Feeling cooped up at home? Let your children take out their frustrations on this cracking activity.
When you use eggs, be careful to crack them by hitting them on the point, rather than cracking them down the middle. Rinse out the shells and save them up. When you think you have enough empty shells, it’s time to head out into the garden with your kids. Fill each shell with paint (or even coloured water, ketchup, juice… feel free to get creative with liquids). Prop up a large sheet of paper or piece of cardboard against a fence, wall, easel, box, etc. and let your children take turns throwing the eggs against the paper/cardboard as hard as they can. Watch what happens to the paint as the eggs smash! Get your kids to talk about what happens to the different colours as they mix together on the paper.
For younger children, it may be easier to put the paper flat on the ground, have your child stand on a chair above it and drop the eggs. They’re more likely to accurately hit the paper with this method, and gravity will help with the force needed to break the eggs.
Photo courtesy of Growing a Jeweled Rose.
Cut some colourful paper into large shapes and place them around your house. Then ask your child to find them. For example, you could say, ‘Find 2 circles in the kitchen.’
As your child becomes more comfortable recognising the various shapes, try asking them to look around the room and find a household object for each shape. In this version of the game, two circles in the kitchen could be a clock and a pot, for example.
Visit PBS for full game instructions and ideas on how to support your child’s learning with this activity.
Can you spot any butterflies out your window? Use this as an opportunity to talk to your kids about a butterfly’s life cycle. Watch the below video together, then get your kids to act out a butterfly’s 4 life stages.
1. Start out as tiny eggs, rolled up in a ball on the floor.
2. Next, wiggle around on the ground like hungry caterpillars looking for leaves to eat.
3. Then, stand with your arms touching above your head as you hide in your chrysalis.
4. Lastly, spread your wings and fly away like a butterfly!
This is also a great opportunity to talk to your child about their own life cycle, as we often do at Pippins. Look at baby photos of your child together, talk about your child learning to crawl, then walk, and growing into a preschooler. Can your child come up with some actions for their own life cycle?
Get your kids up, dancing and laughing along to this amazing video by children’s entertainer Dantastic Productions. Before starting the video, help your kids collect the thing they will need: a bit of aluminium foil, a noise-maker (such as a shaker, musical instrument, or pot and spoon), and something to shake (such as a pom pom or tea towel). Then, join Dantastic and Cheeky Monkey on an interactive, magical, musical adventure!
Children of any age love a scavenger hunt! This one from Primary Playground is a great way for little ones to practice colours, can be done anywhere, and requires no prep work.
Do you have a budding fairy at home who is desperate to stretch his/her wings? This post from Let’s Play Music recommends some great classical music tracks to inspire your children’s imaginations and get them moving. Just add a sprinkle of pixie dust!
We know tissues are quite hard to come by in supermarkets at the moment, but if you can spare a single tissue, try this Tissue Dance game to get the kids up and moving.
