Supporting Christian Science families and their young children
Ingredients
1 container of Pillsbury bread sticks
1 egg
Directions
Separate dough into strips. Invite your child to twist each strip of dough and place on a greased or parchment paper covered cookie sheet. Ask your child to help crack and beat one egg. Using a pastry brush, brush egg on top of each pastry stick. Bake as directed on the package. Enjoy warm breadsticks as a special snack.
Large stick
Acrylic paint
Painter’s tape
White spray paint
Paint brushes
Newspaper
Small bowls for paint
Go on a stick hunt with your child. Once the perfect stick is found, have an adult spray paint the stick white. The colors will stand out much better. Once the white paint has dried, ask your child to wrap pieces of painter’s tape around the stick to make stripes. Then invite your child to paint between the blue stripes using various colors of acrylic paint. Once the paint is dry, peal the painter’s tape off. We discovered pealing the paint off was a bit tricky for the children since it would tear easily. Hang the colorful stick in a prominent place.
Bin or large container
Dried beans (pinto, navy, or lima)
Striped objects
Cups, spoons, bowls
Hide a variety of striped objects in the beans. Encourage your child to find all the striped objects. For additional fun, you can take a picture of each object using an iPad or camera phone. Invite your child to find the object that matches the picture. Once all the objects have been found, count the ojbects.
Canvas Art Boar
Acrylic paints
Painter’s Tape
Old credit cards or gift cards
Prepare art board by placing painter’s tape vertically, diagonally, or horizontally across the art board. Spoon or pour a small glob of acrylic paint on the board and invite your child to use a credit card or gift card to spread the paint across the canvas. Continue spreading different colors of paint across the board until the surface is covered with paint. Allow paint to dry. Then invite your child to carefully pull the paint off the canvas to see the lovely striped design.
Pattern of a snake drawn with permanent marker onto a 12×18 piece of construction paper
Googly eyes
Tempera paint
Small, clean household sponges cut in half
Glue
Newspaper to cover work space
Paper plate
Cover work space with newspaper. Pour a small amount of tempera paint onto a paper plate. Invite your child to paint stripes on the snake by dipping the edge of the sponge into paint and gently pressing it onto the paper. You may choose to demonstrate how to make stripes or point out some stripes on fabric. Allow paint to dry, then cut out snake. Preschoolers can be encouraged to cut out their own snakes. Glue the snake onto a piece of construction paper. Add googly eyes and display.
Orange and black construction paper
Glue
Picture or book about tigers
Spend some time looking at pictures of tigers with your child. Notice the beautiful black stripes that they have. Invite your child tear long strips of black construction paper and glue the strips onto orange construction paper to look like tiger stripes. Display the tiger stripes.
Tearing paper is a great fine motor activity for toddlers and preschoolers.
A variety of puzzles
Observe your child as she works a puzzle. 
Your child is practicing problem solving, improving her visual spacial awareness and eye and hand coordination, refining her fine motor skills, and when puzzles are worked on together they promote cooperative play.
Working puzzles is a very important part of a child’s early learning.
Materials
Large plastic tub
Metallic Foil Shred Filler
Directions
Empty metallic shred filler into a large tub. Encourage your child to explore it – pull it apart, Hide small objects in the filler and invite your child to find them.
For preschoolers, hide pairs of magnetic letters and invite your child to find the pairs – matching upper case letters; pairing lower case letters with their upper case letters; try to create simple words, etc.
Ingredients
Puff Pastry
Ripe banana
Peanut butter
1 egg, well beaten
Directions
Cut puff pastry into 3 inch squares. Invite your child to help peel the banana, place the banana in a small bowl, and then mash it with a fork. Place a small amount of peanut butter in a bowl. Using a butter knife, invite your child to spread some peanut butter onto the puff pastry square. Top the peanut butter with mashed bananas. Help your child fold the puff pastry in half so that it makes a triangle. With a fork, press the edges together. Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Using a pastry brush, paint the tops of the turnovers with egg. Bake as instructed on the puff pastry box. Allow to cool and enjoy as a special snack!
Materials
Variety of plastic colored straws with different thicknesses and cut into various lengths
Large empty Parmesan cheese container
Directions
Cut plastic straws into various sizes ranging from 2-4 inches in length. They can be all one color if you’re wanting to reinforce a specific color, or they can be a variety of colors, which can help with color recognition. Invite your child to drop the various straws into the holes of a clean Parmesan cheese container. You can encourage your child to find all the orange straws, then all of the purple straws, etc. Your child may want to count the straws as he drops them into the container.
In addition to practicing fine motor control, this activity also helps develop eye/hand coordination.