Masks
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Paper plates, hole-punch, crayons or
markers and yarn
Instructions: Give your child a paper plate and
a crayon or marker. Have your child fold their paper plate in
half and cut a hole that their nose will fit through. Have them
cut a small hole first, then adjust the hole to fit the size of
their nose. Have your child try on their mask and let them try
to figure out where the eyes should go. They can then cut out
holes for the eyes. Let him or her decorate their masks with different
facial expressions.
Jigsaw
Puzzles
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Cardboard, magazine, scissors and glue
Instructions: Give your child a piece of cardboard,
a picture they drew or from a magazine. Have your child glue their
picture onto their cardboard. When the glue is dry, have them
cut their cardboard into the shape of jigsaw puzzle pieces. When
they have finished, have them race to see how fast they can do
it.
Wet
Prints
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: A square cake pan and water
Instructions: Pour water into the cake pan and
have your child dip their bare feet and or hands into water and
make “wet-prints” on the driveway or sidewalk.
Designer
Toast
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Toast, peanut butter, raisins and cereal
Instructions: On a piece of toast allow your
child to decorate it anyway they want with the items you give
them. My kids love to make a happy face and then eat it up! Great
way to turn lunch time into a fun time.
The
'Act' of Fishing
Age: 5 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: Wooden spoon, tape, yarn, construction
paper, scissors, paper clips and a small magnet
Instructions: With the wooden spoon, attach a
three foot length of yarn and tape it securely to the spoon. Attach
the small magnet to the other end of the string. On the construction
paper draw different fish shapes and then have your child cut
them out. On each shape write a word of a different emotion or
person (ie policeman, doctor). Attach a paper clip to each fish
shape and spread them (face down) on the floor. Have your child
fish for the shapes and then act out what the word on the fish
says and you or another child has to guess what the word is.
Magazine
ABC's
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Old magazines, scissors, paper and
glue
Instructions: Have your child cut out the letters
of the alphabet from different letters in the magazines and then
cut out pictures that start with the same letter.
String
and Seek
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: A roll of yarn
Instructions: Attach on end of the string to
a chair and holding on the the roll your child will walk around
the house and eventually hide somewhere. Have them climb over
and under and everywhere. Either you or another child will untie
the end on the chair and roll up the yarn until the child is found.
Younger kids love this game.
Sock
Puppets
Age: 5 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Old socks, buttons, yarn, glue and
markers
Instructions: On an old sold have your child
decorate a puppet by gluing on buttons for ears, yarn for hair
and use the markers to make different facial expressions.
Homemade
Sticker Book
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Construction paper, stickers, hole-punch,
yarn and crayons or markers.
Instructions: Punch holes down the side of a
few sheets of paper. Make sure the holes are all in the same spot
so they line up on top of each other. Next pile the sheets together
and using the yarn bind them together to make a book. Have your
child draw different scenes on each page of the book (A farm scene,
a city scene, etc.). Using the stickers have your child decorate
each page. Put animal stickers on different parts of the farm
scene and so on.
Letters
On My Back
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: None
Instructions: Never too old to enjoy having this
done...on your child's back draw different letters and numbers
and have your child guess what they are.
Grown
Up Dress Up
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: Grown up clothes
Instructions: Let your child rummage through
some of your old clothes and play dress up.
Cup
Puppets
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: A Paper cup, markers, tape and yarn
Instructions: On upside down paper cups have
your child decorate them to look like different family members.
Then have your child put on a puppet show.
Laundry
Matching
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: Mismatched pile of socks
Instructions: If you are anything like me you
will have a pile of mismatched socks that need to be paired up.
Dump them on the floor and have your child match them up.
Washing Toys
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: A sink full of warm soapy water and
your child's toys
Instructions: Have your child wash their water
safe toys in the sink. It helps sterilize the toys and gives the
child a fun activity...what child does not like to play with water?
Cardboard
Box Car
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: A large cardboard box and crayons or
markers
Instructions: Have your child decorate a box
to look like a car. Draw wheels on the outside and a steering
wheel on the inside and so on. For younger ones you will need
to help. This was a favorite of mine when I was young.
Yarn
Picture
Age: 5 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Different cut lengths of different
colors of yarn, glue and construction paper
Instructions: Have your child make a picture
using only pieces of yarn and glue.
Telecups
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: 2 empty metal soup cans, a long piece
of string, a hammer and a nail
Instructions: On the two 'clean' empty cans,
punch a hole in the center using the hammer and nail. Put each
end of the string in each can and tie the end in some knots. Have
your child go in one room and you or another child go in another
and with the string tight have the two talk to each other.
Shoe
Box Guitar
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Large rubber bands, a show box, tape
and scissors
Instructions: On the lid of the show box cut
a 5 inch hole in the center. Put the lid back on and length wise
wrap the box with the rubber bands. On the sides tape the rubber
bands (so thy do not slide too much). Know let your child strum
a song for you.
Shiny
Pennies
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: Small bowl, salt, vinegar and some
old pennies
Instructions: The best way to do this is to put
a pile of mixed coins in front of your child and have them sort
out the brown ones. Next, in a bowl mixed with the vinegar and
salt have the child put a penny in and stir it around. Watch as
the penny turns from a dingy dark to a shiny light.
Shell
and Pea Game
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: 3 not clear plastic cups and a small
ball or other object that will slide easily
Instructions: Let your child watch you put the
ball under one of the three cups and rearrange all three of them.
Let your child try to guess which cup has the ball under it.
Ring
Toss
Age: 4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Empty paper towel roll, tape, scissors,
cardboard and 3 mason jar lids (the ring part)
Instructions: Make 3 one-inch slits on one end
of an empty paper towel roll. Tape the roll to a piece of cardboard.
Allow your child to decorate it. To play, use the three metal
rings and standing a certain distance away try and get the rings
on the roll.
Draw
on a Mirror with Dry-Erase Markers
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Colored dry erase markers and a large
mirror
Instructions: Have your child draw silly facial
features such as beards and different hats and line their face
up with the ones they drew to see how silly they look.
Camera
Safari
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Small box, paper, scissors and crayons
or markers
Instructions: Help your child make a camera out
of a small box by wrapping it with the sheet of paper and draw
the different parts of the camera (lenses, button, etc.). For
the eyepiece, cut a hole in it to look through. When the camera
is complete, set stuffed animals around the house and then go
traveling from room to room "taking pictures" of your
Safari trip.
Make
a Shoe Box Train
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Shoe boxes, paper, scissors, yarn,
empty toilet paper roll and crayons or markers
Instructions: Using the shoe boxes, decorate
with paint, paper and markers, or other materials to resemble
box-cars. String together with yarn, attaching an extra length
to the front car. This will be the string which your child will
pull in order to drag the train along behind him or her. For an
engine for your train, use an empty toilet paper roll for the
stack. Cover with paper and decorate with crayons or markers.
Draw on wheels and a front grill.
Give
Pretend Haircuts
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: Small box, paper, scissors, small mirror
and crayons or markers
Instructions: Sit on the floor and place a towel
around your next. Let your child pretend to cut your hair using
their fingers and use the little mirror to show you the result.
You can then pretend to cut their hair or let her pretend to cut
her dolls hair.
Balloon
Experiment
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Empty bottle, vinegar, baking soda,
funnel and a balloon
Instructions: Put vinegar in a small plastic
pop or water bottle and with a small funnel put baking soda in
the balloon. Carefully put the balloon over the top of the bottle
ensuring you do not to let the baking soda out until the balloon
covers the top. When the balloon covers the top of the bottle,
dump the baking soda into the vinegar and watch as the balloon
blows up!
Create
Your Own Zoo
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Low
Material: Stuffed animal and empty boxes
Instructions: Let your child set up their stuffed
animals around either their room or the living room to set up
a Zoo (Use some boxes for cages). Have your child give you a our
of the zoo when they are done setting it up.
Sheepdog
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Cotton balls, hula-hoop or yarn
Instructions: Hide cotton balls (sheep) around
the room and have the Sheepdog (your child) round up the lost
sheep. When they find one they have to bring it to the sheep pen
which is the hula-hoop or a circle made from the yarn. They have
to crawl to do this and make doggy sounds.
Hand
Print T-Shirt
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: High
Materials: Fabric paint and a t-shirt
Instructions: Have your child decorate a t-shirt
with their hand prints.
Pudding
Paint
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: High
Material: Pudding, and a cookie sheet
Instructions: With your child's favorite flavor
of pudding, allow them to use clean fingers or kitchen utensils
to “paint” designs on a cookie sheet. This is one
activity were it is ok to eat the paint.
