outdoor play

Apple Math Counting and Adding Activity

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We love using math concepts that are learned in school into playful activities at home.  Learning through play is a great way to strengthen concepts learned in the classroom.  We used apples to count, add, and learn one day, all in the great outdoors!
Be sure to use our free count and color worksheet for more fine motor math through play.

Kindergarten and Preschool students will enjoy this math activity using apples or other objects with chalk. One to one correspondence, dice math, counting


Apple math activity for Kindergartners and Preschoolers

 
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We used Sidewalk Chalk and a
dice for this activity.  I took the kids outside to the sidewalk one afternoon and drew a bunch of apple shapes.  We were ready to play.


Note–you could also draw any shape for this activity: pumpkins, smiley faces, geometric shapes, simple houses…any thing would work.

To play the game, I had the kids roll the dice.  They had to count the dots on the dice, or simply look at the dots to determine how many dots there were.  Big Sister did a lot of dice activities last year in Kindergarten so she was able to glance at the dice and know how many dots there were.  Little Guy counted the dots.  This is a great early math skill for preschool aged kids.

Once they counted the dots on the dice, I had them color in the same number of apples to correspond to the number of dots.  

We used the squares of our sidewalk to wok on Kindergarten math concepts that Big Sister learned towards the end of her school year.  Some of the squares had two apples drawn on them, and others had four or more.


This was a great opportunity to review addition. 



She added the apples to make the total match the number of dots on the dice. 


Little Guy counted along with Big Sister to count the total number of apples filled in.

Coloring in the apples with the chalk requires use of the small muscles of the hand.  The sidewalk surface is resistive and the area they colored in was small.  This required precision to stay in the lines.  Not to mention, coloring in all of those apples really strengthened the hands!


This was such a fun way to review old math areas for the new first grader and introduce new math concepts to the preschooler. Like this math activity?  Try a few of these ideas:

Outdoor Pre-Reading Activity for New Readers

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We’re back to join the All Things Kids bloggers with this month’s series.  We’re talking about Fall and Outdoor fun with the kids.  We are a family that plays outside every.single. day.  Friends at church have said to us, “Wow you guys are tan, you must spend a lot of time outside”… Yep! We do.  (with sunscreen, don’t worry haha) 

So, when we realized that this month’s series post is all about outdoor play this fall, we were beyond excited!  Getting outside with littles is necessary for the kids and for mama.  Otherwise, we have a tornado of toys in the house and children bouncing off the walls and each other.  Well, those things happen regardless, but the fresh air and yard to run in help.  A lot.  

We made an outdoor scavenger hunt for early readers and pre-readers.  This literacy activity would be perfect for any time of year, but there’s something extra crispy and fun about playing outside in the Fall.  We took the letters outside for letter learning and word sounding.  This isn’t our first outdoor literacy activity, We loved our sight word scavenger hunt.  
Outdoor Pre-Reading Activity for new readers from Sugar Aunts

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Use clothes pins for a pre-reading activity. This is great for indoors or outdoors.


Using Clothes Pins in Learning

We started with a bunch of wooden spring clothes pins.  We use these clothes pins in a ton of learning and play activities.  Art, learning, and play are more fun with a fine motor manipulative like this simple household item.

Learning and play with clothes pins in literacy activity. from Sugar Aunts.


Literacy Pre-Reading Activity

Big Sister used a permanent marker to write uppercase letters on the clothes pins.  We wanted to use upper case letters so that Little Guy (age 5) would be able to identify the letters.  He is just starting to identify lower case letters, but I wanted to ensure confidence and success in this part of the activity so he would try something a litter harder for him: sounding out letters in pre-reading skills.  
Literacy Activity for kids Outdoors from Sugar Aunts



We worked together to sort out the letters on the clothes pins.  We did a few different activities with the clothes pins once we had all of the letters.

First, we went on a scavenger hunt around the yard, pinning our clothes pins to objects in nature with the corresponding letter.  It was a fun pre-reading task to sound out things that we saw.  Pinching the pins onto items was a fun fine motor task for both kids.  We pinned R to “roots”.



S is for “sticks”.


We did a few quizzes for Little Guy.  Big Sister and I thought of an item and said I know something that starts with the letter “S”.  He had to think and look to find something that started with “s” as he sounded out sssss.  This is such a great pre-reading activity for pre-readers.

B is for bark.

C is for clover.

M is for moss.

A is for arborvitae.  Time for a science lesson!


How many ABC items can you think of in the great outdoors?  We put together a list of ABC nature items that you can find in our NEW newsletter.  It’s a completely free way to be sure you see all of our posts.  Each Wednesday, you’ll receive an email of our latest blog posts along with other fun stuff.  Sign up for the newsletter to get the full list of ABCs of Nature items.  But don’t worry, we’ll be sharing the list with you at some point in the future.  Watch this space!

Rock Activities for Kids

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This week, we’re sharing fun ways to learn and play, explore, and create with Rocks!  
 
They can be found on roads, in the lawn, and alongside creeks…rocks are everywhere and very fun to play with.  These features from the Share It Saturday linky party will make you want to head outside and gather up a bunch of rocks.  Get ready for some rocky fun!
 

Rock Activities for Kids

Activities for Playing and learning with rocks

Rock Sensory Bin from 3 Dinosaurs
Sand and Rock Sensory Box from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Rock Activities for Learning and Play 

Decodable Reading with Nature Letter Formation Fun

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We play outside every single day.  Getting outdoors is so great for kids.  And for mama who needs some fresh air and sun light to make it through another round of feeding the littles.  Seriously. They are ALWAYS hungry!!  This letter formation and decodable reading activity was fun and a good way to slow down in the great outdoors while working on reading skills.
Big Sister is a new reader and Little Guy is starting to show some interest in sounding out letters and little words.  We used something we have in great abundance to work on letter identification, letter sounds, and decodable reading…sticks!

Work on letter formation and decodable reading using nature. From Sugar Aunts

Decodable reading activity for new readers

With a handful of twigs ready, I showed the kids how to make letters on a shallow basket.  We started by me making the words and sounding out the words with decodable reading techniques.  I made the first letter in the word and said “sound”, as they made the sound of the letter “T”.  Next, I made a letter “A” and said, “sound”.  They made the aaaa sound.  Then, I said the cue, “Blend it together”.  They blended “T” and “A” together and added the “R” sound.  Big Sister is familiar with this technique from Kindergarten.  Little Guy repeated Big Sister, but soon got the hang of it.

We tried it with a few more words before Big Sister got in on the fun.  She made a few words of her own and Mom and Little Guy decoded the words.

Letter formation Activity

Little Guy worked on letter formation with the sticks.  He really got into this.  While he built the letters, we talked about the sound(s) of letters.  Letter “A” makes a short and long sound.

Building the letters with sticks is a fun pre-handwriting activity for new writers.  Talk about the lines needed to make each letter.

Looking for more letter formation and decodable reading ideas?  Follow along on our handwriting or beginning reading Pinterest boards.

DIY Cardboard Car Childhood Must-do

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Everyone has those childhood memories that just stick with you for a lifetime.  Simple outside play are some of our best memories that us Aunts laugh about anytime we think about our childhood.  Getting messy in dirt, playing with sticks, and cardboard on a hill are just a few of the simple ways that we played as kids.  Recently we brought a little bit of simple outdoor fun to this childhood must-do activity with our own kids.


Add these resources to the ones you can find here under sensory diet vestibular activities to meet the sensory needs of all kids. 

Make your own Cardboard Car:

You might have seen this fun on our Instagram feed.  Are on IG?  Stop by and follow along with us.  We would love to catch up with you there!
All kids should do this in their childhood! Make a cardboard car and "drive" down a cardboard hill.

Cardboard and a hill are ingredients for instant outdoor fun.  Anytime we have spare cardboard in our house, the kids immediately ask to take it to the hill in our backyard.  Recently we had a big old sheet of cardboard and a few small boxes ready for the recycle bin.  Before any recycling happened, we had to play!

make a car for pretend play and outside fun.
We grabbed up a few pieces of sidewalk chalk and start decorating the cardboard boxes.

Use chalk to draw on cardboard.
Little Guy needed a lot of buttons on his “race car”.  Drawing with the chalk on cardboard is a GREAT way to work on handwriting and drawing skills.  The texture of chalk on cardboard is resistive and so requires a bit more strength to motor plan and execute the formation of shapes and letters.  Little Guy practiced his circle formation in a fun way, and didn’t realize he was actually practicing pencil control.
Now to work on that grasp of his 😉

Outside play with a cardboard box.
Baby Girl was really into this.  Anything that big brother likes, she likes.  Plus, cardboard cars are just FUN!  Of course, her buttons and steering wheel had to be “girl colors”.  Her request.

Make a cardboard car for outside fun.
We made numbers, headlights, and wheels on the outside of our cardboard cars.  Soon we were ready to drive!

We had to check for all functioning parts of the cars.

Childhood memories with simple outdoor play.

We took our cars to the hill and put down a big sheet of cardboard.  Usually, the kids love to slide down the hill on their bottoms.  The cardboard makes them slide down and is a great slide.  With the cardboard cars, they SAILED!  Check out the action here.

These two had races until the cars fell apart!

It was SUCH a fun way to play outside and re-use some cardboard!  Have you ever played with cardboard on a hill?  Let us know on our Facebook page.

Monochromatic Water Bin Color Play

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We love playing all kinds of learning through water on the water table.  We’ve played lots of other materials too…sand, nature, and even snow have made their way into our water table.  Recently, we explored a single color with water play in the water table.  Monochromatic learning  through water play is such a great summer play activity, but could be carried over to year round with a little mess-proofing indoors. 
This activity is part of the All Things Kids blogger’s monthly series.  This month we’re talking about Learning with Water Play.  You can see all of the great ideas from the All Things Kids bloggers by checking out the series homepage on All Things Kids.


Learning with Color

Explore a single color in the water bin with this learning through water play activity for kids.

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Monochromatic Water Bin Play

We started with our sand and water table
and filled both sides with water.  We added a little bit of grape scented bubbles
for a fun scent and foamy sensory play on one side of the water table.  I blew up a bunch of purple water balloons and threw those in the water table.  (HINT: Blowing up water balloons can be a beast!  We have a little hand air pump that came from some toy and made it much easier to blow up the water balloons!) You could use any size balloons for this activity, but I wanted small size for our transferring part of the fun. 

I gave the kids a little plastic shovel from our sandbox and showed the kids how to transfer the balloons from side to side in the water table.


It was fun to try to catch the balloons as they scooted around on the water surface.  Transferring the balloons with a shovel is a great way to work on eye-hand coordination while encouraging bilateral hand coordination and crossing midline.  Transferring from left to right is great for pre-readers, too.  Kids need to scan from left to right across the page as they read and working on this skill in pre-readers is a great beginner activity.

We had so much fun talking about the different shades of purple and the term “monochromatic” as we pointed out the different shades.  Our learning with water activity was a great way to spend a hot summer afternoon. 
You may be interested in some of the products that we love and used in this post’s activity:

Outdoors Small World Pretend Play

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Ok, so you know we like sensory bins and pretend play, right?  Small world pretend play is such a fun way to invoke imagination, language, fine motor skills, confidence, and so many more important skills in kids.  This small world activity is one of our favorite ways to play outside. 
(AND, it’s perfect for those times when mama needs a little break from chasing kids around the yard and needs to sit for a minute with some quiet play with the kids!)
The kids love when I pull out our bin of animals when we’re outside.  We take a great the big outdoors and make it into a miniature small world all with just our imagination.
Why not take a bunch of little pretend play figures outside and see where the pretend play goes?


Inspire pretend play and imagination with small world play in the outdoors.

 


Pretend play outdoors

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We have a big old basket of little animal figures, creatures, bugs, and animals of all kinds.  There have been cheers when this basket is pulled out.  We’ve added the critters to our sand and water table
lots of times for water play, creative play in the sand/birdseed/snow.  There’s something about just the plain old outdoors that really inspires imagination!

We played one day with our little animals around a big old tree in our backyard one day while mom snapped a few pictures.  We had an absolute blast!

There were sheep grazing in the moss fields.

And cows climbing tree trunks.  Little Guy had a pretty cool pretend play story going on here.  The cows had incredible climbing skills and were running from giant lizards.  He stuck the little figures into the bark and saved the farm!

I love this pretend play happening here!

This giraffe needs saving!

How can you inspire pretend play and imagination in the outdoors?  Grab a few toys that don’t normally go outside and create the ultimate small world in the great big outdoors!

Looking for more fun ways to play outside?  Check out our Creative Outdoor Play Pinterest board for lots of inspiring ways to play:

Circus Preschool Toddler Theme Summer Camp at Home

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We’re joining up with the awesome bloggers in the All Things Kids community to bring your creative and fun ideas to get your summer off to a great start.  So, the kids are out of school and ready for some fun.  The running around in the sprinkler and riding bikes are perfect to start off a summer of freedom.  But, what happens when the first “I’m bored” starts?  We’ve got you covered on ideas to keep the kids moving, learning, and creating this summer.  Each of us All Things Kids bloggers are bringing you ideas for themed activities.  These would be perfect too in place of a summer camp or vacation bible school and just do an at-home summer camp with the kids.  Why not invite a few friends over and start your own backyard summer camp for the kids? 

Backyard Summer Camp

It’s that simple to create a neighborhood summer camp!  Pull up the ideas from the all things kids bloggers and you’ve got 7 weeks of themes covered for a summer of camp fun.  We’ve found the best crafts, activities, snacks, and more all based on each week’s theme.  I’m ready for a backyard summer!
Check out all of the summer camp ideas: Robots, Bugs  Around the World , Animals, Ocean and Beach, Nature, and today’s post by us…Circus!

We’re scouring the net for the best and most creative ways to make your own Circus themed Summer Camp for preschoolers and toddlers.  We’ve got circus crafts, circus snacks, circus fine motor and gross motor activities to get the summer off to great start. 


Circus Theme Crafts

The kids will love a few circus crafts.  These lion, tiger, and monkey masks (Danya Banya) will keep the kids occupied and pretending. Or try this elephant mask craft (East Coast Mommy) for more pretend play.  For more circus animal crafts, try this activity from Inspired Treehouse.  

Kids will love making a craft a day at your backyard camp.  Make this elephant mask (Mamas Like Me) and they can wear it throughout the week. Children can work on so many important developmental areas while developing their scissor skills.  If painting is more your thing, this lion craft (Sassy Dealz) is a super cute circus animal to make.   Need a few more crafts to keep the kids busy with your circus theme?  I love these circus clown costumes (KangarooBoo blog) made with party hats and paper plates.

We loved making our circus tent craft.  This trapeze artist craft (Boy Mama Teacher Mama) is equally cute! A handprint zoo (House of Burke) would be a great memento to remember your week of circus fun.


Circus Theme Snacks

A backyard summer camp or themed learning unit definitely needs snacks to keep little ones going and energy levels high.  Here’s a few circus themed ideas for snack time:
  • Goldfish in a bag (You won goldfish!)
  • animal crackers
  • popcorn
  • Sandwiches cut into fun circus shapes with circus cookie cutters (and then reuse those cookie cutters for stamp art painting later in the week!)


    • A    dd these things to a little peanut butter (or other nut butter) for some protein.


Circus Theme Gross Motor Backyard Activities

I know a few little ones who would LOVE this water gun game (Driven By Décor).  Use a few ping pong balls and a squirt gun for an easy (and summer-ific) carnival game. Inspired Treehouse put together put together three gross motor circus activities.  A ball toss game would be easy to set up with a few bins and some bean bags or balls. 


Circus Theme Sensory Activities

The kids (and moms) will get a kick out of a fun circus sensory activity.  How cool is this popcorn painting activity (Mess for Less)? We put together a few fun ideas for circus sensory bins in our circus party essentials post

 


Circus Theme Learning

Any circus unit or backyard camp needs circus books!  These are some of our favorites.

Circus Party Items for Games, Activities

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We’ve got a mini circus theme going on this week with play, crafts, and awesome-ness!  We thought it would be fun to put together a bunch of ideas for a circus party or circus themed event at school, vacation bible school, or summer camp.  Just a few clicks around Circus boards on Pinterest and you’ll find loads of creative circus-themed crafts, activities, games, and decorations.  These ideas are easy to put together and a great way to throw in a little learning, too!


Circus Party Favors

No circus is complete without the clowns.  While you may not have a clown at the party (or a loving uncle who is willing to dress up…), all you need is a bunch of clown noses.  These are great party favors and the perfect photo-opp for a bunch of cute (sugar rush-crazed) kiddos!  Use them in games too by having the kids toss the clown noses into buckets. Add a few baggies of popcorn and animal crackers and you are set on the party favors.


Circus Party Decorations:

Décor for a backyard circus requires only a few of these Red & White Striped Table Skirts thrown on  the tables.  If you’ve got a tree in the party area, a mini-circus tent would make a totally cute play area.  I love the simplicity and awesomeness of this no-sew circus tent.  Re-used, the tent is the perfect outdoor pretend play/reading area. Decorate the party area with a few strands of Pennant Banners and the scene is set!


Circus Party Games:

Circus Games and Activities are the hit of the real circus and the backyard themed party!  I love that these ideas can be re-used once the party is packed up and a memory.  One of our favorite toys that we use ALL the tme in learning activities, pretend play, sensory activities are our animal figures.  These circus animal figures and circus animal train will be perfect in a circus party sensory bin.  Throw the animals into a big bin filled with rainbow colored rice, a few scoops and funnels, and you’re set.  If the weather permits, these circus animals would be great in a baby pool with water. 
The circus and it’s carnival games make great memories!  This bean bag toss game and ring toss set
are a great way to get the kids moving.  Make it a learning opportunity by adding math into the game or working on colors as the kids play.  The younger kids (and hey, older ones too!) love the Duck Pond Pool at the circus.  Add a sticker to a few of the rubber ducks
and the party go-ers can win a prize.


Circus Party Essentials:

The red and white colors of the circus are classic and fun!  I love these red and white paper straws.  Grab up some red and white packs of paper plates and napkins from the dollar store and your food essentials are done.  We’re all about simple and it’s easy to eliminate costs on party supplies in the paper plate area.
When it comes to the snacks for kids, a popcorn buffet and bowls of animal crackers hit the mark.

Let us know if you plan a circus themed party. We would love to hear about your party details!  Stop on over to our facebook page and share the fun with us!

Get the essentials here:

Looking for more circus themed ideas?  Stop on over to our Circus Crafts and Activities board on Pinterest and check out all of the cuteness: