Screen Free Ideas!

Of course you love screen free activities--otherwise you wouldn't be here :)  I put together a short list of some of my favorite activities that are perfect for home, school, or a library setting.  The best thing?  You most likely have all the materials already on hand.

Click on the picture below to read all about these fun screen free activities:

Sensory Table Basics

It just makes sense to have a sensory table in your classroom, home or library program.  They're too beneficial and fun to skip!  Click the picture below to read all about them :)

Glue Sticks!

New post over on the FlannelBoardFun.com blog!  Click below to read all about glue in your art area...

More Simple Art Tools for Fine Motor Fun!

In the continuing saga of fine motor art fun...  Click that cutie to read more!

Ducks, ducks, ducks!

In my experience, preschool kids dig ducks.  And anytime a preschooler likes something, they’re bound to learn a lot as they play with that thing.  So let’s give them lots of duck stuff to do!  Preschool duck activities galore, right here for your viewing pleasure…

Click below to keep reading:

Recognizing Numbers

Preschool number recognition is more of an early reading skill (symbols have meaning, and this symbol is a 5, and this one is an A… ) than a true math skill.  It’s when kids get the idea that a specific number symbol refers to a specific quantity of things that it becomes a math skill.  But it doesn’t really matter what you call it.  

Click below to read more!

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Simple Art Tools for Fine Motor Development

Need a refresher on why simple is best?  

Here's a quick post on simple tools for your 

preschool art area (at school or at home!)

Making Binoculars!

This activity was a regular each year on my list of small group activities.  It could also be a great activity to do in a library story time!  We kept several sets of 'real' binoculars in the Dramatic Play area of our classroom, but having these homemade sets on hand was a fun change of pace :)  Click below to read all about this simple, fun activity!

Get these sorts of ideas sent right to your inbox every couple of weeks--plus a free Shake Your Booty song and dance cube (plus lyrics to go with it) to use with wiggly kids!

Bubble Wrap Painting

I. Love. Bubble. Wrap.  It started when I was a kid, and my parents would let me pop the bubbles when a package arrived in the mail.  There is something so satisfying about that activity--and I've brought bubble wrap into my classroom for the kids to pop lots of times.  We've pinched it, poked it, stomped on it, and spread out long strips on the playground to run on (SO fun!) 

But painting on bubble wrap is a whole different cookie :)  There's no popping involved, but the process is equally satisfying in a completely different way.  There's something so...cool?  fun?  sensory?...about rubbing a paint brush over those bumpy sheets of bubbles!  Thick brushes, thin brushes, small bubbles or big--it's all just great fun!  

Painting on the bubble wrap can be the beginning, middle and end of this activity--or you can make prints too!  Just show the kids how to place a piece of paper on top of their painted bubbles, rub it lightly, and peel it off.  Bubbles!  Yay!

Have you painted on bubble wrap with your children?  Do they love it?  Do they just want to pop those bubbles? I'd love to know your ideas--leave a comment!

Golf Tees and Scrubbies = so many skills!

I came up with this idea when I was a nanny and needed an easy activity to keep the kids entertained in the back seat of the car. Two simple ingredients: golf tees and dish scrubbies...:) Just put them out in a tray and see what happens! This one is great for fine motor development and color sorting--if you can find colored golf tees, they'll poke those tees into the color-coordinated scrubbie. Counting happens naturally (or with your gentle, appropriate guidance), and they love lining up the tees, so you've got the potential for creating patterns as well. Older kids also like to use the tees as legs and arms as they create various critters. Such a fun and simple (and super cheap) activity.

Do you have similar activities that are inexpensive and provide tons of skills?  Leave them in the comments below!