A little bit different twist to the "Bucket List" activity in the first article, is to use a beach ball instead of a sand pail.  Run off my master and have students fill in the writing prompt: "I'm going to have a ball this summer doing..."

Children have the option of writing their list on the balls and then coloring them, or cutting out brightly colored pieces of construction paper and gluing them to the beach ball like a puzzle and then writing on them.

The easiest way for them to do this, is to give them two copies of the white beach ball and three 5x7 sheets of 3 different colors of construction paper of their choice.

One of the white beach balls will be their template, the other one they will lay on top of a piece of construction paper and cut out the desired colored piece and then glue it to the white template.

After they have glued all of their pieces down, they write their prompt: "I'm going to have a ball..." and then cut out their beach ball.  Students write their name in a pretty colored marker around the small circle on the ball.

Put royal blue paper on your bulletin board, gently scrunch up some light blue tissue paper and arrange it in long rows to look like waves and then staple it across the board.

Tuck the beach balls in and on top of the waves.  Purchase 3 beach balls at The Dollar store, blow them up and suspend them with fish line from the ceiling.

Write: Having A / Ball This / Summer! on 3 different index cards.  Use a thick black magic marker.  Put scotch tape on the back of the index cards and stick them to the beach balls.

If the balls spin around so that you can't read them, make another set of cards for the backs of the balls.

If you want to do the pail as well as the beach ball, then have the beach ball be about friends they are going to do things with.

To add to the fun, and to get some gross motor and verbal acuity activities in as well, toss around a real beach ball. 

The student who catches it shares what they will do this summer.  When they catch the ball have students write their name on it with permanent marker.

After everyone has had a turn, pull a student's name out of a basket of names.  That student wins the beach ball!

Click on the link to view/download Summer Fun Writing Packet

Scroll down for yet another summer writing prompt: Having A Whale Of A Good Time...