During the coronavirus pandemic, Pippins staff began assembling this Home Resources area to help support our families through lockdown. We wanted to ensure that all the children in our community continued to have access to fun, enriching activities and learning experiences, even while the government was asking most of us to stay at home. To date, we have posted over 150 resources in this area, which you can use at home with your children. These activities are meant to engage and inspire you and your children, not to make extra work for you. Therefore, please pick and choose only those activities that you feel are most suitable for your family.
Happy playtime!
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 noise-maker (such as a shaker, musical instrument, or pot and spoon), two things to wave or shake (such as scarves, pom poms, or tea towels), and a hat (or something your child can put on their head). Then, join Dantastic and Cheeky Monkey on an interactive, magical, musical adventure!
Start your engines future pilots! Help your children fold (and decorate!) some paper aeroplanes. Paper aeroplanes have been a huge children’s favourite for the last few months at Pippins. Check out Fold ‘N Fly for some easy paper aeroplane design instructions and step-by-step videos.
Then, find a large sheet of paper, a sheet of newspaper, or tape several sheets of A4 paper together. Cut holes of various sizes in the paper, and label each hole with a points-value if you want to keep score. Hang the paper up in a doorway, just like in the below photo from Sewing Mama Raeanna.
Now let the games begin. Your children can take turns trying to throw their aeroplanes through the holes, and seeing who can wrack up more points.
Do you have any potatoes that are going off? Cut them up for your child to do this fun Easter craft. Potato stamping will be a familiar activity for many Pippins’ children; using the potatoes to make Easter egg prints gives this idea a fun holiday twist. Besides the simple egg shapes, feel free to get creative with bunnies, sheep, or anything else you can think of! Visit CraftyMorning.com for full instructions.
Follow along with the actions as Jackie sings ‘All The Little Ducks.’ Then she reads the very silly book ‘Dinosaurs Love Underpants’ by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort.
Song and story time ♥️
Posted by Musical Bumps Cambridge on Thursday, 2 April 2020
The Easter Bunny may be social distancing this year so – just to be on the safe side – it might be best for your child to make their own Easter bunny! You will need the empty cardboard tube from a roll of loo roll, scissors, some paint, a cotton ball, and some glue or tape. Additionally, you may want to use some googly eyes, a black permanent marker and some Tipp-Ex.
1. Start by cutting 2 rounds off the top of the cardboard tube, each about 2cm wide.
2. Squash these rounds slightly, so they come to a point at one end. Then, cut the opposite end open.
3. Tape or glue the rounds into the top of the cardboard tube, to form bunny ears. See the photo below from EcoScrapbook.
4. Now it’s time to turn things over to your child so that they can paint their bunny. Feel free to get creative with glitter, stickers, or anything else you can think of!
5. Once your bunny is dry, paint on the eyes and face, or use a black marker and some Tipp-Ex to draw on the nose, mouth, whiskers and teeth.
6. Lastly, have your child glue a cotton ball onto the back of the cardboard tube for your bunny’s tail.
Is tidy up time proving to be a challenge? GoNoodle has some great strategies to help. Play the upbeat Clean Up! song to get your kids up and dancing along to the movements.
Then, turn tidying into a challenge. Call out a colour or a shape and have your kids tidy only the objects that fit that description. Keep going until the whole room is clean!
Otherwise, try playing Freeze Clean. Just as with freeze dance – play some upbeat music while your children tidy. Every time you pause the music, your children must freeze in place.
This is an easy and fun experiment that doesn’t require any special equipment. Just collect some dirty pennies and get your kids to drop them into a bowl of vinegar with about a teaspoon of salt in it. Watch them go from dull to shiny in seconds! Visit Exploratorium and scroll down to the blue box at the bottom of the page to help you explain to your kids why this experiment works.
Next, take the pennies out of the vinegar. Rinse some of them off, and leave others un-rinsed. Lay them out to dry and come back in about an hour. Are the un-rinsed pennies starting to turn green?
Try this experiment with different types of acidic solutions. Lemon juice, orange juice, and ketchup are all good choices – let your kids think up some others! Do any of these work as well as the vinegar and salt solution?
Help your child recognise letter sounds with the Mystery Letter Bag game from PBS. All you need is a bag and 3 objects that all start with the same letter. Click on the link for full instructions and ideas on how to support your child in this activity.
Do your children love Disney’s Frozen movie? Try getting them stretching and moving with some Frozen-themed yoga from Cosmic Kids Yoga! This video is 30 minutes long, so your child may not be interested in completing the whole thing in one go, and they might not be able to copy all the moves perfectly. It’s okay to try a couple of moves, and then revisit it another time to do a bit more.
Try this easy art project in preparation for Easter this Sunday. All you need are some pieces of cardboard or heavy paper to cut out your egg shapes, lots of scraps of colourful paper or wrapping paper for your kids to tear up, some glue, a hole punch, and a bit of ribbon or string for hanging your creations. Visit Clare’s Craftroom for instructions.
