Day of Play Family Festival Newsletter This newsletter is brought to you by: Worcester Family Partnership and Edward Street Child Services See highlights on the Day of Play website! May 2018 Newsletter! Here you will find activities in each of the 6 important types of play: reading play, construction play, STEM play, creative arts play, active play and music & dance play that will allow you to continue the learning fun at home! To find out more about the benefits of play, visit the Day of Play website! Reading Play 1. Feed The Bear Alphabet Activity: This bear activity is super simple to set up and lots of fun to play. Children will enjoy learning their letters and getting to feed them to the bear. You will need a brown paper bag, printable fish, a black marker, brown construction paper, glue and scissors. To set up the activity, you will need to first draw a bear face on the paper bag and cut out the mouth so there is a hole to insert the fish. Then cut bear ears out of the construction paper and glue them onto the bag. Next you will need to print out pictures of fish, cut them out and then write a letter on each one. Then set up the bag and give the fish to your child. Tell them that the bear is very hungry and they have to feed him the fish but the bear likes to know what he is eating so they have to tell the bear the letter they are feeding him. It would also help the bear if he knew the sound of the letter too. Once the bear is all fed, the children can empty the bag and start over if they wish! 2. Missing Letter Clip Sticks: This is a great literacy tool for you to make when working on identifying certain sounds in words with your children. All you will need is craft sticks, markers, and clothespins. Decide what words you are going to write on the sticks, you should add pictures too to help your child figure out the words. When you write the words on each
stick, leave a letter out and that letter you left out you will write it on the clothespin. Your child will look at the picture, say the word and then find the correct clothespin that is needed to complete the word and clip it onto the stick! Such an easy idea to work on identifying missing letters and sounds in words and it is good with working their finger muscles as well! 3. Mini Cup Spelling Game: Here is a fun, reusable, hands on way for kids to practice their spelling. Practice makes perfect and with this activity they will enjoy learning to spell. All you need is mini cups, circle stickers and a marker. Place a sticker on every mini cup and then write a different letter on each sticker. Then, put out all of the cups and ask your child to spell out words. They can do this by stacking the cups on top of one another or laying them out across the table. Have them get creative and find new ways to spell out words. See how many words they can spell and you could also give them your own list of words to spell. Construction Play 1. Building Blocks: For this simple activity, all you need is a lot of empty cardboard boxes, tape, crayons, markers, and stickers. Start off by taping the boxes closed so the children will be able to stack them properly. Have your children decorate all the boxes by coloring them, drawing pictures, putting stickers, whatever way they want to design the box! Then once all of the boxes are decorated, the children can stack them up and make their own buildings! This is always a fun activity that gets the children engaged because they love cardboard boxes and being able to experiment with them! 2. My First House: Children love to get creative when it comes to building, this activity is very simple and all you will need is black construction paper, craft sticks and glue. Tell the children to create their own houses out of the craft sticks. They do not need to follow any guidelines or examples; they can build their house however they please! There is no right or wrong way to build a house. Have them glue one side of the craft stick and stick it onto the paper so their house will stay in place. You can pretend that the glue is the concrete that holds the house together. 3. Paper Bag Houses: Create a cool house out of a paper bag and construction paper. All you need for this activity is a brown paper bag, colorful construction paper, scissors, crayons, glue and tape. For this activity start by having the children draw or cut out items they will need for their houses, like windows, doors, the roof etc. Once they have these they can glue them onto the bag and when that is all done, open up the bag then fold the top over one or two times. Tape the folded part of the bag down so the house will not open and then children can glue or tape their roof on. Once the house is all made, they can glue the bag to some green paper to act as the grass and they can add trees around their house, animals, people, etc. Children will love being able to create their own house instead of just drawing it or building with regular blocks!
3. Grow Crystal Seashells: For summer, you can experiment with crystals growing on seashells! All you need for this activity is seashells (they can be from the beach or you can buy them at the store), glass containers, water, a spoon, borax powder, measuring cups and tablespoons. The most important part of growing these cool crystals is mixing up the saturated solution. This solution will allow the crystals to form slowly and correctly. A saturated solution is a liquid that is filled with particles until it can no longer hold anymore. To start you will need to boil some water, and then add 3-4 tablespoons of borax powder per 1 cup of water. If you are going to make several crystal shells you should do a three cup solution. Then your child can place the seashells into the glass container and you can help your child add the solution to the shells so they are completely covered. Place them off to the side and watch the magic happen! Once the solution begins to cool down, the crystals start to form. Leave the crystals untouched for at least 24 hours. After 24 hours, you can take the crystal seashells out and let them dry STEM Play (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) 1. Oobleck: This is a great science project or even just a great thing to make on a rainy day. Oobleck has properties of both liquids and solids. You can slowly dip your hand into it like a liquid or have it drip from your hands, but if you poke the oobleck, it will feel solid. The recipe is simple; all you need is 1 cup of water, 2 cups of cornstarch, food coloring, a bowl and spoon to mix. You can have your children help you make the oobleck and mix all the ingredients together and have them measure out the amount of ingredients needed. Step one is to pour the 2 cups of cornstarch into the bowl, then add the 1 cup of water and stir these together. Then you can add in the food coloring of choice and mix it in, it's as simple as that! Children of all ages will love to play with the oobleck and get their hands dirty. It is so much fun to squish around in the bowl and in their hands. They will also notice that it turns to liquid when they pick it up and once it falls back into the bowl it is solid again. Oobleck is a great learning experiment and all children will love this activity! 2. Grow Grass in a Bag: Your child will love being able to plant the seeds and watch them grow without them being in dirt! You will need a zip lock bag, grass seeds, cotton balls, water, tape and a window. Have your child open the bag and place the cotton balls inside. Once the cotton balls are in, have your child take out a few of the grass seeds and put them in the bag on top of the cotton balls. Then put some water into the bag just enough to cover the cotton balls. Seal the bag shut and help your child tape it up on a window that will get plenty of sunlight. After sitting in the sunlight for a day or two, take the bag down and have your child examine the sprouts that are forming. Ask them how they think the grass is able to grow without being in dirt. This is such a great learning activity for children and they can admire how much the grass grows day by day! You can even measure the pieces of grass daily to see how much they are growing everyday!
on paper towels. Set up an observation station for the children to look at the crystals. Have them describe them and even draw what they look like! Creative Arts Play 1. Pine Cone / Rock Decorating: For this activity, you will need to go on a nature walk with your child to collect some rocks and pine cones. Once you have these items you will also need to get paint, glitter, glue, pipe cleaners, stickers, anything you can think of that your child could use to decorate. Set up a spot where your child can get messy and start decorating their pine cone or rock! They can color on them, draw, paint, add glitter, string, anything they want. This is such a simple and fun way to get creative with nature and they can experiment with so many different arts and crafts objects to create the pine cone or rock that they want! 2. Marble Painting: Marble painting is always a fun activity for children! It is not painting the marbles but rather painting with the marbles! What you will need is marbles, paint, bowls to hold the paint, spoons, paper, and a shallow cardboard box or tray. First to prepare for the marble painting, you will need to put your paints in the bowls, put the piece of paper inside the cardboard box or tray and put out your marbles and spoons. Next the children will drop the marbles into the paint of choice and roll is around to get the entire marble covered. Once that is done, they go in with the spoon to scoop it out and transfer the marble to the tray. When it is in the tray, they can pick it up and move the tray all around in order to get the marble rolling and leaving trails all over the paper! They can do this as much as they want and create cool designs and lines. 3. Raised Salt Paintings: If you haven't tried raised salt painting yet, now's your chance! Here's how, all you need is some paper, salt, a squeeze bottle of Elmer's glue, liquid watercolors and paintbrushes. The first step your child will have to do is make a design on the paper out of Elmer's glue. Then sprinkle it with salt until the glue is thoroughly covered and pick up the paper to let excess salt fall away. Dip your paint brush into liquid watercolor paint then gently touch to the salt-covered glue lines. Watch the paint "magically" travel in both directions! Then let the artwork dry, which could take up to a day or two and hang it up for display! A different and unique way to do some painting and children will enjoy testing out new items and techniques. Active Play 1. Scavenger Hunt: Children love scavenger hunts and having to work as a team to find items. This is very easy to set up and requires little to no materials. What you will need is a piece of paper and pen to write down the items you want your child to find! Make the list of objects around your house that you know your child knows you have or they can reach them. Give them the list and happy hunting! Once your child finds all of the items
on the list you could reward them with a prize for completing the scavenger hunt. 2. Balloon Ball: This is a fun activity to play inside and out! All you need is a balloon and at least two people to play! Start by blowing up the balloon and tying it. Then play with your child to try and keep the balloon from touching the ground. Your child will have a blast running back and forth trying to keep the balloon in the air. You could mix things up by adding paddles and playing balloon tennis. There are many games you can play with a balloon that will keep your children entertained for a while. 3. Yoga: Children love learning new moves, and doing children's yoga is a great way to get their whole body moving while also relaxing them! You can practice yoga poses with your children and look up poses to try and recreate. You can also ask your children to make up some yoga poses. It builds their concentration and it is working on their gross motor skills. Music & Dance Play 1. "Shake My Sillies Out": Sing along to this fun song and do the movements they tell you! "I'm gonna shake, shake, shake my sillies out...shake, shake, shake my sillies out shake, shake, shake my sillies out & turn myself around. Then repeat the verse using these words: Wiggle my wiggles out Wave my waves out Jump my jumpies out and sit myself right down." You can also add more actions in the song to make it longer and ask the children what action they want to do next to get them more involved. 2. Musical Hide and Seek: This musical hide and seek is played with objects and is an excellent tool to help the child improve their listening skills. You will need a musical toy or device and good hiding places. How to play: the objective of the game is for the child to find the toy by listening to its music. Turn the toy's music on and hide it somewhere the child can find. Keep hiding the toy and make it a little more complicated each time. The more the child plays it, the better his listening skills get and the easier it will be to find the toy! A fun game to get your child up and moving while listening to music and improving their skills. 3. Dance Songs: Since dancing and moving their body is a major part of childhood and their growth, there are so many songs out there that children can dance to! Find some children's dances on YouTube and have your child listen and follow along and copy the movements they are hearing or seeing! Some examples of songs are "Hokey Pokey", "Move and Freeze", "Five Little Monkeys" and many more. There is such a wide variety of songs and dances your child will never want to stop dancing!
Created by Helza Howland Edward Street Child Services 50 Portland Street Worcester, Massachusetts 01608