• Geometry, Color, and Piet Mondrian
  Parents and kids can try painting in in the style of this master. Just try this technique.
  
• You're Invited: B.Y.O.B.
  Turn a weekend sleep-over into a weekend book group. You'll find ideas for favors and activities to convince your kids that reading is fun.
  
• Family Word Play
  How quick are your family wits? Find out with this question and answer game.

Winter Family Adventures: 
Books to read and accompanying winter crafts to make and activities to do...Great ways to keep children happily productively busy during winter break!

 

---

•  Make a Candle with "Flame" for the Winter Solstice
  Winter Book and Craft: Read Night and the Candlemaker by Wolfgang Somary and make a "candle" with a "flame." 
  
•  Use Shaving Foam as Finger Painting Snow
  Winter Book and Activity: Read about snow in Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton. Use shaving foam as Finger Painting Snow. 
  
• Make Play Snow to Craft a Snowy Scene 
  Winter Book and Activity Craft: Read about a snowy day in Ezra Jack Keat's The Snowy Day. Then use this recipe to make Play Snow. Craft a snowy day scene with the Play Snow! 
  
• Make Snowmen from Marshmallows and Toothpicks  
  Winter Book and Craft: Read about snowmen in All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle and Barbara Lavalle or "read" the wordless book The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. Make your own snowmen from marshmallows and toothpicks. 
  
• Make a Mitten Garland    
  Winter Book and Craft: Read about a mitten in Jan Brett's The Mitten or another book of the same title by Alvin Tresselt. Then follow these directions for making a Mitten Garland. 
  
• Make a Wagon Wheel Pasta Snowflake  
  Winter Book and Craft: Read about "the snowflake guy" in Snowflake Bently by Jacqueline B. Martin, and follow these easy directions to make snowflakes with wagon wheel pasta. 
  
• Make No-Bake Penguin Cookies     
  Winter Book and Activity: Read about penguins in Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems by Judy Sierra or Cuddly Dudley by Jez Alborough. Make penguin cookies that require no baking! 
  
• Make Pipe Cleaner Pine Trees    
  Winter Book and Craft: Learn about pine trees in Allan Fowler's Pine Trees (Rookie Read-About Science). Make a pine tree craft using green pipe cleaners (or green yarn or strips of green paper.) 
  
• Make Reindeer Food or Bird Food  
  Winter Book and Activity: Read about reindeer in Emery and Durga Bernhard's book Reindeer. Then follow this recipe to make some Reindeer Food. If you don't have reindeer in your neighborhood, this makes great wintertime Bird Food, too. 
  
• Build an Igloo from Sugar Cubes  
  Winter Book and Craft: Read about how real igloos are built in Building an Igloo by Ulli Stelzer, and then construct one from sugar cubes using these directions. 
  
• Make Snowmen from Toilet Paper Tubes 
  Winter Book and Craft: Read about a special snowman in The Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams and Jean Stoick. Make your own snowmen out of toilet paper tubes using this template. 
  
• Snowflake Fun
  Winter Book and Craft:  Read about making snowflakes (even snowflakes for Valentine's Day!) in Snowflakes for All Seasons by Cindy Higham.  Learn how to cut out paper snowflakes, create 3-D snowflakes, make a POP-UP snowflake card, and create Ice Spikes (strange things in your freezer!)  Plus, here are amazing photographs of real snowflakes you can cut out and use as decorations.
  
  

Summer Reading Adventures:

• Summer Reading Resources and Activities for Families
• How to Fit Reading into a Busy Summer