Tuesday Trivia

Family Fun Activities

Thread it Through! Use yarn, string or pipe cleaners to thread cut up straws or beads. Make patterns and count together.

Family Memory Book! Pick out photos or draw family members, events, or vacations. Together write out who's in the photo, what’s happening and why it's special.

Scavenger Hunt! Hide letters or numbers throughout the house. Once found ask your child to write/match on a piece of paper. You can do this with items of a certain colour, shape or size too.

Collect natural items on a walk or at home- rocks, leaves, sticks! How many items did you find? How do you know? How might you sort or group them? What patterns can you make? What can you create with your items? What can you write about your creation?

Move to Music! Play different types of music and move to the rhythm. You can run, walk, hop, march, glide! Clap to the beat. Make your own music by drumming on pots or make shakers by adding different things (pasta, lego, rice) in containers with lids.

Set aside a few minutes at the end of the day to talk with your child about what has happened during the day. Ask your child, “What was the best thing that happened today? What are you looking forward to tomorrow?” Try to listen more than you speak.

Balancing Fun! Use tape or chalk to create a pretend balance beam on the floor or outside. Take turns moving along the line by walking forward, backward, on tiptoes, hopping or moving sideways. Try standing on one foot and kicking with the other!

Today... if you are busy and your child asks you to play with them, try this… ”Let’s set a timer for ___ minutes. When the timer goes off, then we can play together for ____ minutes!”

Read a story together. After you are finished make simple puppets of any characters in the story using materials you find around your house (paper bags, recycled items, old socks). Use your puppets to act out the story!

Grab a handful of an item (eg. cereal, beans, buttons, lego). Estimate how many pieces you grabbed. Now count them. Was your estimate close? Write or draw about what you discovered!

Work on a puzzle together inside or outside! You can also create your own simple puzzles by cutting up pictures from old magazines, cereal boxes or drawings your child has made.

Take a walk (skip, hop, gallop) down your street. Bring a clipboard or notepad and ask your child to keep track of the number of birds they see. If it is not currently possible for your family to be outside, try doing this from a window in your home.

Sing the alphabet song in a variety of ways. Sing it loud, sing it soft, sing it fast and sing it slow. What other songs can you sing together?

Use materials in your home or outdoor space to create an obstacle course (eg. crawl under a chair, jump over a rock and run to the fence). Have your child draw their obstacle course plans and ideas.

Jump 3 times! Once like a bunny, once like a frog, and once like a child. Measure each jump with your feet. Which jump was the shortest? Which was the longest? Share your discoveries with your family!

Invite your child to write letters for their friends or family in their home language. They can draw pictures too!

Model writing for your child (eg. lists, signs, labels). Invite them to help write a grocery list! Children who are still learning to make letters might use a combination of letters, lines, squiggles and pictures.

Pick a room in your home and have your child count different objects (eg. How many pairs of socks? How many toys? How many books? How many containers? How many spoons?). Invite your child to write about what they have discovered.

Go for a walk and estimate how many steps it will take to get to a spot (eg. How many steps it would take to get to a tree? Walk and count the steps). Pick another object and repeat. You can try hopping, skipping or jumping too

Build up your child’s vocabulary. Aim to introduce at least one new word today and give them some experience using the word. Example, you might introduce tools in the kitchen like a funnel and invite them to use the funnel with you.

Invite your child to create movements based on different feelings. Ask your child to show how they would move if they were sad, happy, angry, excited, scared, nervous, and tired.

Hide an item in a bag. Ask your child, “what is in my bag? It starts with __.” Or try, “it rhymes with __.” Invite your child to guess what the item is. Expect lots of guesses and add more clues when needed.

Sort the laundry together (by owner, by color, by size, by item type). Who in your family has the most socks in the load? Invite your child to write or draw what they have discovered!

Collect some natural materials (sticks, rocks and pine cones). Invite your child to use the materials to create pictures, letters or numbers. Take a photo of their creation and ask them to share how they made it with you.

Pretend to be a Number Detective with your child. Look at a store flyer together. Find and circle numbers 1 to 10. Can you find more numbers? Circle those too! Invite your child to talk about what they are investigating.

Build a fort together! You could use blankets, sheets, towels, chairs, and pillows. Ask your child questions while building and invite them to share ideas about how to build a fort with you.

Talk with your child about what makes them happy. Invite them to draw a picture, build or create something that makes them happy. Encourage them to write something about their creation.

Read a book together and discuss what happens in the story. Ask your child which part they liked and then act out that part together.

Use your feet to measure something today! What’s the longest thing you can find? Shortest? How many steps do you count if an adult measures the same item with their feet? What do you notice? Invite your child to record their findings.

Blast off! In teams of two or four, each player will hold one or two corner(s) of a blanket. A stuffed animal is placed in the center. Countdown from 10 to 1, on the signal “Blast off,” all players lift the corner(s) of the blanket high in the air. Try to catch the stuffed animal in the blanket on the way down.

Making Mud Pies! Collect dirt and outdoor materials (stones, sticks, leaves) from nature. In a baking dish or metal pie plate, create a mud pie by adding some water to the dirt. Use the materials found in nature to decorate the mud pie.

LIMBO! How low can you go? A fun game indoors or out! Use a broom, pool noodle or long stick. Invite your child to go under without their hands touching the ground. Put on some music and have fun together!

Build a simple structure out of blocks. Show the structure to your child for 5 seconds then hide it. Challenge your child to visualize the object and build it from memory. Once complete, show the original structure and allow them to compare the two.

Choose a toy and hide it in your home. Invite your child to find the toy with a clue: say the sounds in a word that describes the hiding place (“The car is under the t-a-b-l-e”). Help your child blend the sounds together to solve the clue!

Experiment with ice using household items like salt or a hair dryer with your child. Measure and compare how quickly each item makes the ice cube melts. Add food colouring to explore colour mixing. Talk about what is happening and ask them what they notice.

Play with rhyming words. Say two words and if they rhyme have your child jump up and clap, if they do not rhyme have your child put their hands behind their back. Try this with several different pairs of words.

Read a book together. While reading, talk about the different shapes in the pictures. Ask your child: What shapes do you see? How do you know? Can you find a circle, a square, a rectangle, a triangle?

Collect utensils from your home (eg. slotted spoon, fly swatter, spatula, or items that have holes). Make your own bubble solution with dish soap and water. Head outside and invite your child to use the utensils as bubble wands. Encourage your child to talk about which utensil creates the best bubbles!

The word “the” shows up a lot! Look through books or other materials together to see how many times you can find this word. Invite your child to put their finger on the word. Write this short sentence for them on a piece of paper and invite them cut out the word “the” (eg. The cat is black).

Flashlight Scavenger Hunt! Turn off the lights and hide some objects around your home (eg. toys, letters, numbers, shapes, words). Invite your child to find the objects with a flashlight.

Draw a big circle on paper, cardboard or on the ground outside with chalk. Stand ten big steps back and toss a rolled up sock toward the target. After each toss, invite your child to use an item (eg. string, yarn, straws) to measure the distance between the sock and the target.

Show your child the letter “S” and ask what sound it makes. Invite your child to play a game! Encourage them to jump up everytime you say a word that starts with the letter “S”. Change roles and invite your child to think of words that start with “S”. Have fun taking turns together!

Pretend play is a fun way to get writing and drawing! Invite your child to create a vet clinic for their stuffed toys. Leave some pencils and paper for them to create pretend prescriptions and signs for their clinic. Encourage them to draw pictures and words. Join in on the fun!

Invite your child to help set the table. Ask your child, how many plates do we need? Can you put a fork beside the plate? Can you put a napkin under the fork? How many items did you put on the table?

Go on a bug hunt! Offer your child a recyclable container and invite them to collect different insects they discover. Talk with them about what they found. Encourage your child to release the insects back into nature when they are done.

Thread it Through! Use yarn, string or pipe cleaners to thread cut up straws or beads. Make patterns and count together.

Family Memory Book! Pick out photos or draw family members, events, or vacations. Together write out who's in the photo, what’s happening and why it's special.

Scavenger Hunt! Hide letters or numbers throughout the house. Once found ask your child to write/match on a piece of paper. You can do this with items of a certain colour, shape or size too.

Collect natural items on a walk or at home- rocks, leaves, sticks! How many items did you find? How do you know? How might you sort or group them? What patterns can you make? What can you create with your items? What can you write about your creation?

Move to Music! Play different types of music and move to the rhythm. You can run, walk, hop, march, glide! Clap to the beat. Make your own music by drumming on pots or make shakers by adding different things (pasta, lego, rice) in containers with lids.

Set aside a few minutes at the end of the day to talk with your child about what has happened during the day. Ask your child, “What was the best thing that happened today? What are you looking forward to tomorrow?” Try to listen more than you speak.

Balancing Fun! Use tape or chalk to create a pretend balance beam on the floor or outside. Take turns moving along the line by walking forward, backward, on tiptoes, hopping or moving sideways. Try standing on one foot and kicking with the other!

Today... if you are busy and your child asks you to play with them, try this… ”Let’s set a timer for ___ minutes. When the timer goes off, then we can play together for ____ minutes!”

Read a story together. After you are finished make simple puppets of any characters in the story using materials you find around your house (paper bags, recycled items, old socks). Use your puppets to act out the story!

Grab a handful of an item (eg. cereal, beans, buttons, lego). Estimate how many pieces you grabbed. Now count them. Was your estimate close? Write or draw about what you discovered!

Work on a puzzle together inside or outside! You can also create your own simple puzzles by cutting up pictures from old magazines, cereal boxes or drawings your child has made.

Take a walk (skip, hop, gallop) down your street. Bring a clipboard or notepad and ask your child to keep track of the number of birds they see. If it is not currently possible for your family to be outside, try doing this from a window in your home.

Sing the alphabet song in a variety of ways. Sing it loud, sing it soft, sing it fast and sing it slow. What other songs can you sing together?

Use materials in your home or outdoor space to create an obstacle course (eg. crawl under a chair, jump over a rock and run to the fence). Have your child draw their obstacle course plans and ideas.

Jump 3 times! Once like a bunny, once like a frog, and once like a child. Measure each jump with your feet. Which jump was the shortest? Which was the longest? Share your discoveries with your family!

Invite your child to write letters for their friends or family in their home language. They can draw pictures too!

Model writing for your child (eg. lists, signs, labels). Invite them to help write a grocery list! Children who are still learning to make letters might use a combination of letters, lines, squiggles and pictures.

Pick a room in your home and have your child count different objects (eg. How many pairs of socks? How many toys? How many books? How many containers? How many spoons?). Invite your child to write about what they have discovered.

Go for a walk and estimate how many steps it will take to get to a spot (eg. How many steps it would take to get to a tree? Walk and count the steps). Pick another object and repeat. You can try hopping, skipping or jumping too!

Build up your child’s vocabulary. Aim to introduce at least one new word today and give them some experience using the word. Example, you might introduce tools in the kitchen like a funnel and invite them to use the funnel with you.

Invite your child to create movements based on different feelings. Ask your child to show how they would move if they were sad, happy, angry, excited, scared, nervous, and tired.

Hide an item in a bag. Ask your child, “what is in my bag? It starts with __.” Or try, “it rhymes with __.” Invite your child to guess what the item is. Expect lots of guesses and add more clues when needed.

Sort the laundry together (by owner, by color, by size, by item type). Who in your family has the most socks in the load? Invite your child to write or draw what they have discovered!

Collect some natural materials (sticks, rocks and pinecones). Invite your child to use the materials to create pictures, letters or numbers. Take a photo of their creation and ask them to share how they made it with you.

Pretend to be a Number Detective with your child. Look at a store flyer together. Find and circle numbers 1 to 10. Can you find more numbers? Circle those too! Invite your child to talk about what they are investigating.

Build a fort together! You could use blankets, sheets, towels, chairs, and pillows. Ask your child questions while building and invite them to share ideas about how to build a fort with you.

Talk with your child about what makes them happy. Invite them to draw a picture, build or create something that makes them happy. Encourage them to write something about their creation.

Read a book together and discuss what happens in the story. Ask your child which part they liked and then act out that part together.

Use your feet to measure something today! What’s the longest thing you can find? Shortest? How many steps do you count if an adult measures the same item with their feet? What do you notice? Invite your child to record their findings.

Blast off! In teams of two or four, each player will hold one or two corner(s) of a blanket. A stuffed animal is placed in the center. Countdown from 10 to 1, on the signal “Blast off,” all players lift the corner(s) of the blanket high in the air. Try to catch the stuffed animal in the blanket on the way down.

Making Mud Pies! Collect dirt and outdoor materials (stones, sticks, leaves) from nature. In a baking dish or metal pie plate, create a mud pie by adding some water to the dirt. Use the materials found in nature to decorate the mud pie.

LIMBO! How low can you go? A fun game indoors or out! Use a broom, pool noodle or long stick. Invite your child to go under without their hands touching the ground. Put on some music and have fun together!

Build a simple structure out of blocks. Show the structure to your child for 5 seconds then hide it. Challenge your child to visualize the object and build it from memory. Once complete, show the original structure and allow them to compare the two.

Choose a toy and hide it in your home. Invite your child to find the toy with a clue: say the sounds in a word that describes the hiding place (“The car is under the t-a-b-l-e”). Help your child blend the sounds together to solve the clue!

Experiment with ice using household items like salt or a hair dryer with your child. Measure and compare how quickly each item makes the ice cube melts. Add food colouring to explore colour mixing. Talk about what is happening and ask them what they notice.

Play with rhyming words. Say two words and if they rhyme have your child jump up and clap, if they do not rhyme have your child put their hands behind their back. Try this with several different pairs of words.

Read a book together. While reading, talk about the different shapes in the pictures. Ask your child: What shapes do you see? How do you know? Can you find a circle, a square, a rectangle, a triangle?

Collect utensils from your home (eg. slotted spoon, fly swatter, spatula, or items that have holes). Make your own bubble solution with dish soap and water. Head outside and invite your child to use the utensils as bubble wands. Encourage your child to talk about which utensil creates the best bubbles!

The word “the” shows up a lot! Look through books or other materials together to see how many times you can find this word. Invite your child to put their finger on the word. Write this short sentence for them on a piece of paper and invite them cut out the word “the” (eg. The cat is black).

Flashlight Scavenger Hunt! Turn off the lights and hide some objects around your home (eg. toys, letters, numbers, shapes, words). Invite your child to find the objects with a flashlight.

Draw a big circle on paper, cardboard or on the ground outside with chalk. Stand ten big steps back and toss a rolled up sock toward the target. After each toss, invite your child to use an item (eg. string, yarn, straws) to measure the distance between the sock and the target.

Show your child the letter “S” and ask what sound it makes. Invite your child to play a game! Encourage them to jump up everytime you say a word that starts with the letter “S”. Change roles and invite your child to think of words that start with “S”. Have fun taking turns together!

Pretend play is a fun way to get writing and drawing! Invite your child to create a vet clinic for their stuffed toys. Leave some pencils and paper for them to create pretend prescriptions and signs for their clinic. Encourage them to draw pictures and words. Join in on the fun!

Invite your child to help set the table. Ask your child, how many plates do we need? Can you put a fork beside the plate? Can you put a napkin under the fork? How many items did you put on the table?

Go on a bug hunt! Offer your child a recyclable container and invite them to collect different insects they discover. Talk with them about what they found. Encourage your child to release the insects back into nature when they are done.