Button Board

 

Help your child get a head start on geometry by helping her make her very own buttonboard! Similar to a geoboard, except instead of pegs, she’ll use buttons. Your little one will be able to explore various shapes, letters and numbers and eventually patterns and even symmetry on her button board by wrapping string or yarn around the colorful buttons.

What You Do:

1. Have your child paint and decorate one side of the cardboard with tempera paints. Allow the paint to dry completely.
2. Ask her to place out the buttons in straight rows across the cardboard.
3. Help her to glue them in place with a hot glue gun.
4. Have her cut different lengths of yarn, or string and tie them in a knot at the end, creating loops of various sizes.
5. Encourage her to explore different shapes on her geoboard by wrapping the looped yarn or string around various buttons. See how many shapes she can create. What about numbers and letters?  Also, challenge her to make symmetrical loops.

Activity: Make a Triangle-Circle Clown

What You Do:

1. Before the activity, cut out circles and triangles of various sizes. A few of them should be about the size of an adult hand, some of them should be the size of an adult fist, some of them should be the size of a child’s fist, and some of them should be even smaller than that. Cut the shapes out of various materials – whatever you have handy.
2. Tell your child that you’ll be making a picture of a clown using only triangles and circles. Ask your child which shape would work best for the clown’s head. Then ask which one would work best for the clown’s hat. Have her try out the combination by putting two of the largest shapes together and see if it looks like a clown’s head with a clown’s hat. Adjust as needed.
3. Help your child glue these two pieces onto a piece of construction paper or a large piece of poster board to make the clown’s head and hat.
4. Now ask your child which shapes would work best as the clown’s body. His feet? His hands? There is no right answer to these questions, but help your child arrange the pieces until she’s satisfied with how her choices look, and then glue them down. Keep in mind that strings of circles may work for arms or legs.
5. Follow this same process to add two eyes, a nose, and a mouth to the clown. Then help your child decorate the rest of the clown’s body with smaller circles and triangles. Voila! A circus clown made from shapes!

If your child has also learned about squares or other shapes, you can include those on the picture as well.

Activity: Create a Color Collage

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Have you ever watched your child sort objects into groups without being asked or prompted? Has he divvied up his candy on Halloween night, or put his Matchbox cars in groups according to color? Preschool kids find sorting and classifying objects fun, because it brings about a sense of organization and accomplishment. And the best news is, all this sorting helps with kindergarten math and science success. Before sorting, kids make conscious and unconscious guesses about what group might have more or less, and sorting allows them to qualify or disqualify their assumptions.

Kids can sort objects by shape, size, color, or any other quality. But for beginning students, sorting by color is a good place to start. This hands-on art activity will help your child work on her sorting skills, and make a beautiful addition to the refrigerator gallery, too!

What You Do:

1. Spread the collage materials out on a table or other work area. Make sure the materials are mixed up, so that the sorting isn’t already done!
2. Give your child a piece of heavy construction paper that has been divided into four boxes with lines or folds.
3. Ask her to pick a color for each box, then write the color with an appropriate pen or marker. For example, use a red marker to write “red.”
4. Help your child glue a few of the collage items into the correct boxes. For example, red sequins go into the “red” box, as do red pompoms… When you think she’s got the hang of things, let her go at it on her own. (Keep in mind that even though she may have the sorting part down, she may still need some help with the glue!)
5. Challenge your child’s ability to articulate the process she’s using. Ask her to tell you why she’s gluing the items where she’s gluing them. And once she’s got color sorting down, consider throwing her a curve ball by asking her how else she might sort her items. For example, she might put all the buttons together, or all the things that are soft (feathers, pompoms, etc.) As she works on her collage, talk about what makes the items the same and what makes them different.

When there are enough sparkles and glue to satisfy your young artist, and the macaroni is just barely hanging on to the edge of the page, the masterpiece is complete. Congratulations. You’ve helped sharpen your child’s sorting, color recognition, and fine motor skills, and thrown in a bit of artistic expression as well. All that’s left to do is to make some room on the refrigerator!

Play the Fish for Numbers Game!

 

What You Do:

1. Cut ten fish shapes, each about 6-inches long, out of the different colors of construction paper.
2. Write a different number from 1 to 10 on each fish.
3. Punch a hole in each one near the mouth area. Slide a paper clip through each hole to attach.
4. Tie the string to the dowel to make a fishing rod.
5. Use the super glue to adhere the magnet to the end of the string. Let it dry thoroughly.
6. To play: Scatter the fish so that the numbers are clearly visible. Tell your child, “I’m hungry for a number 4 fish!” and watch him hunt for it, then carefully lower the “rod” until the magnet catches the paper clip and he reels it in. Repeat with other numbers until all the fish are caught for a game that’s so fun, it doesn’t even feel like math practice!

Vary the game by using it to practice other things, too! Write letters on the fish to work on alphabet recognition, or put a sight word on each fish. Or, for some more advanced math practice, shout out a number and ask kids to fish for something “bigger” or “smaller.”

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Healthy Food Hunt

Getting your child to eat fruit and vegetables can be a chore. This activity teaches her that certain foods are not only healthy and helpful for her body but they also taste good too! Have your preschooler scour the grocery ads, cut out different foods, and make a healthy meal on a paper plate. Using scissors will help boost her fine motor skills, essential for success in kindergarten.

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Read why this mom loves LEGO

 

Something that is on my kids’ Christmas and birthday wish lists every year are LEGOs. It’s been that way for about 3 or 4 years now and I don’t expect it to stop any time soon.

Whether its LEGO City, Lego Duplo or Lego Junior. There’s a time and hands they each belong in.

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This 5 senses activity will be delightful for kids to explore their own senses and learn how their bodies work!

 

MY 5 SENSES ACTIVITY FOR LEARNING ALL ABOUT OUR SENSES

WINTER LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOL

Here’s a fun collection of winter themed learning activities for preschoolers!  Work on counting, literacy, and fine motor skills.  Explore some science concepts too!

Penguin Writing Tray

Explore More Of These Fun Learning Activities Here!