Preschool Fun Archives - ResearchParent.com

Cave Painting Activity

Michelle — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 17:18:34 +0000

What better way to kick off Ancient History studies than with a simple cave painting activity? This activity requires only a few supplies and very little prep. For the small investment required, it is a ton of fun and even a little educational. (You are welcome to use my free printable if you would like to inspire your kids and teach them a little about famous cave paintings.) My kids had such a blast “cave” painting, I’m wondering how I can possibly maintain this level of history learning enthusiasm!

In our family, we have done the 4 year Story of the World cycle one time through. This coming fall, we are planning to start again with Ancient History. Since summer is about to begin, I thought, why not start a little early? That way we can take our time and go nice and slow through the first part of our history book.

I don’t know how successful I will be at keeping up this spirit of hands-on learning, but our pilot event was a huge success. As soon as we started learning about prehistory (the period of history before the invention of writing), I knew that I wanted to do cave painting. How exactly to do the cave painting and have it be meaningful took a little bit of thought.

At first, I was thinking we could find some natural clay and mix it with water to make the paints, but then that seemed like too much work. I wanted to keep things simple. Then I thought about just putting some butcher paper on the wall and letting the kids finger paint, but that seemed a little below the educational value I was hoping for.

To start, I decided to up the educational value by learning about some real cave paintings. First, we read Discovery in a Cave by Mark Dubowski which thankfully was available for free through our library’s digital lending system. (Libraries are currently closed due to the pandemic.) I HIGHLY recommend this book. It is informative, not too long, and the story itself is extremely appealing to children.

For a fun treat, afterwards we watched the very first episode of Carmen Sandiego called The Stolen Smile. I happened to recall that this episode described the Lascaux Caves which are the same caves featured in the book above.

So that my kids would be able to look at inspiration WHILE they were painting, I also created a few pages with pictures of real cave paintings. This printable features 3 famous caves around the world. I specifically chose ones of handprints and simple animals, since I knew my kids would be able to replicate images such as these.

My oldest decided to use a stick to paint some of his drawings. I thought this was a good idea since simple tools like this were available to prehistoric people as well.

Overall, I am really pleased with how well our afternoon of learning went. Seeing the happiness on my kids faces while they were enjoying a memorable educational experience was well worth the time invested. I don’t always tie in hands-on activities to our history, but I’m planning to try to make an effort more often!

Cave Painting Activity Details

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: 10-30 minutes of prep (depending on if you want the overhang or not)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $2 in used supplies

Materials

a large cardboard box (or two) for painting on
a smaller cardboard or cereal box for creating structural triangles (optional, only if creating an overhang)
washable tempera paint in black and red (or you could be more colorful)
plates or containers for holding paint
tape to hang cardboard (I found painters tape to work well enough for the activity, though our “wall” fell down overnight)
optional: free printable educational document for inspiration

Instructions

If you haven’t already, first you will need to open up your cardboard boxes so that they lay flat.
If you would like to create an overhang with structural triangles so the child can paint on this portion, cut off the excess flaps from your smaller box.

It should look like this after you finish:
Next, cut this smaller box into width-wise strips an inch or two wide.

You will need at least 8 total.
Fold a strip into a right triangle and tape it together. It does not need to be symmetric, though the ones I used were pretty close. One of the angles in your triangle that is not the square angle should be the angle you would like your top flap to overhang.
Using this first triangle as a guide, make one just like it.
Repeat step 5 until you have 8 close to identical triangles.
Use the triangles to prop up one of the box flaps and tape it in place as shown.
Continue taping triangles in the same orientation onto the flaps along one side of the box. You will need at least 2 triangles per flap.
Next apply tape to the side of the triangle that will attach to the wall as shown.
Repeat above process to add tape to all of the triangles.
Next have someone help you tape the boxes onto a wall with the flap at the top.

From the side, the flap will look like this:
If you are using the inspiration sheets, post them somewhere nearby so the kids can look at them as they paint.
Set out paint for the kids to use. Start with a little bit and add more as necessary. Since I have 4 kids, I decided to set out 2 plates of each color so there would be less fighting.

Now you are ready! Let the kids have fun!

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

Michelle — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 00:18:13 +0000

I remember making these peanut butter, bird seed, and pine cone bird feeders with my grandmother when I was a little girl. They are so easy that I have been meaning to make them with my kids forever! It would be a shame for their childhoods to have passed them by without having done this simple, outdoor activity.

We did this DIY activity on a weekend when we were able to camp in a tent in our backyard. I was trying to think of as many outdoor activities as possibly, such as gardening and playing outdoor games. We were originally planning to go camping at a national park that weekend, but our plans were canceled due to Covid-19. I figured a global pandemic was a good a time as any to invite some birds to our yard.

My kids have seen a few birds eating from these bird feeders in the past couple weeks. Unfortunately for the birds, within a few days, squirrels figured out how to get to most of them. Depending on how you feel about squirrels in your yard, this is not necessarily a bad thing. After watching this amazing YouTube video on a ninja warrior style squirrel obstacle course, my kids are definitely fans of squirrels.

If you don’t want squirrels eating them, be sure not too hang the pine cones too close to the trunk of the tree. One of ours was about a foot from the trunk and that one was completely demolished within a couple days by squirrels. The ones that were hanging on farther branches lasted much longer, but eventually I think the squirrels must have figured out how to pull up the pine cone by the rope. Those squirrels are ingenious!

PINE CONE BIRD FEEDERS

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~15 minutes
Difficulty: Fairly Easy (though children might need help cutting of the pointy tips if your pine cone is sharp)
Cost: Less then $2 in used supplies.

MATERIALS

a pine cone
bird seed (about half a cup)
peanut butter (about half a cup) — Note: We only had chunky peanut butter, which is fine, but smooth would probably work better.
string (about 3-4 feet)

SUPPLIES

butter knife or spatula
bowl
scissors

INSTRUCTIONS

If your pine cone has sharp tips, cut the tips off the pine cone before giving it to your child to prevent injury.
If your pine cone is dirty, rinse it off with a hose to clean it.
After it dries, spread peanut butter all over the upward facing surfaces.
Sprinkle bird seed all over the peanut butter covered surfaces.
Cut a string about 3 or 4 feet long.
Tie one end of the string to the top of the pine cone.
Tie the other end of the string to a tree branch.
Cut off the excess string.

Have fun watching birds and other critters visit your yard!

Super Easy Bottle Rocket

Michelle — Wed, 29 May 2019 06:00:49 +0000

This has to be one of the most fun science activities I’ve done with my kids in a long time. It is super simple, inexpensive, and quick. It took us a few tries experimenting with how to add the baking soda to the bottle, but I think we got it down. We were able to make this super easy bottle rocket launch higher than our 2 story house four times in a row.

This experiment was inspired by our astronomy curriculum from Pandia Press (NOT an affiliate link, but a great curriculum). The primary change that we made between the instructions in that curriculum and our final version was to use a Kleenex instead of a paper towel. Also, as we were inserting the baking soda-filled tissue into the bottle, we ripped off the end of the tissue as described below to cause the mixing to occur more quickly.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $3 in used supplies

Materials:

2 liter bottle
baking soda
vinegar
#4 rubber stopper
measuring cup
tablespoon
3 pencils
packing or duct tape
Kleenex or other tissue
funnel (not pictured)

Instructions:

Place rubber stopper into empty 2-liter bottle.
Put a piece of packing or duct tape near end of unsharpened pencil opposite eraser.
Stand 2-liter bottle on rubber stopper and tape pencil to bottle so that it touches the ground.
Repeat previous steps by taping a second pencil to 2-liter bottle.
Repeat previous steps again to tape a third pencil to bottle. Adjust pencils if necessary to make sure all 3 erasers are touching the ground and bottle is more or less vertical.
Measure 2 cups of vinegar.
Use a funnel to pour 2 cups of vinegar into bottle.
Use a measuring spoon to place 2 tablespoons of baking soda onto a facial tissue.
Fold tissue in half to get baking soda to gather along the center crease.
Fold bottom of tissue paper up as shown to hold in baking soda.
Fold side of tissue over as shown.
Roll up the tissue as shown into a tube that will fit into the opening of the 2-liter bottle.
Start inserting the baking soda packet into the opening of the 2-liter bottle.
Continue pushing tissue packet into bottle being careful not to let it fall in.
When packet is almost completely into the bottle and the remaining part outside the bottle contains no baking soda, use the stopper to hold the packet in place. Rip off the remaining tissue that does not contain baking soda and let the packet fall into the bottle.
Give the bottle a quick shake and turn it over so that stopper is at the ground.
Wait patiently. This never took more than 60 seconds for us.
Watch the rocket launch!

Have fun being a rocket scientist!

Birthday Interview Form

Michelle — Mon, 14 May 2018 20:41:27 +0000

A while back, I was listening to this episode of the Bravewriter podcast, when the mother being interviewed mentioned a family tradition that sounded incredible. She took each child out to dinner the day before their birthday. Just the two of them. Additionally, she would ask the child the same questions each year. Her questions were inspired by a Russian movie about a girl named Anna who was asked the same 5 questions every year from her 6th to 18th birthdays.

First of all, it would never occur to me to take just one child to a restaurant. I have 4 kids and we almost never go out to eat except for special occasions. Even on special occasions, it’s not really that fun. We have FOUR kids and they are still relatively young. Most of our restaurant outings involve me trying to keep my bigger kids from fighting too loudly and my younger kids from throwing their food everywhere. To be able to sit and actually TALK to one of my children and focus all my attention on what they have to say? No interruptions? I don’t even have to cook? Mind. Blown.

Additionally, the idea of asking kids the same questions each year and documenting their responses is so intriguing. I ended up selecting a mix of the Russian director’s and Joules Evan’s questions (the mom from the podcast). My list encompasses the general idea behind both lists, I feel. They are fairly open-ended and right away you can see how the answers would change over the years. For example, my 6 year old’s biggest wish right now is to have a pet tiger. I can’t even imagine what she’ll wish for when she’s 16.

Additionally, I included a page of “favorites.” I’m hoping it will be fun to look back when my kids are olders and see how their favorites have changed as well.

So far, I’ve done this interview twice, once with my 8 year old and once with my 6 year old. My 8 year old and I had a great time going out to dinner by ourselves the night before his birthday. I honestly learned a few things about him that I didn’t know before. He is growing up so quickly. Take away the constant sibling bickering and all of a sudden, he’s a mature young man. We had so much fun, my husband decided to take him out to dinner a week after his birthday. They had a great time as well.

The plan didn’t go as smoothly with my 6 year old however. She didn’t want to go out to dinner, because she would “miss her dad and brothers too much.” So we made tacos at home and did the interview there. Even though she was not on board with the mom-and-me date, she enjoyed the interview immensely. I’m hoping next year she’ll be ready to have a girls night out with me.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle School, High School
Time Required: ~30 min
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable

Materials:

paper for printing birthday interview printable

Supplies & Tools:

pen or pencil

Instructions:

Print out the birthday interview.
Find some quiet time to ask your child the questions on or around their birthday.
Repeat the following years.
Save the forms for many years to come!

This is totally optional, but I thought it would be cute if I had my kids write their own names on their form, so that I can see how their “signature” changes over the years.

Enjoy!

Click here for more Homemade Fun ideas for kids.

Generic Game Board

Michelle — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 21:58:02 +0000

Have you ever thought, “If I could just turn this into a GAME, my kid would learn it no problem.” Kids are like that, aren’t they? Ask them to clean their rooms and they’ll fall on the floor at the injustice of it all. Turn it into a game and they’ll be transformed into little cleaning machines. (Sorry, this game board will not help your kids clean their rooms.) I’ve been wanting to make a generic, re-usable, board game for awhile now. I have definite plans for what I want to do with it. (Stay tuned for some upcoming math games.) However, if you have your own ideas, this free, printable, hand drawn, game board will work just as well.

I’ve spent a lot of time making free cards that kids can match to learn different subject areas. I have plans to make a lot more. Since the cards each contain little bits of information or images that need to be matched to a specific term, they make great clues for a trivia style game.

Since I just finished this game board yesterday, so far we’ve only tried it out once, but I have to say my trial went remarkably well. I think even my husband, who is a skeptic by nature, was impressed. Since my oldest studied Ancient history over a year ago and will be studying the Middle Ages this fall, I decided to use the board game as an opportunity to review Ancient Rome. To prepare to play the game, I let him review the terms from our Ancient Rome Definition set. As always, we first talked about the control cards together, then I gave him a set of split cards. He matched the clues (in this case the picture) to the term. After he thought he had all the right pairs, he checked his answers himself with the control cards.

When I said we were going to play a game, my 5 year old immediately wanted to play too. I decided to reduce the number of vocab words to 10 (Romulus & Remus, Tiber, forum, toga, patrician, plebian, Roman numeral, gladiator, barbarian, and aqueduct) and let her quickly have a chance to match the words to the pictures and check her answers. Once we started playing, the 3 year old wanted to get in on the action too.

They each chose a game piece, then whoever’s turn it was would draw a picture card. If they could name what the picture represented, they got to roll the dice and move (hoping to land on a shortcut or “go again” space and not a go back or “lose a turn” space). Since it wasn’t really a level playing field, I gave my 5 year old hints as needed. (“It sounds like tiger.”, “Remember in Harry Potter, when Hermione said wizard’s chess was totally barbaric?”). Most of the time I would just tell my 3 year old what to say and have him repeat it. By the end of the game, I think they all gained a lot more familiarity with the terms and my 7 year old in particular now has them completely memorized.

I should also point out that while I planned for the game board to be made of 4 taped-together pages, I also made a shrunken version that fits on one page. This would be handy for a quick game where you didn’t want to save the board. Coins work pretty well as the game pieces. Although I didn’t, it might be fun to have the kids decorate the game board by drawing on it or using stickers. If you were playing with older children, you could also use the written clues (either alone or mixed in with the picture clues). We might try this next time with me reading the clues to my non-reading children. Or you could not use clues at all and just use the board to kill some time in a restaurant.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~15 minutes (to put board game together, mount, and laminate)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable, less than $1 to mount and laminate.

Materials:

Paper for printing generic game board. (Note that you only need to print either the first 4 pages or just the last page depending on the size of the board you want.)
1 sheet of poster board (optional)
contact paper (optional)

Supplies & Tools:

tape
scissors
glue stick (optional)

Instructions:

Print the generic board game. If you want just a 8.5″x11″ game board, just print the last page and you’re done. If you want a bigger game board, print pages 1 through 4.
Cut out the borders for all 4 sheets of paper.

Flip the pages over, line up the edges, and tape them together.

At this point, you could be done if you’re not planning to save your board for a long time.

If you’d like your board to be a little more sturdy, find a piece of poster board. Foam board or cardboard could also work.

Glue the game board onto the poster board. I found it helpful to glue it down a little section at a time.

Note the game board paper hangs off my piece of 14″x22″ poster board, but the entire game board is on the poster board if I center it properly.

Cut off the excess paper and poster board.

At this point you could also be done. However, if you live in a house of filthy animals/children, you might want to protect it a little further. If so, find some contact paper and cut out a piece slightly bigger than your game board. (Note that my baby drooled all over my board and my kids got greasy popcorn on it within 30 minutes of “laminating” it, but my house might be more of a disaster zone than yours.)

Peel off the backing. I find it helpful when peeling the paper to tape the corners of one end to the floor.

Leave the contact paper on the floor, sticky side up, to ensure it stays flat, then push the game board onto it.

Cut triangles off the corners of the contact paper.

Fold the edges of the contact paper over onto the back side.

Add some game pieces and dice and you’re ready to play!

In order to play, you can use the game board as a trivia game with question or clue cards as described above, you could work on spelling words or have the child solve a math problem before each turn, or you could just forgo the questions and play it Chutes and Ladders style. The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

Click here for more Homemade Fun ideas for kids.

Reading Log Train

Michelle — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 14:00:17 +0000

I LOVE to read. Growing up, I hid a book in my desk at school in case the lesson was boring. If there was a social gathering, I would find a quiet place to hide and read. If we were driving home late at night, I would read snippets of my book by lamp post (which, let me tell you, is pretty challenging). I REALLY want my kids to love reading too. Unfortunately, reading for reading’s sake is not yet a motivator for them. I made this fun reading log train as a way to encourage them to get some more books under their belts.

Really, this reading log is primarily for my 7 year old. He is already a decent reader, but at any given moment, he can think of 100 things he’d rather do than read. I don’t blame him. Life is fun, especially when you’re 7. However, he’s not going to get to the really amazing books of childhood until he’s reading the books at his level more fluidly. That’s going to take some practice.

This “reading log” is motivating, because each time he reads a book, his train gets longer. It’s only been a week, but so far, it seems to be working. It’s also great, because my 5 year old, who is just starting to sound out simple words, is motivated to keep up with her brother. Unfortunately, while there are lots of great books at the library for her big brother, there’s not much available that she can read in a short period of time.

I fully support immediate gratification when encouraging young readers. For someone who is just starting to sound out words, the Tug the Pup series is wonderful, because each book is so simple and short. Another good option is the series of free printable sight word and phonics books by The Measured Mom. (I’ve used hundreds of her resources with my preschool-aged kids.)

I wanted my toddler to feel included as well, so he has his own train too. Since he can’t read, I decided I’d put letters on his train as he mastered them. Unfortunately, he can’t keep up with the big kids. He’s got A and B down, but he still always says O for C. It’ll come. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to mind having a shorter train. I’ve been adding a letter or two to his train each day whether he’s reading them reliably or not. We spend a minute reviewing them whenever we add new letters.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable

Materials:

paper for printing Reading Log Train template
construction paper
small picture of child’s face (optional, to put in the train windows)

Supplies & Tools:

glue
markers
scissors
paper trimmer (optional, but convenient)
pencil
1″ circle hole punch (optional, but SUPER convenient)

Instructions:

Print the Reading Log Train template.
Decide where you want to place your train and which direction it will go so you know which train to use. We decided to place our trains on the wall going uphill by our stairs.
Have your children color in the train facing the appropriate direction.
Cut out a picture of your child’s face that is 1″ square. You can cut out and trace the square on the template page to make it easier.

Glue the picture onto the window.

Cut out the train.

Next, cut out rectangles from the construction paper that are 2″ by 3″ (or whatever size you desire). If I only had one child, I might make different size train cars to show the complexity or level of difficulty of the book. Since I have 3 kids, I kept it simple by making them all the same size.

Cut out 1″ circles. Initially, I cut them out by hand using the circle on the template page. However, I ended up buying this hole punch to make my life easier.

Cut out little strips of paper to connect the trains. I used my paper trimmer to make a long, skinny 1/4″ strip. Then I cut 1″ long pieces using scissors.

Gather all your train car pieces.

Assemble your train cars! Initially, I let my kids glue on the wheels.

Eventually, I just made a bunch myself assembly-line style.

After your child reads a book, write it on a train car.

Watch the train grow!

HAPPY READING!

Click here for more Starting to Read activities for kids.

Homemade Gak

Michelle — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 14:00:35 +0000

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t trying to make Gak. I was trying to make silly putty. After failing miserably using a number of the recipes I found online, I decided to just switch my objective and declare success.

What’s the difference? In my opinion, silly putty should be moldable. If I want to make a creature out of silly putty, I can. With this stuff, no matter how thick I make it, you just can’t. Therefore, I went in the other direction. I wanted to know how runny I could make it without having it be too sticky. I tried different ratios of glue, water, and borax and combined them in different ways until we were finally satisfied. (If you’re worried your child might try eating the gak, this recipe probably isn’t for you. However, you would have to eat a lot to actually get sick, so for most kids, this recipe is totally fine.)

The final substance was slimy, but not sticky. Moldable, but still runny. You can form it into a ball, and then watch as it runs through your fingers.

My 4 year old daughter has literally played with this stuff for hours. She’s my kid that likes to get messy and even though this homemade gak doesn’t leave a mess, she never gets tired of it.

In case you’re wondering, you can NOT replace the recommended Elmer’s glue with washable glue. We had a small bottle of washable glue and decided to try it to see what would happen. The consistency is just all wrong.

See below for step-by-step instructions for making a single batch as well as advice for doing this activity with a large group of kids.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: About $0.50 a batch if you buy a large container of glue.

Materials:

4 ounces of Elmer’s Glue-All Multi-Purpose Glue (Washable won’t work right)
1 teaspoon borax (Note: as with soap, baking soda, salt, etc., this could be dangerous if ingested in large quantities)
water (you will ultimately add 6 to 8 ounces depending on how runny you want the final product to be)
food coloring

Supplies & Tools:

disposable cup
spoon for stirring
teaspoon
measuring glass
marker

Instructions:

1. You could theoretically, pour the glue into your measuring cup, then use a spatula to pour the glue into a cup. However, you can use this trick to keep your measuring glass clean. First, measure 4 ounces water. (This is the same as 1/2 cup.)

1. Next pour the water into your disposable cup and use your marker to mark the water line.

1. Dump out the water, then refill the cup to the line with glue.

1. Next, pour 4 to 6 ounces water in with the glue. Less water makes a more firm gak, but the runnier (6 ounce) gak was more fun to my kids.

1. Add some food coloring to the water glue/mixture and stir. We added about 8 drops, but you can add more or less depending on your preference. Stir until it is well mixed.

1. Separately, mix 1 teaspoon of borax with 2 ounces (or a 1/4 cup) of hot water. Stir until as much is dissolved as possible. It is not necessary to boil the water first. A few undissolved grains will not noticeably affect the texture.

1. Add the borax/water mixture to the glue/water/food coloring mixture, then stir. It seems to work best if you add a little borax/water, stir, then repeat 2 or 3 times until it’s all gone. However, if you add it all at once, it’ll still work out okay. You just might need to stir for a little longer.

1. As you stir, it should start out by sticking to the spoon. Keep stirring.

1. Is there liquid left? Keep stirring! This is where I failed the first few times. I gave up while there was still liquid in my cup. If you stir long enough, it should all turn into gak. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes.

1. Take it out of the cup and enjoy your perfect homemade gak!

Even though you can’t mold it very well, it is great for leaving impressions. You can also stretch it, break it, and let it run through your fingers. It is so satisfying!

Instructions for Large Group
If you plan to make this recipe with several kids, there are a few things you could do to simplify the process:

- First, you could pre-mark all the cups to the glue fill line. When I did this with my kids, I got lucky in that the fill line corresponded to the bottom of the grooves in the cup, so I didn’t even need to mark them.
- You can personalize the recipes by allowing kids to choose the colors to add to their cup.
- After you’ve added the glue, water, and food coloring to the cups, each child can stir their own cup.

To save time, you can make the borax mixture in a large batch. Multiply the number of children by 2 to get the ounces of water you should use. Add a teaspoon of borax for each child. For example, with my 3 kids, I mixed 3 teaspoons borax into 6 ounces of hot water. I microwaved the water before adding the borax so that as much borax would be dissolved as possible. I didn’t want to risk having too many grains settling to the bottom, leaving some kid’s cups with not enough borax.
You could measure out 2 ounces of borax mixture for each child OR you can just add a little bit at a time to each kids cup until it all turns to gak. To save time, I opted to go the second route, but one of my kid’s cups did not get as thick as the others. Next time, I will likely make a little extra of the borax solution to make sure everyone gets enough.

Even though my oldest child’s gak was the runniest and stickiest, all my kids probably had the most fun playing with his. If you wanted to make sure no kid ends up with gak this sticky however, I would probably start off by adding only 4 or 5 ounces instead of 6 ounces of water to each cup. I would also make sure to have a little extra of the borax solution on hand in case any of the batches turned out like this.

If you still have an extra sticky batch, it’s not really a big deal. Somehow I got some on my clothes and it washed out easily. Kids might just have to wash their hands after playing with it.

Click here for more craft and play recipes for kids!

Inventor’s Box for Little Kids

Michelle — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 13:00:07 +0000

Recently, I made my 4 and 6 year olds their own Inventor’s Boxes. I didn’t want my 2 year old to feel left out, but I also didn’t want to give him a bunch of tools and electronic components. I came up with this Inventor’s Box for Little Kids as a compromise. It’s really more of a craft box, but so far he’s had a lot of fun playing alongside the big kids. I just need to be sure to supervise my little one when he uses it (you know, to make sure he doesn’t try to eat any of the pieces or stick glue all over the furniture).

I made my 4 year old her own big kid inventor’s box, but really, I think she had just as much fun playing with this little kid version I made for her younger brother. She’s always encouraging him to play with his kit when she plays with hers, I think so she can talk him into lending her some of the more fun items, like fake jewels and glitter stars.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten
Time Required: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: As with the Inventor’s Box, the box itself is the biggest investment. I added items we already had lying around the house to a $10 box, but you could probably make one from scratch for around $25 (with a lot of supplies left over).

Materials, Supplies, and Tools:
(These are just some suggestions. Honestly, I don’t think my 2 year old cared much what I put in the box.)

A box to keep everything in. (I used a child’s tackle box which was much smaller than I was expecting, but ended up being a good size for my toddler.)
Craft sticks
Kid scissors
Pieces of flower foam and Styrofoam
Lids of various sizes
Metal frozen orange juice discs
Clothespins
Rubberbands
Straws
Stickers
Clips
Pipecleaners
Craft jewels
Glue stick

Instructions:

Place everything in the box.

If you want, you can use the Inventor’s Box label I made for my kids’ boxes. Cut it out and tape it to the lid.

HAVE FUN!

Click here for more Homemade Fun activities for kids.

Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag

Michelle — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 13:00:01 +0000

I’m a little ashamed to say, but I don’t really worry about entertaining my preschooler and kindergartener. They are pretty good at entertaining themselves. However, if they start to melt down and I ABSOLUTELY need a minute, I can put on a movie and be confident they will leave me alone for at least a little while.

My toddler, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. The times that I really need my kids to all play nicely by themselves seem to coincide with the times that he most desperately needs my attention. Wouldn’t it be great if there were one place to go to find a bunch of ideas for keeping these young kids occupied during moments of desperation? There is. I am happy to be a part of Teach Me Mommy’s A-Z of Busy Bags series, bringing up the rear with Z is for Ziplock.

To be honest, I signed up for the letter Z, because it gave me the most time to come up with an idea. I was pretty sure I wanted to do something with zip-locking bags, because there are plenty of easy ideas for entertaining young kids…you could put any fun substances inside (paint, shaving cream, ketchup) and kids will have a great time just squeezing it. I thought maybe an I-spy bag would be fun, filled with sand and objects to hunt for like a coin, button, or marble. However, my husband thought all those choking hazards combined with tiny granules that get everywhere was a disaster waiting to happen.

I ended up settling on this Solar System I-Spy activity. It’s a fun sensory experience for my toddler, while using the checklist as a game makes the activity both educational and fun for my preschooler and kindergartner as well. With older kids, this activity could be combined with my free, printable Solar System cards or Relative Sizes of Planets activity for extra astronomy learning.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten
Time Required: ~45 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable, less than $2 in used supplies

Materials:

paper (for printing first 2 pages of Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag printable)
2 laminating pouches
1 quart size ziplock bag (brand not important)
inexpensive hair gel (preferable clear, blue, or purple — I used about 10 ounces)
glitter (preferably gold, silver, or both)
blue food dye

Supplies & Tools:

laminator
scissors

Instructions:

First, print out the first 2 pages of the Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag document, if you haven’t already done so.
Laminate the checklist to make it reusable when using a dry erase marker.
Cut out all the objects on the first page.

Laminate all the objects that you just finished cutting out.

Now that they’ve been laminated, cut the objects out again leaving a border to ensure liquid does not seep inside.

Fill the ziplock bag with hair gel. I used approximately one third of my 26 ounce bottle, but you can use more or less as desired.

Sprinkle in a little glitter to represent “stars.” (I didn’t really use too much. Maybe 1/4 teaspoon each of silver and gold, though again, exact quantities are not important.)

Add the space objects to your bag. I added mine in one big pile, but I also had to spend 10 minutes separating them all from each other. I recommend adding a few at a time so they don’t overlap, and then sealing the bag and squishing them to the bottom before adding more. Almost done!

Lastly, add some blue food coloring to your bag and squish it around to make the “I-Spy” aspect of the activity more challenging. I added 6 drops total.

To use the busy bag, your child simply has to press on the outside of the bag to find each of the items on the checklist. Depending on how much food coloring you use, this task can be easy or hard.

If you like this activity, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to be notified of all new projects and free printables as well as obtain access to a page filled with exclusive subscriber freebies. Also, be sure to check out all the wonderful ideas in the A-Z of Busy Bag series!

HAVE FUN!

Click here for more Astronomy activities for kids.

Movie Theater Pretend Play

Michelle — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 17:00:02 +0000

When I was young, I spent a period of time living with my grandmother who was an expert at having fun. She took me to see my first movie at a movie theater back when I was about 5 years old (we saw My Little Pony) and I was completely in love with the experience. The tickets, the popcorn, the dimmed lights…it was so exciting I could barely stand it. Of course, after we watched the harrowing tale of those plucky little ponies, I couldn’t wait to go to the movies again. Since frequent movie theater outings were not realistic, my grandmother did the next best thing…she brought the movies to us.

She invited all the neighborhood kids over to her house and made up hand-drawn posters and tickets. She “sold” popcorn, candy, and drinks. We all had so much fun “going to the movies” that it didn’t even matter that we’d already seen Pinocchio or whatever movie she played a million times.

When I saw all my kids Halloween candy sitting on our counter a few days ago, I knew exactly what to do with it. My kids have had so much fun playing movie theater. My kindergartner loves paying for the food and tickets with real money and doesn’t seem to realize that all the adding and calculating he has to do to figure out what he can buy is math. I’m not sure he’s quite caught on exactly what it means yet, but since he now knows that 4 quarters make a dollar, he’s technically learning fractions as well.

Ordinarily I don’t let my kids watch movies and eat candy in the middle of the day, but this exception was definitely worth it.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable, less than $2 in used supplies (Basically free if you don’t laminate.)

Materials:

Paper for printing Movie Theater Pretend Play printable
Laminating Pouches (optional)

Supplies & Tools:

Laminator (optional, affiliate link)
Scissors
Marker
X-acto knife (for cutting slot in food labels)

Instructions:

Print out the Movie Theater Pretend Play printable. Note that there are a few blank labels at the end in case you want to fill out your own, so you may or may not want to print the last page.
Laminate everything (except the tickets) if you’d like to reuse them again later.
Write the name of the movie you’ll be watching on the “Now Playing” sheet and hang it up at the entrance to your movie theater.

Cut out around the food labels, removing the grey triangles on the printout.

Cut the two sides in half.

Cut the grey lines on the food labels to make the slot and the triangular tabs. The slot is easiest to cut with an X-acto knife, but scissors would also work.

Fold the food label into it’s triangular shape. Fold the small triangle tabs inward and stick them through the slot.

This is what it should look like completed.

Set up your concession stand.

Next, fill out the movie tickets with the name of the movie, the date, and time.

Set up your box office.

Give your kids a little cash (I went with $3.50) and let them buy their tickets and snacks.

Dim the lights and enjoy your movie!

HAVE FUN!

Preschool Fun Archives - ResearchParent.com

Cave Painting Activity

Cave Painting Activity Details

Materials

Instructions

Related Links

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

PINE CONE BIRD FEEDERS

MATERIALS

SUPPLIES

INSTRUCTIONS

RELATED LINKS

Super Easy Bottle Rocket

Popular Posts

Related Links

Birthday Interview Form

Related Links

Generic Game Board

Related Links

Reading Log Train

Related Links

Homemade Gak

Related Links

Inventor’s Box for Little Kids

Related Links

Ziplock Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag

Related Links

Movie Theater Pretend Play

Related Links