Dinosaur Bone Hunt

This will be a two day project.

Day 1.) Making dinosaur bones with home maid play dough.

Ingredients.....

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1 T. oil
1 T. cream of tarter

Combine all ingredients in a cooking pan on medium heat. Cook until the dough pulls away from the pan while stirring continuously. When the play dough is cool, you may begin to create dinosaur bones. Once all the bones are made, let them dry overnight on wax paper or a paper plate. If it is a sunny day, let the bones dry outside. Remember to flip them over to dry the other side.

Day 2.) Pretend to be archaeologists. Have someone hide the dinosaur bones in the sandbox and have fun digging them up.

The older children can get creative and make dinosaur bones that look like a dinosaur when put together on the ground. Start with a skull and let your child's imagination do the rest of the work.

Sand Treasures

Today, we will find buried coins in the sand box.

1. Tell your child(ren) a story about hidden treasures or pirates. You could always get a book about this at the Library. I enjoy making the story up and have my child help me with the story. You could even write the story down and have your child illustrate it. It is a lot of fun once you get started.

2. Take real coins and hide them in the sandbox. You could do this the night before and then tell your child(ren) that there are buried treasures in the sandbox. Before you go find the coins, have them decorate a shoe box into a treasure chest.

3. Teaching Tip: This is a great way to work with money and counting for all ages. It is better to use real coins to help your child(ren) recognize what the money really looks like.

Once the money is found, take turns being the person that hides the coins. Let your child(ren) make up their own games with the money.

Outside Sand Activities

I will be giving you some fun activities to do with sand for the next few weeks.

Today, we will be making sand pictures. If it is a windy day, take a bucket of sand, some paper, and some drippy glue to the garage. If it is not a windy day, you can do it right by your sandbox. Have your child(ren) squeeze the glue to create designs, shapes, letters, words, animals, numbers, houses, etc... Take a pinch or a handful of sand and sprinkle it over the picture full of glue. Let the sand stay on the picture for a few minutes and dump the extra sand off into your bucket or sandbox. Teaching Tip: This is a great way to work on letter and number skills and spelling while they are outside having fun.

Straw Day

Today, we will have fun with straws.

1. Take a straw and a cotton ball and try blowing the cotton ball all around the floor or a table. Try other things around your house that will be easy to blow with a straw like feathers, packaging peanuts, or light balls.


2. Have races with your straw and cotton ball. Make a starting line and a finish line with a piece of tape about a yard apart or longer. Have two or more children or adults put their cotton ball on the starting line. Have someone say go and race to the finish line by blowing air through your straw to push the cotton ball all the way to the finish line. Whoever blows their cotton ball to the finish line first wins.

3. Take a kleenex and a straw. See if you can blow the kleenex up in the air with your straw.

4. Straw Art. Cut your straws up into the same or different lengths. Create a picture by gluing the straws on a piece of paper. Things you can try to create with your straw pieces are houses, animals, letters, words, numbers, and shapes. Make patterns with the different lengths of the straws.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

I know you can buy this at the store but it is much more fun to make.

Thing you will need...

1. Sidewalk Chalk
2. Paper cups or old plastic containers
3. Dust pan and broom
4. Water
5. Paint brushes

Take the sidewalk chalk outside on your driveway and draw back and forth to create sidewalk chalk dust. Once you get enough dust, sweep it up and dump it in a cup or container. Do this with as many colors as you want. Add water a little at a time to the dust and mix until it looks like paint. You will have to experiment with the thickness of the paint. It usually is a little watery. Take paint brushes and have fun!

Noodle Day

Go search your pantry for noodles and have fun trying these activities:

1. Find noodles with a hole in them. You may first paint them different colors and let them dry. Once the noodles are dry, you can lace them on a string of yarn and make necklaces or just decorative string. Wrap a piece of masking tape on one end to make it easier to lace. Teaching Tips: 1. Make patterns out of the different color noodles or the different shape noodles. 2. Cut your string 3 different lengths. Decorate each string with noodles and use them to measure things. 3. Take your decorative noodle string(s) to make shapes or letters by laying them on the ground or the table.

Infant and Toddler Noodle day (Older children will still enjoy these activities.)

1. Put a few noodles in a plastic water bottle or liter bottle. Make sure the cover is on very tight so they cannot open it. You may want to tape around the cover for extra protection. Let your child shack the bottle to music or while you sing.

2. Roll your noodle bottle back and forth to each other.

3. Use the noodle bottle in the bathtub for a new bathtub toy.

Tube Day

Did you save your toilet paper, paper towel, and wrapping paper tubes? Here are some fun activities to do with your tubes.

1. Use the tubes for measuring. Measure things around your house using your toilet paper tubes. Keep track how many toilet tubes it takes to measure each item on a piece of paper. Then continue to measure with your other tubes. Teaching Tip: Have your child hypothesize (guess) how many tubes it will be before measuring your items. Item ideas: Couches, beds, your child, yourself, tables, pillows, and anything you and your child comes up with.

3. Take your wrapping paper tube and use it as a tunnel to zoom cars in or roll little bouncy balls down. Teaching Tips: 1. Remember to incorporate color recognition by having your child tell you what color car or bouncy ball came down the tube. 2. Use refrigerator letter magnets and have your child shoot certain letters down the tube. You can have them shoot the letters of their name down the tube and put them in order when they come out the other end. Do the same for spelling words. For example: The parent can choose the letters S,T,O, P and have your child shoot them down the tube. Then have fun making a word out of the letters. You can make the tubes longer by taping the tubes together. It can be fun to make it as long as your stairs and zoom your items down the tube to reach the bottom of the stairs.

Getting Dressed Game

Ever have those days when your child will not get dressed? Today, you can find out how to make getting dressed fun.

1. Get a brown grocery bag and put in the clothes you want your child to wear. (Do not put your child's shoes in the bag until they have picked their socks and pants. Or have a second bag with two pair of shoes in them and have them pick which pair they are going to wear for that day.) You can even put a brush inside the bag and when they pick the brush it is time to fix their hair. Have your child choose one item at a time by closing their eyes and reaching into the bag. Once they get an item, they get to put it on. Teaching Tips: 1. Have your child feel the item and guess what it is before they pull it out. 2. When your child pulls the item out decide what letter that item starts with by sounding out the first letter sound. For example, your child pulls out the pants. Say "What letter does pants start with?" "p, p, p, p, p, p, p, pants." "P"
You will have to introduce the "sh" sound for shirt and shoes. Two letters that makes one sound.

If you already got dressed today you can play the game for fun or start bedtime a little earlier tonight and do the same thing with their bedtime clothes.

2. Get clothes for all different seasons and put them in a brown grocery bag. Play the game the same as above but this time, they have to guess what season the article of clothing is for. Teaching Tip: Create pictures of the 4 seasons with each season on a separate sheet of paper. Make sure to print the name of the season on your season pictures. Then continue to play the getting dressed game. Each time they pull out a clothing item in the bag, they put it on the the picture of that season. For example, your child pulls out a stocking cap they place it on their winter picture they drew.

Action Words

Think of at least 10 action words and print them on separate sheets of square paper and fold them in half. Find a bag, box, or a any container to put the action words in. Take turns picking out an action word and acting it out. After you have picked all 10 words, brainstorm more action words and start the game over. Take the game outside and play. Try using your action word in a sentence. For example: The action word is run. Your sentence could be, "Run around the house." Teaching Tips: Have your children help print and brainstorm the action words. If your child is working on letter identification, have them tell you at least one letter they can identify on the action word. Remember to use capital and lower case letters and have them identify both.

Fun With Bed Sheets

Today, we will explore the fun things we can do with a bed sheet.

1. Play a fun hide and seek game with the bed sheet. Have your child hide something under the sheet and you have to guess what it is. Then you hide something. See if your child can guess what is under the sheet before you pick it up.

2. Parachute fun. You can do this outside or inside. Take the sheet and lay it flat on the ground. If there are only two people playing, each person take a side and hang on to the corners. More than two, can each take a corner of the sheet or however you can make it work. You could also tie one end to a chair or a table. Practice shacking the sheet fast and slow and up and down. Play the Go and Stop game. (Teaching tip: Spell the word go and stop rather than saying the word.) Get some objects and throw them on top of the sheet and shack them until they all fall off. Object ideas: Light balls, stuff animals, socks, and plastic Easter eggs.

Teaching tips:
1. Use objects with lots of different colors on them and have your child name the color of the object as they throw it on the sheet. Once all the color objects are on the sheet, shack them all off and start all over. Do the same with letters, numbers, and shapes. If you do not have letters, numbers, and shapes that are light enough make them with paper.

2. Name recognition: Print each letter of their name on a separate sheet of paper. Play the game the same way I described above except, have your child throw their letters of their name back on the sheet in the correct order. You may also do this with simple spelling words.

Infant Sheet Fun (5 months - 12 months)

Lay a sheet down on the ground. Lay your baby on it's back on top of the sheet towards one side. Fold the sheet in half and play a peek-a-boo game. Raise the sheet up and down very slow. Try to go a little faster and see how they like the air blowing at them. I would suggest your infant be 5 months old to play this game.

Feet Day

Today we are going to discover the fun things we can do with our feet.

1. Trace your feet on a piece of paper. Color and decorate them any way you want.
2. Trace your feet several times and cut them out. Make a path around the house. Tape your cut out feet down on the ground and have fun walking on them. You could have them lead to certain rooms of your house.
3. Trace your feet on different colors of paper and make patterns out of the them.
4. Have the children trace their mom's, dad's, siblings, or caregivers feet and compare the sizes.
5. Print the names of each persons foot you traced.
6. Trace your favorite shoes and decorate them. Punch holes in the paper shoe. Take some shoe string and practice lacing and tying.
7. Put numbers on the feet and play a number game with a dice. Roll the dice and go to the foot with that number on it.
8. Introduce counting by 2's and working with pairs.
9. Have your child think of a game to play with feet.

Infant Feet Time.

1. Trace your babies feet and use them to decorate cards for family members.
2. Message and tickle your baby's feet.
3. Of course, everyone knows "This Little Piggy Went To Market".
(This little piggy went to market, (Touch and wiggle big toe.)
(This little piggy stayed home, (Touch and wiggle the 2nd toe.)
(This little piggy had roast beef, (Touch and wiggle the 3rd toe.)
(This little piggy had none, (Touch and wiggle the 4th toe.)
(And this little piggy went wee, wee, wee, all the way home! (Touch the littlest toe.)

Hide and Seek with Objects

I hope you enjoyed sock day! Todays lesson starts with finding 3-6 child friendly objects that will fit in a medium size basket, purse, school bag, box, or anything your child likes to carry things in. Have your child help hunt and choose the objects and put them into their carrying item. Once the objects are found, find a cozy spot to sit and place the objects in front of your child. (Start with 3 objects first and see how difficult it is and add more as needed.) Tell your child to close their eyes and you are going to take one object away. When I tell you to open your eyes, you can tell me what object is missing.
Teaching tip: When the objects are in front of your child, say the name of the objects from left to right by pointing to the objects and saying it's name. Some children learn better if they touch each item and say the name.
Play the game for a while and add more objects one at a time.
Hide two objects rather than just one.
Play the game outside, using things from nature.

Object suggestions for more learning opportunity:
Use numbers that you have from magnets, a number puzzle, or print numbers on a separate piece of paper. (Number recognition)
Use the letters of the alphabet. (Letter recognition)
Use shapes.
Use your child's name. Print each letter on a separate piece of paper. (Name recognition)

Infant and Toddler Object Hide and Seek
Take one object, like a ball, and hide it under a blanket and say "Where is the ball?" a few times and then pull the blanket up and say "There is the ball!" Older toddlers can take the blanket off themselves. Try using 2 objects under a separte blanket.

Start saving toilet paper, paper towel, and wrapping paper tubes for a project to come.

Sock Day

Take a laundry basket and collect socks from every family member of your house. Try to collect colored socks with the white socks. Below are some fun activities you can do with your socks.

* Sort the socks by color and size.
* Print color words on a piece of paper and have your child put the colored sock on the correct
color word. (For younger children use colored pieces of paper. If you do not have colored
paper, have your child color the paper.) Coloring the paper and having your child help you
print the color words are a great art activity.
* Make patterns with your socks by color and size.
* Roll your socks into a ball and take turns throwing them into the laundry basket. To add math
to this activity, make a target on the floor with a piece of paper and number the rings. Have
your child help with making the target. If a target is to hard, get three to four boxes and
number them. Have fun adding the numbers with your child. Use the extra socks as counting
tools to help them add.

Baby and Toddler Sock Time

Toddlers may do some of the activities above along with the following baby activites.

* Put a sock on your hand and play a body part game. Rub the sock on your child's arm and say
("I got your arm, arm, arm,") Continue with as many body parts as you want.
* Pretend your sock is a puppet and talk to your baby in different voices. Have the sock
sing songs to the baby.
* Play catch with your baby using a balled up sock