Category: Activities

Ingredients
Small wooden skewers
Fruit, cheese, marshmallows to make patterns

Directions
Cut up 2–3 kinds of fruit or use cheese cubes or mini marshmallows. Invite your child to make a simple pattern using the fruit, cheese, or mini marshmallows. Say the pattern out loud as you make the kebabs together. Enjoy the pattern kebab for a tasty snack.

Materials
3-4 cookie cutters
Tempera paint
Paper plate with paper towel
Strip of paper approx. 4×18 inches

Directions
Lay a double layer of paper towel on a paper plate.  Pour tempera paint onto the paper towel. Invite your child to choose two cookie cutters and dip them one at a time into the paint. Make a repeating pattern with the cookie cutters.  Encourage your child to say the pattern out loud as he creates it.

For younger children, generate a pattern for your child to copy. Say the pattern out loud together.  Find the two cookie cutters used to make the pattern.  Help you child copy the pattern. Once your child understands that patterns repeat, encourage him create a pattern and see if you can copy his pattern!

Materials

• Clean blanket

Directions

Playing from the tummy position allows for a different view of the world. Although it is recommended that babies sleep on their backs, your baby can still benefit from exercise in the tummy position while awake. Lay your baby on his tummy and get down on that level, making faces and noises to encourage raising his head.  Tummy time strengthens the neck and builds upper body strength.

Extensions

• Lay out some brightly colored toys so your baby can see them from this position.
• Get your baby’s attention with any object and move it back and forth slowly so it is tracked with the eyes.
• Roll your baby to his side and then gently back to the tummy, saying, “Wheeeeeeee.”
• Stand directly over your baby at your full height, and then move slowly down to a squatting position so you are very close.

Materials
Tempera paint in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple 
White construction paper (9×12 or 12×18)

Directions
Fold the construction paper in half (either direction). With your assistance, invite your child to place drops of paint in all the colors onto the construction paper.  It’s best if you have small squeeze bottles for the paint, but you can even use spoons to drop small globs of paint.  Once all the paint colors have been placed on the paper, invite your child to fold the paper in half and rub over the paper.  Open the  paper again and see the new colorful, symmetrical paint design that has been created.  

Materials
Colored tape or construction paper in rainbow colors
Magnetic Letters

Directions
Create a rainbow using colored tape or construction paper on a magnetic surface like a refrigerator or magnetic white board. Place the magnetic letters in a basket or container and invite your child to match and place the color of the letter to the same color of the rainbow. For a toddler, this is a color matching activity and you can say the names of the letters as your child places them on the rainbow. Toddlers can quickly learn the first letter in their name.

For preschool age children, encourage them to say all the names of the letters.  Include upper and lower case letters. Invite your preschooler to place the letters in alphabetical order – even though letters may be missing in the sequence. Encourage them to make words with the magnetic letters. 

Ingredients
White bread
Sweetened condensed milk
New, clean paint brushes
Food coloring
6 small blows

Directions
Pour a small amount of sweetened condensed milk in each bowl and add food coloring to make the colors of the rainbow. Using new paint brushes, invite your child to paint a rainbow or colorful design onto a piece of bread.  Toast in toaster oven.  Enjoy as a special snack!

Materials
Salad spinner
Paper plates
Tempera paint in rainbow colors

Directions
Place a paper plate in the salad spinner. Help your child place one drop of each color paint onto the paper plate. Place the lid on the salad spinner and invite your child to turn the knob. Observe your child’s delight when the lid is removed! Allow to dry and display.

Materials
3 cups of water
Food coloring (red, blue, yellow)
1 can of shaving cream
1 larger jar filled with clear water
Pipettes

Directions
Invite your child to place several drops of food coloring in the smaller cups of water. Take the larger jar filled with clear water and spray shaving cream on top of the water to represent a cloud. Using a pipette, invite your child to squeeze and drop colored water onto the shaving cream cloud.  Observe what happens as the water seeps through the shaving cream and falls into the clear water.  

Materials
Pony beads in rainbow colors
Pipe cleaners in rainbow colors
Foam block used for floral arranging
Container for beads

Directions
Invite your child to stick one pipe cleaner of each color into the foam block. Next invite your child to place a bead one at a time onto the matching color pipe cleaner. Count how many of each color once all the beads have been placed on the pipe cleaners. How many red beads? Orange? etc.