Nursery
The following websites have guidance and information to support activities with your nursery age child;
- www.parentclub.scot/topics/play-learn/playing-games
- www.playscotland.org/parents-families/
- www.creativelittlestar.co.uk/
- www.starcatchers.org.uk/making-my-mark/
- www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/
- www.froebel.org.uk/pamphlets/
- www.dots.actionforchildren.org.uk/
- www.familydaystriedandtested.com/free-virtual-tours-of-world-museums-educational-sites-galleries-for-children/
- www.weareteachers.com/virtual-author-activities/
10 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItincwrwWhA
We would also suggest any of the following activities;
Physical
– Building a den, inside or out (Reading in a den is great fun, especially using a torch!)
– Obstacle course, inside or out.
– Put on your favourite music and dance
– Play hide and seek indoors or outdoors or tig tag outside
– Play ‘pooh sticks’ by a local stream (remember safety first!)
– Build towns and buildings with construction or junk models
– Wash a car or ‘paint’ the outside walls or fence with a paintbrush and water
– Treasure hunt, inside or out.
– Make a homemade dice with an old box and write different animal actions e.g. stomp like a dinosaur, hop like a frog then get rolling and moving.
– Make indoor hopscotch using paper and pens (links with numeracy).
– Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube
– Sleeping Bunnies
– Ring a Ring o Roses
– The Bean Game
– Simon Say
Expressive arts
– Messy play; paint/shaving foam/dried foods/make your own playdough.
– Music making; pots/pans/wooden spoons or other household items.
– Make up your own dance routine.
– Make your own musical instrument.
– ‘Transient art’ – use sticks to create any shape and use other natural materials to create
your own master piece.
– Google famous artists and try to copy their style – Van Gogh, Monet etc.
– Sing nursery rhymes and songs.
– Bake simple recipes and involve kids in cooking of family meals.
– Playdough model making.
– Printing with paint e.g Fruit and Vegetables, cookie cutters, kitchen roll tubes.
Literacy
– Read stories and talk to the children about the characters/author/illustrator.
– Ask children to retell parts of the story.
– Ask children to express their opinions e.g likes/dislikes of stories.
– Ask children to describe what is happening in pictures in books.
– Make up your own stories and act them out or hold a puppet show for your family.
– Mark making with any tools -chalk, pens, pencils, paint, sand, mud, shaving foam.
– Introduce new words to your child’s vocabulary when talking through daily routines.
– Use a device to record your child singing or talking. Record your voice reading a story for
your child.
– Help to ‘write’ the shopping list or jobs to do around the house.
– Play “Kim’s game” for memory and attention.
– Talk about different places that we see letters and how they are used.
– Encourage children to recognise letters relevant to them e.g. first letter of their name.
– What am I activity, adult gives clues about an animal and children have to work out what animal it is.
– Cutting paper with scissors (Develops fine motor skills).
Numeracy
– Bring numeracy into everyday conversation; “how many stairs are we climbing”.
– Bring numeracy and the natural world together; make “patterns” with
leaves/stones/shells.
– Colour or Shape scavenger hunt.
– Bake any basic items and introduce numeracy when weighing, measuring & counting
– Sort the laundry. Count the socks, sort into patterns etc.
– Play dominos and other pairs activities.
– Giant shape match; on a large piece of paper trace round lots of shapes then get children to match them up.
– Share coins with your children talk about the names of them and the numbers on them.
STEM
– Sink/floating activities with water and different items.
– Build your own homemade marble run.
– Problem solving with daily chores around the house
– Help to ‘fix’ things around the house. Work out how things work.
– Lego/Duplo challenge, each day ask children to build or create something, the more
creative the better.
– Salt painting.
– Make a Kaleidoscope.
– Make a mini eruption – baking soda, coloured paint or food colouring and vinegar.