Back to 'Home' School!

So how is everyone holding up? 

This week would have been the first week of our Summer Term.  Sadly we have not able to reopen, so instead we have pulled together a few play based learning activities for you and your little ones, to keep them busy and stimulated whilst while we juggle with challenges of lockdown.

HIDDEN SHAPES/COLOUR GAMES

These games provide great multi sensory learning opportunities that keep little ones amused, while encouraging speech & understanding as well as honing fine motor skills. Little ones love the excitement of discovering the hidden surprises.
 
This is a great for supporting speech & understanding, for example 'What colour did you find? Can you find the blue dot?
 
To create this game you will need:
Transparent serving/oven dish
Piece of card
A marker pen
Rainbow rice*
A paint brush
 
Make your rainbow rice in advance so that it is completely dry before use.

Mark out your shapes (letters or colour dots) on the sheet of card, and then line your dish/tray with the card.

Cover the card with the rainbow rice and demonstrate how to uncover the hidden surprises with a paintbrush. Let you little ones carry on the game, prompting them with phrases like “What colour have you found now?” to encourage them to share their discoveries with you. 
 
With a tiny bit of prep this is a great game to have on hand to pull out quickly. You can also reuse the rice for other sensory play games when you’re finished – the sound of transferring rice from different containers can keep children entertained for some time.
 
*(To make rainbow rice head over to www.littlebinsforlittlehands.com/dye-rice-sensory-play-colored-rice/)

SCISSOR SKILLS

Scissors can be tricky things for little hands to master and paper or card are not always the most cooperative learning materials as they wobble and bend.  Play dough is a much more forgiving material and can allow children to understand how to control the force they use as well as the fine motor coordination.

All you need is some soft play dough, rolled into some wriggly worms or snakes and a pair of child safe scissors.  
 
Our children love using our Baker Ross child safe scissors*, as they are perfectly designed for little hands, but please remember that adult supervision is always needed for scissor skills activities.
 
This game will keep little ones entertained for ages and is great for building concentration and hand/eye co-ordination.

* (https://www.bakerross.co.uk/spring-loaded-scissors)

PRE-WRITING SHAPES

This is a lovely, simple Montessori pre writing activity that helps children develop and learn shape structure in a multi sensory way.

We shared a piece on this earlier in the week on the 9 pre writing shapes that form the foundation of future letter formation, but for this activity we are just focusing on the first four shapes. Don’t be concerned if your little ones struggle with some or all of these initially as these are milestone targets for 2-3.5 years.

To create this game you need:
a tray
sand/ flour/salt
paintbrush (or fingers are fine as well – just make sure they’re not tasting)
 
This is a great (& calming) way to introduce children to pencil control and helps develop those all-important fine motor skills.

LETTER RECOGNITION GAMES

Its never too early to start introducing letters to children and what better way than this simple, creative activity.

Children have great fun placing beads or rice in the cut out cardboard letters. Perhaps introduce them to the letters in their name and the sounds the letters make (phonics)
 
To create this game you need:
cardboard
craft knife
pens
rice/beans

SHAPE RECOGNITION

Shape hunts are perfect for getting the whole family involved and are bound to keep the little people amused for ages (in certainly did in our house!)

Just download our templates (https://bit.ly/3bEuRfa) and away you go.

A shape hunt is great for encouraging vocabulary, understanding and shape recognition. Have fun and happy shape hunting

LAVA LAMP EXPERIMENT

This is a great science experiment to do whilst at home and the children LOVE watching the 'magic' happen. Check out the demo we did in our Instagram highlights! 

You will need:
Large waterproof cylinder or vase
Water (to fill almost to the top of your cylinder)
Water beads (we have some on our Amazon list: http://amzn.eu/edWLwqz)
Alka-seltzer tablets
 
Firstly ‘grow’ your water beads overnight (Depending on the beads 4-8 hours should do it)
 
Then add the water beads to the empty cylinder and fill with water almost to the top.

The exciting bit is to drop two alka-seltzer tablets in and wait for the dancing beads to happen.

This is a wonderfully calming and mesmerising experiment, which is great for creating some calm in amongst the craziness. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

An little top tip: you might want to have a few back up alka-seltzer tablets in stock as you will definitely be asked to do this experiment more than once!

LEARNING GAMES

Who doesn't love an orchard toy game and one of our favourites at Little Starlings is the shopping list game (Find it on our Amazon list: http://amzn.eu/edWLwqz)

This is such a sweet little game that encourages speech & language, patience (for parents & children) and turn taking. A great game for all the family and always a winner at our house.
 
 
 
We hope you enjoyed the blog and that it finds you all well.  Stay safe and please don't forget to share your photos with us x