Let's Explore - Creative Activities for Preschoolers

Our Top 10 Play Things

Here's the things that are keeping the girls busy lately:

• Art supplies, especially stickers
• Playsilks & pieces of fabric
• Small animals
• Chapter books; How-to-draw books
• Dress-up clothes
• Music (often combined with playsilks and/or dress-up clothes)
• Letter writing and delivering
• Puzzles
• Board games
• Each other :)

What are your kiddos really into right now?

Roll-a-Snack

When the pantry starts to fill-up with various odd and ends of crackers, cereal, raisins, etc., we like to dump it all together into a yummy snack mix.  Sometimes, we even make it into a game - a little math with your snack!

I call it Roll-a-Snack.  All you need are various snacks (nuts, dried fruit, crackers, pretzels, cereal, chocolate chips, etc.) and dice.  Roll the dice and count out that number of the first snack item into your bowl.  Roll again and count out the second item.  Keep rolling till you have all the treats in your own personal snack mix.  Sometimes, we even count the total amount of snacks before we eat.  Still hungry?  Do it again!

Have fun!

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... :)

Playsilk Doll Slings

Playsilks make really great doll slings...

 

or Curious George slings! :)

Happy Playing!

Collections

My girls love to collect and gather.  There is always a pile of sticks and rocks at my front door.  There's usually a bucket of little animals traveling from the house to the car and back again.  They each began focusing on collecting a certain item - buttons for Natalie, rocks for Delaney.  Collections need a place to be stored, so we made labels (cardstock + clear contact paper) for divided bead containers and the girls have been happily filling them with their treasures.

Besides the simple fun of collecting these treasures, I love to use the girls' collections to practice counting, sorting and describing.  We can sort by size, color, shape, texture.  We can count our treasures and put them in groups of 10.  We can write about our favorite item in the collection and why we like it.  Natalie has big plans to take a photo of each button and create a "catalog" with photos and descriptions of her entire collection.

I've been wanting to set up some "nature jars" too, where the girls can display assorted shells, rocks, sticks, etc.  Just need to find the right spot to put them (away from the puppy!).

Do your kids like to collect things?  How do you store or display your kids' collections?

Happy Collecting!

Cheerio Marshmallow Treats

I had never tried making Rice Krispie Treats with any cereal other than Rice Krispies, even though the Confetti Squares on Martha Stewart's site had caught my eye many times.  The girls were asking to make some treats the other day, and all we had were Cheerios and marshmallows.  A yummy afternoon treat paired with some hot cocoa!

I just used the recipe on the back of the marshmallow bag, substituting cheerios for rice krispies.  We pressed the mixture into a heart-shaped muffin tin for fun!

Happy Cooking!

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!

Paper Strip Jack-o-Lanterns

Wanna squeeze in one more Halloween craft before Friday?  Natalie saw these adorable paper pumpkins made from strips of paper on Art Projects for Kids.  Quick and easy, with very satisfying results!

We made curly vines by wrapping pipe cleaners around a pencil.  This was the girls' favorite part, and there are a lot of curly pipe cleaners around the house now... :)

Happy Playing!

Landscape Photo Scenes

Last weekend, while out on a nature walk, the girls helped me find interesting landscape "scenes" to photograph.  At home, we printed our favorites out, full-page size.  Then, the girls chose some clip art and stickers to decorate their scenes with.  They also dictated some fantastic stories about their scenes.  You could also draw and cut-out your own things to add too.

Happy playing!

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!