Preschoolers have boundless amounts of energy and are always looking for the next thing to get into. Coming up with fun and education activities for them can sometimes be a challenge, but the internet is a GREAT resource to help you come up with ideas. Here are a couple activities from the website Net Mums:
Textured Collage
See how many objects you can find lying around the house and use them to make different textures across paper (try pine cones, combs, coins or leaves). Lay some paper over the top of the item and use crayons or chalk to rub across the top of the paper. The result will be a mixture of interesting patterns and offers a creative way to teach children about varying textures and shapes.
Lollipop puppets
What you’ll need:
- Lollipop sticks
- Felt (various colours)
- Pens
- Glue/needle & thread
Great for role-playing, book marking or as treats in goodie bags, these mini puppets have a multitude of uses and are super-easy to make. The best place to start is to make your animal head. Go for an elephant option (like the one illustrated above) or opt for a tiger, lion or monkey – you can draw sketches first, look for pictures in books or simply let your child use their own creativity to make the face.
Help them cut the shapes out with scissors and stick the felt together with glue. For the eyes, use white felt with black felt tip on top or buy some ready made ‘beady eyes’ from your local craft shop. All that’s left to do is mount it onto the stick and hey-presto, you have a ready-made lollipop puppet!
Big feet, little feet
Encourage your child to think about size. A fun way of doing this is to do hand or foot prints and then see whose print is the biggest. Help your child to cut the prints out and add additional decorations (crayon or pen patterns over the dried paint prints). Get the whole family involved so children can see the difference between, say, Baby Brother’s footprint and Daddy’s footprint. Your child can then line them up in order of size, with each family members name written on them.
Letters in the sand
Make a sand tray using some play sand and place it on the table in front of your child. Cut out some letters or use your child’s magnetic letters as a visual reference and let your child practise writing different letters in the sand with their fingers. A simple activity, good for younger children, which works equally well with paper and finger paints.