Fun and Learning for Quiet Times

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 Vigorous physical activity is a big part of each day to keep young children healthy, but adults need to plan for quiet activities too.   While some limited TV time is OK, what are some other quiet easily managed activities you can set up?

 Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts

Materials Needed:  magazines, paper, crayons, markers, scissors, paint set, Q’tips, yarn, water, small rocks, white glue, 

What To Do:

Painting with Water

   Take a science walk and collect rocks of various colors, sizes, and shapes. At home, set your children up with a waterproof area and provide a small paintbrush or Q’tip and a bowl of water to help build up the small muscles of their hands. These muscles must be strong to print letters.  Show how to “paint” the rocks with water and notice how the color shows up like magic.  

 Pet Rocks 

   Help children use permanent markers to draw a face on the surface of favorite large rocks. Help them glue on a little yarn to make hair. Teach a dot of glue does a lot. Teachers will love you. Can you think of a good name for each? Place the rock on your table, desk, bookcase, or garden.

Crayon Resist

  Use a crayon on paper to carefully print your young children’s names in big letters.   Use a capital for the first letter and lower case for the following letters.  Then use water with a little paint color to make a wash over the whole sheet.  The name will stand out and be a perfect door decoration or book cover for a whole series of pictures. You can se dots or dashes to outline names. Show children how to start at the top of each letter to correctly follow the dots to print their names. Praise what they can do. They’ll try their best.

 Favorite Pictures  

  Using old grocery fliers and magazines, help children choose and cut out pictures of favorite flowers, fruits, animals, vegetables, and toys.  Print each blank paper with a picture title, for example:” My Favorite Fruits.”  Let the kids cut, sort and paste the pictures.  Talk with children about choices and use a marker to print the name of each item. This is a good activity to practice letters and beginning sounds of each word.  Very young children should work on only one category at a time. All these activities encourage creativity, build vocabulary and make the connection between reading and writing.

Reading

 The number one priority is reading, reading, and reading!  Read to children several times every day and visit the library to check out books and attend free library programs.

Photo: Norman, Steve. nat143.jpg. . Pics4Learning. 22 Dec 2012

 For more fall activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com.