Let's Explore - Creative Activities for Preschoolers

Christmas Card Puzzle Game

I have saved stacks and stacks of Christmas cards, which we have enjoyed using for collages, ornament-making, etc.  A few nights ago, I pulled out my square craft punch and made this simple puzzle/game.

I punched a square out of each card and put the cards and squares in ziploc bags.  I put around 10-12 cards in a bag, but you could do more or less depending on your child's age.  The girls loved this - it was quite easy for my six-year-old, but it was perfect for my four-year-old.  She did all 3 sets of cards twice last night. :)

Happy Playing!

P.S.  Don't forget to check out today's Deal of the Day at the Let's Explore Shop.  We're offering a special set of something... :)

Finger + Hand Work

Delaney has been really interested in writing lately -- especially her name, but other letters and numbers as well.  Her little scribbles and letter shapes have been on grocery lists, maps, Christmas wish lists, and sweet letters and cards.  Since she is so interested in writing right now, I have been trying to offer her lots of extra fine-motor activities to help build strength and coordination in her fingers and hands.  Of course to her, it's just playing - which is just how I like it! :)

There's been lots of focused cutting. I give her 1" strips of construction paper, and she cuts, cuts, cuts them into tiny pieces.  We save these pieces for making collages later.

She really enjoyed working with this clothespin counting game at preschool.  The clothespins had the numbers 1-10 written on them and she had to count the animals and clip on the correct clothespin.

Today, I set-up a chicken and egg transfer activity for her.  I have seen so many neat transfer activities on various Montessori blogs and websites.  We used a chicken chop stick, an egg tray, and 3 types of materials for eggs:  cotton balls, packing peanuts, and small white pom poms.  The idea was to put one item in each section of the egg tray.  Delaney loved this and did it multiple times.  This would be really fun to do with a unit on farm animals.

We've been working with our homemade play dough a lot, too - trying to roll balls and snakes, making flat pancakes and cookies, and sticking in candles for birthday cakes.

Mr. Potato Head is great for working fingers too -- we made Mrs. Pumpkin Heads last night!

Here's an older post I did with more ideas for practicing name writing and fine-motor skills:  Name Play

Happy playing and Happy Halloween!

Scarecrow Felt Board + Game

The other night, while watching a bit of the debate, I cut out some make-your-own scarecrow pieces for our felt board.  The girls still enjoy using the felt board, and it gets even more use when new pieces appear.  

To extend the felt play even more, I created a simple game with a paper plate spinner.  Each player starts by putting a scarecrow face on the felt board.  Then, take turns spinning and adding clothes to your scarecrow.  If you land on the crow, a sneaky crow flew down and took one of your pieces - choose one to take off your scarecrow!  First person to complete the scarecrow wins!

The girls can play this on their own, which is another plus!

Happy Fall Playing!

Friday Fun: Autumn Bingo

I realize that it's not technically Autumn yet.  It is still quite hot and summery around here.  But I am wishing for fall, so why not start with some fun Autumn Bingo!

We'll be using fall-colored buttons and leaf buttons for markers.  You can download a pdf of our simple bingo game by clicking on the graphic below.  There are 3 bingo boards and one set of calling cards to cut apart.  All the boards have the same graphics, just in different spots.

By the way, since some of you have been asking, almost all the clip art I use for my projects comes from Word.  Microsoft Office has an online clip art gallery where you can search and download tons of free clip art and add it to your Word clip art bank.  I use Office for Mac, but I imagine it works just the same for PC.

Have a great weekend!

Game Review: Horton Hears a Who!

On her back to school shopping day, Delaney chose this game at Target:

She has really been interested in Dr. Seuss's Horton stories since we saw a student production of Seussical, The Musical.  We have played this game at least twice a day since we brought it home.

Here's the basic idea of the game:  "Save" as many Whos as possible by collecting Who cards as you go around the board.  There is a magnetic sand timer, 6 plastic clovers, 6 magnetic clover hunting cards, a bunch of Who cards, and -- the best part -- a Horton hat to wear!  Before you start playing, all the players go together and hide the six clovers.  You can hide them in just one room or all around the house.  When you are lucky enough to land on a clover card, you get to put on the hat, flip over the timer, and follow the instruction to find your clover - such as "Flap to the red clover."

The bottom of Horton's trunk and the clovers have velcro -- the idea is to pick up the clovers with your trunk and not using your hands.  The girls, of course, love this game for its fantastic props.  I love it because it plays quickly (10 minutes or so) and it is easily adaptable to a cooperative game.  Instead of seeing who "wins" by getting the most Who cards, we collect them as a team and count them up at the end.  And, the hat is getting a lot of non-game use as a dress-up prop, too.  :)

And, here's what we've been reading:

Happy playing!

The Fairy Olympics

Okay, I've got one more round of Olympic fun for you!  Since my girls are really into all things tiny (i.e. fairies), we decided to do some itty bitty Olympic events.  Here's what we did:

Wind & Clouds - The weather fairies have to blow the clouds away, so the sun can shine on Fairy Garden.  Use a straw to blow cotton balls across a finish line, into a bucket turned on its side, or off the edge of a table.  We blew ours off of a paper sun.  (This is *great* for strengthening oral muscles, by the way!)

Penny Toss - We tossed pennies (aka fairy money) into an egg tray (aka the Fairy Bank).

Fairy Soup - We carried pom poms and jewel beads on tiny spoons from our play tea set.  We worked together to carry one piece at a time until we filled a tiny bowl -- mmmm, fairy soup!

Straw Javelin Toss - We tossed our little plastic straw javelins, then measured how far they went.

Ah, this was fun -- and all the fairies in the land came out to watch the events! :)  And, as an added bonus, the girls zipped off to create their own mermaid and princess olympics when we were done!

I've also got some fun panda projects in the works -- look for those next week.  We didn't do quite as many projects this week as I had planned because I decided mid-week that I needed to move some furniture and reorganize ALL of our arts and crafts supplies.  It's a big job, but the girls can't wait to dive in to all the stuff we forgot we had! :)

This cuddly panda finger puppet is over in the shop, along with so many other darling Folkmanis finger puppets.  Seriously -- go look at the hedgehog! :)

Also, if you haven't already signed up for the Let's Explore shop mailing list, be sure to do it by Monday (Aug. 11) at 11:59 pm pacific time.  The big giveaway is coming up!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Are You Listening?

Everyone (including myself) could use a little practice listening, paying attention, and following directions sometimes.  Here are some fun and easy ways to practice and strengthen attention and listening skills:

When you are reading or telling a familiar story to your child, make a mistake, such as, "When Goldilocks arrived at The Three Frogs' house, she went inside without knocking." See if your child catches your mistake! My girls love this so much that we sometimes have to read whole stories this way!  Start with very obvious errors, then gradually work toward more subtle changes. Great listening skill-builder, plus works on that reading comprehension stuff too!

Play some classic childhood games like Red Light, Green Light, Follow the Leader, or Simon Says (I prefer Mommy Says). Make up your own rules for added variety and challenge: Red light means sit down, green light means walk backward, yellow light means hop in place. My girls love their chance to lead these type of games too - it's fun to watch Mommy do all kinds of crazy moves! :)

Help your child learn to follow two- and three-step directions by hiding an object in the room, then giving directions to find it. For example, "Find your tiger. Go to your bedroom, open your closet, and look in your black shoe." This activity is great practice, of course, for those mornings when you do need them to go to their rooms, open their closets, and find their shoes!

I love using musical instruments to practice listening skills, too. Kids are naturally drawn to rhythms, plus playing with instruments is fun, so this hardly seems like work of any kind. Try tapping or playing a rhythm and then have your child repeat it. Any instruments work for this - drums, rhythm sticks, tambourines, etc. - or just clap, pat your knees, or click your tongue. Start with simple rhythms, where all your child has to do is count the number of beats. Move into more sophisticated patterns that vary in speed (quick-quick-quick-slow-slow) or volume (loud-soft-soft-loud). Another variation is to play a simple and familiar tune, such as Jingle Bells or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and see if your child can guess the song.

Here are a few books that provide great jumping-off points for listening activities:

If you have some fun ways to build listening skills, please share! Happy Playing!

Garden Path File Folder Games

This week's theme over at Unplug Your Kids was garden. We've been enjoying making simple file folder games lately, so we decided to do some with a garden theme. The girls decided they wanted their paths to be like stepping stones, then they decorated them with stickers and crayons.

They also wanted some of the spaces to have special instructions, like roll again, move 2 spaces back, return to start, etc.

Of course, when they were done decorating, it was time to play! Grab some dice or a spinner and a couple of figurines for markers. We used bugs, of course!

We have made other theme games, such as ocean exploration with little fish markers, a drive through the city with little cars, and princess land with dress-up rings as our markers - anything your child can think of! Also, if you laminate the folder after your child decorates it (or cover it with clear contact paper), you can use a vis-a-vis/overhead projector pen to write letters, numbers, shapes, sight words, etc. on the spaces. When you want a new game, just wipe-off with a little water and start over! Plus these are easy to store - just fold them up and tuck them into a magazine file.

Happy playing!

Fun With Plastic Eggs

After all our Easter activities this weekend, we have added to our already extensive collection of plastic Easter eggs! Although I am tempted to gather them all up from the corners of my house and pack them away immediately, I think I will let the girls enjoy them a bit longer. When you have had enough fun re-creating Easter egg hunts around your house, here are some creative & easy ways to play with those eggs a bit longer. Enjoy!

• Egg & Spoon Race: See how far or how long your child can walk with a plastic egg on a spoon.
• Egg Toss: Toss plastic eggs into an Easter basket, a box, a laundry basket, etc.
• Surprise Egg: Put a small object inside an egg and give your child clues. After your child guesses your object, it's his/her turn to hide something inside.
• Count & Deliver: Set out baskets or boxes with numbers attached to the front (or draw different amounts of eggs on an index card for each basket). Have your child count and deliver the corrent number of eggs to each basket.
• Sound Match: Fill pairs of eggs with matching objects. Tape them closed and have your child shake each egg and find the matches.
• Egg Roll Race: Mark a finish line on the floor with masking tape, or outside with chalk. Ready, set, go! Roll the plastic eggs and see which one crosses the finish line first.
• Missing Egg: Set out 3-6 different eggs. Talk about each one, name the colors with your child, etc. Then your child closes his/her eyes while you take one egg away. Then, guess which one is missing! Be sure to let your child be the "hider" too!
• Sort & Graph: Sort a basket of plastic eggs by color. Older preschoolers will be able to color in a simple bar graph showing how many eggs there are for each color.
• Treasure Hunt: Set up a treasure hunt with clues inside eggs hidden around the house or outside. Fill the last egg with some candy or toy treasure!
• Save an egg carton and have fun loading and unloading with plastic eggs.
• Use the plastic eggs with playdough, rice, beans, water, paint. Try painting with whole eggs & halves.

Phew! Hope you have fun with these ideas. I'm off to plan a treasure hunt!

Bingo!

My girls LOVE to play bingo! We make our own bingo games -- sometimes I make them on the computer, other times we print out a blank grid and we use seasonal stickers for the pictures. We play bingo with letters, numbers, rhyming words, shapes, money, holidays, etc. Practically any skill you want to work on can be made into a bingo game! Ready to play? Here's what you need:

• bingo cards for each player -- vary the size of the grid based on the level of your child(ren)


• calling cards -- one for each picture, letter, etc. that shows up on the bingo cards


• markers -- buttons, coins, poker chips, goldfish crackers, cheerios, etc. On special occasions, we might play with jelly beans or M&Ms.

One person can be designated as "the caller," or you can take turns drawing cards. Mark your card when you have a match! When you have a straight line filled, yell "Bingo!" Or, try for 4-corners or blackout (whole board filled).

How about a fun Travel Bingo? Make bingo boards with pictures of things you might see while driving. Tape the bingo board to a small cookie sheet and use magnets for markers. Or, put the bingo board into a plastic sheet protector and use a dry erase marker to mark your sights on the road. Just might help pass the time on a long drive!

Here is a similar portable bingo for the grocery store -- just fill your board with pictures of food and let your little one hunt and mark while you shop! (Microsoft Word Document)

Download grocerybingo.doc

and Spring Bingo:

Download spring_bingo.doc

and here's a blank bingo board for creating your own games!

Download bingo_blank.doc

This site also has printable bingo cards with lots of themes to choose from.

I would love to hear about your bingo playing adventures!