More Activity Ideas
Look at books together and talk about what you can see. Choose books with pictures. Books that are interactive are also good to keep children engaged e.g. ones with buttons or flaps to lift up. Look at the book together and name the item ‘hat’ or describe the action ‘jumping’. Don’t worry about asking your child to say the words – keep it relaxed and fun for them and let them hear you say the words as you look through the book together.
You may like to visit your local library – every library has a children's area with books, music, story CDs, comics, games and toys to play with. And some offer a toy library, so you can borrow toys as well as books. Find out more about Islington library services for pre-school children here.
What’s in the bag
Create intrigue and anticipation by hiding a few objects in a bag – any bag will do! Have fun talking about the object that your child picks out.
Take a look at this video from Tiny Happy People of a dad playing What’s in the Bag with his daughter:
Have a ‘tea party’ using pots and pans and other supplies from your kitchen. Explore preparing food and drinks and pretending to feed the items to dolly or teddy, commenting on what they are eating or drinking. This will support your child’s pretend and early imaginative play skills and will also help develop their ability to join sequences (or play ideas) together. It’s also a great way to help your child learn more about action words (verbs) – cut, pour, stir, cook. And a great opportunity to model social language such as ‘more please’ and ‘finished’.
Make foam cakes using shaving foam. Place a table cloth or large tray on the floor and have fun filling cupcake cases with shaving foam to create “foam cakes”. Take turns to make each cake – it will be messy but lots of fun! At the end, turn each cake over and make them “splat”! For young children you can use words like “shake”, “more foam”, “splat” and “my turn”. For slightly older children, talk about what the foam looks like or feels like: “it’s like snow” or “the foam is cold”.
Play with playdough. While playing you can use words like “roll”, “you’re cutting”, “I’m squeezing”, “A snake” “It’s so long!” and “Squash!”.
You can make playdough at home using this 1-minute playdough recipe (this is a job for adults only) – in a bowl mix together ½ a cup of salt, 1 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar (most shops have it with the baking ingredients). Mix one cup of boiling water and one tablespoon of oil into the dry ingredients. If you have some, you can add food colouring to make different coloured dough.
Last updated22 Jul 2024