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Playing together is one of the best ways children learn. This page offers simple activities, ideas, and resources that families can enjoy at home. Through play, children develop important skills while having fun, exploring their interests, and connecting with the people who care about them.
Here are some general ideas for home FUN!
Below are some suggested activities that young children can play at home which support a range of their developmental areas. When choosing, think about your child’s interests, your space, what you have available and what will work for you. If it doesn’t work no problem, choose another activity or another day. If you have older children, ask them to choose and organize for their younger sibling.
READ, READ, READ: Find a book to share with your child. Any book, fiction or non fiction will do the job.
EYE SPY WITH A TWIST: Encourage children to find something to eye spy beginning with the letter T? Switch up and change the letters.
BUILD A COZY CORNER: Create a quiet cozy space for children to relax in. A long tablecloth over a small table creates space underneath for children to just get away if they need. Or use a corner in the room with a sheet over a couple of chairs. Add books if you can.
PLAY TAG OUTSIDE: Using an old sock, have one child place the sock in their waistband, the object of the game is to grab the sock and not have it taken off you.
GO FOR A WALK IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD: Each day try to find different numbers, letters or pictures on the walk.
WRITE, WRITE, WRITE: Provide any writing materials you have and different paper. Shopping magazines/flyers, old envelopes and newspapers can all be used.
PHONE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE: Plan to call a friend or relative, talk first about what you may want to share with them or ask them. Then make the call.
HIDE AND SEEK: Play a game of hide and seek, talk about safe spaces to hide and maybe use a timer to help your child count.
JOURNAL, JOURNAL, JOURNAL: Using an old exercise book, involve your child in capturing their time at home, this can be in pictures, writing and anything else they want to add.
PLAY CHARADES: Give your child an animal to act out. Each person has two guesses. Person who guesses goes next.
The Value of
Open-Ended Materials
and Loose Parts
In Pre-Primary, children learn best through play, exploration, and discovery. One way we support this is by providing open-ended materials, often called"loose parts." Loose parts are materials that can be moved, combined, redesigned, taken apart, and used in many different ways. Examples include pinecones, sticks, shells, fabric, cardboard tubes, wood pieces, stones, buttons, and recycled materials.
Loose parts invite children to use their imagination and creativity. A stick might become a fishing rod, a wand, or part of a structure. A collection of stones could become a road, a pattern, or ingredients for pretend cooking. Because there is no "right" way to use these materials, children are encouraged to think creatively, solve problems, test ideas, and collaborate with others.
View Learning Goals in Practice: Loose Parts
to learn more!
STEAM PLAY!
STEAM means Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math.
As children develop, we are creating and guiding future engineers, scientists, doctors, chefs, biologists, architects and teachers just to name a few.
In early learning, STEAM is all the concepts blended together and it is a part of everyday play.
It encourages children to question and create an understanding of the world around them and relate to it.
How do we encourage STEAM play at home?
Pre-primary Programs encourage and promote STEAM with children each day.
Families also do it at home, but do we know we are doing it? Think about the ways we can give children a chance to explore, guess, design, test, observe, investigate and share their knowledge while they are at home.
The main thing to remember with STEAM is that you don’t need all the answers. Questions that are posed by children should be investigated and researched by them. Children are natural scientists and are curious about many things in their worlds.
steam activities to try at home
steam activities to try at home
Looking for fun ways to learn and play together at home? These hands-on STEAM activities encourage children to explore, create, investigate, and problem-solve using everyday materials. Enjoy experimenting together and following your child's curiosity as they discover how things work!
Science
Sink or Float
Gather household items such as bottle caps, rocks, and small toys. Before placing each item in a bowl of water, ask your child if they think it will sink or float, then test their predictions together.Walking Water (Color Mixing)
Fill every other clear cup with colored water and connect the cups with folded paper towels. Watch as the water "walks" from cup to cup and mixes to create new colors.Shadow Tracking
Use a flashlight or sunlight to create shadows with hands, toys, or other objects. Trace the shadows on paper and notice how the shapes change when the light moves.
Technology
Cardboard Box Control Panel
Tape a large cardboard box shut and glue bottle caps, old buttons, jar lids, and slider zippers onto it to let them design their own "computer console."
Play Dough & Toy Robots
Let children sculpt simple "robots" out of play dough, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes.
Engineering
Bridge Building Challenge
Invite your child to build a bridge using craft sticks, blocks, or paper cups. Can their bridge hold a toy car, animal, or small object?Ramp and Roll
Create ramps using cardboard and explore how different heights change the speed and distance of rolling objects. Encourage children to make predictions and compare results.
Art
Fizzy Baking Soda Painting
Mix baking soda with paint and create artwork on paper. Then use droppers or spray bottles filled with vinegar to make the paint fizz and bubble.Leaf Creature Creations
Collect colorful autumn leaves and glue them onto paper. Add eyes, legs, wings, or antennae to transform them into imaginative insects and creatures.Coffee Filter Rainbows
Draw designs on coffee filters using washable markers. Add a few drops of water and watch the colors spread and blend into beautiful rainbow patterns.
Math
Build and Count Towers
Choose a number and challenge your child to build a tower with exactly that many blocks. Compare the heights of different towers and count together.Sorting and Classifying
Use buttons, blocks, toy animals, or other loose parts to sort by color, size, shape, or other characteristics. Talk about how the items are alike and different.Pattern Play
Create simple patterns with blocks, shapes, or household items. Encourage your child to continue the pattern or design their own repeating sequence.
LET'S GO ON A SCAVENGER HUNT!
Scavenger hunts are a fun way for children and families to learn together, indoors or outdoors. As children search for and find different items, they build observation, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills while practicing counting, sorting, and recognizing patterns. Scavenger hunts also encourage language development, focus, memory, and physical activity as children explore the world around them through play.
WATER PLAY!
Water play sounds scary…don’t be scared! You can do water play in a sink or bathtub if that makes you more comfortable.
You can also fill up a large mixing bowl, dish pan, soup pot or bucket. Put a towel (or a few!!) underneath whatever you are using to help catch the water. Put it on a table or even on the kitchen floor.
In our water we typically add some soap. You can use a regular bar of soap, liquid soap, dish soap, shampoo, baby soap, shaving cream.
Add essential oils to change the smell. Just be careful of your child’s eyes.
Water play can be very relaxing, helps with fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.
Water play is a great place for social skills! This is where we do a lot of our turn taking, sharing and friendship building!
Water play is scientific as well…will this sink or float? Hot or cold?
It is also a great opportunity to explore math:
How many cups of water do you have?
How many spoons of water will fit in the cup?
More than or less than?
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
Recycling = Art Supplies at Home!
A great place to get art supplies is in your recycling bin. Using clean recyclables is a great way to get extra uses out of an item. This is how we use loose parts in Pre-Primary!
Recycled toilet paper and paper towel tubes are great for art projects. An easy one is to stamp circles or hearts using the paper tubes. Or just paint or colour on the tubes!
Recycle any packaging you receive. Bubble wrap is lots of fun and can be used to make bubble wrap prints and POP!
The brown paper that you get in some packages can be reused as wrapping paper and is a great canvas for children to create on.
Save those tin cans! Making sure there are no shape edges, paint them, turn them into homemade wind chimes or flowerpots! Big coffee cans are great for collecting things you find outside!
Reuse old toothbrushes, not just for cleaning gunk out of hard-to-reach places but clean them up and use them for art projects.
Recycled egg cartons are perfect for many hands-on projects! In Pre-Primary we paint them, use them in our play kitchens, add them to playdough and other sensory play, like sand tables.
Boxes are always fun! Different sizes and shapes. Paint them, use markers or stickers. It is fun to tape them together into different shapes, houses and robots.
We also use many average household items in our play. Add ice cube trays to paint or water play.
We use plastic cups in sand, water play and to build with.
Many kitchen utensils and gadgets make great addition to playdough, paint, water and sand.
Look around, let the children peek in drawers and cupboards; They are so creative and are always able to see something that we don’t.
What recyclables will you find in your home?
We wonder what you will make?
Let's Dress Up & Imagine Together
What are the benefits of dress up play?
Children have always enjoyed dressing up in costumes and engaging in role play. Whether your child is a monkey, dragon, a princess, or a superhero, your child’s brain is going into high gear when they dress up!
And although it may appear to you as just play, when your child dresses up and pretends to be something else, their brain is developing in more ways than you can imagine.
Children benefit cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally through dress up play!
Engages brain and memory
Expands vocabulary
Practices problem solving
Motor skills (muscles/coordination)
Helps children see the world through another’s eyes
Emotional development
Opportunities to explore different roles in their world
Dress up can be inside or outside and with anyone or anything you have in your home.
The question is, what will you be?
Where will your imagination take you?
Let's Cook & Eat Together
Brainstorm with your child what they would like to cook with you. Perhaps a favourite cookie, snack, fruit kebab with dip.
Find a simple recipe and with your child create a list of ingredients you will need and talk about steps to follow.
This is a great time to talk about planning for cooking because you may need to wait until your next weekly grocery order.
We Have Our Ingredients, So What is Next?
Talk about why an oven might be needed, why is only half the pan full of a cake mixture, what might happen in the oven and why?
What might happen when you mix different coloured ingredients together. Maybe you remember a time when your child cooked in Pre-primary, ask your child what they remember from that. It's okay if they don’t.
Talk about weight, measurements and solids (dry) and liquids (wet). If you need a cup use a ¼ cup measure, this enables children to see Math in action, they will learn that 4 of the ¼ cup measurements will equal 1 cup, the beginning of fraction concepts.
Ask questions before you do the next step - what will happen when we add the wet ingredients to the dry?
Write down their answers to the questions – were they right?
Take pictures of them as they mix and prepare, and with their final product, share with family and friends.
Use of technology such as cameras, phones, iPads to create and share their activity. This validates children's thinking and shows that we care about how they think and learn about the world. It makes learning visible.
Encourage them to document the process, drawing pictures as they go along.
Did you know?
Measurements and volume is math, liquids, solids, and mixing colours is science, using oven or other kitchen appliances and cameras is technology, assembling cooking projects such as cakes and fruit kebabs is engineering and when they draw to represent the process this is art.
THE POWER & FUN OF TAPE!
Why TAPE for children's play?
Well, chances are you have some form of tape in your home, it could be masking tape, scotch tape, painters tape, electrical tape .... and more. Each kind of tape brings a variety of textures and level of adhesive that children will be curious to explore.
Tape may look messy and simple, but it provides lots of developmental engagement for children.
What are children learning with tape? Is there really a benefit?
Fine motor skills are a significant part of a child's development. When children are using their hands to manipulate and navigate tape they are supporting their muscles and coordination in their hands and fingers.
Fine motor skills are important because children need these skills for grasping objects such as pencils and scissors, writing, colouring and drawing.
Tape is a great exploration for children as children will practice the motion of pinching and pulling at the tape. This is activating the small muscles in their fingers and hands.
It can be challenging for children to unwind, tear and stick down tape as well as peeling up tape all support their fine motor development.
What are some ideas with using tape as a source of meaningful play?
You can make tape balls, tape up boxes and make big webs! You can link the tape play by talking about spiders and how they construct their webs.
Children will enjoy spending time cutting tape into a variety of sizes and sticking and unsticking the tape on lots of surfaces (tables, floors, boxes, fences outside, pavement).
You will need to consider where you are okay having the tape placed in your home. If you are worried about your surfaces, use green/blue painter’s tape or masking tape.
This play generates many great opportunities for conversation about near and far, under and over, top and bottom.
Tape adds to measuring activities and discussion.
It is also a great gross motor activity. Children will need to use their bigger leg and arm muscles to climb over and under the tape.
Tape can be used on the floor to build obstacle courses, or any fun game you and the children come up with, you can also make a hop scotch, or simple straight lines and use loose parts in the home to build patterns on the tape lines.
Allow children to be as creative as they like and listen to their thoughts. How can you help them expand their tape play? Try using I wonder statements ...
I WONDER IF WE PUT THE TAPE THIS WAY WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
I WONDER HOW STICKY THIS TAPE AND WHY?
I SPY all around me ...
I SPY all around me ...
Some developmental benefits of playing I SPY:
I SPY supports building your child's vocabulary and practicing how to say certain words around your home and community. Understanding language is complex and modelling new words helps children learn about the world expanding their life experience.
I SPY is a game of turn taking which supports a child's social skills. Waiting for a turn models how to cooperate with others, build patience and respect for others.
I SPY gives children different perspectives of the world around them. For example, not everyone sees colours the same.
I SPY allows children to have dedicated time to pause and observe their natural surroundings inside and outside depending where you are.
I SPY can be played anywhere, so it is convenient.
What will you SPY in your home
and out in your community?
I SPY something that is green
I SPY something that is green
I SPY something that is wet
I SPY something that is wet
YOga for Children
YOga for Children
What are some of the developmental benefits of Yoga:
Yoga is a place to engage children in mindful movements that supports children to understand their bodies better and to focus on their breathing. Some people use yoga to meditate.
Yoga relaxes the mind, supports our ability to focus and enhances our memory.
Yoga is soothing, reduces stress, anxiety and generates a sense of calm while supporting emotional regulation and overall mental health.
Did you know that when engaging in yoga, our brains start building connections to help improve our ability to learn new things?
Yoga helps children centre their attention and sharpens their ability to concentrate while increasing their language and thought processes.
Yoga supports children's physical development; such as building better balance, flexibility, endurance, muscle strength, coordination and stability.
Yoga can happen in your home, out in your yard, on your patio or balcony, a park, a beach or a friend's home.
Below are "3" options to help you have some YOGA fun ... NAMASTE
FUN WITH LEGOS
There are numerous benefits of Lego play:
Supports problem-solving skills
Enhances fine motor skills
Offers hours of hands-on creative building for children and adults regardless of age or gender
Improves hand-eye coordination
Supports organization and planning skills
Let's Build!
Here are a few fun activities to enhance your Lego play experience:
Make a Lego boat to see if it floats during water play.
Make a Lego town
Freeze Lego in water and excavate with warm water and salt
Take your Lego outside
Sandwich Bag Painting
Sandwich Bag Painting
There is so much you can do with this sensory activity. The only items you will need are sandwich bags, water/tempura/finger paint and tape.
Once you have gathered these items, you can fill the sandwich bags with different coloured paints and stick them to the wall, window or even the floor.
This activity is a great way to get children thinking about shapes, forming letters and even getting hands-on experience with how two colours transition into one.
What you could try:
Draw little pictures with your fingers
Practice forming letters
Practice forming numbers
Form shapes and lines
Draw faces together
Mix primary colours to make a new colour
Make footprints with tiny animals
Drive cars over the surface
VOLCANO EXPERIMENT
This activity can be done inside or outside. If you are doing this experiment inside, place a tray or large container under the volcano to capture the lava.
What are the teachable moments?
Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem-solving, hypothesizing (what is happening to your volcano?)
Children develop their curiosity, creativity, enthusiasm and imagination
Children begin to understand the concept of how chemicals may react to each other.
Supplies Needed:
Mason jar or cup, foil, water, baking soda, dish soap, vinegar and food colouring (optional)
Now let's have some fun!
Wrap foil around the mason jar or cup forming the foil into the shape of a mountain. This gives the 'lava' a slope to run down.
Inside the jar/cup place 2 tbsp of water, 4 spoonfuls of baking soda, a small squirt of dish soap and if using food colouring a few drops.
Activate the volcano by adding 1/2 cup of vinegar.
After the lava stops flowing, just add more vinegar to make it go again.
BUILDING BLANKET FORTS
Benefits of Fort Building
Your child will be learning a lot of skills while building and playing in the fort such as:
Language skills
Problem-solving skills (What can I use to hold it up? How can I connect the sheets together? How can I fix it when it falls?)
Support with self-regulation
Spatial skills
Gives children a chance to move their bodies by moving chairs, placing blankets over furniture and crawling into and out of the spaces
Help build confidence and patience
Foster autonomy by allowing them to be in charge
Time to Build
Blanket forts can be fun for children and can be made using things you may already have, such as spare towels, blankets and sheets.
Using larger pieces of furniture, such as tables and chairs, the blankets can be placed over the furniture to create hidden spaces and tunnels.
Have fun building and let the creativity flow :)
Indoor Gross Motor Activities
There are numerous benefits of gross motor activities:
Provides an avenue for energy release
Encourages physical literacy
Boost ability to assess risk
Supports balance and coordination
Supports body awareness
Indoor Bowling
This activity is a great way to reuse water bottles. You could also use paper cups or paper towel rolls.
Line up 6-10 water bottles (or recyclable material of your choice) at the end of your hall or living room.
Place a line of tape at the starting line.
Take a medium-sized indoor ball and start bowling.
*Fun tip - if you would like to make the game a little challenging, add some water to the bottles. Remember to screw the tops on tightly if you do so.*
Indoor Basketball
For this activity, all you'll need is an empty laundry basket or bucket. Rolled-up socks or a small light ball.
Place the laundry basket or bucket at the end of your hall or living room.
Place a line of tape at the other end.
Each player takes a turn throwing the rolled-up sock/ball into the basket from the closest point.
When a player scores they take a step back and throw again until missing.
The player who shoots the ball from the farthest distance wins.
Imaginative Play:
Imaginative Play:
Go On a stick hunt in your community
Go On a stick hunt in your community
What is Imaginative Play?
“Imaginative play is essentially when children are role playing and are acting out various experiences they may have had or something that is of some interest to them. They are experimenting with decision making on how to behave and are also practicing their social skills. Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch.To absorb those experiences and make sense of the world, they need to be engaged in imaginary play.”
Did you know there are different types of imaginative play?
Fantasy: not realistic, children take on different roles
Pretend: children dramatize different situations
Dramatic: focuses on communication and cooperation
Superhero: children use action figures, costumes, props to imitate superheroes
“Small children use imaginative play and fantasy to take on their fears and create or explore a world they can master. Play allows them to create fantasy heroes that conquer their deepest fears. It allows them to practice adult roles”
(Milteer, 2012, p.206)
THE FLOOR IS LAVA!
This game is a great way to provide movement and fun while learning new skills at the same time!
WHAT WE ARE LEARNING:
gross motor skills (balancing, eye-body coordination, core strength, motor planning)
attention and focus
planning and problem solving skills
imaginative thinking skills
any academic skill you want to practice (numeracy, letter or word recognition, colours, shapes, etc.)
MATERIALS NEEDED:
placemats (or pillows, cardboard, etc.) to be stepping stones through the lava
Pieces of paper with numbers, letters or words written on them for the children to “rescue”
DIRECTIONS:
1. First, scatter your “stepping stones" around on the floor of whatever room you want to play in.
2. Designate a safe starting spot to be “home” (for example the couch or a chair).
3. Scatter your learning cards around the floor, preferably on the opposite side of your lava river from your “home” safe spot.
4. Explain to your child(ren) that you’re going to pretend that the floor is lava, and their job is to rescue the cards from the lava one by one.
5. Call out a word/number/letter for your child to rescue. They can only step on the stepping stones.
6. Continue calling out numbers/letters/etc. for your child to rescue (taking turns if you have multiple children playing) until all the objects have been rescued. Then celebrate your triumph over the lava!
Nature Cutting tray
Nature Cutting tray
A nature cutting tray promotes sensory exploration, and provides an opportunity for children to examine plants and flowers close up. Children can then add the cuttings to play dough or use them as ingredients in their pretend play.
Watch video here.
Materials Needed:
scissors
flowers, grass, fresh herbs, leaves, etc.
Some questions to spark discussion:
What do you notice about this plant?
What does this plant feel like? Smell like?
What differences do you notice between the plants?
What colours do you see?
How many petals or leaves does it have?
Did you know cutting with scissors also strengthens writing skills? Cutting with scissors strengthens hand muscles, and helps to develop independent movements of each finger.
The benefits of cutting with scissors for young children:
Independent movements of each finger
Strengthens hand muscles
Bilateral coordination skills (two-handed coordination)
Visual-motor skills (eye-hand coordination)
Visual perceptual tasks (directionality)
Fine motor skills (separation of hand, finger dexterity)
Promotes grasp pattern
Focus and attention
Promotes imaginative thinking (children often like to use the cuttings as ingredients in pretend play)
LETTERS & LOOSE PARTS
LETTERS & LOOSE PARTS
Preschoolers are hands-on, tactile learners. This activity offers a hands-on opportunity for children to explore and learn letters using loose parts. As children explore and trace the letters with loose parts, you can discuss what words or names begin with each letter.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
A marker and paper or cardboard to create the letter templates
Loose Parts – you can find loose parts around your house or in the recycling bin!
Here are some examples: can tabs, bottle caps, marker lids, pom-poms, glass craft gems, pebbles, beads, buttons, or natural materials found outside such as leaves, acorns, twigs, etc.
WHAT WE’RE LEARNING:
letter recognition
practicing letter formation
strengthening fine motor skills
hand-eye coordination
creativity
numeracy (create number templates instead of letters; try creating patterns with the loose parts)
Ever Wonder about the lifecycle of a butterfly?
Ever Wonder about the lifecycle of a butterfly?
Spend time and watch this time lapse 4 minute video from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterly (The Amazing Monarch Life Cycle from Science Up).
If your child is not interested in the time lapse, here is a 6 minute animated film based off of Eric Carle's (1969) book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Learn English Project (Click Here).
Stimulate conversation with your child after:
What colours did you see?
What did the caterpillar eat?
What do you like to eat when you are hungry?
How do you think eating food helps you grow?
Have you ever had a belly ache like the caterpillar did? How did you feel better?
Where could you build a cozy cocoon in your home? You could read books, listen to music, colour and draw in your home cocoon …. FUN!
Let's go on a caterpillar, coocoon and butterfly hunt in our community:
I wonder where you may find caterpillars?
I wonder where you may see a cocoon?
I wonder where you may find butterflies?
Take some crayons, pencils and paper and spend time drawing what you see.
Take a small plastic container, box or baggie and maybe you can catch a specimen. I wonder what you may catch?
Follow your children's interests, ask open ended questions and enjoy your time together.
All of these activities support building higher knowledge about life cycles, caterpillars, butterflies, and nature while building new, or enhancing, your child's vocabulary about the world around them.
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