Summer Activities 11--Wordle

Create art with words on http://www.wordle.net/! You can print your work (with your parent's permission) when you are done. Create a wordle to give to your teacher as a goodbye present for the year's end, and list reminders of all your favorite memories from the past school year. You can even save the picture and use it to create a Thank You card!

Or, you can create a wordle about your favorite summer pastimes.

You can even try writing a poem with only nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Copy and paste the poem into wordle, and see how your poem changes!

Summer Activities 10--Wild Summer Weather

Ever wonder why most summer thunderstorms happen in the late afternoon? We don't get snow in the Northern Hemisphere during the summer, but our weather is pretty wild anyway! Even then, weather in Utah is quite mild compared to the rest of the country. We have very few tornadoes here, and absolutely no hurricanes! What's the difference between a tornado and a hurricane anyway? Here are some great sites to help you explore wild summer weather!

Hurricane season starts on June 1 and goes through November. Hurricanes happen when tropical storms--which form over the ocean--gather strength and speed, then hit coastline cities. (That's why we don't have any hurricanes in Utah--we don't have an ocean!) Hurricanes are categorized according to strength, from category 1 to category 5. These storms are particularly devastating when they hit large cities right on the coast. Hurricane Katrina is a famous example. It devastated New Orleans in 2005 as it broke levees holding back the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

To learn more about hurricanes, check out this page at Scholastic.com . You can also watch this video at brainpop, then answer the questions in the quiz that follows.


What about tornadoes? We have tornadoes in Utah, but they usually don't touch down for as long or do as much damage as they do in cities in the midwest. Why do you think that might be? Check out this page on Scholastic.com to learn more about tornadoes and how they form, and see if you can figure out why tornadoes aren't a big problem in Utah, especially near the Wasatch Front.

While our mountains protect us, they help create an area in the United States called "Tornado Alley". During the spring--April, May, and June--tornadoes of varying strengths occur frequently. Check out this page to get more information.


Here is a picture taken by KTVX News 4 Utah of the tornado that hit downtown Salt Lake on August 11, 1999.



Weather is powerful and can be scary. The more you know about it, the better you will be able to prepare for wild summer weather!

Summer Activities 9--Get more out of fiction

Want to get more out of the stories you read? (Or write!) Here are some great graphic organizers to help you get more out of the book you are reading. Try reading a book with a parent or a friend and talk about the book together using these graphic organizers. (I especially like the character trading cards!)

Character Trading Cards--How well do you know your character? Use these trading cards to find out more.

Is your character more comfortable in a comic book? Use this comic creator to find out.

Is your character a classic hero? Use this link to explore the journey that every hero takes, in one way or another.

Use this story map to help you keep track of all the major elements of your story. This is really helpful when you are writing and you want to make sure everything you need is there!

Have fun with fiction!