Category: Activities

Spray bottles
Corn starch
Baking soda
Food coloring or washable watercolors
(For more vibrant colors, use tempera paint rather than food coloring.)

Directions
Fill the spray bottles 1/3 of the way with a baking soda and corn starch mixture, using roughly equal amounts of both ingredients.  Add a few drops of food coloring or washable watercolors, and then fill the bottles with very warm water, leaving a little space at the top of the bottle.    Use a butter knife or similar to stir the mixture as best you can, and then place the spray spouts on and shake the bottles really, really well.  You will want to shake the bottles once more just before play, as some of the corn starch does settle at the bottom of the bottles.

Invite your child to use the spray chalk to paint large murals or spray directly onto the sidewalk. Your child will love making colorful creations with the spray chalk.

Materials
Lego or Duplo bricks and figures
Plastic containers that can fit in your freezer
Water squirters, toy hammers, golf tees, brushes, etc.

Directions
Fill a plastic container ¼-full with water. Add in a selection of Legos and Duplos figures and bricks. Place this into the freezer overnight.  Remove from the freezer and add in some more Legos and Duplos. Fill almost to the top with water. Carefully transfer the container back into the freezer and let it freeze overnight.

When ready to play, remove the container from the freezer and place the container into a bowl of warm water for a few minutes. This will help to loosen the cube just enough to get it out of the container in one piece.  Place the cube onto a tray or into a larger plastic container and give your child water squirters, mini tools like small play hammers and golf tees, glue scrapers, brushes, spoons, and anything else you can think of to help them excavate the ice!

Then let your little one get busy! 

Ingredients
1/2 cup blueberries
2 kiwis
2 peaches
1/2 cup raspberries
1 cup strawberries
2 cups apple juice

Popsicle molds (purchased at Walmart or online at Amazon)

Directions
Peel and slice all of the fruit.  Fill each popsicle mold with as much fruit as possible. Use a popsicle stick to press the fruit against the sides of each mold. The more fruit you can press into the mold, the more colorful the fresh fruit popsicle with look. Use the blueberries and raspberries to fill the empty spaces and add to the top. 

Next, pour in the apple juice. Leave about 1/8″ between the top of the juice and the top of the mold since liquids expand when frozen. Place a popsicle stick in each mold. You should have two layers of fruit (one for each side of the mold), so it should be fairly easy to push the sticks into the popsicle mold. The fruit will hold the sticks in place.

Place the popsicles in the freezer overnight to freeze. Once frozen, remove popsicles from the molds. If you have trouble getting them out of the molds, just run the molds under hot water briefly to get them to release. 

Enjoy this refreshing summer treat!

Materials

Ice-cube tray
Red food coloring
Blue food coloring
Ziploc bag (quart size)

Directions

Fill an ice-cube tray with water.  Invite your child to place a drop of food coloring in each section of the tray; for half the tray, use red, in the other half, use blue.  Freeze. Once the water has turned to ice, invite your child to place 1 or 2 cubes each of red and blue ice into a Ziploc bag. Place the bag on a surface where your child can observe what happens as the ice begins to melt. What color is the water from the melted ice?

Materials

Water in a large tub
Mr. Bubble bath soap
Plastic cups, bottles, squeeze bottles
Pipettes or basters
Food coloring (optional)

Directions

Fill large tub with warm soapy water. Add food coloring for interest.  Invite your child to pour, squeeze, dump, squirt and explore in the water.  Show your child how to pinch a pipetter or eye dropper. This is not an easy concept to learn and took our Acorn children several minutes of practicing with pipettes and basters in order to fill them with water. Once the children understood the concept, they had a blast squirting water into plastic cups, bottles, and even clear plastic ornaments.

Materials

Various objects that can be put in water (i.e. stick, penny, styrofoam, rock, marble, small ball, apple, etc.)
Small tub with water

Directions

Introduce the words “float” and “sink.” Things that float stay on top of the water; things that sink go to the bottom of the container.  Experiment with a few of the objects, showing your child one or two that float and one or two that sink. Use the new vocabulary words to describe what happens to the objects when they are placed in water.  Invite your child to test some objects. Do they float or sink to the bottom? 

Extension Activities

• Invite your child to predict by asking, “Do you think this will float or sink?” and then let him test it.
• Encourage your child to sort the objects into two groups: things that float and things that sink.  Count the objects. Which group has more? How many more?

Materials

Tempera paints in pastel colors
Pipettes
Large sheet of white paper
Easel (if available)

Directions

Pour various colors of paint into small cups and place a pipette in each cup. Invite your child to pinch the top of the pipette to fill with paint, then squeeze the pipette to release the paint onto the paper. This is an excellent fine motor activity and may take some practice by your child. Create a colorful picture and enjoy watching the paint drip down the paper. Allow painting to dry and then display.

Materials
Blades of grass, leaves, flower petals, etc.
Scissors
Tray (Melissa and Doug Puzzles storage trays work well)

Directions
Invite your child to snip, cut, and manipulate the different items for cutting purposes.  This activity is best done with young children who already have a general grasp on holding scissors, since cutting limp grass and soft petals and turning leaves to cut different angles takes patience, control, and persistence. 

This activity is also a great sensory experience for your child.  Smelling different flowers, mint leaves, and other spices, feeling various textures, and observing the many colors in the tray makes for a rich sensory experience.