Games

Here are two new scavenger hunts from Early Years Story Box!

Print out this I Spy game from Paper Trail Designs and let your kids hunt for all the different musical instruments and symbols on the page. Your child may recognise some of the instruments from Musical Bumps sessions at Pippins. Can you spot all seven pianos?

Support your child’s learning in maths, vocabulary and more with the classic story ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ from TTS’s Home Learning Collection. Read the story out loud to your child, then try out the activities on the following page.

Help your child learn to recognise numbers and put them in the correct order with this quick and simple game from 5 Minute Mum. It is easy to adapt for your own child and whichever numbers they are working on. All you need is a piece of paper and something to write with.

Try this simple game from Small Talk by The National Literacy Trust to help your child develop their concentration and problem solving.

First, gather some of your child’s favourite toys, books and objects. They can help you with this. Put them together and talk about what’s there.

Next, ask your child to close their eyes and turn around. Remove some of the items. Then get them to open their eyes and see if they can list what’s missing.

You can play this game the other way around, with your child removing the items and testing your memory.

This upgraded version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey is guaranteed to lead to lots of giggles! Start with a piece of paper or cardboard and draw a big oval on it. This is the outline for your funny face. Tape it up on a wall at your child’s height.

Then, on a separate piece of paper, draw some eyes, ears, a nose and a mouth and cut them all out. Alternatively, print out a couple of copies of this colouring page, get your child to colour them in (this is a great opportunity to talk to them about their 5 senses!), and then cut out the shapes.

Add some blu tac, or low-stick tape to the back of each of your face parts. Then, blindfold your child (a scarf works), and have them try to put all the face parts in the correct spots on your face outline. Enjoy the silliness of their wonky face masterpieces!

For younger children, you may wish to play this game without the blindfold. This would be a great activity to think and talk about the placement of facial features and a building block towards purposeful mark making.

Feel free to get creative with different faces, depending on your artistic abilities or skill with a google image search. This game would work with silly monster faces (multiple eyes, horns, etc.), princess faces (include a tiara to place on her head), pirate faces (eyepatch and bandana), alien faces, etc. Use your imagination and your child’s particular interests to come up with your own ideas!

Photo courtesy of Five Minute Mum

This is a great scavenger hunt from Primary Playground. Use it help your child explore all their different senses and practice descriptive words.

Depending on what sort of garden area you have at home, this might be a fun scavenger hunt to get the kids out in the fresh air for a while. It comes curtesy of Primary Playground.

Looking for a way to cool off as the days get warmer? How about a game of water balloon piñata? You will need some balloons, plenty of string, something to use as a bat (baseball bat, cricket bat, sweeping brush handle, long cardboard tube, etc.), and an open space outside to set up your game.

1. Fill your balloons with water and tie them closed. (The fuller they are, the quicker they will burst!)

2. Tie a length of string to each ballon and hang them outside. A tree branch would be ideal for this, but a patio cover, washing line, or outdoor umbrella may also work as long as they can support the weight of the water balloons. Make sure you don’t tie the balloons too high – your child needs to be able to reach them with their bat!

3. Let your kids take turns swinging the bat at the balloons and see who can pop the most!

Always supervise your child at all times with this activity, particularly when they are using the bat. Others must stand well back when someone is taking their turn.

Photo courtesy of ZiggityZoom.com

This scavenger hunt is a great way to get your kids up and moving, practicing their reasoning skills and using descriptive words. It comes curtesy of Primary Playground and would work well with both your preschool children and any school-aged siblings.