Fun Summer Reading Logs and Challenges for Kids

Reading regularly during the summer is a great way to keep kids on track with their learning, and it’s just a fun thing for people of all ages to do, especially when the weather doesn’t cooperate with outdoor activities.

For kids who need a little extra motivation to do their daily pages, check out these reading challenges and trackers that make reading more of a game.

Everyday Reading has several great printable coloring play mat reading challenges (designed by Hadley Designs). Shown here is the Dive into Reading challenge, which includes things like reading a book to a pet or stuffed animal, reading a book that’s cover is your favorite color, plus shells to color in on days you read. There are also ones with a summer camp theme and a summer travel theme.

Fuzzy Mama has cute summer reading printables that include a reading bingo page and a bucket list that’s filled out with things like reading different genres of books, a book recommended by a teacher and reading in your backyard. There’s also a list kids can fill out themselves to check off reads.

Rock Your Homeschool has a great summer reading planning pack for kids of all ages, with book recommendations, reading bingo cards and reading logs.

I also love color in bookmarks as a way to track progress, like these from Paper Trail Design, where you can color in stars or books as you read. Or try the ones from We Are Teachers, which has a reading checklist but also bookmarks with challenges on them you can color as you complete them.

For kids who need a little extra motivation, One Lovely Life suggests tracking reading (by time or books read) and offering prizes like cooking together, extra screen time or letting the kid pick the game for game night. The trick here is the rewards need to be things you’d want to do anyway.

And be sure to check out my previous posts on summer reading bingo and more summer reading printables for kids. Happy reading!

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Pet Themed Learning Activities

France is a country in Europe that’s officially the French Republic, but it also has overseas regions and territories include French Guiana, the French West Indies and islands in the North Atlantic, Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Let’s learn more about France!

France Basics

France is the largest country in western Europe. Its 18 integral regions, five of which are overseas, combine to make an area of 244,288 square miles, or 632,702 square kilometers, with a population of more than 69 million. The mainland borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra and Spain.

Paris is the capital and largest city, as well as the cultural center of the country. About 2 million people live in Paris, which was originally inhabited by the Parisii people as early as the third century BC. The oldest evidence of humans in what’s now known as France is from about 1.8 million years ago.

Neanderthals once lived there, but were replaced by Homo sapiens around 35,000 BC. France is where some of the oldest cave paintings have been found. Because of its long history and rich culture, France is known as a leader in art, food, philosophy, fashion and more throughout history.

The official language is French, and about half of French people identify as Christian.

The government is a semi-presidential republic, with both a president and prime minister, as well as parliament.

The word France comes from Latin, in which the region was referred to as Francia, “realm of the Franks.” It’s unclear where the term Franks came from.

France National Symbols

The French flag features blue, white and red vertical bars. The design was adopted during the French Revolution and has been used ever since (that’s more than 230 years!).

The national anthem, known as La Marseillaise (or “The Song of Marseille”) was adopted in 1795.

The motto of France comes from around the same time, with liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity) showing up in speeches and propaganda starting in the 1970s.

The fleur de lis, a heraldic symbol meant to symbolize a lily, is still considered a symbol of France, as it was used on the traditional coat of arms for the country and still represents it on the coats of arms of Spain, Canada and Quebec, and is featured in the coat of arms of Paris.

Marianne is considered the personification of France, and was chosen during the French Revolution as a symbol of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason. She typically wears a Phrygian cap, which was originally worn by emancipated slaves in Greece and Rome and is considered a symbol of freedom.

The rooster is also considered a symbol of France because the Gauls used to live in what’s now France, and in Latin the same word means rooster and Gaul.

France Activities for Kids

Learn to draw a fleur de lis with this video tutorial from Draw Stuff Real Easy.

Learn more about the Lascaux cave paintings and make your own cave painting inspired art. The Natural Homeschool has some images of cave paintings you can download, and Deceptively Educational has printable templates you can trace to make your own cave painting style art.

Take a virtual tour of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, classic landmarks of Paris. You can also look at online tours from the Louvre.

Learn the history of the Notre Dame Cathedral, or take a trip through history at the Palace of Versailles.

Because there’s so much history and culture in France there are a ton of landmarks and historical sites you can talk about depending on the interests of your kids. Grab a learning pack for kids from Proverbial Homemaker.

Learn to count to 10 in French (they have lots of other basic French videos, too) with help from Blabber Beasts.

Check out more resources for learning about France from Teachers Pay Teachers.

There’s lots of fun food from France, too, which you can sample or make for yourself, from baguettes and croissants to crepes, quiche and fondue. Some say pot-au-feu is the national dish, but I don’t think there’s an official one. It is the French version of pot roast, beef with vegetables. You can find a recipe at Serious Eats.

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Have you read?

France Basics

France Activities for Kids

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