Messy Play

It is the perfect time to plant flowers! You need an empty soda bottle, some dirt and flower seeds.

Cut the soda bottle in half, have your child scoop the dirt up with their hands and fill in, place some seeds in the dirt and water. You can punch holes in either side of the soda bottle and string a ribbon through to make a hanging planter.

Don’t want to plant real flowers?

You can make flower pictures with just about anything. Glue brown sugar or coffee grinds on the paper for dirt. Outline flowers on their paper or have your child draw a flower. You can use paint- finger paint, sponge paint, paint with toothbrushes or q-tips. Glue pieces of ripped tissue paper, cereal, or colored sand in the petals. You can also mix paint with your elmers glue. When it dries you will have puffy flowers!!!

Broken Crayons

Are most of your child’s crayons broken? Don’t throw them out. You can use them for a few different projects. First if the crayons are broken- use them!! The smaller crayon pieces promote a mature tripod grasp in children. The smaller crayon forces them to hold it with thumb, index an middle finger rather then their whole palm.

You can also tape five or six piece of crayon together and let your child color with the multi colored crayon! Or make your own rainbow crayon. Have your child pick out smaller pieces of crayon and place them in the bottom of a muffin tin. Melt the crayons in your oven, when they are completely melted, remove from the heat and let cool. You will have one large rainbow crayon when you are finished.

Wax paper transparencies- Take small pieces of crayon or have your child practice using a pencil sharpener with their crayons. You can use the crayon shavings for this project. Cut shapes out of wax paper. I like to make butterflies or flowers this time of year. Make sure you have 2 the same size (top and bottom). Have your child sprinkle the crayon shavings on the wax paper then lay the second sheet on top- if you have a tray or baking sheet, it will be easier and a little less messy. When the second sheet is on top- place a hot iron on top for about 2 minutes. The crayons will melt holding the two sides together. You can punch a hole in the top, thread a string through and hang it in the window. You can also decorate the outside- simply glue google eyes to your butterfly or petals to your flower.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

There are so many activities you can do with items you throw away. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Plastic bottles:

- Take plastic soda or water bottles and cut the top half off. After cleaning and drying them, they make a great funnel. Use the funnel in your sand table, sensory bean/rice bucket, or in the water table.

- Small plastic water bottles, are great for salt art. Make you salt or sand art in these small bottles. You can glue fins on and make fish.

- Make instruments out of water or soda bottles. Place some beans or sand inside and make maracas. Use two empty bottles for drum sticks.

- Shampoo or body wash bottles are perfect for water play. Who needs a water gun? Fill them up and start a water fight!

Newspaper and Magazines

- Cut, Cut, Cut- Don’t throw out your newspapers, have your children practice cutting. Make a collage of animals, plants, words, or feelings. Have your child flip through your old magazines and cut out the pictures. You can also have them search for certain letters or numbers. Give them a list of words that they have to find or they can find the letters to spell the word.

- Do you have younger children that aren’t ready for cutting? Give them some paper and ask them to rip it. They will have so much fun and work on bilateral coordination all at the same time.

- Make a scarecrow- more of a fall activity, I know, but your children can scrunch the paper into balls and stuff shirts, pants, and a pillowcase for a head. Then put him together.

- And don’t forget you can always use newspaper/magazines to help save your table when your children paint or do other messy projects.

Rockin B ball

Now everyone can "shoot for a hoop" with this addictive little 4 inch transparent orb. Play against the clock, head to head, best of 10, even "horse". Every time you score a basket, you're rewarded with flashing lights and cheers from the Cyber-audience. Now don't get too confident, it's not as easy as it looks. But with just the right flick of the wrist you too can be a high scorer

Fun Outside Games

Here are some fun outside summer games you can play with your children or with a classroom group.
All you need is chalk:

1. Hopscotch: Remember when you used to play? Find a larger area on concrete and draw a hopscotch board. Have your children jump with two feet throughout the entire board. To make the game more difficult, jump with two feet then alternate to hopping on one foot. Now add a rock to the game- have your child toss a rock onto one of the squares, this is the square you now have to jump over, on the way back remember to pick up the rock. You can also try to jump in order. So have your child throw the rock onto the first square, jump through the board, then toss onto the second square, and so on. If you put your foot down or jump on the square with the rock, you are “out” and it is the next player’s turn.

2. Mazes: Find a large area of concrete, with chalk draw a maze. You can draw a simple straight line, curved line, circle, or other shape for your child to follow. Need a more difficult maze, draw twists and turns, angles and curves. They can walk, jump or crawl through it. You can ride a scooter board through the maze. Follow the maze, pretending it is a forest and walk like an animal. You can walk through the beach maze, picking up shells along the way while walking like a crab.

3. Drawing and writing: Draw shapes on the floor and have your children make a picture out of them. Make people or animals out of the shapes. Use your imagination and have your child make a city out of the shapes you drew. Practice writing letters. After you write the alphabet you can play jump and spell. Give your child a word to spell and they have to jump to each letter in order to spell the word.

Orbo

Orbo, the snap and match puzzle ball! Baseball sized orb comes with 13 holes, 12 of which have different colored balls resting in them. Players must push the balls out of one hole and get it to "snap" into another hole. This continues until all the balls are resting in the hole ringed in the same color. One hole is unringed and will remain empty. When complete, mix it up and do it again! Hands, eyes, patientce and planning all get a real work out with colorful little Orbo.

Super Fun toy- have races to see who matches all the colors first.

Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!

Let’s make bubbles!!!!
You will need Dawn dish soap, water, and a small bottle of glycerin

You can use any dish soap, I have found that Dawn works the best. In a large bowl add 1 part water and 1 part soap, add about a teaspoon of glycerin and you have bubbles. Want to put your children in a bubble??? You will need a small hard plastic pool, a hula hoop, and the above ingredients.

Fill the pool about two inches high, add half a bottle of Dawn dish and three tablespoons of glycerin. Have your child take off their socks and shoes and one at a time step into the center of the pool. Once in the center of the pool, place the hula hoop at the bottom of the pool and lift it above their head. Lift it slowly, a bubble will form around your child. We have used this as a group activity or just for fun in the backyard!!!

Rainbow River Stone

Q5753 Colorful, highly versatile piece of equipment for home, school and clinic. You get 6 stones in 3 sizes. Use them individually or stack 2 or 3 together to create a wider variety of heights. By rotating the stacked pieces you can also create stone tops that are flat or angled increasing or decreasing the balance challenge as needed. Step, jump, balance, stoop. The kids will love this piece of equipment! Comes with carry bag for ease of transport. Holds up to 80 Kg. *(Sorry this item does not qualify for free shipping)

What to do with old Magazines and Newspapers

- Cut, Cut, Cut- Don’t throw out your newspapers, have your children practice cutting. Make a collage of animals, plants, words, or feelings. Have your child flip through your old magazines and cut out the pictures. You can also have them search for certain letters or numbers. Give them a list of words that they have to find or they can find the letters to spell the word.

-Do you have younger children that aren’t ready for cutting? Give them some paper and ask them to rip it. They will have so much fun and work on bilateral coordination all at the same time.

- Make a scarecrow- more of a fall activity, I know, but your children can scrunch the paper into balls and stuff shirts, pants, and a pillowcase for a head. Then put him together.

- And don’t forget you can always use newspaper/magazines to help save your table when your children paint or do other messy projects.

Flour and Oatmeal Dough

This recipe is great! You will need a large bowl, 1 cup of flour, 2 cups of oatmeal, and 1 cup of water. Have your children mix the dry ingredients first with their hands, then add water. Keep mixing until all ingredients form a large ball of dough. It will be sticky at first but keep mixing. You can then roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to make shapes, letters, or numbers. The dough will harden after a few hours.

You can also use liquid food coloring to add some color to the dough. After using the cookie cutters, push a straw through the top to make an ornament, or once the dough dries you can have your children paint them.