Sellotaped Animals

This activity is great for developing those important fine motor skills. Challenge your children to chose several of their favourite little toys. Encourage using scissors to cut the tape and stick them to a piece of paper or card. Once the tape is securely on and well stuck down, the next challenge is for your child to peel the tape off. This encourages use of their pincer grip. Simple but effective. Talking points; Descriptive words, prepositional language (next to, in between, on top etc), counting, adding, taking away, if using animals- where do they come from?… Super Challenge; use tweezers to peel off the tape!

Silly Soup

Find objects from around the house that either start with the same letter sound or that rhyme. You will need a bowl and a spoon. Sing the song and add an item in the bowl, sing the song again and add the next item. Repeat until the items are all in the bowl. (see the picture for lyrics)

Caterpillar Patterns

Design your own Caterpillar, perhaps after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Talking points; Life cycles of caterpillars, seasons, noticing one-one patters. Super challenges create a two-one pattern caterpillar (two green, one red etc) Count how many of each colour, add them all up.

Forest School Patterns

When out for a well spaced out walk, find different types of leaves and flowers, see what type of patterns you can make together. Talking points- size, prepositional language, colours, types of leaves, shapes. Super challenge, take some leaves home and see if you can pierce holes in them and thread string or wool in and out of them.

Ice Cube Painting

Freeze different coloured water (high volume of food colouring) with sticks poking up. Let your child get involved in the whole process. Once frozen remove them from the freezer. Let your child paint with them as they wish. Talking points; process of liquid to solid, temperature language, process of solid into liquid. Super challenge; experiment with different material to see what melts the ice quicker i.e salt, cold water, warm water. Does it melt quicker in the shade or in the sunlight?

Helicopter Stories

Helicopter stories are a great way for children to begin to develop an understanding of how stories are structured. At first as the grown up you may have to take the lead and do most of the story telling until your child gains the confidence to join in. Sit with your child and have large pieces of paper ready. Start by telling a story Once a Upon a Time there was a young wizard called….. (encourage your child to give you a name). He had a magic….. (encourage your child to give you a description). Do this throughout your story, offering your child cues to join in. Give plenty of opportunities for speech to be introduced into the story. Once you have finished your story it’s time to act it out together!

Colour Sorting

This is a great activity to use tweezers with, to develop those fine motor skills and the very important hand muscles. Colour or paint several different tubes (old kitchen roll tubes) in different colours. Stick them to a window or a door. Under each tube put a bowl. Challenge your child to pick up different coloured pom poms that match the tube using the tweezers and put them in the tube. After you have finished, turn into a counting game. See what colours you have the most of, are some the same amount? (see pictures for clarification) Extra challenge; you could ask your child to share the poms poms equally between them and a grown up, this will start to develop understanding that quantities can be divided and that quantities can change when things are taken away.

ReadWriteInc For Parents

ReadWriteInc Letter Formation