April 8. Tapes and Shapes:Inclusive Enrichment Activities during COVID-19.

Tapes. Shapes. And LOTS of stories.

Movement

Tape Mazes and other cool gross motor activities. Who knew a roll of tape could be so much fun? No painters tape on hand? Try masking tape, string, or yard. Or go outside and create with sticks.

Science and Math

Tangrams offer intriguing activities for people of all ages and abilities.

Tangram patterns provide mind-stretching puzzles that develop spatial relationships and problem solving skills, but the most important thing: they are super fun. Tangram pieces can also be used to create freestyle artworks while developing the same skills. We’ve linked one set of printable patterns, but it will be simple to find your own, suited to your children’s skill levels, simply by entering “tangram patterns” in your search engine.

Art and Literature

Free Audible stories are available for download throughout the pandemic.

ASL Stories. For deaf and hard of hearing children, this YouTube channel has stories for readers of different ages.

April 7. Inclusive Enrichment Activities During Home Quarantine. Going Up Up Up.

Art and Literature.

As we continue to enjoy National Poetry Month, let’s look at out how poets and lyricists express the feeling of being uplifted.

Happy. “If you feel like a room without a roof.” Wow! What a powerful way to describe happiness. Listen to the lyrics of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” and you can’t feel anything but joy. That’s the power of writing.

“Hope is the Thing With Feathers.” Spoken. ASL With Captions. Emily Dickinson uses the same theme of being lifted up in her famous poem about hope. How do you feel when you know something wonderful is just about to happen? Like something is about to soar inside you?

Try one of these opening phrases and write your own song or poem: “Joy is_____”, “Sadness is _____”, “Anger is _____”, “Love is _____,” “Excitement is _______,” “Relief is ______.”

If you would like to further explore this pairing of “Happy” and “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers,” download our lesson plans. These plans included adaptable materials for writers in need of frameworks and visual aides.

Movement.

Jump for Joy: Here are a couple of videos to inspire you.

Okay, did they inspire you? Or more like intimidate you? Here are two videos to help you get those jump rope moves down.

Dance jump rope tricks. Boxing jump rope tricks.

Science and Math

Still not bubbling with joy? You better try some baking soda experiments. That oughta do it.

Field Trip Day. April 6.

Science and Math

Home Safari at 3:00 Daily. Come on a Safari! The Cincinnati Zoo is hosting a daily tours highlighting different animals and sharing activities to do at home.

Art and Literature

The Art of Autism. Go on a gallery tour. During Autism Awareness month, Apple is offering a gallery of art works created on iPads by people with autism. These beautiful works will probably inspire you to create some art of your own.

Virtual Jam Session. And the Children’s Museum of Atlanta is offering a jam session today. Visit their website anytime for this and more daily virtual activities.

Movement

The Brooks Family YMCA Virtual Membership offers live youth fitness activities Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 3:00. Visit their website to learn more about this and other great ways to get moving.

Movie Night. April 5.

More Magic. Yesterday, we suggested this quarantine would be a great time to read or re-read the Harry Potter Series. Here is a very diverse list of movies about magic. This list has movies suitable for everyone to from young children to adults with notes to help you decide if the themes are appropriate for you and your family.

Maybe you’d rather make your own magic.

Notice how the artist is tracing the figure from the previous page and then making a very small change.

The whole concept of “moving pictures” evolved from the illusion of motion caused by watching a rapid succession of images that are just barely changing. Make your own movie flip book with a few sheets of paper stapled in one corner.

Rock On! April 4.

Art and Literature

What could be a better time than to dig into the Harry Potter series, whether for the first time, the second, or the 30th? This series is especially suitable for older readers. For younger readers, see below.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is perfect for today’s theme, and can be downloaded at Jefferson Madison Regional Library. Remember, you can download a temporary library card, too.

An audible download is available for people who read by listening.

Here’s a guide to finding your own rock, but don’t stop with one. You’ll need two: one to keep and one to share in the next activity.

Movement

Painted Rocks Hunt. Join the painted rocks craze. Paint a rock (if you celebrate Easter, it could be fun to paint it like an Easter Egg.)

Now hide your rock somewhere in the community, and post a clue on Cville Rocks. If you don’t live in Cville, you might have a similar group in your community. While you’re on the page, look for posts about other hidden rocks, and see if you can find them. PLEASE, DURING THIS TIME OF SOCIAL DISTANCING, TAKE PICTURES BUT DON’T TOUCH THE ROCKS YOU FIND! And when you take the pictures, don’t forget to tag enrichmentalliance on Instagram.

Science and Math

Make your own rock. Even after you find your own rocks, it’ll still be fun to make one yourself. Don’t forget to tag us at enrichmentalliance.

First Friday Gallery Crawl. April 3.

Art and Literature

Access Arts Virtual Art Show. It was a huge disappointment to miss the annual opening of the Access Arts Show at Carver Recreation Center. This show features the works of artist with differing abilities, and is one of the highlights of our year. View the show remotely through our link, but come back as soon as Carver reopens and see these beautiful works in person.

Art Apart. Take part in a collaboration by the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative and Charlottesville Safe Routes to School, by creating a work of art and displaying it in your window. The link on your left will tell you how to get your work on a map so others can find it. Try some of yesterday’s activities to create your work, or see the cool science ideas below.

Science and Math

The Beauty of Science. Among these intriguing science experiments are several that would actually make gorgeous works of art. Maybe you have a place you can display them outside your house for the Art Apart exhibit. Or take pictures of your experiments and share the pictures.

Movement

Gallery At A Distance. Now go back to to the Art Apart page and you will find a map showing all the art work entered in the exhibit. Take a walk to enjoy the beautiful spring day and the beautiful creations. Take pictures and tag enrichmentalliance on Instagram.

Spoken Word Poetry. Shape Art. April 2.

It’s National Poetry Month! Many of our posts this month will begin with poems or poem prompts and continue with themes suggested by the poems or prompts.

Art and Literature

This young poet presents a delightful poem, but we wanted to give math a chance to answer back, so his lament to mathematics is followed up with some awesome activities around a geometric theme. Spoken word poetry is heavily influenced by hip hop and rap and is much more likely to have rhymes and strong meter than most contemporary poems. Watch this video and try reading a poem aloud. It can be your own poem or a poem you’ve read.

Movement

So, maybe the poet doesn’t know just how cool geometry actually can be. This guy does.

Science and Math

Now that you have PROOF that geometry is cool, see what you can do with geometric shapes.

Geometric Art Pinterest Board. This board will provide lots of inspiration for artists who like to get a few ideas and then let their own imaginations run.

Geometric Sunburst. (Adapted activity) But some people prefer to watch someone model drawing before they draw. If that’s you, this very soothing video will show you how to create a sunburst. Check out some of their other videos too, It may be helpful to pause the video, copy their action, and then start the video again, continuing until you complete your work.

April 1. And you know what that means!!!

Today’s activities are all about tricks.

Math and Science

Our director, MaryAnna, learned this mind-blowing card trick from her mother as a child and reports that no one she knows has ever been able to figure out how it works. It will work every time, but YOU MUST COUNT CAREFULLY. Practice counting smoothly, too, so that your friend won’t understand how you got to your answer. You can try this at home with your family, or use a phone app. Look up card tricks and mathematical card trips for more jaw dropping tricks.

Movement

Magic tricks using a any pen you have on hand. (Until you don’t). As they say, it’s all a slight of hand. Practice these tricks in front of a mirror, or video tape yourself. Then put on a magic show.

Art and Literature

Older children and teens, download a trickster tale in the library and record or illustrate it for a young friend or sibling. If you don’t have a library card, you can download a temporary one. If you want to share your story publicly, you will need to to retell it in your own words or you may get into copy right issues. Here’s a link to the JMRL catalog, filtered by “trickster tales ebooks.” Look for books with “J” in the call number.

Here are two traditional trickster tales read aloud. One of them is signed in a combination of American and British Sign Language. The stories are suitable as stand-alones for younger children.

Zomo The Rabbit.

Hare and Hyena.

Signed in British and American ASL.

Games for One. The Real Story. March 31

Movement

Seven Up

Seven-up is just one of the games you can play alone on the Very Well Family website. Make up some games of your own and share them with us..

Science and Math

Solitaire Games You Probably Don’t Know

5 Single Player Card Games. Getting tired of the same old solitaire game? Here are some intriguing, and challenging games you might not know.

Art and Literature

The Real Story.

Retell a fairy tale. There’s always more than one side to every story. This website gives you some great ideas on how to write different versions of favorite fairy and folk tales. If you loved Ella Enchanted, you’ll love this activity.

Story baskets. Adapted. If you are the kind of person who likes props and visuals, fill a basket with action figures, plastic houses, and dragon puppets, whatever you can find that belongs in a fairy tale and use it to retell a favorite story. Share your pictures with your friends and be sure to tag #enrichmentalliance.

MARCH 30 FIELD TRIPS AT HOME

Science and Math

Make your own science museum. Fill boxes, baskets, bins, whatever you have on hand, with hands-on science materials. This link will give you some ideas. You are not likely to have the slick looking materials in their images lying around the house, but see what you can do instead. Can you find a measuring tape? A magnet? Share pictures of YOUR science kit with us on Instagram: enrichmentalliance.

Movement

Make your own fitness center. If you have cardboard, tape, socks, etc, you have a fitness center. This link is full of suggestions on how to put it all together and turn a corner of your home into your own gym. Post pictures of your equipment and share them with enrichmentalliance.

Art and Literature

Make your own library. The link on the left shares a few ideas for creating your own reading nook. Once you look at these ideas, you’ll probably have more ideas of your own. Make a reading nook and please, send us a picture at enrichmentalliance on Instagram. Now all you need are some books, right? That’s easier than you might know.

The Library of Congress has books available online.

Adaptive Reading Choices. Want an interesting story, but light reading? Try downloading some high/low readers.