built, you and the kids can climb in it to travel back in time as you read about people, places and events in history. Of course, building a castle is a lot of fun, too!
12. Play games. Bingo, matching, memory or fishing are easily adaptable for almost any topic. For fishing, we made fishing rods by tying a magnet to a dowel rod with a piece of twine. Then, we put paper clips on our "fish" (you could use construction paper or index cars to make the fish...and they don't have to be fish-shaped). You can also use your imagination, a pack of index cards and the board from most board games to create your own homemade learning games.
13. Take a field trip! We've done everything from caves (for geology) to a replica of one of Columbus' ships (history) to an emergency room (health and safety). We've enjoyed them all.
What are some generic activities that you and your kids enjoy, which could be adapted to many different fields of study?
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