The Best Free Educational Websites for Kids!
https://www.passionforsavings.com/free-educational-websites-kids/
https://www.kiwico.com/kids-at-home
Education Companies Offering Free Subscriptions due to School Closings
http://www.amazingeducationalresources.com/
This link lets you create art with an artist. It’s more like doodling but so many of my friends are posting their kids art after one of his sessions. Very cute.
A collection of sites to live webcams, virtual tours/trips, and other miscellaneous fun academic sites.
https://virtualschoolactivities.com/
If you are on Instagram, James Dean has been reading a Pete the Cat book every day this week at noon on Instagram live. Follow petethecatofficial We’ve loved having you at the Pete the Cat Club! Tune in every day this week on Instagram Live at 12pm EST, so we can learn and create together
The Activities listed below can be adapted to any age group
Sorting/Counting/Classifying/Seriation/Math/Patterning
- Sort by color, shape, size and theme (Disney items, Legos, things that are made of a certain material, other toys, things that move, living vs non-living, refrigerator magnets, kitchen items)
- Sort laundry as it comes out of the dryer
- Cooking & Baking Click Here and Here
- Simple card games- turn a few cards over and play memory match or sort cards by color, suit, number
- Build a card castle
- Count everything and anything
- File folder games Click here and Click here
- Clean out closets and sort items
- Match pairs of shoes, socks, mittens etc.
- Bingo (see below for link to make own bingo cards)
- Make patterns with any household objects/food/nature
- Make a chart or graph with family favorites/making predictions/cause and effect (Eg. What’s your favorite ice cream, pizza, fruit, what you can’t wait to do when this is over, what happens when you put water in the freezer, what happens if you don’t put gas in a car, when you don’t get enough sleep etc.)
- Keep a calendar, talk about the date, day of the week and month-can even keep a tally of how long this crisis has lasted
- Make a number book
- Make puzzles or mix and match people/animals/objects
- Go online and:
- Google free clipart for any theme (Eg. Farm animals, weather, pets, plants, camping, community helpers etc.)
- Enlarge pictures
- Cut into simple puzzle pieces or just cut in half or thirds, kids can mix and match to make silly shapes/creatures etc.
*Blank puzzles can also be ordered from amazon so you can create your own design
Science / Discovery & Creative Play
- Make playdough-use with cookie cutters Playdough Recipe
- Jell-O cutting-also lends itself to color sorting
- At home science experiments Toddler Science or Preschool Science or Elementary Science
- Take a nature walk-collect nature items and then sort them or make a nature collage
- Play Eye Spy-inside and outside
- Scavenger Hunt
Make a picture/word list of items for kids to find outside and/or around the house (again, can do by theme, color, shape, size, items that start with a specific letter of the alphabet etc.)
- Blow Bubbles
- Make a texture board or book (use items from around the house-sandpaper, old towels, foil, fabric etc.)
- Make popsicles (freezing and melting)
- Shaving Cream
- Have a tasting party (make a chart with results)
- Plant seeds or flowers
- Fill a container with rice, beans, pasta, sand, water etc. Add measuring cups, funnels, spoons etc. for pouring, filling, dumping
- Dress Up-bring out old costumes or old clothes
- Set up a pretend restaurant, doctor’s office, grocery store etc.
Literacy, Reading and Language
- Have kids keep a journal –picture or word
- Have kids draw pictures and dictate a story about the picture
- Make a photo album and add captions
- Play Charades
- Write a family story (add a page every day) about this experience or some other impactful/fun time
- Create your own Mad Lib and have kids fill in the blank
- Play 20 Questions
- Assign each family member a household job, at dinner time or some other time during the day have a family meeting to report on your responsibilities. Have kids sign off so they can practice writing their name
- Write out child’s name, have them trace it with their finger, can do this with letters
- Play the old game “I’m going on a trip and I’m bringing something that starts with the letter “A”’
The next player then adds something that starts with the letter “B”, go thru the entire alphabet. Can even have each player repeat all of the items that came before
- READ‼‼!
- Make an alphabet book
Art
Preschool Easy Art techniques and Preschool Art Projects
- Collage with any scrap materials around the house-fabric, wrapping paper, ribbon, newspaper, construction paper
- Finger paint
- Paint with any objects around the house (toothbrush, cork , sponge, cotton ball, yarn, cookie cutter, any kitchen gadget)
- Marble or ball paint
- Sidewalk chalk (use outside or on paper)
- Have kids rip paper and then use for collage
- Fill up an empty spray bottle with diluted paint/just use water and kids can spray plants, fence other outdoor items
- Toothpick and marshmallow structures
- Sticker collage, tape collage, band aid collage
- Fruit or Vegetable prints
- Paint or use marker on a paper plate, napkin, paper towel
- Tie Die
- Crayons, markers and colored pencils
Movement
Have a dance party
Play Simon Says
Play Freeze-turn on some music, when music stops everyone has to make a silly pose
Hopscotch
Four Square
Play Catch
Roll a ball
Backyard relay races
Have a jumping contest, hula hoop contest, handstand contest, staring contest, who can sit still the longest, a quiet contest …any kind of contest (again chart the results and or make a prediction chart)