After months of quarantine, what might have once been a welcome summer break might now seem terribly boring. However, in honor of July being Anti-Boredom month, these titles are sure to inspire fun activities to fill the time and encourage learning and exploration. From crafts to cooking to science experiments, the non-fiction titles provide readers with tangible ideas and projects to pursue—often with little to no money required. The fiction titles connect readers with characters fighting boredom themselves and showcase the things they do to combat that feeling. Ideal for readers aged 8-12, these books are a great place to start when those summer doldrums roll in. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Lists free games and activities that combat boredom, featuring such ideas as playing hide-and-seek, building a tree house, writing a book or comic strip, and setting up an Olympic course in the backyard.
Aster is bored at her new home in the mountains in the middle of nowhere–until she meets an odd old shepherdess and her woolly dogs, a sneaky trickster, and an angry fox.
Grab some paper, cardboard, duct tape, and other materials and get ready to blast away boredom! Inventive young builders will love creating awesome projects such as treasure chests, tin can robots, space stations, swords and armor, and a whole lot more. With easy to follow step-by-step instructions, readers will be building their own fantastic projects in no time!
Young do-it-your-selfers have a fantastic resource to build cool stuff they’re interested in. From constructing their own fort to assembling a rocket, the simple instructions in these books will have readers working on their own in no time! It features: Step-by-Step Instructions; Material Lists; Fact Boxes; Full Colour; Table of Contents; On-Page Definitions of Glossary Terms; Glossary; Index; Read More Resources; and, Safe Web Sites.
Feeling inventive? Get ready to bust boredom with wacky experiments! Learn how to create lightning bolts, build a catapult, and much more. With clear instructions and helpful photos, busting boredom with experiments has never been more fun.
With activities like making fortune tellers and throw pillows, and tips such as how to plan the perfect picnic, girls are sure to love this activity book! It also includes spot-the-difference puzzles, doodle pages, mazes, and more!
Whether it’s a rainy day, a party day or you are on the move, this imaginative and engaging bindup will have games to suit every need. Start playing!
The Lava is a Floor!
By: Justin Shady and Wayne Chinsang
Illustrated by: Jeremy R. Scott
Monster brother and sister Clarg and Blarg relieve their boredom by pretending to be human, since humans are much weirder than any of the other creatures they encounter.
Even unenthusiastic math students will be fired up to learn with these hands-on labs! Math Lab for Kids is a fun, engaging, and colorful approach to the wide world of mathematics. Through a combination of math games, logic puzzles, activities, and hands-on demonstrations with things like prisms, kids will explore math concepts with renewed excitement. And don’t worry about expensive supplies; everything you need comes included or is easily found around the house!
Mo the raccoon is searching for something special that he can do to relieve his boredom, but all his attempts turn into disasters, until something happens at the zoo that requires Mo’s special skills.
Sent outside by their mother on a rainy day, a child is dismayed when their handheld game falls into the pond before they encounter giant snails, wet mushrooms, and other elements that awaken them to the sensory aspects of nature.
Milo, a young boy with little interest in anything, takes a trip through the Phantom Tollbooth to the Lands Beyond where he meets an enchanting cast of characters that teaches him the importance of words, numbers, ideas, creativity, and enthusiasm for life. Includes an introduction by Maurice Sendak and “Celebrations of The Phantom Tollbooth” by various authors.
Help students understand geometry and reinforce classroom geometry lessons by building a library collection that includes various books featuring the subject. These six books are excellent additions to school and public library collections.
Reinforce in-class geometry skills such as lines, angles, polygons, triangles, and the Pythagorean theorem. Wingard- Nelson introduces all the topics students need to know about geometry. Includes great test-taking tips for solving multiple-choice, short-answer, and show-your-work questions. An excellent book for students to use on their own or with parents, teachers, or tutors. Free worksheets are available on enslow.com.
The basics of geometry—lines, angles, planes, rays—are a great beginning to this addition to the MATH SMARTS! series. Geometry, which means “earth measure,” is used to measure anything on earth. No matter what size a rectangle is—whether it be a computer chip, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, or a city block—you can always find its area by multiplying length by width. Readers also learn about polygons, triangles, circles, congruent figures, symmetry, and cones, as well as areas, perimeters, circumferences, volumes, and more!
Get ready to discover and uncover the properties of shapes. Learn all about dimensions, length, width, and 2- and 3-dimensional shapes. With the rhyming text in this book, readers will discover hexagons, polygons, pentagons, and so much more in a fun and easy to understand way! So, blast off and learn all about galactic geometry! This book will allow students to understand that attributes belonging to a category of 2- or 3-dimensional figures also belong to all subcategories of that category.
Leo teaches his cat Pallas all about spheres by applying his knowledge of geometry to their Stone Age world. Entertaining illustrations and stories provide a fun introduction to math concepts, including radius, circumference, and diameter. Information boxes accompany each story to explore real applications of spheres in the natural and designed world.
Discover points, lines, and planes. Learn about circles, symmetry, and line relationships, and practice finding perimeter, area, volume, and circumference. This book can be read from beginning to end or use it to review a specific topic.
In this rhyming text, students will gain an understanding of how geometry is made up of lines, angles, and shapes, and how to differentiate between these sometimes confusing ideas. This book will guide them through understanding geometry with the help of visual representations, step-by-step instructions, and sample questions. It will allow students to draw and identify lines and angles and classify shapes by properties of their lines and angles. So, hop on the line and follow the path of understanding geometry!
Numbers and counting form the foundation of future success in math, an important STEM component. Young children who learn these formative concepts can more easily understand the world around them and how numbers interact with one another. These books are selected to be both entertaining and informative to readers ages 0-6 and their caregivers. Their high color imagery and interactive pages make these books enjoyable to explore independently or together. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Introduces young readers to the numbers one through ten by counting familiar city objects, including skyscrapers, taxis, and a subway car.
Countablock
By: Christopher Franceschelli
Illustrated by: Harry N. Abrams
Teaches the numbers from one to one hundred by showing how a certain number of objects can become something else, from one acorn growing into an oak tree to one hundred puzzle pieces becoming one large puzzle.
Presents numbers from one to ten in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish, along with pictures of ever-increasing animals and plants, from one frog to ten bees. On board pages.
This book teaches the numbers from one to ten using simple raised die-cut shapes on a left-hand page mirrored in the scooped-out forms of the right.
Numbers
By: Mary Novick
Illustrated by: Jenny Hale
Introduces the numbers one to twenty, with flaps for each number that can be lifted to reveal the correct number of objects or animals under the flap, from one rocking horse and two ducks to twenty shoes.
A town built on a landfill. A community in need of hope. A girl with a dream. A man with a vision. An ingenious idea. Ada and her family live in Paraguay in a town that is the main garbage dump for the capital city. Many in Ada’s family and her neighbors survive by recycling or selling items they find in the dump. Instead of the idea of the items being trash, Ada chooses to believe that the garbage is full of surprises. Others realize the garbage is full of surprises after the trash is transformed into musical instruments needed for children to participate in a music program.
Math: Pose a problem-solving activity for the students to solve together. Each student is asked to think of an orchestra instrument he/she would like to learn to play. The student must find out how much that instrument would cost to purchase new. Then, the class will find out how much it will cost for all the students to create a classroom orchestra. But, the students could create the classroom orchestra cheaper by purchasing used instruments. Have students now find the instruments on an online instrument selling site and then compare the used price with the new price to see how much cheaper it would be for the entire class to purchase used instruments..
Art: Following the math activity listed above, let students think creatively on how they can create their own musical instruments. Provide materials, particularly used materials, for students to create musical instruments.
Reading & Science: Provide books about environmental issues, such as those listed in our Thematic Reading List, for students to read.
When a generous quiltmaker finally agrees to make a quilt for a greedy king but only under certain conditions, she causes him to undergo a change of heart.
Art: Discuss how quilts contain shapes and patterns. Provide various scrapbook papers, with unique designs and colors. Have each student create 3 different quilt blocks using various papers and shapes.
Math: Quilt blocks contain many shapes. Create worksheets with several quilt blocks, with each block containing various shapes. Have students identify the different shapes and then color alike shapes a specific color.
Reading: Some information is left out of the story. Ask students to help provide some of that information, such as why does the quiltmaker live by herself at the top of the mountain or what country is the King ruling over. Then ask if not knowing these aspects made the story any less interesting. Continue the discussion with the students over various aspects of the story. An extension could be reading The Quiltmaker’s Journey, which actually tells the story of how the quiltmaker came to be.
