The kids are home and itās time to think about homeschooling options that can keep them engaged in learning activities. When it comes to teaching at home, using common household products in creative ways is a simple solution for parents scrambling to educate, engage, and entertain their kids at home! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
1. Sponges
- Cut sponges into shapes, such as flowers and hearts. Next, dip the flat surface in paint and use it like a stamp. These shapes are great to use to create artwork, or for patterning. Stamp heart, flower, heart, flower, then have you child stamp what comes next.
- Cut sponges into the basic 2-D shapes that children need to know (circle, square, rectangle, triangle, trapezoid, etc.). Have kids stamp each shape, and after the paint dries, have them label each shape. Have children label the sides, face, corners, straight lines, curved lines, etc. Also, have them label the name above or below each shape.
2. Paper Towel Rolls and Paper Plates
Create a carnival game! More specifically, create your own homemade version of the popular ring toss game. Kids love playing ring toss and itās even more fun to play when they help make the game. For this arts and crafts project, all you need are empty paper towel rolls, non-toxic paint, markers or crayons and some plain white paper plates.
- Attach a paper towel roll upright to a paper plate with tape or strong glue. Cut the center of the paper plates out to create a ring, and have children decorate the rings. To take it further, add numbers to each ring so that children can add up their points!
- You can also cut the rolls in ten pieces to use as manipulatives for adding. Try stacking them for addition or subtraction problems. You can even paint them or color them with markers.
- Using a hole-punch, punch holes around the top of the roll. Using string or yarn, tie bells in the holes. This is an easy way to make a fun instrument!
3. Old Puzzles
Hereās another idea for using paper towel rolls. You can also cut the rolls in ten pieces to use as manipulatives for adding. Try stacking them for addition or subtraction problems. You can even paint them or color them with markers.
- Idea 1: Take old puzzle pieces and leave them as is, or paint them to create a picture frame by gluing the pieces in a rectangle. Adding a note like āI love you to pieces!ā gives it a personal touch. Add a photo of your child and a loved one, then mail it to them!
- Idea 2: Paint puzzle pieces to create fun creatures! Or, use markers on the grey sides to cover the surfaces. Then take items like beads, strings, googly eyes and pipe cleaners to add some finishing touches. Have your children write stories about these creatures! Make sure they include the name of the creature, where they live, what they eat, and if they have any special abilities like flying or becoming invisible.
4. Rice
- Use rice to create a sensory bin for an awesome stimulating learning experience. Taking a large zip-top plastic bag, add white rice and a few drops of food coloring. Shake the bag vigorously for a minute or two, to disperse color onto the rice. You can make one color, or many colors. Put the rice into a large container, such as a plastic sweater bin or large baking pan.
- If you have a shallow bin, have your children āwriteā their letters or draw shapes using their fingers or pencils.
- If you have a deeper bin, hide small objects in the rice and have kids hunt for them. As your children find items, they can keep their hands under the rice, feel the items, and try to tell you what the items are, without looking at them. Or, have them pull three items out and write a story about them.
- Fill a sock with rice to create your own bean bags or animals! You can either sew or tie off the top of the sock to keep the rice inside. You can also write numbers or letters on the bean bag socks to create activities such as pulling a bean bag with a letter and naming five things that start with that letter, or placing bean bags with numbers on them in order from least to greatest.
5. Wrapping Paper
There are several creative ways to use wrapping paper.
- Create a journal cover by cutting a 22.5-inch by 9-inch piece of paper and folding it in half. Next, place plain white or lined paper inside and staple up the fold.
- Create origami paper out of flat paper. Cut 3-inch, 6-inch, or 10-inch squares. You can find simple origami instructions on YouTube or from other online resources.
- Use wrapping paper as a backer for your childās artwork. Measure the size of the piece of art and then cut the paper 1 to 2 inches larger on all four sides. (For example, an 8-inch by 10-inch piece would get a 10-inch by 12-inch backer.) Glue the piece of art to the paper, ensuring you have an equal amount of paper showing on all four sides of the art.
Even if you donāt consider yourself creative, you can have fun making things to educate, engage, and entertain your kids at home. For more ideas, search YouTube and Pinterest. Make the most of this time at home if youāre able and use it as an opportunity to try new things.
By Angela French
4/9/2020
Angela French is the Senior Product Development and Content Manager at Really Good Stuff. She has worked for the company for nearly seven years and has created hundreds of resources for the classroom. She has a Masterās Degree in Early Childhood Education from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. Her classroom experiences include teaching grade levels Kā5 and inclusion, special education, literacy intervention, and gifted and talented programs in three different states.