Keep your preschooler active and learning with this week's fun combination of play based learning activities.
A few tips...
As the weather warms up we are most definitely enjoying more time outside. One of my favorite ways to freshen up an 'old' activity which we have done many times is to simply take it outside. In this blog we are sharing a few 'take it outside' activities, along with some fun sensory bins and process art activities.
1. Backyard Painting
What you need: paper or watercolor paper, paints (we love watercolors for preschoolers as they are a little less messy and more forgiving), paintbrushes and water. We also decided to use some permanent markers before painting to add detail.
How to set up: find a nice peaceful spot in your back yard and set your preschooler up with their supplies on some sort of tray or table.
How it works: the idea here is to let nature inspire the painting. Ask your child to look around the yard and tell you what colors they see. Can they see certain shapes too- look high and low and talk about what they can see. Then ask them to draw and paint a picture of their back yard. Give them the freedom to paint something very specific, or the whole yard. We love using watercolors for a project like this as they are much less messy with toddlers and they also encourage color mixing. My little one used some colorful permanent markers first to draw a glorious sunshine, and then she added the sky and grass.
For younger kids: have the same discussions with them but instead of having the expectation that they paint an actual picture, simply ask them to paint some of the colors they can see. This will lead to lots of fun discussions and you can even then go on a little nature hunt to match the colors in the yard after.
For older kids: with older kids try to encourage more detail in the painting by talking more specifically about the shapes they see. They will also be able to have a better understanding of the proportioning of objects such as trees and clouds.
2. Nature Drop
What you need: cardboard tubes, tape, muffin tin, natural loose parts and a vertical surface outside.
How to set up: cut the cardboard tubes into various lengths and tape them to the vertical surface (we used the back of our mud kitchen). Collect natural loose parts such as flowers and acorns and put them in the muffin tin (or this can be a nature walk before the activity!).
How it works: invite your kids to explore dropping the natural loose parts down the tubes. My 6 year old couldn't help but join in with this as well! Both kids enjoyed experimenting with the different loose parts to see which moved quickly down the tubes and which were slow to fall to the ground. They had lots of fun using long sticks to rescue some of the larger items that got stuck as well.
For younger kids: start off with just one tube quite low down and a few light flowers and let them drop them down the tube. This is a great way to work on gross and fine motor skills, as well as crossing the mid-line. As they get more confident you can add more tubes and also different loose parts to test out.
For older kids: encourage older kids to design their own nature drop wall. Provide them with cardboard tubes, tape and an empty muffin tin and see what they can come up with. This is a great STEM challenge!
3. Number Treasure
What you need: water, containers (we used our IKEA FLISAT table and TROFAST bins), kitchen utensils and colander, mini cups, ping pong balls, permanent marker, and we also added our fun Safari Ltd. treasure chests and scuba divers.
How to set up: Using a permanent marker write numbers on the ping pong balls (I did numbers 1-6 for my 3 year old). Fill a large container with water and put in the number balls and small toys. Also set out the kitchen utensils, colander and cups.
How it works: encourage your preschooler to go hunting for number treasure by scooping up the ping pong balls. Each time they catch a ball, see if they can recognize and repeat the number. You can also then challenge them to find that number of treasure chests or scuba divers in the water. This is also just a really fun water play set up! Great for fine motor skills and sensory exploration.
For younger kids: keep things really simple by just asking them to scoop up the balls and transfer them into the empty colander. They can use their hands or one of the utensils. As they transfer them you can expose them to some numeracy simply by counting the ping pong balls out loud.
For older kids: this also works great for letters. Write the letters from their name on the balls and see if they can catch the balls and put them in the correct order. If they are older, you could even give them a simple sum to solve and then they have to find the correct answer on one of the balls floating in the water.
4. Large Cardboard Canvas
What you need: cardboard box, scissors or craft knife, markers / paints / Kwik Stix.
How to set up: cut a side off from the cardboard box. We decided to shape ours into shields and taped on a handle on the back as well. Set up the cardboard canvases along with your art material of choice somewhere outside.
How it works: my kids love being let loose with a large piece of cardboard to decorate. This time was even more exciting because they were designing their own shields. The idea is to keep it as open-ended as possible. From time to time I would share in discussions about their masterpieces, but I left them to it in terms of filling their shields with color. The best thing about this activity is that when they were done creating, they spent an hour enjoying some fun role play as knights with their shields.
For younger kids: younger kids may struggle to fill a large cardboard canvas, but trust me, they will still think this is a pretty cool challenge and will want to explore drawing all over the canvas. Kwik Stix are a great material to use for little ones because they dry in 90 seconds and are way less messy than paint!
For older kids: older kids will love an invitation to create like this where they get to design and then play with their creation. Get them more involved in the design process by asking them what they think can be made from the cardboard box. Encourage lots of creativity and engineering!
5. Build A Flower
What you need: loose flower petals (either from the garden or from some flowers in the home which are nearly dead), sticks, leaves, and trays.
How to set up: simply display the flower petals, leaves and sticks in some trays and provide a nice clear work area for your child.
How it works: this is intended to be a really open-ended invitation to create. Let your child touch and explore the different components and as they do so you can ask them questions about the textures and colors. Encourage them to make their own flower designs. They can even give their unique flowers a newly invented name!
For younger kids: sometimes presenting younger kids with too many options can be overwhelming. Let them explore just a few different petals with their hands. Instead of expecting them to assemble a flower which might be a little too delicate, you can simply make some flower soup by dropping the petals in water and giving it a good stir.
For older kids: this can be a great opportunity to introduce older kids to the different parts of a flower using the technical names. You could also ask older kids to draw or paint their new flowers once they have made them as a great way to extend the creativity of the activity.
We hope you are getting lots of sunshine wherever you are, outside time sure is helping my family to remain happy and creative in these tough times. Head over to @findthelittlemind on Instagram for more ideas and play inspiration.
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