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SUMMER/SPRING/FALL/WINTER
- OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
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Take buckets of water and wide paint brushes and rollers
outside. Let children "paint" play equipment, the sidewalk, the house,
etc
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Take a walk – look for cracks in the sidewalk, leaves
on the ground, traffic signs, flowers and plants.
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Play catch outdoors with a wet sponge.
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Let children help you wash the car.
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Take a walk through your neighborhood. Collect dried plants, flowers,
etc. have each child make a collage with their treasures.
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Pin leaves to colored construction paper. Place in sunshine for an
hour. Remove leaves and silhouette will be left.
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Mix
colored water (or watered-down tempera) and pour into spray bottles.
Hang mural paper outside. Paint the mural by spraying colored water on
it. Talk about the shapes and colors created
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Walk
around the block and look for signs of the season.
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Go
on a flower hunt outside; count how many different kinds
of flowers you see. Pick a daisy and count the
petals.
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Hunt
for icicles. See who can find the biggest.
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Create
a Sundial: Find along stick and set it in the
snow. Try to tell the time throughout the day by
where the stick's shadow is cast (at high noon there
will be no shadow)
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Start
a nature sketchbook with each child: Buy
inexpensive tablets, and each time you take a walk,
observe something in nature. Have the child draw
the item, and write down details, and date the entry.
Continue throughout the year as seasons and location
change.
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Play
snow "Basketball": Scoop out a large
bowl-shaped area in the snow and make a ton of snow
balls. Then see who can land them in the
"basket".
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Take
a walk or at least go outside every day unless the
elements are such that you will get soaked with cold
rain (warm summer rain is ok!) or hit by flying debris,
or unless there’s too much ice to stand up.
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Dress
warmly on a clear night, take a blanket outside to lie
on, and watch the stars.
INDOOR
ACTIVITIES - WITH MUSIC
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Put on classical music and play musical chairs.
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Have a Kitchen Band. Choose instruments from pots and pans, wooden
and metal spoons etc. Play music for the children to march to – have children play
softly – then loudly.
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Use
a drum or rhythm sticks to play rhythms, varying the tempo and pattern.
Let children perform free-style dance movements, and take a turn playing
the rhythms.
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Make
up tunes for nursery rhymes and sing them while you do
chores or ride in the car.
INDOOR
ACTIVITIES - COOKING
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Make peanut butter play dough: Combine:
2 cups creamy peanut butter,
2 cups honey,
2-1/4 cups powdered milk
Mix peanut butter and honey. Slowly add powdered milk and knead until dough is of a thick
consistency.
Edible
Aquariums
Add blue food coloring to a container of softened cream
cheese. Spread mixture atop Melba toast. Add
goldfish crackers. Enjoy!
Make butter – pour a pint of heavy cream in a jar with
a tight lid. Let children take turns shaking it. In 10-20 minutes, lumps of butter will be
formed. Sing a song or tell a story while children are shaking.
Prepare
a meal together: help children set the table
attractively, let them wash greens for a salad and
arrange rolls on a baking sheet, make bread or cookie
dough and bake it, and do clean-up together. A relaxed
parent in a cozy kitchen offers great opportunity for
companionship and sharing.
Make
cookies and take some to an elderly neighbor or shut-in
and visit for a few minutes.
Sort-A-Snack
Provide children a clean muffin tin and a serving of
fruit-flavored o shaped cereal. Sort cereal by
color into muffin cups. Then eat!
Let
the children help create apple tarts. Press a refrigerated biscuit into
a muffin tin, lining the sides and bottom with the dough. Place a
spoonful of apple pie filling in the biscuit. Sprinkle cinnamon
and sugar mixture over the pie filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 12
to 15 minutes.
INDOOR
ACTIVITIES - GENERAL
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Get old wallpaper books and offer them to children to create
cut up shapes and collages.
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Cut sponges into geometric shapes and put into a water table
or tub.
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Have children draw pictures of their favorite outdoor
activities. Let them "tell you about their picture" as you write their words
beneath the picture.
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Give each child three refrigerated biscuits and place vertically on a
piece of foil to resemble a snowman. Use pretzel sticks and raisins for arms, eyes, nose,
mouth and buttons. Put foil on baking sheet and bake as directed.
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Get a large cardboard box. Cut a door and window. Let children
decorate. It can be a quiet area for reading or visiting.
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Shape Designs – make a variety of sizes and colors of
different shapes (triangle, square, etc.) Let children glue them on paper. Discuss ways
shapes are alike – and different.
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Rubbings – using a variety of objects (pennies, leaves,
paper clips, etc), let children place a thin piece of paper over object and color with a
crayon.
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Provide a variety of seeds, or beans – help children
name and sort them.
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Play basketball with rolled up socks and a waste basket.
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Shape Bingo – Make bingo cards with different shapes
– use circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, and triangles. Make large cards with one
shape on each. Hold up one shape card and call out different shapes. Children put a chip
on one shape on their card that has been called. Play until everyone gets a row of bingo.
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Read
to your child several times a day. Ask questions about the story
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Cut a
potato into chunks, making sure that each chunk has an eye. Put some water in a shallow bowl: then put the fleshy
part of the potato in the water. Watch
for a week. Talk about what
happens.
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Have
children help set the table. They
will practice sorting objects, counting, and following a pattern.
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Have
children talk about the shapes of the food that you eat. Have a special shape of the day.
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Set
up an exploration center focusing on the sense of sight.
Include different sizes of magnifying glasses, reading glasses,
cardboard tubes with different colors of cellophane squares around them.
Include binoculars, kaleidoscopes, clear plastic bottles filled with
various liquids and solids, such as water and colored oil, water and
sequins, mirrors.
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Shape
Tag. Tape a geometric shape on each child's shirt. Have children line
up outside. Call out a shape and have children wearing that
shape race past you. Tag as many as you can. They will help tag
children in the next shape group you call.
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Make
Sand Play Dough. 1 cup flour 1 cup water ½ cup salt 1/4 cup sand 1
tsp. cream of tartar Mix in a medium pot. Stir constantly over medium
heat until slightly lumpy. Let cool on foil. Knead. Let children
press shells into play dough to make impressions.
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Read
Charlotte's Web to the children. Make spider webs from black
construction paper and white glue. Let children squeeze glue on to
paper in a web shape. Sprinkle with glitter if desired.
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Read
to your child every day.
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Play
the "How Does It Feel" game. Children walk around the house
looking for 5 smooth and 5 rough surfaces. Then look for other
textures-bumpy, curvy, etc.
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Make
Friday "Puzzle Day". Sit on the floor and work age-appropriate
puzzles with the children in your care.
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Let
the children help you plant crocuses. Talk about planting bulbs deep
enough and getting the "nose" up, and the "feet"
down. The children will enjoy watching for the bulbs to sprout, and
weeding around them in the spring.
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Lead
the children in a simple clapping rhythm and have them imitate the
sequence. Vary this game by leading with pats on your head, shoulder,
etc. while the children follow.
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Read
a Story! Discuss how the story might end before you finish reading it.
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Let
the children cover a pinecone with peanut butter and roll in birdseed.
Hang outside and watch for birds to feed.
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Have
a winter tasting party. Prepare individual samples of something tart,
sweet, minty, spicy, etc. Taste one food at a time. Guide children
to use descriptive language and to name other foods with similar tastes.
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Prepare
instant chocolate pudding. After washing hands, let children finger
paint with pudding.
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Read
to children every day!! Reread the book and ask children questions
about what comes next in the story.
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Gather
cookie cutters in several basic shapes and an aluminum cookie sheet.
Use a permanent marker to trace each cookie cutter shape onto the cookie
sheet. Using play dough (recipe follows), children cut shapes and
match to shapes on the cookie sheet.
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Color
mixing magic! Put two colors of gelatin into a zip lock bag.
Observe and name the distinct colors. Manipulate the gelatin until the
two colors are overlapped. Hold the colors toward the light and
observe the overlapped colors. Squish and squeeze the bag to mix
the colors. Discuss the new color that is created.
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Color
Search! Name a specific color and have the children go in search
of objects of that color. Tell the child to quietly tap the object
he finds, name it and return to the group before you count to 25.
Then, one by one, invite the children to show the others the objects
they have identified.
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Read
to your children everyday, including the babies.
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Make
Frisbees out of old plastic lids, and decorate with
markers
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Make
a treasure map and go on a treasure hunt.
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Make
"Drippy Designs" Drop paint onto paper with a
spoon. Turn the paper different ways to make
designs.
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Read
to your child every day!!
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Tint
a container of water blue, and one red. Pour into
ice trays and freeze. Give each child a clear cup
half-filled with a lemon-lime soda. Add red and
blue ice cubes to his cup. Instruct child to stir
potion with a straw and observe the changes.
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For
toddlers as young as 18 months, tape down poster-size
sheets of paper on the floor. Sit next to the
child and encourage him to scribble on the paper using
non-permanent markers and crayons. Talk about the
colors and shapes.
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Make
glue dough from 1 cup flour,1 cup cornstartc,1/2 cup
white glue, and water. Mix flour, cornstarch, and glue
in a bowl, add water as needed. Knead until
workable. Model and explore dough freely.
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Put
two or three pairs of shoes together, separating each shoe from its
mate. Choose shoes of distinct sizes and types, such as
adult boots, baby shoes, and fuzzy slippers. Ask child to find the mates.
Talk about the types of shoes, whom they fit, and
what they are used for.
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Read
to the children every day.
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Glue
family photos, animal pictures from magazines or
greeting cards, to cardstock and put into a small,
sturdy picture album with plastic photo protectors. Talk
about the "book" with your infant or toddler.
Name and point, and soon she will, too.
- Write
the letters of the alphabet on index cards. Allow
children to choose a card, and then act out a word that
begins with that letter.
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For
children a bit older, make each child a list of words
that you are likely to see as you drive (gas, stop,
exit, etc,) Review the list with the children, and
challenge them to cross off all the words on the list by
the time you reach your destination.
- Shaving
Cream Finger-paint
Squirt shaving cream on colored paper. Children
use fingers to make shapes and designs.
- Tabletop
Flannel Board
Cut a piece of felt to cover a small tabletop. Use
double- sided tape to attach to the table. Offer a
variety of felt shapes, numerals and letters for use on
the table.
- Get
out pictures of your children when they were much
younger and tell them stories about the wonderful things
they did when they were "little"
- Measuring
shadows—On
a sunny day, stand a small potted tree (or other
appropriate object) on a cement surface. Each
hour, use a different-colored piece of chalk to
out- line the tree’s shadow. Then help children
measure and compare
different shadow lengths.
- Shape
Puzzle—Cut four or five large index cards into
two-part puzzles. Draw
different shapes (circle, rectangle, etc.) on one part
of each puzzle, and a matching shape on the other
part. Mix up the pieces and have your children
find the
matching pieces and fit them together.
- Developing
Muscles for Writing -Introduce fat crayons and paper
to babies. Begin by showing them how to make
marks on large pieces of paper. Tape the paper
to the table so that it will stay flat. If
babies try to color on walls or tables, gently
redirect them to the paper. They will soon learn
that paper and crayons go together.
- Finding
Animal Friends—Talk with your children about their
favorite animal.
Describe its special features. Find pictures of the
animal in magazines, and have
children cut them out. Glue
pictures to poster board, leaving space for a title
and other descriptions of the child’s choice.
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