Bear Pegging

 

Both my sons have a blanket bear that they sleep with its their comforter. Zac decided to use my pegs to decorate him.

I encouraged him to count and indicate what colour he was putting on.
I though this was fantastic and I am sure this activity would apply to many other cuddly toys.
Zac also finds it amusing sticking them on my clothes.

Zac 2.1

A-Z Math: Peg boat balance

This activity was not really planned, I had the new coloured pegs in the boat dish ready to take outside and my son started playing with them.

So I told him to peg it onto the boat.

He soon realised that you need to put pegs on both sides to balance the boat.

He was very focused and stopped when he could fit anymore on.

He turned it over and said spider, Dylan removed extra pegs so it had eight legs like a spider.


This was good practise of fine motor skills, numeracy counting and colours.

To extend further for a pre-schooler you could:-
give them a sequence to follow
ask them to identify a patter in the colours.
ask them to predict if it will balance or tip.

Zac 2.1
Dylan 4.10

Coloured Peg and Pipe Cleaner Match up

I was desperate for new pegs and saw these in the shop they are multi-coloured ones.I knew that they wouldn't end up on my washing line as the kids loved them.

This morning we had the pipe cleaners out doing a threading activity. Then I saw that we had a few colours that matched to the pegs and here we have the next activity.

I was quite impressed how quickly Zac (2.1) matched the colours and that he said the right colours.

Then I thought how can I extend this for a four year old....

He had to make a chain with the pipe cleaners using pegs to hold them together. (I had to twist the pipe cleaners in the end).

He made a big chain that he used to show shapes like a circle. We didn't manage to mage letters or numbers but this is a possibility for next time.




Dylan 4.9
Zac 2.1

Super Colander Man

This activity was aimed at getting my 2 year old to practise his fine motors skills and replicate an activity that I did with my now four year old. However Dylan my four year old took over after Zac lost interest and used his own imagination to invent a hat with lasers that a super hero would use. He threaded pipe cleaners through the colander and then added the beads (lasers) to them.

This is his angry face.

He told me that the blue was water, the red was fire and black was mud.

He then wore it out in the garden to play with but I didn't get a pic of that. He was very protective over it too.

Dylan 4.9

Brown Bear Story Telling Bracelet

We follow the Virtual book club and have adapted Mama Miss' Storytelling beads http://www.mamamiss.com/2015/08/13/story-telling-beads/

for Bill Martin, Jr's book Brown bear.

 

We made a bracelet with the some beads and my son used it to tell the story.

Please excuse the PJs he likes to do activities like this in the morning.

 

The bead jars was a brilliant idea the only reason we did it this way was that we had to work with the equipment that we had at home.

 

Dylan 4.9

Egg shell peeling

This activity was totally done to Dylan and his curiosities.  

After our egg science experiment of dropping eggs on different surfaces Dylan wanted to do the same with the boiled egg he had decorated . He was shocked when it didn't break as the raw egg did before. I explained eggs go hard when you cook them. 

When he dropped the egg, the shell cracked. He naturally started picking at it and looked for reassurance and I said it was ok as long as we wash hands right away. Once he peeled it all off I broke the egg in half to show him inside. He was intrigued . 

Dylan 3.6

Recycled big art heart mobile

We had a big art session with heart stamps and hand prints to use for hearts, the extra bits I cut into heart shapes.

I then hole punched the too and the bottom of the hearts once and got Dylan to thread wool through to make a mobile.

Good fine motor practise and use of oiled art projects. 

Dylan 3.3

Firework fun: contact paper firework collage

I have been meaning to buy some contact paper and I finally noticed some and bought it in preparation for bonfire night. We used Dylan's new easel to attach the paper too ( although we did need to tilt it) I gave him a selection of materials and let him do the creative part.

The pom-poms and pipe cleaners didn't stick as well as I thought they would. Other items include:-

Stars

Shiney ribbon

Flourescent card stars

Lollipop sticks

Cotton buds

It was very easy for Dylan to do and didn't take him very long.

He also kept returning to it and moving them around.

I took a picture for his art album and put the items back in the craft pots.

Dylan 3

Ten non-carve mess free pumpkin ideas

1. Pumpkin hat parade

2.Googley eyed pumpkin

3. Beaded pumpkin

4. musical pumpkin

5. Chalky pumpkins

6. Bandage and plaster removal

7. Pumpkin plaster 

8. Poorly pumpkin 

9. Polishing pumpkins

10. Pumpkin foam name peel

Beaded pumpkin

As part of our non-carve pumpkin fun we decided to use beads. For this we used the small pumpkin.

I placed double sided sticky tape on the pumpkin and left Dylan to stick the beads on.

This was a totally fun activity although it can be used for colour and numeracy learning at a late date.

How?

I can ask him to count the beads , add and subtract.

I could ask him to match the colour sequence with beads on a piece of paper or simply using crayons/felts.

I could also use it as a threading activity but these beads are too small for Dylan's tiny hands.

I could ask him to rearrange the beads in a certain sequence ie the rainbow.

Again another quick and easy activity but supervision is required as the beads are a chocking hazard.

Dylan 2.11

Googley eyed pumpkin

A good way to decorate pumpkins without mess and looks funky.

I simply placed double sided sticky tape tot he googley eyes and my two year old put them

Where he wanted.

Moving them around develops fine gross skills further. 

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin plaster removal

After the plaster sticking activity and the dr check-up the removal of these plasters and bandages can be an activity practising fine motor skills. I can also prepare him for removal of plasters when he allows us to out them on him. 

Dylan's skills in this type of activity have improved really quickly. He even works out the best method of extraction.

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin name peel

It had been a while since our last pumpkin activity of drawing and foam name sticking. So we cleaned off the pumpkin ready for the next one. Then I thought this is a valuable fine motor skills activity plus recap on the last activity of name recognition. 

This activity can be done straight after or leave it on show for a while.

Dylan 2.11

Disney Planes: nature picture.

We collected some bits of nature from our garden and then I asked my son what picture we should make and he said Dusty a plane from the new Disney movie Planes.

So I guided what and where to place them to look like a plane (kind of)

Dylan was happy with this and enjoyed sticking the objects to the double sided table I had already attached.

One of I'm sure many nature pictures.

Dylan 2.11

Acorn and playdoh hide and seek

After acorn and playdoh math we played a sensory activity of hiding the acorns and retrieving them.  He had to feel how many there were with his eyes closed.

This was still a numeracy activity matching the number of hidden acorns revealed. 

Dylan 2.11

Acorns and playdoh math

On our walks Dylan has noticed acorns on the floor. We collected some on our last walk and decided to get them out while he was playing with playdoh.

He made acorns and had to match the number of real acorns to the playdoh ones.

Then he counted then.

Then he had to subtract them.

Then he had to add them.

He did extremely well at this I was very impressed.

Then he had to add them all together.

I have seen the acorn tops being used to imprint circles that could be used in numeracy. 

Dylan 2.9