Rubber band Pull and Stretch

Have you ever purchased one of those big balls of rubber bands and thought to yourself, "What am I going to do with all of these?"  As a matter of fact, there is more than one purpose for rubber bands other than for office use.  Through the activity, children are able to use those extra rubber bands and also other objects that you find around the house that can help build their fine motor skills.

During this activity, children will develop:

• Fine motor skills - for those future writers!!

• Eye-hand coordination

• Math skills that help children recognize colors and sizes.

• Patience!

What will you need to make this fun activity:

• First and foremost, you must collect a variety of rubber bands to make this activity work.  As I mentioned before, I had one of those giant balls of colorful rubber bands sitting around my house that I rarely used.  All you need is a few rubber bands from the ball, I prefer some that are similar in size with maybe a few that vary in size.

 

• Plastic lids of different sizes 

 

Basically, there are no steps in making this activity.  You are able to engage in this activity with your child the moment you are able to gather the materials.  Just give your child the pile of rubber bands with the lids and encourage him or her to start stretching the rubber bands over the lids.  To make it easier, you can cut slits in the sides of the lids to help the rubber bands fit more securely, but WARNING - that may leave sharp edges!  In addition, discuss with your child the different colors of rubber bands as well as the different sizes.  Building their math vocabulary through this activity is an extra bonus!

Extension Idea:

Rubber bands can basically fit around anything, plus if you want to make the activity easier for younger children, you might want to find different objects.  Other great items to collect include plastic juice jugs, yogurt containers, cups, etc.  Again, these items are also very easy to collect, plus it puts your recyclables to great use!

Any other ideas?  Please share! 

Plastic Egg Match-up

This activity is basically similar to the last game I posted, but I wanted to give you a different variation of it.  Through this activity, you have a perfect use for all of those plastic Easter eggs that you find at this time of the year.  Plus, it helps children also identify with the theme of Easter.

When using the plastic eggs for a matching game, children will acquire and learn:

• Basic vocabulary 

• Letter identification, number identification, or shape identification

• Matching skills

• Social skills such as turn taking and sharing

• Color recognition

 

To make your own egg matching game you will need:

• Plastic eggs of various colors

• Paper, marker, scissors, tape

First, cut the paper into small 1/2 inch pieces.  Depending on what concept you want to teach, I chose letters, write the uppercase letter on once piece of paper and then the lowercase letter on a different piece of paper.  

Then choose a plastic egg, top and bottom, of the same color and taped each letter onto it.  Repeat this step for each letter or for as many letters as you would like to use.  For younger children, keep each egg match, top and bottom, the same color to avoid confusion.  You can also use less letters to be more developmentally appropriate.  For older children, you can mix up the tops and bottoms to provide a little challenge and also provide them with more letters.

Here is a picture if you decided to do a shape recognition game:

This is a simple, yet educational game that you can do with your child.  It doesn't take a lot of time or effort, but it can be really fun depending on how you play it!

Extension Idea:

As pictured above, I just set the eggs out for the child to pick up and and look into to decide if it is a match or not.  If you want to change it up to make it more fun, hide the tops and bottoms around the house and go on an egg hunt.  When children collect the different egg halves in their basket, have them match up the ones that belong together. :-)

What are some other educational uses that you have for plastic eggs?

Milk Caps Matching Game

Creating a game at home that helps teach children basic vocabulary and also math skills is very simple.  In this post, I will teach you how to take plastic milk caps and make them into a fun matching game based on your own child's interest.  If children are more interested, they are more likely to stay engaged in the activity and come away with a wealth of knowledge.

During this activity, children will learn and develop:

• Basic vocabulary
• Cognitive skills such as matching similarities and recall
• Math skills such as counting, "pairing", and patterning
• Social skills such as turn taking and sharing

To make your own matching game, you will need:

• Plastic milk caps of the same color to avoid confusion

 

• Stickers from the dollar store based on your child's interest (make sure to get duplicates).  The ones I picked out were transportation.

First, make sure the milk caps are completely cleaned and dried.  If they are not, the stickers do not stick as well.  Once this step is completed,  place a sticker on the inside of the milk.  If it doesn't seem to stay as well, you can use a piece of clear tape to reinforce it.  After the stickers are secure, they should look like the picture at the beginning of this post.

Next, flip them over to start the game.  Make sure to mix them up really well.

 

Ta-da!!  You now have a fun, educational game that you can play with your child.

Extension Idea:

If you use different types of milk or you know others who do, you can actually collect quite a few colors of milk caps.  When you gather a good amount of different colored caps, you can use them for making simple or complex patterns and even classifying based on colors.  Milk caps hold a world of possibilities.  

Do you have any other ideas that you would like to share!?

Jumbo Die

Teaching children numbers can be just as simple as using dice.  The problem with using smaller dice, though, is that the numbers appear a lot smaller and can be hard for children to see and count.  An alternative is to make your own die using items you can find around the house.

When using a jumbo die, children learn and develop:

• Math skills - such as counting, 3D shapes (cube), spatial concepts
• Language - you can use the die as a language cube to have children recognize pictures and build vocabulary

To make your own die/cube you will need:

• A Kleenex box that is cubed shape - leaving it with tissues in it is better, if not make sure it is stuffed with paper to make it heavier.
• Contact paper or wrapping paper
• Packaging tape (if you want it to last longer)
• Stickers, pictures from magazines

First, make sure the tissue box is stuffed with paper or extra tissues to give it some weight.  Then using either wrapping paper or contact paper, wrap it completely to cover all sides.  Once it is wrapped, you can either apply a layer of packaging tape until it is completely covered or skip this step.  After you have finished wrapping it, now it is time to place items on it.  Some ideas include:

• Round stickers - to resemble an actual die
• Pictures from magazines - to help build children's vocabulary; change the pictures once a week based on "themes"
• Library pockets/envelopes - to make switching pictures easier
• Pictures of different action movements - For older children, have them roll the die and then complete the action on the cube; such as jumping jacks, hopping, etc.

There are so many extensions and ideas that come from this idea.  In my classroom, I have a cube that I often use.  We use it to help children choose songs daily, decide how they want to transition from activities, and also during Math games.  It also serves as a great tool to help children understand the shape of a cube.

What are some other ideas that you may have?