kids activities, art and craft, play dough recipes and more
Today’s activities for toddlers post features some of our favourite ideas for science experiments, active play and having fun outdoors. They’ve all been tried, tested and approved by my own toddlers and are all based on having fun and learning through play.
This is part of our Just Right For Toddlers series, bringing your our best ideas for the lovely toddler stage.
Thanking the Domestic Goddesque for kindly passing the torch over to my hands, with neither of us dropping it, I’m joining in the international group of bloggers who are joining forces to bring you lots of fun ideas to celebrate the Olympics with your children.
The Games give us the perfect reason to encourage our children to be fit and healthy and enjoy some active play. Here are three fun ring games you could try.
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The leap year is a difficult concept for children to understand – and for parents to explain! But one thing children can enjoy is jumping for joy. Adding in lots of action makes learning fun and provides enjoyable leap year activities. Combining gross motor play such as jumping and leaping with other activities is great for children who are learning through their whole body.
Here are 12 fun jumping games just right for celebrating the leap year.
Don’t let grey days and freezing temperatures stop your kids moving and shaking. Use these ideas from our Play Academy link ups for action games to have fun and keep your kids fit and active all winter long.
I loved Jeanne’s comment saying the title of yesterday’s post sounded like a recipe, so continuing with that idea we today we have ‘take one child, add a dash of ribbons and swirl together with music.’
Children always have the best play ideas, don’t they? These pictures show B enjoying dancing with the streamers she made after discovering a forgotten bag of ribbons. She simply tied a one to the end of a stick and was ready to go. Both my girls love dancing but I’ve resisted sending them to an organised dance class for now, instead letting them explore their own dance style.
Five fabulous ideas for a feet theme.
1. Set up a shoe shop: gather together as many different types of shoes as you can: lace-ups, high heels, flippers, wellies, ballet shoes, walking boots, football boots, slippers. Talk about when you would wear all these different types of footwear – what’s special about them? Add in some imaginary play and have some of the children be the shop assistants and some be the customers. Add in some maths by measuring everyones feet and graphing the results.
2. Explore movement and see what your feet can do: Play musical statues but have the children try out a different movement each time the music re-starts. Can they walk, hop, skip, run, go backwards, walk on tip toes? Try some other challenges such as seeing if they can pick blocks up with their feet and load them into a bucket. Or hold a crayon between their toes and do some drawing.
3. Discover animals’ feet: use toy animals or print off some pictures and investigate their feet. Talk about paws, hooves, webbed feet, claws and talons. Add some classification practise by sorting the animals into those with no feet, two feet, four feet, lots of feet. How do the animals’ feet suit how they live? Which animals can walk on the ceiling?
4. Make some footprints: for a great collaborative work of art tape big rolls of paper to the floor and then play some music. Have the children step in some paint and then dance their way over the canvas.
5. Read all about feet: with this fabulous selection of stories suggested by NurtureStore’s Facebook and Twitter friends. (Come and join us on Facebook and Twitter for lots more resources and idea swaps)
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happily shared with made by little hands Monday and math Monday and preschool corner and Outdoor Play and we play and math Monday and Tot School
We love parachute games! They are great for some large scale play with a group of children and are wonderful for promoting team work and listening skills, as everyone needs to work together to follow instructions and listen to cues to make the games work. You can play parachute games inside or out, with a play parachute or a big piece of fabric or a bedsheet. You don’t even need a whole class of children – I’ve played this happily as a pair with a toddler who loved bouncing their teddy on the sheet.
Parachute play ideas to try:
We’re always looking for new inspiration – what ideas for parachute play have you tried?
(Thanks for our Facebook friend Lily Vanilli for the washing machine idea.)
Happily shared with For the Kids Friday and Preschool Corner