With Valentine's Day coming, February is the perfect time to share some "I Love You" coupons with family and friends.
Ages:
3 and up (Under 3, let the kids help decorate the hearts.)
Learning Skills:
Fine motor development
Creativity and imagination
Social interaction
Emotional expression
Cognitive/thinking skills
Materials:
Red, pink, purple, blue and white construction paper
Heart-shaped cookie cutters or heart-shaped pattern cut from cardboard
Markers
Safety scissors
Glitter, stickers, sequins, ribbon and other small decorative items
Stapler or hole punch and ribbon
What to do:
Set out the construction paper, scissors and markers on the table, and gather the kids. (Cover the table with newspaper, if necessary.)
Let the kids choose a sheet of construction paper.
Have them trace around the heart cookie cutter or pattern on the construction paper, using a marker.
Have them cut out the heart (help them if they have trouble.)
Let them make as many hearts as they like.
When they have a nice collection of hearts, ask them to think of ways they can share their love with family members or friends such as drawing a picture for Daddy, taking the dog for a walk, helping Mom make breakfast, and so on.
Have the kids draw a picture on the hearts to represent each suggestion.
Write the words underneath the pictures to match. ("Play with baby sister," "Take out the garbage" and so on.)
Have the kids decorate the hearts.
Staple the hearts together or punch a hole at the top of each heart and tie them together with red ribbon.
Tell the kids to present the "I Love You" coupons to someone special.
Kids love to play hide and seek, so send them on a treasure hunt and let them find some special goodies!
Ages:
3 and up (Under 3, let them follow along with the other kids.)
Learning Skills:
Gross motor development
Social interaction
Thinking skills/problem solving
Classification skills/matching
Math and counting skills
Materials:
Eight objects to match their sites, such as soap for the bathroom, a carrot for the refrigerator, a letter for the mailbox, a spoon for the kitchen drawer, a CD for the stereo, pajamas for the bedroom, a napkin for the table, and so on.
What to do:
Set an object at each site, making sure it's not the one that belongs there. For example, place the soap in the refrigerator, the carrot in the mailbox, and so on.
Place something special at the last site, such as some small toys, a snack or some stickers.
To start the game, gather the kids and tell them about the treasure hunt.
Give them the first item and ask them where they think it came from. For example, if you give them the napkin, they might guess it came from the table.
Tell them to go to the site to find out.
When they get to the table, they should find other napkins there, and something else there that doesn't belong, such as pajamas.
Continue the game until they reach the end of the hunt and find a surprise!
Play again, but this time ask the kids to collect things that go together, such as ingredients for cookies or a box game. Then do the activity when all the parts have been found.
If the kids have been cooped inside during the cold winter days, here's an activity to give them some exercise and have fun indoors.
Ages:
3 and up (Under 3, let them just roll the ball as best they can.)
Learning Skills:
Fine and gross motor development
Social skills
Thinking skills/measurement and size
Spatial relationships
Materials:
A variety of balls in several different sizes such as a large beach ball, a rubber ball, a basketball, a soccer ball, a soft foam ball, a tennis ball, a golf ball, a Ping-Pong ball and an extra bouncy ball.
What to do:
Have the kids sit in a large circle with their legs apart and their feet just touching their neighbors' feet.
Give the largest ball to one player.
Have that player roll the ball to another player across the circle.
Have the next player roll the ball across the circle to another player.
Keep rolling to new players across the circle until everyone has had a turn or two.
Play again but, this time, have the kids call out an animal when the ball comes to them. Tell them they can only call the animal once and must think of a new animal each time the ball is rolled and caught.
Play again, this time with the next smaller ball, and choose a new category such as boys' names, girls' names, colors, alphabet letters, numbers, foods, clothes, books and so on.
Keep playing, using a smaller and smaller ball, and keep changing the categories each time you play.
