Wet t-shirt relay

You will need two buckets of water and two t-shirts. Immerse the t-shirts in the water. Have your friends divide into two equal teams. The first person in each line runs to the bucket and puts on the wet t-shirt. He will then run back, touch the hand of the next friend waiting in line, and then run back to the bucket, take off the wet t-shirt and yell “GO” to the next friend waiting. Each friend in line repeats this relay until everyone has had a turn. The team that finishes first is the winner.

Fun with Ice Cubes

• Fill a bucket with ice cubes and have your friends take turns picking them up with their toes. How many cubes can you pick up in one minute?
• Have your friend sit on a towel wearing a bathing suit. Use an ice cube to write a word or a message on your friend’s back. Have your friend guess the answer.
• Grab a handful of ice. Count how many seconds everyone can hold the ice in his bare hands. How many ice cubes can you balance on your head? Put the ice cubes in your pockets for a slow cool down!

Give a squirt!

• Fill water guns or a spray bottle with water and play squirt tag!
• Set up a pyramid of plastic cups and see who can knock all down the cups in the shortest amount of time. Move cups farther away after each round. Try this game blindfolded.
• Each player gets a squirt gun and a blown up balloon. Designate a starting line and a finish line. Each player must move his balloon by squirting it across the finish line. Try to keep a balloon airborne with the squirt bottles.

Keeping Kool!

• Soak a bandana in water, wring it out and put it in the freezer to wear later.
• Have your friends twirl a jump rope while another friend holds a cup of water and tries to jump rope 10 times. After everyone has a turn, the winner is the girl with the most water left in her cup.
• Fill a latex glove with water, tie a knot at the top, and freeze it! Set the glove out to thaw just long enough to loosen the glove and then discard it. Play with your new frozen hand.
• See how many wet sponges you can balance on your head!
• Cut the top off of an empty milk carton. Make a giant ice cube by filling it with water. Add small plastic toys and freeze it. Throw the giant cube in the pool and dive for the toys as the ice melts.

Summer time is a great time to become an entomologist!! With a little imagination, you can make your own bug resort in your backyard. Find some large, flat rocks about the size of dinner plates or larger. If you have some pieces of wood about the same size from your family workshop, you can also use them, too. Use your creativity to decorate these plain boards with pictures of bugs, animals, or whatever you’d like-superheroes or sport motifs. Screw on an unusual handle for easy peeking! The lids of discarded pots or pans would also work. Place these cover boards in various locations in your backyard-along a fence line or under a tree. You could even line a pathway with your rocks and other decorative items. In a week or so, look under the boards to see who has come to visit. Earthworms, salamanders, and millipedes are other critters that may appear. Have a field guide handy to identify your insects. Keep a list of your discoveries throughout the summer. In the fall, when your teacher asks you how you spent the summer, you will be the bug expert for your class.

Moth Magic

Stir up a magic formula to attract moths to your backyard.

Materials:

• 1 C. of juice that has been left out for a day or two
• 1 or 2 very squishy bananas
• ¼ C. of honey or sugar
• paintbrush
• blender

Method

Whirl the banana in a blender until it is goopy. Add the sweetener and about half the juice and whirl until blended. Keep adding juice until your mixture looks like thick paint.

Pour the moth brew into a bucket. Find an area in your backyard that you can safely walk to after dark. Use the paintbrush to apply the moth brew to trees, unpainted wooden fences, rocks, or logs. After dark, go back outside with a flashlight to study your paintings. You might see moths on the trees as well as ants, earwigs, beetles, and other insects. Don’t forget your field guide! You could also paint this mix onto a large stick and hang it in front of a window. That way you see everything that happens at night.