Great art websites and books!

This week in Creation Station summer camp we're exploring various elements of art - line, shape, texture, color, etc. - and exercising our imaginations, concentration and fine motor skills.

When we resurface and need a little break, we've been exploring some cool interactive art sites hosted by museums around the world. They give you a chance to explore different artists and artistic styles in a playful way.

NGAkids Art Zone

Art Games

Art Safari

Tate Kids

Check out my Goodreads "art" shelf which has books for elementary through high school! Added July 26th: here is the information from today's art show, as requested by some parents! Welcome to our art show! Please enjoy our beautiful projects! Day One: Line Teddy bear line designs Visual music: left to right, A la claire fontaine (traditional French song), Hoodoo Voodoo (Wilco/Woody Guthrie), and the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 Day Two: Shape Positive & negative shapes Tangram designs Day Three: Texture Texture rubbings Tissue paper suncatchers Day Four: Color Complementary color designs Warm/cool color fish Day Five: Shape Sculpey sculptures

Summer brain stretchers!

A parent recently asked for some educational websites for her child to explore over the summer. I have hunted down a few - but can't resist sharing some more book titles as well (be sure to check out the summer reading list too)!

Remember all the great databases our school subscribes to (see the menu on the left). Explore the world through CultureGrams, with its tidbits of information about countries and states, audio files and more. As a child I loved lying around with volumes of the encyclopedia spread out before me. Today's kids can surf their way through World Book Online!

For more summer activities, click on labels such as “writing” and “online games” (from the "labels" menu on the left) to view previous blog entries.

Books:

• The Philosophers' Club by Christopher Phillips
• Smart-opedia: The Amazing Book About Everything by Eve Drobot
• Story puzzles (folklore riddles from around the world) collected in various volumes by George Shannon: True Lies, Stories to Solve, More Stories to Solve, etc.

Educational websites:

General:
KidSpace
The Problem Site

Logic:
Games for the Brain
Plastelina

Math:
Math Doodles
MathMovesU

Language:
Free Rice
Want to Write?

Neuroscience for Kids

Check out this fun University of Washington website, Neuroscience for Kids:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html

It has memory games, experiments and other fascinating information. Then borrow these books from KCLS or the school library and learn even more:

Aha! : The Most Interesting Book You'll Ever Read about Intelligence by Trudee Romanek

It's All in Your Head: A Guide to Understanding Your Brain and Boosting Your Brain Power by Susan L. Barrett, Pamela Espeland, and J. Urbanovic