Some fun activities to do with your
children at home:

Rubbings
Cover objects with thin plain paper and rub with a wax crayon or soft pencil.
Coins, keys, bark and leaves or any other firm, textured objects can be used.

Body Print
Let your child lie down on paper and draw a body outline. If it is a nice day you
could get your child to lie on concrete outside and trace their body with chalk. Let
them draw eyes, a nose and mouth as well as hair and clothes.
 Music Map
What you need:
Paper
Crayons or markers
Your favourite music
Turn on some music that has variations in the speed. Get your child to listen to
the music and draw to the sound. Instrumental music is often the best for this
activity.
 Collage
What you need:
Magazine
Paper
Glue
Scissors
Colour hunting- Choose a colour and get your child to hunt for that colour in a
magazine. Get your child to cut out what they find and get them to stick their
findings on a piece of paper.
 Nature Collage
On a beautiful day go on a nature walk. Get your child to collect leaves, twigs and
flowers. Use glue to stick findings on a piece of paper.

Making Play Dough:
http://www.k-3teacherresources.com/play-dough-recipe.html
2 cups of plain flour
4 tablespoons of 'cream of tartar'
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 cup of salt
2 cups of boiling water
food colouring
Just pop it all in a mixing bowl and mix!
(A nice idea is halving the play dough and choosing two different primary
colours ‘blue, red or yellow’. When the children start to mix the two
halves together they will notice that the play dough will turn into a third
colour.)
 Paper Plate Creations:
Rabbit Mask - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/maskcrafts/rabbit/
Fish - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/animals/fish/
Rainbow Streamer http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/stpatrick/rainbowstreamer/
 Make a Shaker
Find a container that can be sealed - bottles, margarine tubs, jars, and film
canisters - anything with a lid. Use small, hard objects such as beans, unpopped
popcorn, rice, aquarium gravel or pebbles and put some in the container. Put the
lid on. Shake! Adjust the sound by adding or removing some of the contents.
Decorate the container with paints, felt, craft foam, buttons, wiggly eyes or other
fun items.
 Sink and Float Exercise
Fill a large see through container full of water. Go around the house and collect
different items such as a spoon, buttons, hardboiled egg, a stone, wood, leaf,
shells, a ball, a sponge, coins, etc. Create a sign that says ‘SINK’ and one that
says ‘FLOAT’. Let your child/ children make predictions on whether the object will
sink or float and why. Let them observe the object and decide whether to put that
object under the sign ‘SINK’ OR ‘FLOAT’.
The objective of this activity is that children are introduced to the concept of
sinking and floating. They also get to classify objects into categories – sink or
float.

"Spy" Drawings (This is good fun!)
Use lemon juice and a piece of cotton wool, feather or an ear bud to draw on
paper. If the lemon juice has dried completely, hold the paper near a light bulb or
over a toaster. The heat will turn the lemon juice dark brown and reveal the
drawing.
 Puff Paintings (Microwave Painting)
Materials….
1 cup of self- raising flour
1 cup of salt
Water to mix
Paint or food colouring
Thick paper or card
How to make……
Mix flour and salt with water to make a runny paste. Add paint or dye to colour it.
With teaspoons, paintbrushes or cotton buds paint onto the thick paper or card.
Microwave on high for 30 seconds. Then 10 seconds at a time until paint is dry if
necessary.
 Make your own Ten Pin Bowling Alley.
Materials needed:
10 plastic bottles
Rubber ball
Sand or gravel
How to……
Put a cup of sand or gravel at the bottom of each plastic bottle to give them a bit
of weight. Arrange the ‘pins’ into a triangle shape. Get your child/ children to
stand back and take turns to bowl the rubber ball into the plastic bottles.
 Make a Hut
Children of all ages love making huts, and the older they get, the more elaborate
they become. Pull out sheets and blankets from the linen cupboard, and let them
use the kitchen table, lounge furniture or a clothes horse as a base. Once the hut
is made, they can spend time inside playing games, reading, or just hanging out
in the hut.
 Balloon Fun
Blow up some balloons and hang them from the ceiling with some string. Ensure
that the balloons are at different lengths to create a challenge. Get your child to
bat the balloons with fly swatters. If doing this activity outside you could fill some
of the balloons with water.

Obstacle Course
To set up an obstacle course at home you could use items such as a rope,
cushions, cardboard boxes, chairs, hoops, tables, a wooden ladder, buckets,
steps, balls and balloons.
Lay the rope flat on the ground and walk along it.
The cushions could be used for jumping over.
The cardboard boxes chairs and tables could be used for crawling under or
through.
The hoops and wooden ladder could be used for jumping. (Lay the ladder flat on
the ground)
The balls could be used to throw into the buckets.
Let your imagination run wild 

Gloop (Messy Play)
Slowly add one cup of cold water to 2 cups of cornflour in a bowl. Stir until the
water is absorbed by the cornflour. Add colour if wanted. Present gloop in icecream containers with spoons, cups etc.

Slime (Messy Play)
Dissolve one cup of Lux flakes in 2 litres of warm water. Add colouring if wanted.
Allow the mixture to stand until it becomes thick and slimy. Beat with eggbeater
to make it froth.
Present slime in a wide open container. Provide eggbeaters, spoons, funnels,
cups, sponges, sieves, whisks, etc for children to experiment with.
Suggested Websites:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/ This website has been developed by a Christchurch woman who
specialises in art and craft creations for children.
http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/resources/gradek-1/websites.html - For online educational games
http://www.canaryzoo.com/ - Scroll down and under the heading ‘kids section’ click onto pictures to
colour. This website provides plenty of pictures that your children can colour in.
http://planningwithkids.com/2010/03/30/10-activities-to-do-at-home-with-the-kids/ This link
provides more activities that you could do with your children at home.
http://childhood101.com/2010/08/ten-easy-things-to-cook-with-kids/ This website provides some
good recipes where children can help you to cook.
http://www.disney.co.uk/disney-junior/content/stories.jsp This Disney website provides music,
stories, activities, videos and art.