Wednesday
To complete today's activities, you will need:
paper
something to draw with
pegs
ruler
scissors
string
small toy
tape
stick or long spoon
scarves or ribbons
Overview of today's activities:
Activity 1: Recycling (5-10 minutes)
Activity 2: Shared story (10-15 minutes)
Activity 3: Dancing wand (10-15 minutes)
Break
Activity 4: Peg play (10 minutes)
Activity 5: Paper tower (15-20 minutes)
Please note, these times are an approximation only.
Recycling
Learning goal: Children develop an understanding of recycling.
Watch the video to find out where milk bottles go after you put them in the recycling bin.
What colour bins do you have at home?
Draw your bins and what goes inside each.
Too hard?
Have someone fill bottles up with coloured water.
Add some interesting objects inside, such as rice, small figurines or beads.
Tape the lid shut.
Tip and turn the bottle and watch the objects.
This is a different way to recycle things.
Too easy?
Help a family member sort your rubbish and recycling into the correct bins.
Think of ways you might reuse some recyclable containers.
Shared story - The crocodile
Learning goal: Children use actions and create a map to demonstrate their understanding of a story.
Listen to the story about a crocodile.
Copy the storyteller to do the actions.
Draw a map that shows where the old man went to find the crocodile. He started at his house and then went:
out the front door
down the garden path
out the garden gate
across the field of tall grass
up the hill
down the hill
across the big dark river.
Raising Children Network (8 November 2016) 'Telling stories with children: The Crocodile' [video], YouTube, accessed 19 September 2021.
Too hard?
Snap your hands like a crocodile.
Pretend to be a crocodile.
Draw a crocodile.
Have someone draw a map of your backyard. Tell them what needs to go on the map.
Too easy?
Draw another map of places you go to when you leave your house, like the shops, preschool or a friend's house.
Dancing wand
Learning goal: Children combine gross and fine motor movement patterns to dance.
Make a long wand out of materials such as wool, long strips of fabric, ribbon, string, scarves etc.
Tie together and attach the wand to a handle made from a stick or wooden spoon.
Listen to the music and dance with your wand.
Make your wand go up and down and from side to side.
Make your wand go around and around.
Make your wand move slowly and then fast.
Funny - AShamaluevMusic.mp3SoundCloud (2019) 'Funny', AShamaluev Music, accessed 21 September 2021.
Too hard?
Find a piece of ribbon, scarf or anything you can wave around and dance along to the music.
Too easy?
Try holding a wand or material in both hands and move them at the same time.
Take a break
Here are some things you might like to do:
have a drink of water and a healthy snack
play or have a rest
go to the toilet and wash your hands.
"Boy with glass of water, 2000" by Seattle Municipal Archives is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio. pexels.com
"Washing hands" by magnusfranklin is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Peg play
Learning goal: Children develop numeracy concepts.
Gather together as many pegs as you can.
Complete these tasks using the pegs:
sort the pegs into groups of colours
count the pegs
divide your pegs into two equal groups
peg the pegs along the edge of a piece of cardboard or fabric in a pattern
arrange the pegs to make them look like numbers
measure how many pegs long your leg is.
'Little girl playing with clothes pegs on a small clothes line" by Ivan Radic is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Too hard?
Pinch a playdough snake between your thumb and fingers to break into segments. Count the number of pieces.
Use tongs to pick up objects and sort them into colour groups.
Touch the pegs while someone counts for you.
Too easy?
Arrange pegs to write out some of the letters of your name.
Make some piles of pegs and count them. Add some pegs to your piles. How many do you have now? Now take away some pegs. How many do you have now?
Paper tower
Learning goal: Children use persistence and experimentation to complete a challenge.
Collect your paper, tape, string, scissors and ruler for a STEM challenge.
Watch the video and join in the activity to build a tall tower.
The tower must be able to hold a small toy at the top.
You can only use the materials on the list.
Your tower needs to be able to stand up by itself.
The ruler is only for measuring and cannot be used in the tower structure.
Too hard?
Use tape and cardboard cylinders to create something.
Have someone help you make the tower. See what you can balance on it.
Too easy?
Make another tower that can hold more than one toy at the top. How many toys can it hold? Is it taller or shorter than your first tower?
Extra learning activities
Listen to Play School Story Time in Italian, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin and Arabic.
ABC 'Play School Story Time: Languages' [video], ABC iView, accessed 21 September 2021.