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.
This simple craft from the Woodland Trust is a great way to introduce your child to the concept of symmetry. All you need is a piece of paper and some paint.
Fold the paper in half, or draw a line down the middle. Then get your child to splodge paint on one half of the paper only. Fold the paper in half so that the paint spreads onto both sides. Then, carefully open the paper back up to reveal your butterfly!
Explain to your child that a butterfly’s wings are symmetrical, meaning they are the same on both sides – just like their painted butterfly. If you have them, you can use a clothes peg or wooden craft stick to add a butterfly body, and some colourful pipe cleaners for antennae.
Do you have a budding astronaut at home? Try this simple science project from Science Sparks to teach your kids about air pressure. All you will need is an empty plastic milk bottle, a piece of paper, some tape, and whatever your kids want to use to decorate their rocket.
As mentioned on Science Sparks, this activity is a great accompaniment to the story ‘Whatever Next!’ by Jill Murphy. If you don’t have the book, you and your child can read it here.
Do you have some colourful ball pit balls at home? Try this super simple game from Frugal Fun 4 Boys. All you need are ball pit balls in different colours, some coloured paper in the same colours (or white paper that you can colour on), and a bunch of containers, such as laundry baskets, buckets, large plastic bins, bowls or pots (they don’t all need to be the same size or type).
Label each basket or bin with a coloured paper and group them together at one end of the room. Then give your child the ball pit balls and let them practice their colour matching and gross motor skills by attempting to toss each coloured ball in the correct basket. You can even assign the baskets point-values if you’d like to keep score.
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 cuddly toy, a noise-maker (such as a shaker, musical instrument, or pot and spoon), and something to wave (such as a scarf, tea towel or ribbon). Then, join Dantastic and Cheeky Monkey on an interactive, magical, musical adventure!
Get your kids up and moving with this quick and simple Wake Up Workout video from GoNoodle. Don’t worry that your child may not be able to perfectly execute every move. The important thing is to get them up and moving, and having fun!
Help your child practice their numbers with this great Maths Water Balloon Toss game from Primary Playground. Use some chalk to draw numbers 1-10 (or whichever numbers your child is learning to recognise) onto your driveway, patio or the pavement outside your house. Draw a circle around each number (tip: make the circles large and spaced well apart to help your child aim). Then give your child water balloons or a sponge and water bucket, call out a number, and have them toss the balloon/sponge to see if they can hit the right number!
Put your nose to the test with this Scent Matching Game from PBS. You will need 6 or more identical containers (such as empty baby food jars, yogurt pots, kids’ plastic cups, etc.), 3 or more things with strong smells (like coffee grounds, gherkins, shampoo, orange peel, cinnamon sticks, washing up liquid), and a blindfold for your child. Click the link and watch the short video for directions on how to play.
Get your children involved in making their own homemade Crispy Fish Fingers with this recipe from ‘I Can Cook’ on CBeebies.
You will need:
Vegetable oil
1 egg
1 slice of day-old bread
2 tbsp polenta (quick cook, dried)
Pinch of paprika
1 white fish fillet (skinned & boned)
1/2 a lemon, or lemon juice
