Welcome to our “Circus Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to the oh-so-fun circuses and carnivals! After all, what better way to get them to keep learning than to pick a theme they already think is fun!
For this day, we turned our attention to the art of Juggling! We dove a bit deeper into the history of juggling, how to juggle, and crafted a few juggling balls of our own. Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on juggling!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Juggling has been around for quite a while, so it’s very likely that your little ones are already familiar with what juggling is. But if they aren’t, these sites are great introductions with kid-friendly facts, images, and related content! They’re perfect for providing a brief intro for your little ones (or to gather up some knowledge as well!)!
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- A, B, Circus! | Episode 2 | History of the Juggling by Cirque du Soleil (5m)
- Juggling in a Cone | Outrageous Acts of Science by https://www.kidzsearch.com
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
Now, we’re all told we should never play with our food. For our snack of the day, we did warn our little ones that they weren’t allowed to juggle their food, but we did pick out some snacks that an expert juggler might be able to work with and keep safe. Apples, oranges, and any other sphere shaped snacks were perfect picks!
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- AlphaTales (Letter O: Olive the Octopus’s Day of Juggling) by Liza Charlesworth
- The Juggler by Craig M Child
- DIY Circus Lab for Kids: A Family- Friendly Guide for Juggling, Balancing, Clowning, and Show-Making by Jackie Leigh Davis
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: CIRCUS, CARNIVAL, FUNFAIR, JUGGLING, JUGGLER, BALL
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- If you were a master juggler, what would be some fun or interesting things you’d like to juggle?
- Aside from juggling balls, what do you think would be the easiest things to juggle?
- Juggling can mean tossing objects in the air, keeping at least one in the air (as in The clown juggled 5 beach balls!). It can also mean balancing quite a few things at one time (The student juggled school, sports practice, and music lessons). Do you think the definitions are similar? Why?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
For our crafts of the day, we tried out making our own juggling balls. Below are two links that we looked at.
- How to Make Juggling Balls by National Geographic Kids
- How to Make Juggling Balls – Kids Circus Skills by Kids Craft Room
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
As they may have learned throughout the day, the type of juggling ball makes a difference. For the STEM Activity of the day, we asked them to make some hypotheses on different types of balls (our homemade juggle balls, real juggling balls, and other balls we had around the house) to determine which were easiest to juggle with. Then we had them conduct experiments by actually juggling (err – at least tossing one in the air and catching…). Then we compared our results 🙂
For those who want to learn more about types of juggling balls, these two resources were great:
- Juggling Balls – Choosing the Ones that are Right for How You Juggle by Juggling for Beginners
- Juggling Ball Info by Flying Clipper
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Circus Week days, Circus and Carnival Ideas, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
