No Technology Ideas for Out of School Learning

No Technology Ideas for Out of School Learning

Interview a family member.

Measure the area and perimeter of each room in your home.

Graph the types of birds that frequent your yard or windows.

Be completely silent for 60 minutes, then write about the experience.

Write and mail a [real] letter to your teacher or principal or classroom penpal.  Address the envelope yourself.

Build a "fable fort" out of blankets and chairs.  Camp in it all day while you create stories to tell your family over dinner.

Learn morse code and use it to communicate with your siblings through walls and floors.

Alphabetize the spices in your kitchen.

Stay up late and stargaze.

Call a grandparent or older relative.  Ask them to teach you the words to a song from their childhood days.

Using household materials, build a working rain gauge, barometer, and wind vane.

Determine and chart the times that different liquids require to turn solid in the freezer.

Design and build puppets that perform a show about multiplication.

Construct a family tree.

Learn ten new big words.  Write them in marker on your bathroom mirror.

Draw a map of your home.

Sit silently for 15 minutes while you write down every sound you hear.   When you are done, classify the sounds (high/low pitch, high/low  volume, manmade v. naturally occurring, etc.).

Create a Venn  Diagram that compares and contrasts two people in your family, your  neighborhood, or your church, mosque, or temple.

Learn, practice, and perform a magic trick.

Learn, practice, and tell three new jokes.

Use household materials to make and play stringed, percussion, and wind instruments.

Learn to shine a pair of shoes.

Collect leaves from ten different (non-harmful) plants.  Sort them by size, color, and texture.

Put your favorite book, toy, and keepsake on a small table in sunlight.  Draw or paint a full color still life.

Find, pick, and dissect a flower.

If you have stairs, walk up and count them.  Walk down and count by twos.  Walk up and count by threes.  Continue through tens.

Determine the volumes of ten containers, them display them in order on your porch.

Write a poem on your sidewalk using chalk.

Classify twenty everyday objects by shape, size, color, height, mass, and material.

Measure the length of your bed using five different nonstandard units.

Call a person who speaks a language you do not.  Ask them to teach you five common words or phrases.

Create and use a secret code.

Using one type of paper (constant), build three different paper  airplanes (independent variable) and test to see how far they fly  (dependent variable).

Set a clock three hours and seven minutes  ahead.  Whenever someone needs to know the time, help them figure it out  by subtracting.

Write down every adjective you say for one full day.

Learn three new jokes.  Tell them to an aunt or uncle.

Design a map of every state ever visited by people in your family.

Write or tell a story titled "What if humans had to leave the Earth and no one remembered to turn off the last robot?"

Find ten rocks smaller than a dime.

Using paper, tape, and string, design, build, and test a device that warns you when someone opens the kitchen cabinet.

Imagine, create, and fly a full size flag that tells the world about you.

Source: Kim Jones McClelland