Race Track

Cereal Box Race Track 

Ages: All ages.

Supplies: 
Cereal box
Tape
Scissors
Toy Cars
Painter's tape

Benefits: ...It's fun?

Activity: 

1. Take an old cereal box. 
2. Open the box up on one side. 
3. Cut off flaps on the top and bottom (set aside flaps) 
4. Cut the box in half "hamburger" ways, which means across the middle. 
5. Tape the 2 sides together. 
6. Bend the edges slightly to give the cars a little bumper. 
7. Turn the track over. Reinforce any folds in the box by taping the flaps over the folds to prevent them from bending backwards. (You can also use popsicle sticks or heavier cardboard if the box tops aren't strong enough.) 
8. Tape the ramp to a chair and the floor using painter's tape (it won't ruin your furniture or floor when it comes up.) 
9. Send cars shooting down the hill. 

Modifications: 

• Make a longer track. 
• Make 2 tracks so you can race cars or tape straws down the middle to make 2 racetracks.
• Make obstacles for the car to go through after it comes down the ramp. 
• Time the cars to see which car is the fastest. 

Counting Cutouts

Counting Cutouts

Ages: 18 months- 5 years old

Supplies:
Glue stick
Scissors
Card stock
Marker/ pen
Googly eyes (optional)

Benefits: Hand/ eye coordination, counting, colors, animals.

Activity: 

Choose a theme: farm animals, under the sea creatures, shapes, types of transportation, fruits or veggies. 

Choose 5 different types of things from that category and give each thing a number. Example from above: 1 fish, 2 turtles, 3 crabs, 4 starfish, 5 shells. 

Cut out the number of objects associated with that number.

With the child, glue each piece to the paper starting with 1 and going up to 5. Mix up the pieces and have the kids pick out the shapes to encourage sorting, matching, and counting.
Draw faces and stick googly eyes to the animals.

Hang it on the fridge or in their room, and you can use this as a teaching tool in the future.

Modifications: 

• Ideas for categories: Fruit: apple, oranges, grapes, strawberries, lemons.                                                                            Transportation: bus, car, airplane, truck, boat                                                                                      Shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, heart                                                                                  Farm: cat, bunny, duck, dog, chicken 
• If they are too small to glue the pieces on, have them hand them to you and they can watch you glue the pieces on the paper. 

Dump Truck Nature Walk

Dump Truck Nature Walk 

Ages: Walking to 4 years

Supplies: 

String 

Dumptruck

Benefits: Comparing sizes and shapes, listening, exercise, colors, vocabulary 

Activity: 

Tie a string/ leash/ spare bag strap to a toy dump truck. 

Go for a walk with the child pulling the dump truck. 

Encourage them to collect things from nature to put in the dump truck. 

When you get home, unload the dump truck and talk about the things you've found. 

Compare sizes, shapes, and colors. Talk about where each item came from. If it is a part of something bigger, for example, a pine cone, talk about pine trees and what pine cones are. 

Modifications: 

• Make a list of things to find before you leave the house. See how many items you can find. Ex: a grey rock, a yellow leaf, 5 dandelions. 
• Play I spy with things they can pick up. "Stop! I spy something green to put in the dump truck!" 
• Take small items from home (like small plastic animals). Tell the child to wait and close their eyes and hide the small items in the grass or on the sidewalk or on stoops up the block. When the child opens their eyes, go on a hunt to find the items and put them in the dump truck. 

Finger Puppets

Finger Puppets

Ages: 18 months- Elementary school

Supplies: 
Cardstock
Scissors
Sharpie
Glue stick.

Benefits: storytelling, imaginative play, matching, language, body parts.

Activity: 

• Cut out a pear shape about 2.5 inches across the widest part of the pear. About 3.5 inches high. 
• Cut out heads and arms for the animals. 
• Cut 2 finger size holes in the pear shaped card stock (They work the best if they fit your fingers rather snug- try and customize them to you and the child's fingers) 
• With the child, mix up the pieces. Either you or the child can pick a pear color. Ask the child to help pick out the parts that match the color you choose. 
• Glue the head and arms on the puppet. 
• Repeat for every color. 
• Put your fingers through the holes for legs. 

* I made this activity for the child's mom to do with their child. I don't draw the shapes before I cut them out so that's why I didn't write that step. If you need to draw the pieces before you cut them out. Draw them next to the pear so that you can estimate the size of the head and arms. 

Modifications: 

• You can just draw an animal or person and cut it out as one piece (with the head and arms on the animal already) 
• Paint your fingernails to look like shoes. 
• Act out a play with the puppets. 
• Draw the arms and heads and pears and have the child cut them out and assemble them themselves. 

Emotions and Bunny faces

Bunny Faces

Ages: 18 months- 5 years

Supplies:
Card stock
Marker
Glue stick
Paper

Benefits: motor skills, identifying emotions.

Activity:

• Cut card stock in half (hot dog-wise)
• Fold a half in half (hot dog-wise)
• Draw 4 bunny heads on the folded edge.
• Cut out bunny heads. 
• Draw different emotions.

• Have the child hold the glue stick.
• Name an emotion and have the child pick the bunny with that expression or have the child pick a bunny and ask them how that bunny feels. 
• Apply glue to the back and adhere to paper.
• After all the bunnies are glued, write the emotion next to the bunny.

Modifications:

• An older child can cut the bunnies out and draw the faces on. 
• Glue them to separate pieces of cardstock to make flash cards. 
• Imitate the faces of the bunnies.
• Ask the child to name an emotion and draw that face on the bunny.
• Glue them to Popsicle sticks to make puppets.
• Make their bodies to make little bunny dolls.

The Best Fort Ever

I was babysitting a 5 year old and a 7 year old. It was rainy and cloudy out and they were stir crazy.
I piled them in the car and drove to the hardware store with a plan: Fort building supplies.
This could also make a pretty great birthday gift.
It's random but if you packaged it right, it'd be a hit.

The Best Fort Ever 

Ages: 3 years- well, let's be real, even adults think forts are cool.

Supplies:
4-6 medium size dowels (strong enough to hold up a large sheet, thin enough for a clothespin to clip on to)
Painters tape (it won't strip your furniture)
Clothes pins
A large sheet or tapestry
Clothesline string or rope
Chairs

Benefits: rainy day project, construction, design, imaginative play

Activity: 

• Use kitchen chairs as your posts. 
• Tape dowels to the kitchen chairs with painters tape (the tape is strong enough to hold the dowels but won't strip the paint or varnish off the chairs. (You can also tape the dowels together to make them longer- if 2.5 to 3 inches of the dowels overlap it should hold)
• It helps to have a dowel going across the middle of the fort too to hold the ceiling up.
• If you run out of dowels, you can use rope or string between the chairs. 
• Cover the structure with a large sheet or tapestry. 
• Clothespin the sheet to the dowels. 
• Fill it with pillows, blankets, flashlights, books, etc. 

Painting: Lessen the mess

I wanted the baby to experience painting...but how?
I wanted to do it for a low cost and a small mess factor.

Faux Easel 

Age: If they can stand, they can paint.

Supplies: 
Foam board
Scissors (or a knife)
Ribbon/ scrap fabric/ string

Painters tape
Old t-shirt or smock
Tempera paint
Brushes
Paper
Paper plate (scrap of cardboard- it's just to put the paint on)

Benefits: You might be raising the next Picasso.

Activity: 

Making the easel

• Poke a hole in the foam board
• String a piece of fabric through it
• Tie it to something in the lawn- a chair/ a play set

Painting

• I bought her an over sized T-shirt at the craft store for like $3 (3T size)
• Took off her shoes and socks
• Tape a piece of paper to the easel with painters tape (it won't rip the paper when you take it off)
• Put some paint on a paper plate
• Hand them the brush and let them go to town. 
• You could add a water cup for them to rinse their brush between colors