Weekly Activities for April 6th
Dear Sandy Hill families,
The staff at Sandy Hill have come up with some more fun ideas and projects for the kiddos this week! All activities are designed to help aid in every child’s developmental growth, while preserving our play-based learning philosophy. We also hope this brings light, happiness and joy into your homes (as they do in the classrooms), during these uncertain times.
This week’s themes are, eggs, easter and spring..... and The letter of the week is T!
*Remember: To Breathe!!! Please pick and choose activities that works best for your family. If a project or activity becomes longer than anticipated; take a break and revisit it another time for completion. The average attention span is 3 to 5 minutes per year of a child’s age.
We hope you enjoy and Stay Happy Stay Healthy!
Ms. Erin Activities
Celebrating T with a Tea Party
-Set up a Tea Party for your stuffed animals, dolls, parents, siblings, etc...
-have foods that start with T (tuna sandwiches, tangerines, tacos, etc)
-pour the Tea and enjoy
*can also add some fun games for the party
Examples:
Tea cup Toss https://pin.it/3IrNl72
Make paper tea cups https://pin.it/2C37ISZ and see how high you can stack them
Plastic Egg Paintings
-pull apart plastic eggs into halves, dip into paint and stamp away onto paper/ canvas https://pin.it/ZysBY4Q
Book Suggestion:
Tea Rex by Molly Idle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eMmWoC2ldM
Ms. Susi Activities
Make a Treasure Map
-White piece of paper
-Tea bag that has been dipped in water
-Paint with the tea bag all over the paper
-Let Dry. This makes it look old.
-Using markers, crayons or pen dray your treasure map. Child or adult can make the map.
-Look around your house or yard for ideas of what to dry.
Shiny Pennies
-Collect some pennies
-In a bowl, add 4 TBSP salt and 1/2 cup vinegar. Stir mixture
-Add pennies to the bowl
-Watch as the mixture cleans the pennies
-Pennies can be used for the treasure hunt
Treasure Box
-Find a shoebox or any type of box that has a lid
-Paint or decorate the box with various items; you can glue on buttons, gems, beads, sequins, wrapping paper, etc... whatever you have around. Nature items are fun too. Flower petals, small stones, leaves, etc...
-Ideas for items to put in your hidden treasure - old jewelry, gems, shiny pennies, favorite nature finds.
Letter T Treasure Hunt
-Look for things that start with the letter T
-Hide them around your yard or inside the house
-Read off each item 1 at a time from the list and have them find i
OR
-Have 5-10 squares of paper and have your child write the letter T or t on each piece
-Adult puts letter onto each hidden object
-Child then looks for those items
-Ideas for T items
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Truck
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Tree
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Turtle
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Towel
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Teacup
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Tie
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Table
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Tape
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Train
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Treasure
Book Suggestion: Tough Boris by Men Fox
Ms. Kacy Activities
The letter of the week is T for Tyrannosaurs-rex, Triceratops...
Make some Tracks
Go outside and clear a spot of dirt. Clear any rocks or sticks.
Add some water, not too muddy, you can use a spray bottle or shower setting with the hose.
You can use toys, dinosaurs (ones that you can give a bath after), your hands, your animal's paws, your feet.
Press the object into the mud. Check it in the morning to see if any animals left tracks in the night. Field guide to tracks
See what happens as the mud dries out.
Paper Plate Turtles
Scissor skills. You can draw the shapes and have kids cut or let them try.
Cut out head, tail, and legs from green paper (or color green)
Use markers and or tissue paper to decorate shell.
Staple or glue on parts.
Draw a face. Name your turtle. Build them a home...
Lego Challenge
Choreograph a dance and teach your family
This is a fun way for the kids to move their bodies.
Have them practice and then put on a show!
You can go in front of the neighbors house and give them a show from afar.
Here is a link to Zumba Kids but there are so many dances available on the website. If your child has older siblings, I'm sure they have all tried Go Noodle in their classrooms.
Materials:
Pipe cleaners
Beads, one large wooden one
Straws
Sharpie
Scissors
Ms. Jessica Activities
Painting with random objects and loose parts: The kids in my classes have done this project a few times this year, and they absolutely love it!! All you need is paint and “random stuff”. Your child can collect recycled items and random things they find around the house ~ water bottles and caps, plastic forks, strawberry baskets, mason jar lids, Duplos, bubble wands...basically anything that looks fun to paint with! Choose items that you don’t mind getting paint on, of course :) They will dip the item in paint, and apply the paint to the paper. There is no wrong way to paint! Some kids will stamp the object, some will drag it across the paper, some will splatter the paint off of the object. Protect their work space, and let them be as creative as they want!
Watercolor art: The materials you’ll need for this are coffee filters (white works best), a spray bottle, and markers. The child can color/draw on the coffee filters, and then spray lightly with water. It’s fun to watch the colors travel and blend together.
Things to do with TP rolls: TP Flowers and fireworks! You’ll need a few TP rolls and some paint for this project. On the ends of each TP roll, cut about 2 inches up, all around the roll. This link can give you a visual: https://pin.it/1fmjiMw
Press the TP roll on the paper to make your design.
YouTube book reading, Peep Plants a Seed:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=
Plant your own! Lots of things we eat have the ability to sprout or regrow. A fun experiment is to take something like an avocado pit, the end of a romaine plant or celery, put it in a bit of water, and see what happens! For an avocado pit, push toothpicks into the side of the pit, and balance it on a glass, with water just touching the end of the pit. Check the water level daily to make sure the pit is still touching the water. In just a few weeks, you may start to see little sprouts!
Ms. Alyson Activities
T and Easter themes!
Egg dying using tea and other natural ingredients
A fun way to dye Easter eggs without using store-bought dyes! The teas that work best are ones that brew dark, such as raspberry, blueberry, and hibiscus. Also a lemon green tea usually makes a pretty, bright yellow egg. Other natural ingredients that make great egg dyes are turmeric, red cabbage, and beet and pomegranate juices. Using spinach can create a lovely light green hue but the egg needs to sit in the dye for quite a while to get any color.
Add together: enough hot water to cover eggs fully, 2 Tbsp. white vinegar, and the coloring ingredient (if using tea bags, use at least 3 bags per each 3/4 cup of hot water) and let stew until you get a nice rich color. You can experiment with the amount of ingredient and time you need to get the color you like but it usually takes a few hours for the water to get dark enough to dye the eggs.
After you have made your dyes and prepped your eggs, place egg in the dye for anywhere from 10 minutes to overnight, depending on how much color sticks to the shell and how much you want it colored.
When your eggs are the desired color, pull them out of dye with a spoon and let sit in an egg carton or on towel to dry naturally without wiping them off. Once dry, you can enjoy the lovely colors you have created or decorate the eggs further with stickers, paint, crayons, even glitter!
Ms. Tracy Activity
Another fun Idea when you are dyeing eggs.
Tie dye “napkins”
You will need:
Paper towels
Leftover egg dye
Eye droppers ( if you do not have use little brushes or Q-tips or any way to get the dye on the paper towel)
Take a towel and fold,roll, or crunch up.
Drip different colors of the dye on the towel.
Unfold carefully and hang to dry.
Voila`, you have a fun napkin to use.
Ms. Shani Activities
Crayon Melting
I asked my 16-year-old daughter some of her favorite activities as a child. She mentioned crayon melting and I was reminded of how much fun we had with that. We ave also done this in the summer school camps and the kids love it.
If you have a spare canvas around, that works best. Other options: Wood or cardboard.
Find a bunch of old crayons. New ones work as well. It is just nice to use up the old crayons.
Glue the crayons to the top of the canvas. Glue gun works great. Have your child tell you where they want them and an adult should do the gluing. Regular glue works as well, it will just take longer to dry.
Kids can make a rainbow or just randomly place crayons. It is their art piece so let them decide what color pattern they want. They just need to be at the top.
Once dry, tilt upwards. Take a hair dryer and point them at the crayons. Kids can do this step. The wax will start to melt down the canvas. They can do it as long as they wish.
Washing
Kids love to wash. Give them a bucket of soapy water and a sponge and they are happy for hours. This is a great time for them to wash things. Set up a washing station. If you have any storage bins, buckets, plastic baskets, etc... fill them with water, soap, and a sponge. Children can either dip their toys in the bucket or use the sponge on something larger.
Things to wash
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Your car
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Plastic dolls or babies
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Lego figures
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Legos
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Plastic toys
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Trucks or cars
Have a wonderful week!!!
