“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” -Fred Rogers
Ms. Susi Activities
Ms. Erin Ideas
Sticky Wall Yarn Art
Materials you’ll need:
-clear sticky contact
-different colors of yarn in various lengths
- tape and scissors
Process:
1. Tape a large sheet of contact paper to a wall (sticky side out) at child’s height
2. Cut up yarn in different lengths and place in a bowl or container
3. Place yarn in front of your sticky wall and let the kids create their yarn art
Ms. Jessica Activities
Yarn-wrapped Nature Wands: Find a sturdy stick in your yard or around the neighborhood. Your stick can be long or short, big or small, curved or straight. The stick should be sturdy enough to wave around without breaking while creating magic. Cut several pieces of yarn, each about 10-12 inches long. If you have a variety of different colors or textures of yarn, great! Otherwise, any yarn will work, and if you don’t have yarn, you can use ribbon. Tie one end of the yarn onto the stick, and add a little dab of glue. Wrap the yarn or ribbon around the stick in whatever pattern or way you’d like. You can make the yarn tight or loose around the stick. You can choose to wrap just 1 piece of yarn or a lot of pieces! You can let the ends of the yarn dangle off the end of your wand, or you can wrap all the yarn around your wand. The ends of the yarn/ribbon will need to be either tied or glued onto the wand so they don’t come unraveled. (I usually tie AND glue). If you have a couple feathers, you can glue them onto the end of the wand, or tie the feathers with a loose/dangling piece of yarn. This may or may not create *extra* magical powers!
(Note to parents: this activity is fantastic to help your child with “crossing midline”, which is a very important skill that they’re working on every day. Here’s some more info on crossing midline, and why it’s a very important part of your child’s development: https://www.growinghandsonkids.com/crossing-midline-exercises-for-kids.html
(Added bonus of MORE activities listed in the article!)
Yellow Collage: Look through old magazines, calendars, and even food packaging find and cut out pictures of objects that are yellow, old magazines, calendars, packaging , etc). Glue all the pictures down to make an awesome yellow collage!
YouTube read-aloud:
Pete the Cat: Everyone Rocks in Their Own Way
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KPgLh3NdNOs
Ms. Kacy Ideas
Paper Yo-Yo
Materials:
Glue stick
Wrapping paper
Wooden stick (1/4 dowel 12 inches long) bamboo skewers, chop sticks...
Cut wrapping paper 5 to 7 inches wide and 6 feet long. Add glue to one edge and wrap it around the stick. Roll the stick to the end of the paper. Try it out!
https://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-YoYo/
Yarn Covered Containers
Materials:
Recycled containers
Glue
Yarn
Paintbrushes
Optional:
Decorations like pom poms, beads, pictures cut from a magazine or calendar.
Clean out container. Cover sides with glue. Parent can start the first wrap of yarn on the bottom. Child can continue wrapping the yarn around container. When finished you can add more glue to the outside and decorate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s6mBM1ZA7g&t=9s
Chemistry of Curds
Materials:
Milk
Mug or other heat-resistant cup
White vinegar
Coffee filter or old T-shirt
Paper towels
Plate
Cookie-cutters, glitter, food coloring, markers (optional)
Make your Hypothesis
Heat one cup of milk in a pan until it steams or microwave for 1 min.
Add four teaspoons of white vinegar to a mug or other heat-resistant cup.
Add the cup of hot milk to the mug. You should see the milk form white clumps that are called curds.
Observe
Why do you think the milk forms curds when it is added to the vinegar?
Mix the mug slowly with a spoon.
Once the mixture cools, you can scoop out the curds and put them on the stack of 4-5 paper towels on the plate. You could also pour mug contents through a coffee filter or old T-shirt to collect curds.
Squeeze out the liquid or press down on paper towels to remove excess liquid.
Scrape the solid bits into a bowl and knead all of the curds together into a ball. What you have in your hands is casein plastic.
Now you can use it to make something! You can shape it or press it inside a cookie cutter. You can add color or sparkle.
You will need to let it dry for 48 hours on paper towels before it gets hard like plastic.
What did you learn?
For adults: Adding an acid (such as vinegar or citrus) to the milk changes the pH (acidity) and makes the casein molecules unfold and reorganize into a long chain, (polymer) and curdling the milk.
For kids: The liquid changed into a solid.
More info:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-milk-plastic/
Ms. Shani Activities
Yarn Bowl:
Materials:
Yarn cut into 6 -12" strands or longer pieces if you want to wrap the bowl
Glue
Water
2 bowls (1 for glue and 1 to use as the mold for yarn bowl)
Saran Wrap
Cover the back of the bowl you are using for the mold with saran wrap
Pour glue into other bowl and add a little bit of water to thin
Dip stands of yarn into the bowl and let them sit for a bit to soak up the glue
Pull strands out and run fingers along the strand to remove some of the glue
Lay on bowl
Continue this process until the desired outcome. It can be a lot of yarn or a little, it just depends on what your child would like. The more yarn used, the more useful the bowl will be to hold items. Less yarn is more of an art piece. Either way is great.
Let dry. The more yarn, the longer it will take to dry. They take a couple of days to dry.
Once dry, remove bowl from mold and remove saran wrap.
This is a messy project and should be done outside. If you have something to cover the surface that is best. As you can see below, there are different styles. It is hard to tell but the bowls are also all different sizes. Some and very small and others are large. My daughter even made a coaster. We did this project for Mother's Day and my mom was thrilled. She can't wait to do it with her friends.
Yarn Weaving
Materials:
Cardboard
Yarn
Ribbon or Paper
Tape
Cut a piece of cardboard into 4" x 6" or larger
Cut 5 - 6 slits about 1/2" long along the top and bottom of the cardboard
Wrap the yarn around the board and through the slits. Tape each end so it will not loosen.
Cut strips of paper or ribbon into 6" strips.
Have child weave paper or ribbon through yarn.
Tape ends of paper or ribbon on the back of the cardboard
Yellow Scavenger Hunt
Go around the house or yard and find everything you can that it is yellow
Ms. Esther Ideas
Sensory Walk
This is an activity that my kids liked when they were little. Feeling the different textures with their feet was fun!
You create that sensory path with whatever materials you have at home such as : grass, rocks, sand, gravel, warm water, cold water, ice cubes, cotton balls, pine needles, shaving cream, sand paper, dirt/soil, wet rags, dry rags, bark chips, smooth piece of wood etc.
You can use tubs, flat cardboard boxes or just the ground to hold the various materials.
As my kids got older hey would walk the sensory path with their eyes closed or blindfolded while holding hands with someone they trusted.
The pictures below are from ’12 Creative Sensory Walk Activities” by Agnes Hsu
