This was an impromptu activity, I didn’t plan it at all. I was finishing up a post for Parentella about school anxiety when my son decided that he had enough of Legos, and since it was pouring outside his beloved backyard was off limits too. I suggested we play library. By the time he was all set up my final proof read was done and we were playing.

1. Gather your props. You will need LOTS of books, an old computer to be the check out , a cloth bag and” library” card . You could make a card as a craft before hand if you want or just use a old Starbucks card.
2. Set up your library. Ours was set up on our family room couches. My son sorted the books by ones for big kids and ones for little kids. I couldn’t tell the difference but the fact that he initiated the sorting and classification was good enough for me. We popped my old laptop on the coffee table for check out.
3. Next ask your librarian to help with book suggestions. This was eye opening for me he suggested some great books by title, this is a great way to get a sense of which books your child remembers and loves.
4. Time to check out books. I had to pay a fine too. Isn’t it fun when you realize your kids is listening all.the.time.
5. Next it’s story time!

Pretend play isn’t just fun, it’s an important component to early childhood education. It allows kids to practice social situations, learn by doing and develop storytelling skills as well. So grab some books and turn your living room into a library .

Despite the warning to never play with your food I say PLAY! And learn of course. These are some of our favorite kid friendly crafts and activities with food we have done over the years. Yogurt painting below was a perfect introduction to finger painting for my son and years after first posting we still play grocery store in our kitchen!

Marshmallow Rainbow

Yogurt Painting

Cereal Acorn

Pretend Play Grocery Store

Strawberry Craft

Salt Art

Waffle Painting

Fish are a wonderful theme for all ages, they are accessible to most anyone , even if you don’t have an aquarium to visit nearby a pet store can’t be too far away, and it’s free!  Also there are tons of great  books about fish , I review 3 new ones today. This craft can be made by all ages and would be great as a group project in a classroom with each student adding their unique fish .

1. Gather your materials. You will need some white paper,washable  markers or stamp pads in various colors , scissors, glue, a marker scissors , googly eyes and if you wish blue paper for a background.
2. Start by drawing the outline of fish. Make one or many. If your child can do this have them make the outline.
3. Time to get messy! Color your finger tips or use a stamp pad and get ink on your finger tips.
4. Print onto the fish.
5. Keep going with all different colors. Make mention to your child about how lots of ink makes a darker print and less makes it lighter.
6. Cut out the fish.
7. If desired make a sea for them, I cut the top off my sheet of blue construction paper in a blue wave design.
8. Glue the fish into the sea.
9. Add eyes, smiles and let dry.

Books About Fish

Fish Schoolby Nancy Poydar is a really funny book that also manages to teach the reader a lot about fish.The story is about  Charlie who gets Wishy a goldfish for his birthday and then sets off to teach him all sorts of things. When his class takes a field trip to the aquarium guess who Charlie pops into a ziploc and into his backpack. My son loved the silliness of this book as well as the information that is shared as the class progresses through the aquarium. Lots of giggles and learning with this cute story.

Little Shark by Anne Rockwell is another accessible non fiction book from one of our favorite authors. We follow a shark from birth until it’s full grown in this book filled with fascinating shark facts. I like that it reads like a story because it sucks the reader in instead of just spouting off cold facts about these cool and scary ( to me) animals. I loved that my son was rather shocked that sharks don’t stay with their moms or their many siblings, and are instead solitary. I loved how it explained a little bit about the food chain in the ocean and how we get oxygen from air but fish get it from the water. Add this one to your shelf!

Trout, Trout, Trout!: A Fish Chant by April Pulley Sayre is not a story but a chanting book. It lists a number of fish found in the United States in a rhyming text. Along with Trip Park’s funny illustrations the book works although my son didn’t ask to read it again after  our initial reading. I like the facts at the back of the book about each type of fish in the book and think that any child into fishing would probably be more interested in this book than my son was.

Allie did a color matching activity very similar to this one over a year ago, but I recently this variation at a daycare when I went to pick up my friend’s child. I had to make it as the perfect multi-level learning activity for my home.

All you will need are clothespins, paint, marker, scissors, and posterboard.

I traced an upside down large mixing bowl to get my big circle. Then I sectioned it into 8 pieces, but you can do as many as you like. I painted each section a different color.

As I painted the sections I made sure that I painted a clothespin for each color as well. You will see two of each in the photo because I made two sets (and then had to make a third).

I wrote the names of each color in the section. I also wrote the names of each color on the clothespins.

I gave the kids the circles with the clothespins already attached to the appropriate sections. I asked them to pull off all of the clothespins and put them in a pile. They loved pulling them off, maybe a little too much.

Then I told them to match the clothespins to the colors on the wheel. I demonstrated one match up to really show them, too. After all I was dealing with 2 two year olds. My daughter started right at it.

This activity is great for matching, learning colors, and motor skills. Our foster child has trouble doing the pincher hold, so this activity was more for him to work on motor skills and hand-eye coordination (not so much on color matching). Oh, and it is working. He is getting better every time we play this activity. Eve his therapists have noticed a big difference. We will get the color matching down, one day.

My daughter is learning to match and get more familiar with her colors. But it doesn’t hurt to build those motor skills, either.

This activity is requested constantly at my house. The littler ones have so much fun playing with it that I had to make one for my four year old son, too. I am hoping we will have our colors down as sight words. We should as much as we play this.

So there you have it, an activity that can be done by different ages and developmental stages (including special needs). Here is my daughter so proud of her completion. I know that you can’t tell from the picture, but she is very happy and proud.

My plan was to make Saturn and start teaching my son about space but he asked if he could make planet Earth so I grabbed the shaving cream and this is what we made. What a hit! It’s so simple even young toddlers ( provided they are past the eating everything stage) could do this with minimal adult help. Saturn will get made sometime soon , he had so much fun making our planet and we still got to talk and learn about space.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some shaving cream, white glue, green paint,scissors, a marker, blue paper, a spoon, and container or bowl.
2. Start by mixing your paint. You will need 3 parts shaving cream to 1 part white glue, and green paint . Use as much green paint as you need to get the color you want.
3. While they mix it up, draw a circle on your blue paper.
4. Paint. It might get messy but it will definitely be fun! 
5. My son preferred to scoop the paint on to his hand and slap it down. 
6. While the paint was drying my son used the extra paint to make another painting !
7. Let dry and cut out. The paint will dry puffy !

Books About Space !