A lot of us will be home with our children in the coming weeks and wondering what we can do to keep them learning, active, and engaged. Or maybe you always have been home with your kids and could just use some inspiration for new activities.
Either way, it’s fun to shake things up a bit. Here is a list of activities you can do at home with your children that are fun and get children ready for kindergarten too – BONUS! Many of these activities can be adapted for older or younger children. Be creative and please share the cool things you are doing at home so we can all work together to get through these difficult times!
Keep checking back as we will add to this list as we do things with our kiddos at home or other OberlinKids families chime in with ideas too! My 8-year-old, Mikayla, wants to make instructional videos to share with you all! Keep an eye out for them daily.
Follow us on Facebook as more fun ideas get shared from other sources.
Playing is learning!
- The best thing you can do is read to them and ask questions about the story and pictures. Talk about what happened/is happening in the story. Ask them to predict what will happen next. How the characters are feeling or what they are doing in the pictures. Talk about what each of you liked best about the story. Take a picture walk- don’t read the words just look at the pictures and make up your own story. Read the story and compare what your made-up story was vs. the actual story.
- Ask them to write their own story ( phonetic spelling or pictures are great) and ask them to read you the story they wrote or tell you about their picture.
- Do lots of fine motor work like play-doh, wringing wet wash clothes, squeezing a spray bottle, painting, drawing…all are great for building up the hand muscles.
- Make your own play-doh to practice math skills like measuring and following a recipe and science by mixing liquids and solids together to make something new.
- Talk about letter sounds. We are having meatloaf for dinner M m m meatloaf. What letter do you think it starts with? Yes. M says m m m.
- Put sand, shaving cream, flour, salt, dried rice, or anything with texture in a cookie sheet with higher sides and have your child draw and write letters with their finger, the eraser side of a pencil, paintbrush, or stick.
- Poke dots in play-doh or make snake letters to make letters.
- Hide small items like buttons, beads, toys, and dried noodles in play-doh and use the fine motor muscles of their hands to dig through, find, and clean off the items.
- Write and draw on a mirror, window, or plastic sheet protector with dry-erase markers and erase with a tissue.
- Writing is made up of lines, circles, semi-circles, and squiggles. Making marks of any kind help to eventually make letters. Drawing is how little ones can communicate and write!
- Poke holes in the top of a Pringles type can lid and have your child feed pipe cleaners through it (then store them in the can to use later) or use a strainer/colander. Empty Parmesan Cheese containers work great too and already have holes cut out.
- Use a muffin tin and some craft puffs or cotton balls and have your child use tongs, tweezers, or clothespins to pick them up and place in the muffin tin – go a step further and cut out colored circles at the bottom of the tin and see if they can match the puffs to the color in the tin. Or even numbers in the tin. Two puffs in the number two section. Count the items in each tin or each color. Which has more, less, the same? Which are bigger, smaller, the same size?
- Special for St. Patrick’s Day – Make Leprechaun Traps or Fairy Traps at other times- They can use anything they want. Cups, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, paper, TP tube, matchbox cars – whatever they think. Create some sort of trap, decorate it, disguise it, lure it in with rainbows and pots of gold or coins. If you Google Leprechaun traps, I am sure you will find some story or poem to go along with it and some examples. Happy Hunting!
- Using matchbox cars you can do math and colors. Sort them by color. Line them up- count by touching each car with your finger. Which color has the most, least, same, etc?
Many of these activities can be adapted for your child’s individual needs and interests. Be careful to make sure they do not put items in their mouths or adapt the activity by using edible items like whipped cream, pudding, or yogurt instead of shaving cream. Be creative! Have fun with your kids. Laugh, take pictures, be silly! Try activities several times or add new items to keep them interested.
Have fun,
Your OberlinKids Director, Jenn
