“Summer Solstice: Celebrating the Brightest Day” is a great summer resource. It is designed to be used by families, students and even adults– there are opportunities for learning, fun rabbit holes to scamper down and new ways of looking at summer traditions. This guide can be used to celebrate the Summer Solstice, learn in and out of the classroom and/or to establish seasonal traditions with your family. You can spread these activities out over the whole summer, the month of June or focus on just a few activities the week of the Summer Solstice and try others next year.
The Summer Solstice is all about the sun, so I have organized this secular guide around different aspects of the sun itself. It brings us light, heat, energy, allows plants to grow, produces food, and is an amazing part of our existence. While the Winter Solstice is all about encouraging the sun to come back, at the Summer Solstice the sun is in its full glory, and we’ve tried to find as many ways as possible to utilize the sun itself. You can use this guide not just around the Summer Solstice itself, but throughout the whole summer season, whenever that may be for you. You’ll find an extensive booklist for all ages separated by subject and I encourage you to read some of the adult books even if you only plan to work with young children (and vice versa.). Take your time, add in your own traditions or start new ones. Use this unit as a springboard for learning or just for fun, the choices are yours to make.
The guide starts with the science behind the Solstice, different cultural traditions surrounding the Summer Solstice and then walks through information, projects and tutorials that celebrate different aspects of the sun. There are 8 sections with two projects each for a total of 16 different crafts, games, recipes and traditions to celebrate. It covers flowers, meadows, herbariums, light, the science and mythology of the sun, solar power, tidepools and streams, fish and shells, summer storm, solar circuits, vegetable gardening with kids, photosynthesis, parts of the plant, summer evenings, twilight, fireflies and moths, bees and butterflies, sundials and wild berries.
You’ll receive a 125 page book featuring background information, tutorials with crafts, recipes, games and more, lesson seeds for further exploration, and book lists.
This unit study is multidisciplinary, allowing you to explore different areas of core content, arts, nature, and culture within the same project. (Core content: science, social studies, math and english language arts)