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Teaching elementary-aged children is a rewarding experience, but as educators and parents, finding the time and resources to create engaging lessons can be a challenge. That's where this podcast comes in. Welcome to Naturally Teaching Elementary.

I'm Victoria Zablocki, a certified elementary teacher turned outdoor educator. With over a decade of experience coaching teachers on effective teaching methods, I'm passionate about teaching the whole child with authentic and place-based experiences in school and home settings. Join me as we explore strategies for teaching with practical teaching tips, insightful interviews, picture book reviews, and more.

So let's grow together. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast.

My name is Victoria Zablocki and I'm your host. We are just a week away from the summer solstice, but you're probably already noticing some of those classic summer signs. I just spent last week taking my boys to summer camp at the local nature center, and I thought that signing them up in June would keep them from the heat.

Well, I was wrong, and they spent a week in the upper 80s, lower 90s, which for Michigan, coming out of spring, feels hot. I've also been noticing the sun rising before six each morning and setting after nine, which gives my kids lots of energy and no interest in going to bed. Your learners' families are also probably noticing these changes, and now would be a good time to share a standards-aligned activity that helps them practice a skill they learned during school while they're at home, and that also can help prevent that summer slide.

If you listen to Episode 72, I reviewed six books for summer to share with your learners' caregivers that you could reference, and last week in Episode 73, I shared a couple of summer activities for kindergarten and third grade that could be fun for anyone. Make sure to check both of those out if you haven't yet. This week, I'm excited to bring you outside summer activities for first and fourth graders that will help them practice skills that relate to light.

First and fourth grade have light concepts in common, which can be studied organically during summer, and it will give your families a reason to embrace their kiddos wanting to stay up with the sun. In this episode, I'm going to describe outside summer activities for first and fourth graders that are about light, the patterns of the sun, and how we see using light. For each activity, I'll share the Next Generation Science Standard that inspired that activity as well as how you can easily share the activity with your learners' caregivers to practice over the break.

And make sure that you listen through to the end of the episode, because even though I paired these activities to particular standards, you may find yourself inspired to use a similar concept for your curriculum, or even use the same activity for a different grade. Now, let's get into these outside summer activities for first and fourth graders.

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So for first grade, the Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled was 1-ESS1-2: Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.

So how does this relate to summer? By charting the hours of sun light over the course of the year, your learners and their families can see how the amount of sunlight increases until the solstice and then dwindles as summer starts fading to fall. So one way to make this sort of data collection more engaging is to gamify it.

Since the sunrise and sunset times don't change drastically day to day, I would suggest to share with your families that they should only take data once a week. This will allow them to see more of a difference each time they play hours of sunlight hopscotch. To set this game up, suggest to your families to use sidewalk chalk to make a hopscotch grid with 24 squares in any arrangement they'd like.

Then after they've taken the sunrise and sunset times, count the number of hours of sunlight their family experienced rounded to the nearest hour. Have them do some subtraction to determine how many hours of night they experience based on the rounded hours of sunlight. Once they have their numbers, have them draw the same number of suns and squares as the amount of sunlight they experienced on the same number of moons as nighttime they experienced.

So as an example, this week we have been experiencing 15 hours of sunlight and 9 hours of night. So I would randomly draw 15 suns and 9 moons on my hopscotch grid of 24. After they have their grid filled in, your learners and their families can hop on the suns only.

If your families do this as a one-time activity, it will be fun, engaging and memorable. They will likely remember that summer comes with a lot of sun since they were able to hop their way across the grid easily. If your families do this throughout the summer, they will notice that the grid gets harder to hop across as summer fades to fall, a great kinesthetic reminder that the amount of sunlight ebbs and flows throughout the year.

Also, if we're being totally honest with ourselves, the caregivers of your kiddos likely played hopscotch as children, so they will love this throwback, and we love how it helps prevent that dreaded summer slide. If you love this activity for reviewing the amount of daylight throughout the year and want to modify it for your classroom or school year studies, revisit episode 17: 6 Fun Fall Activities Aligned with K-5 Next Generation Science Standards at 7 minutes, 26 seconds. In that episode, I explain a modified version where you create four different hopscotch grids to represent the four different seasons worth of daylight versus nighttime hours.

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For fourth grade, the Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled was 4-PS4-2: Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen. So how does this relate to summer? So the activity that I'm going to suggest doesn't necessarily relate to the summer season, but it's a fun and engaging gamified experiment your families can enjoy together during our warmest nights of the year.

So for fourth graders, I would suggest a flashlight hide-and-seek game for your families. For this gamified experiment, share with your families that they'll be playing at least two rounds of hide-and-seek in the dark. The first round where everyone wears bright colors like white, neon, yellow, or orange, and the second round where everyone wears black or navy.

They can play the game with whatever rules they want, but make sure that they clearly label the boundaries so everyone can be safe. They can do this with glow sticks tied to trees, glow sticks dropped in jugs of water, lanterns placed at strategic points, etc. After they set up the boundaries, they should play a round with the 4th grader as the seeker, looking for others that are wearing their bright colors.

White, neon, yellow, and orange are all colors that light reflects off of. So that will show your learner that the hider can't be seen until the flashlight beam is pointed at them and the light reflects off their clothes back to their eyes. For the next round, have everyone change into all black or navy clothing.

Black is a color that absorbs light and does not reflect it back to our eyes. So for the second round, the seeker is going to have a much harder time finding the hiders, even if they shine their flashlight beam onto their black clothing. This gamified experiment is a whole lot of fun and will give your families great memories while also practicing your learner's understanding of how we see, helping again to prevent that summer slide.

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So in a nutshell, today we talked about outside summer activities for first and fourth graders. For first grade, we talked about collecting sunrise and sunset times throughout the summer and turning that data into hopscotch grids. For fourth grade, we talked about a flashlight hide-and-seek game where hiders wear bright clothes for a round and dark clothes for a round.

Don't forget, if you want to hear more about that day and night hopscotch, revisit episode 17 where I share directions to create seasonal hopscotch grids to investigate the amounts of daylight throughout the year. So thanks for taking time to listen today. I know you're busy and I truly appreciate the time you take to tune in.

If you have any questions, wonderings, or outside summer activities for first and fourth graders that you like to suggest to families, get ahold of me on Instagram at naturally.teaching, or you can email me at victoria@naturallyteaching.com. Don't forget to check out the show notes for this episode at naturallyteaching.com/episode74. So thanks again for joining me today, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast. I hope you found it informative, inspiring, and full of actionable insights to enhance your teaching journey. Connect with me on social media for more updates, science tidbits, and additional resources.

You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at naturally.teaching. Let's continue the conversation and share our passion for teaching elementary age children together. Don't forget to visit my website at naturallyteaching.com for all the show notes from today's episode.

If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps me improve and reach more educators like you. Thank you again for listening, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching.