The whole world has been affected by the Pandemic that is COVID-19. Whilst doing our part of staying home and practising social distancing, I will gather some ideas here for you to do with your toddler / preschooler, scroll down and enjoy!
Soap Bubble Snakes
A super fun way of making bubbles!
You need:
- An empty bottle
- An old sock
- Scissors and/or Craft knife
- Marker
- Rubber band / Thread / Tape
- Dish washing soap (other soaps work too but dishwashing soap is the best)
Cut your bottle in half and cut the end of the sock. Then stretch the sock over the open end of the cut bottle and secure to place with a rubber band.
Put some dish washing soap on a plate (about a teaspoon for a small plate) and add water. Put the sock side of the bottle in the water and waft it a few times. Blow into the mouth of the bottle and see the fabulous snake forming!
Additionally you can put food colouring on the sock or water+soap mixture to make colourful snakes!
Happy Bubbling!
Construction with play dough and sticks
Playing with dough strengthens the hand muscles which is important practise for fine motor skills. As the child is rolling, poking and forming the dough, they are using and exercising those muscles needed for scissor skills and writing.
In this activity we will not only practise the hand muscles, but also our construction skills, concentration and hand-eye coordination.
You need:
- Play dough
- Sticks (any kind; bbq sticks, tooth picks, cotton swabs)
First try to make some balls out of the play dough. Those will be the corners of the construction. Show your child how to place the stick in between two balls of dough, then make a square with them, then a triangle. Do all the basic shapes and see if you can name them all.
When you have explored the different patterns and forms you can make, then try to move on to 3D constructions. Build upwards and see what kind of structures you can create?
Have fun!
DIY Paper Doll
Make your own paper doll and clothes for it. The templates I made, is a simple table version as I use this as a pattern matching activity in preschool. You can also make the classic flaps, so that your child can actually play with the doll as well. Alternatively you can attach the clothes with some blue tack or tape.
For a preschooler, you might want to prepare the doll and clothes by drawing them on a paper and letting them cut out the different clothes. An older child can create their own from scratch.
Make a face and hair for the paper doll if you want.
Cut out the shirt, skirt and pants from different patterned papers so that your child can match the patterns.
Make your own patterns:
If you do not have patterned papers available, you can ask your child to first make some drawings or paintings using lots of colours. Then cut the shirt, skirt and pants from that paper – then you have a very unique and individual set of clothes for the paper doll.
DIY Threading activity
This is great fine motor practise for preschoolers. Cut out a shirt and pants from sturdy cardstock. Then with a hole punch, make holes all around the items of clothing. Take some thread or yarn and then ‘sew’ the clothes.
DIY Needle
Yarn has a tendency to frazzle at the end. To make a more solid point to the thread or yarn, you can put tape to the end of it, or make a ‘needle’ from a pipe cleaner or bag closer.
Enjoy threading!
Plastic bag Kite
This kite is a fully functioning one. This requires a bit more work from the parents, but it is a nice activity to do together with your child.
You need:
- A plastic bag
- Two sticks, different lengths and light in weight
- Thread or Yarn
- Scissor
- Needle (optional)
- Permanent markers / stickers (optional for decoration)
Cross the two sticks so that the shorter stick is past the center of the longer stick. Secure to place with yarn or thread. Cut your plastic bag in shape and decorate it with permanent markers and/or stickers.
Tie each corner to the end of each four ends of the crossed sticks. Use a needle or a scissor to make holes to the plastic.
Use more thread for the tension line. I prefer to put the picture the child painted on the outside of the frame, and then I pull the tension line through the plastic.
Wish for wind a go fly your kite!
Paper Plate Clock
A fun way to start learning the clock is to make one yourself! First look at a clock you have at home, what is the function of it? How many numbers are there? What do the different hands do? Count the numbers together and name all the parts, then make your own practise clock.
You need:
- A paper plate
- Numbers (you can write them with markers / use stickers / cut them from card etc)
- Paper fastener or a straw
- Card for hands
- Ruler (to help place the numbers)
Start by looking at where the numbers are placed on a clock? Take the paper plate and locate the center of it (for example with the help of a ruler). Make a hole in the center. Start with putting number 12 to one place on the edge of the plate, then put in 6 on the opposite side of that. Then make a cross in the middle with the ruler to find the places for 3 and 9. Fill in the rest of the numbers.
Finally attach your dials with the paper fastener. If you do not have a paper fastener handy, you can use a straw; Cut a 6 cm piece of the straw and cut that in half for the length of 4 cm. Separate the halves and push it against the table. Push the straw through the hole in the middle of the clock and glue the split end to the back of the plate.
Ideas:
This craft is great for number recognition, remember to count the numbers many times to help your child make the connection in recognising numbers by sight.
You could ask/help your child write all the numbers on a separate piece of paper, you can then cut those numbers off and use them as the hours for the clock.
Weaving activity
Weaving practises a child’s fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, spatial planning and builds those muscles needed for writing. Start by talking about clothes in general with your child; look at different fabrics, knitted items and think about how clothes are made?
You need:
- A4 piece of card
- Coloured papers cut into strips
- Scissor or craft knife
- Ruler, or something else firm for guide when cutting the slits
- Glue (optional)
For adult to prepare:
I chose to cut the card into a shirt shape, but it is not necessary. Make 5-6 slits on the card. You can draw the lines on the card first, or if you’re feeling confident, just cut them with the craft knife. I recommend cutting the slits approximately 2 cm apart. Use a ruler or something else hard to keep your line straight.
Cut the coloured paper into strips. You can cut them together with your child or you can prepare them beforehand.
What to do:
When you have prepared the card with slits and have enough paper strips, you can start the weaving activity. Show your child how to go over and under in an alternating pattern. Let them choose which colour strips to use and it’s perfectly fine if the lines aren’t straight 😉
Have fun!
Butterfly
This craft has a simple set up with simple tools but is lots of fun!
You need:
- Kitchen roll
- Markers
- Water
- Pipette / Straw / Thick paintbrush
- Something to tie the middle of the butterfly, such as:
- Clothes pin
- Zip tie
- Bin bag tie
- Any kind of clip
- Pipe cleaner
- Tape
- Thread or yarn
- Anything you have available at home
Put a piece of the kitchen roll on a magazine or newspaper and use the markers to fill it with pretty pictures, forms and shapes. When you’re satisfied with your work, place it on a tray or plate that has edges. Take some water with a pipette / straw / paint brush and drop in on the paper. See how the colours start spreading and making beautiful shapes and forms.
When you have made the whole paper wet, put it on top of a plastic bag or folder to dry. As the kitchen roll is drying it might blend into the newspaper / magazine, so it’s better to dry it on plastic.
The marker will leave a mark, so wipe your tray clean while it’s still wet.
Once the paper is dry, you might want to round the edges a bit or cut it into a more butterfly wingy -shape. Gather the paper from the middle and close it with a clothes pin / pipe cleaner / tape /anything you have available.
Make as many as you want to make a whole kaleidoscope of butterflies! Alternatively you can cut some of your papers into shapes or animals and cover a whole window with them to make a huge sun catcher!
DIY Robot -challenge!
I want to challenge everyone to do a DIY Robot!
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Use materials you already have at home, think out of the box and create a robot with your child!
Cut up different kinds of papers and materials. You can pre-cut for your child, or you can ask them to help with the cutting. Cut all kinds of different sized pieces.
Here some ideas what to cut up:
- Cereal box
- Food wraps
- Advertisements that fill up the mailbox
- Aluminium tin for the oven/bbq
- Egg carton
- Milk/Juice box (the plastic pieces can be interesting additions as well)
- Empty bottles
- Postcards
You can also use:
- Corks and bottle caps
- Buttons
- Cereal
- Candy
- Any decorational material you might have at home
When you have plenty of materials, then ask your child to make a robot out of those pieces.
Have fun!
Permission to play with food!
Below I already suggested that you can cut up some carrot and cucumber sticks and use them for writing practise. Children don’t always want to eat a healthy snack, but what if they get to play with it whilst eating? Make every snack time into fun time!
You can cut up cucumber make some shapes and patterns with the cucumber first 😀
Simple collecting and counting activity
The weather in Belgium has been quite nice for the past few days. Why not spend some more time outside:
- Take your child out to your garden, park, forest and ask them to collect different things; leaves, sticks, toys etc
- Then make ‘number mats’ out of paper, post-it notes or anything you have handy at home. Write numbers 1-5 on different pieces.
- To make it easier for your child, you can also draw a corresponding number of dots on either the front side or back side of the paper
- Name the numbers 1-5 and then ask your child to put a corresponding number of items on the numbered papers
Here is a fun experiment to physically show your child how soap affects germs.
Nature walk!
The weather in Belgium is beautiful, and no one said you can’t go out. Just practise social distancing when you do. Go for a walk and collect some things from the nature. Here’s a printable ‘Patterns in Nature -Hunt‘ you can can challenge your child with:
Make different patterns with the things you collected:
Or make a fun weaving frame which is great fine motor practise too:
Carrots and Cucumber
they’re not only a healthy snack, but can also be used for writing too! Practise your letter formation with carrot and cucumber sticks.
Writing practise:
Practise tracing / writing on a plate. All you need is a plate and one of the following:
- Salt
- Oats
- Couscous
- Flour
- Sugar
- Anything that you can use to write / trace on
You can write the letters or numbers on a piece of paper or on several pieces of paper to use as example for your child. There are also lots of letter practise apps that have letter and number flashcards that you can open on a phone or a tablet. Your child can use their finger, or alternatively a paint brush, a stick, a straw, a cotton swab…anything really, be creative!
Pre-writing practise with tape
Any tape will do, take some and make pre-writing lines on a table (or potholder as I did). Your child can follow the lines with their finger, a car, an animal or any other toy they find useful. You can also make big lines on the floor which your child can walk on instead – our preschoolers love following lines!
Askarteluideoita lapsille päiväkodissa, lapsiryhmissä ja kotona 