5 minute sparklers
My son loved the 3D Word Search I made him a while back so when I saw that the dollar store had pink and purple foam letters I grabbed a few packs and headed home to make another for him. The great thing about this activity is that it incorporates different senses . Kids can see and feel the letters that make up the words. I kept the words easy to find by making them all a uniform color for my beginning reader but make it as tricky as you want. Also even if your child isn’t reading you can still make this , just turn it into a letter search .
- Gather your materials. You will need a canvas or other stiff cardboard base, contact paper, foam letter stickers , scissors and a marker. Depending on which contact paper you get you will want to either use a dry erase marker or a regular washable maker if you want to use the word search as a write and wipe surface. I bought a new type of contact paper this week and dry erase is a pain to wipe off it, but washable markers do great with a baby wipe. If you want this to be a one time only activity you can skip the contact paper and just add the letters to some construction paper.
- Cover the canvas with contact paper- this makes the surface wipe able.
- Add your words. I tried my best to stay lined up but I never worry about it being exactly perfect. I took words from classic conversation hearts but you can do any thing , even names of people you love. I find it easiest to add one row vertically and one horizontally first then fill the columns in .
- Write the words out on some paper .
- Add a marker and a kid and watch them amaze you with their skills!
As my son was doing this I noticed he touched the letters, squished them and traced a few with his hand. My cuddly guy ( he’ll hate that I said that in a year or two) seems to have a real need for kinesthetic elements in his lessons.
- I also noticed how he was holding his marker, after I took these pictures. He has a natural tendency to twist his wrist like that for cutting but it’s the first time I have witnessed it for writing. Not sure if it was just because of the raised letters but I am going to watch him much closer … Any tips of correcting this ? Experience with this particular tendency? I am going to have him write on the wall more ( forces proper grip) but if you have any other awesome ideas please share !
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As I prepare for even more family to arrive at our house, double check recipes and check my 100 lists for the 100th time I can’t forget about my kids. They still need fun fast things to do bewteen gazing at the Christmas tree and shaking presents. Here are some great fast fixes and quick fun for the days ahead.
Train Track Painting ( above)
” Mom how do you spell ______? “ is that a common phrase at your house? Since my son has started reading more and more fluently he has been eager to spell words as well. The catch is he’s not the most enthusiastic writer. I want to fill that desire to spell without creating crazy stress over writing . This is an easy way to make spelling into a puzzle and not a test. If you are a long time reader you probably know I am a terrible speller and I so want my kids to love the challenge of spelling that I never had for fear of being wrong. Games and activities like this are a great way to start.
- Gather your materials. You will need some( many) letter stickers ( you can just write on the blocks but I prefer to do something temporary), blocks, a spinner, animal stickers and time to sit down and play with your child.
- Start by placing animal stickers on the spinner. I chose animals my son would be able to spell with encouragement. Which means a parent helping him sound out when he got stuck. Not quite all by himself, there needs to be some challenge.
- Now add the letters. Spell each word yourself to make sure that you have them correct, remebering that some letters can be used for multiple words… it’s only a little tricky.
- Time to play . It’s simple, they spin the spinner then spell the word corresponding to the animal the spinner landed on.
- Spin and spell! My son kept landing on lion, after a few I thought he’d get annoyed but instead he said ” I know this word L-I-O-N ”
Remember you can break this down for non readers too by looking for the first sound, or for even younger children by providing a basket of toys with matching animals. Lots of options.
If an I-Spy book and a sensory bin had a baby this is what they would wake up at 2am to feed. My son’s interests are geared mostly to games and pretend play these days and while most of our time is spent doing funny accents I like doing these fun games that work on a bunch of skills in a short amount of time. This works on handwriting , reading and observation skills.
- Gather your materials. You can use almost anything , easy right? You need toys, and other small objects that your child can read but that aren’t too easy or it’s not going to be a 5 minute sparkler , it will be done in 30 seconds. So go around your house and trust me you’ll find things pretty fast. If your child is not a reader use colors or just the first letter. You will also need a bin, marker, sheet of card stock , and a crayon.
- Write out the words of all the objects on the card stock with marker.
- Pop the toys in the bin, hand your child the list.
Stick around so if words are tricky you can help them try different strategies like using the objects for clues, sounding out the word or passing on to the next to return to it after. 
No I am not suggesting your kids paint their eyeballs, but rather paint WITH eyeballs ( or balls that look like eyeballs). This is a simple and fast activity that is perfect for the goulish , gross out season upon us without being too icky for more squeamish kids. Be mindful of doing this with kids who are still putting things in their mouths, opt for bigger balls for them, if it can fit in their mouth get a new ball that can’t.
- Gather your materials. You will need some liquid paint in your kiddo’s favorite colors ( this is also a great color mixing activity if you want to throw a lesson in to it), some eyeball bouncy balls ( found in Halloween section of 3 big box stores I have been to), paper and a box or container.
- Pop the paper in.
- Pour in the paint
- Add the eye balls – we added a bunch at a time!
- Paint! Roll the eyeballs around in the box and watch them paint.
- We added more paper after the first one and rolled off the excess paint, I like this painting better!
- Let dry and hang up where your kids can show it off!
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