Word search puzzles can help children to learn words by recognizing them within a group of words. Create a word search puzzle that correlates with a book or story that you recently discussed by using a piece of graph paper to write some words in a square and fill in the rest with random letters.
Flash cards can also be useful in teaching kids language arts and reading skills. Make flash cards on index cards in different word families, such as ack, ad and ain, and ask children to identify the word family that is goes in. For example, some words in the ack word family are sack, crack, black and track. Make them more difficult as you do the activity.
Money is an effective way to not only teach math, but show kids how they will use it in everyday life. Give each child or group of children various coins and a guide page showing what each coin is worth. Call out an amount, like "20 cents," and have kids try to can get the correct pairing of coins in the correct amount faster than everyone else.
Play math bingo with the kids by giving each of them a chart of numbers and then calling out an addition, subtraction or multiplication problem to the group. Have the kids mark each answer on their page. The first person to get a straight line across or diagonal from one side of the chart to the other of the correct number answers wins if he calls out, "bingo."
Help children to see and understand that household compounds are made up of chemicals on the periodic table. Explain that some chemicals dissolve in other chemicals to create the cleaners, toothpastes, shampoos and even food ingredients that they use every day. Show them how these things dissolve in each other by testing for solubility. Have them measure 2 tablespoons of water in a clean glass and choose the household compound you want to test. Salt and baking soda are soluble and make easy options. Have the kids put a pea-sized amount in the chemical compound in the water and stir it in the glass with a metal spoon for five minutes.
If the mixture becomes clear after stirring, the compound is soluble. If the mixture is cloudy, the compound is partially soluble. If the mixture is very cloudy with particles settling after stirring, the compound is insoluble. Explain to the children that a physical and chemical reaction occurred when the chemical compound dissolved in the water.
Make a list of landmarks and tourist destinations in the region that you are teaching. Have the children design a postage stamp for each destination. Find a food that comes from the region that you are teaching and explain to the kids where the company is based. Get Hershey's chocolate and explain to the children that the chocolate is made in Hershey, Pennsylvania. If you are studying the southeast, have a pot luck lunch with different dishes from each state, like jambalaya for Louisiana, and other southern-style food. Try foods that are likely new to the kids.