This week we decided to make a house -warming card for the girls’ aunt and uncle – a great way to play with maths and make some shape pictures! My daughter loved this activity and was so pleased to make something to give as a gift. And all the while she was happily creating her picture, she was learning all sorts of important maths and literacy skills, without even realising it. Here’s how we made our shape picture…
Activities for toddlers :: math games
Welcome to day three of our special series that’s Just Right For Toddlers. We’ve already looked at sensory play and arts and crafts, and today our focus is on math games. All our ideas are based on learning through play and math is no exception. We don’t need to try and sit toddlers down at a table and fill in worksheets, when we can explore the same math concepts through games, play and everyday activities.
In these toddler activities we’re looking at learning to count and recognise numbers. We’ve also got ideas that explore shapes and measuring, matching and sorting.
Activities for toddlers : maths games [Read more…]
Kids art :: exploring texture
Here’s a kids art idea that you can try at home using recycled items that you’d otherwise throw away – we’re up-cycling and exploring texture to make touchy feeling patchwork pictures.
Kids art : exploring texture [Read more…]
Art for kids: paint play
Art for kids can be hands on fun with the simplest of ingredients. My girls find it so hard to resist putting their hands in the paint, so why not encourage it and let them enjoy some sensory play. Try these suggestions to add in some maths and literacy play too. [Read more…]
Playdough and toothpicks building
Many of the play ideas I post here happen as a result of my children taking some everyday materials and experimenting. Having a well stocked making box (which really doesn’t mean lots of expensive art materials) and permission to help themselves to some of our kitchen supplies often leads to all sorts of creativity and learning.
Today’s post is an example of how a fusion of two materials can produce lots of thinking about maths, dimensions, construction, creativity, role-play and of course plenty of fun.
Play dough and toothpicks [Read more…]
Rabbit craft
Are you celebrating the Chinese new year next week? I like to observe celebrations from around the world with the children as I think it open their eyes to diverse cultures, showing them how people around the world are different but how the basis of many traditions are very similar too. We like to make Chinese style lanterns (which are perfect for practising scissors skills) and eating a Chinese meal. This year, which begins on 3rd February 2011, will be the year of the rabbit so here’s an idea for a craft you could try:
Potato Printing a Rabbit
We used potatoes and carrots to print with to make our rabbit. (Seems appropriate to use carrots, don’t you think?) Carrot printing is great for younger children as the carrots are just right for holding in little hands. Potatoes are a little more cumbersome to hold but you can make easier for the children to grasp if you cut out a handle into the top – as shown in the picture.
This rabbit design provides the opportunity to mix in some maths, as we thought about what shapes we could use to make our pictures. We decided to make a picture using just two shapes: circles and triangles.
I used a knife to cut out a triangle from the carrots, the potatoes were simply sliced in half.
We also talked about size as we used a big shape to make the body, ears and carrots and a small shape for the head, nose and carrot leaves.
We enjoyed having a specific project – working out how to form our rabbits and follow our instructions to create the pictures – but it was great to add in time at for some free style printing too, to see what other designs we could come up with using the circles and triangles.
More Chinese New Year activities
Raise a global child! Exploring festivals from different countries and cultures is a wonderful way to learn about the world. You can see our archive of Chinese New Year activities here.
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