play

Learn with Play Year Round Learning Book

by
We are published in a book!  I am so excited to introduce our book that we’ve had the honor to collaborate and help author.  Introducing, Learn with Play: 150- Activities for Year Round Fun and Learning!
Learn with Play: 150+ Activities for year-round fun and learning for kids. An amazing resource for parents, teachers, grandparents, child care workers. This would be a great gift idea for birthdays!

 

This book is sure to keep kids busy and free from boredom with 150+ activities for year-round learning through play.  With 94 co-authors, Learn with Play offers activities, crafts, learning for all stages of childhood from babies to kindergarten aged.  This is such an amazing resource for parents, educators, therapists, child care workers, and grandparents.  A book like this would make an amazing (and easy) gift idea for birthday presents to children of all ages.  
 
This post contains affiliate links, including Amazon affiliate links. 
Learn with Play: 150+ Activities for year-round fun and learning for kids. An amazing resource for parents, teachers, grandparents, child care workers. This would be a great gift idea for birthdays!


Learn With Play Book

The pages of Learn with Play is such a resource with it’s age-appropriate play and color coded activities.  Bloggers from all over the world have teamed up to bring you the best ideas for learning through play.  Each activity comes with age suggestions, abilities targeted, clear instructions, materials needed, author’s name, and blog url. 
Learn with Play: 150+ Activities for year-round fun and learning for kids. An amazing resource for parents, teachers, grandparents, child care workers. This would be a great gift idea for birthdays!


Included in this amazing resource:
  • Fine Motor Skills
  • Sensory
  • DIY Toys
  • Play Recipes
  • Busy Bags
  • Math
  • Literacy
  • and much more!
 

Ebook version 

Kindle version ($14.95) Click here to purchase

Paperback version ($29.99) Click here to purchase

Learn with Play: 150+ Activities for year-round fun and learning for kids. An amazing resource for parents, teachers, grandparents, child care workers. This would be a great gift idea for birthdays!

Easy No Prep Free Summer Activities

by

Summer is upon us.  For me, I am at home with my four kids and playing, (trying) to stay on top of the laundry, feeding constantly hungry mouths, planning hikes and park visits, scheduling play dates, visiting the library, and trying to keep this little blog business afloat.  The kids do a great job of unstructured free play and come up with some pretty wild imaginative ideas.  They are playing school, cops, library, and pirates on almost a daily basis.  Then there is the daily coloring and TV tag in the yard that keeps the kids creating and moving.  We also find ourselves pulling our hair out with bickering kids, whining, and boredom.  A little inspiration in EASY and basically free activities for the kids is needed sometimes.  Use this list of essentially Free Summer Fun Activities for those times when the kids need a little encouragement to create, play, and get along.  Because we all know that sometimes distraction can change a sour attitude into smiling happy kids!

You’ll also be interested in our new Summer Occupational Therapy Activities Packet. It’s a collection of 14 items that guide summer programming at home, at school, and in therapy sessions. The summer activities bundle covers handwriting, visual perceptual skills and visual motor skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, regulation, and more.

You’ll find ideas to use in virtual therapy sessions and to send home as home activities that build skills and power development with a fun, summer theme. Kids will love the Summer Spot It! game, the puzzles, handouts, and movement activities. Therapists will love the teletherapy slide deck and the easy, ready-to-go activities to slot into OT sessions. The packet is only $10.00 and can be used over and over again for every student/client!

Grab the Spring Occupational Therapy Activities Packet HERE.

summer occupational therapy activities for kids

 

Basically free summer activities for kids and families this summer. Creative play is inspired play!
 
 
 
 
 

Free Summer Activities for Kids

 
Use what you’ve got in the house with these activities:
Create with recycled materials and make arts, crafts, and activities.
Pull plastic ware out of the cupboards and sort the lids onto the containers.
Mix colors with food coloring in water.
Blow bubbles
Jump rope
Play Kickball
Throw a book picnic: grab snacks, a blanket, and a pile of books and head outside.
Dress up with old fancy dresses and clothes from mom’s closet (then throw them in a bag and donate!)
Bake
Poke holes in a cardboard box and push pipe cleaners through the holes
Bowl with recycled plastic water bottles
Act out a favorite nursery rhyme
Play Pizza Tag: one person is “it” and chases the others.  Players run from “it” and can stay safe from being tagged by naming pizza toppings and touching the ground.
Put dollhouses or play sets into a bin of shredded paper.
Play hide and seek
Climb trees
Watch and draw clouds
Tell stories where one person starts a story and each person adds a sentence to continue the story.  Write it down and illustrate your story!
Make and deliver lemonade to neighbors
Go birdwatching
Make creative firefly catchers and then catch the fireflies that night.
Play charades
Act out a favorite book
Create with finger paints (make your own with flour, water, and food coloring or washable paint!)
Sing songs
Turn on music and dance
Pick flowers and give them to neighbors
Make crafts. Have an art show and invite friends.
 
Creative play
 
Whatever you do this summer, enjoy every minute and have fun!
 
More creative fun you may enjoy this summer:
 

Want to take summer play to the next level? Be sure to grab your copy of the Summer OT Activities Bundle!

Summer activities for kids

Bow Stamp Art Flower Craft

by
Our recent Painting with Pinwheel art was such a hit that we had to try another stamp art activity.  We made this gift bow flower stamp art craft in honor of a special little one in our house who is celebrating her first birthday.  Using the gift bows as a stamp made the cutest flower art.  This craft is perfect for preschoolers (and kids of all ages) when making flower art!  I think it would make a pretty special DIY birthday paper wrapping too!
This is one of our favorite hand eye coordination activities for toddlers because there is no right or wrong way to make this toddler painting art!

Make flower art using a gift bow to stamp! Cute idea for a flower craft or DIY wrapping paper.


To make your Gift Bow Flower Art:

 
Pick up just a few materials.  We’re including affiliate links for your convience here.  You’ll need 

paint (LOVE this brand!) poured onto a plate or into bowls.  Grab a handful of gift bows and start stamping!

Preschoolers love this craft for it’s easy art creation and it’s such a fun and easy process art activity.  There is no right or wrong way to make the flowers.  When you’re satisfied with the flowers, take a swipe of green paint and make a few stems.  Our flower art decorated the dining room for a few days.   Maybe we’ll make a roll of DIY wrapping paper the next time around!
 
Let us know if you make this creative art project.  You’ll find lots more creative art painting ideas on our Creative Painting Pinterest board.  Be sure to follow us there! 
 
More creative stamp art you might enjoy:

DIY Tambourine Craft

by

Want to make a recycled tambourine? We’ve got you covered with our plate tambourine craft from years ago. We used recycled clear plates for a colorful tambourine that the kids loved!

We made these clear DIY tambourines as a baby sensory toy that was a big hit with all of the kids. The clear plastic plates made sensory play fun with a visual and auditory aspect.  Using recycled materials in craft and play is one of our favorite ways to create! We also recommend making a bottle xylophone for more colorful and beautiful music!


Clear tambourines for music and baby sensory play
 

Recycled Tambourine Craft

 
How to make DIY recycled tambourines for music and toddler sensory play…
 
You’ll need just a few items to make a plate tambourine:
  1. Clear recycled plates 
  2. Hot glue
  3. Items to add inside the tambourines. Ideas include dry beans, dry corn, dry split peas, dry rice, or cut up pieces of straws.
 
 
This is an easy DIY project that kids of all ages will love.  Use recycled clear plastic plates, a hot glue gun, and filler.  We used red beans and cut straws to fill our tambourines.  
 
I wanted bright and bold colors for our clear tambourines.  Other fillers might include: dried split peas, chick peas, black beans, or beads.

 

 
Fill one of the plates with the beans.  Little Sister loved helping with this part.

 

 
She helped me by cutting colorful straws into small pieces.  She loved watching the bits of straws shoot across the table as she snipped each one.  What a great scissor activity for preschoolers!

 

 
These brightly colored straws make great tambourine filler.

 

 
 
Use the hot glue gun to spread glue along the whole edge of the lip of one plate.  Be sure to put the hot glue on the plate that is filled with filler.  Then place the empty plate on top of the hot glue.  Don’t try to flip the full plate onto the empty plate.  You’ll end up with spilled beans and hot glue burns.  Don’t ask how I know this 😉
 
Firmly press the whole outside edges together until the glue hardens.

 

 
Baby loves these clear tambourines for shaking sensory play!
 
 

Other DIY instruments that we loved include:

Recycled Seedling Planter Animals Craft

by

It’s no secret that we love to create crafts and activities using recycled materials.  Especially during April and right before Earth Day, we wanted to make a recycled material craft.  We pulled out recycled seedling planter containers to create animal crafts.



I always have left over seedling planter containers in the garage from gardening and flower planting.  If you garden, then you know that a pack of flowers or plants usually comes in a seedling container or 4-6 plants.  Once you plant your seedlings, you are left with a plastic container.  You can either toss it into the recycle bin, or save it for another project…like our cute animal crafts!

recycled seedling planter animal craft puppets



This post contains affiliate links.


Recycled Seedling Planter Containers crafts

Use recycled seedling containers to make puppets!
To make your seedling animal crafts, you’ll need a few materials:
Seedling Starter Trays that you’ve saved from planting

glue
assorted cardstock
extras like googly eyes, yarn, ribbon (use left over scraps!)

Cut the seedling planters into one sections.  Our planters were black so we decided to create black animal crafts.  Seedling sections became penguins, black cats, and even an orca whale.

Cutest animal puppets made from recycled seedling planters

We also made a spider, skunk, and panda.

Black cat puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
So many cute animals!  A black cat…
Panda puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!

 We made a panda…
Skunk puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
…and a skunk.
Spider puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
A spider…
Penguin puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
Penguin…

Orca (Killer Whale) puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
And the cutest orca (Killer Whale) craft!

Our seedling planter animals turned into cute puppets for all sorts of imagination and pretend play scenes.  We added these to a sensory bin for a small world activity, too.

Recycled seedling container animal puppets craft
Recycled seedling container animal puppets craft

This post is part of the 60 day junk play challenge on Best Toys 4 Toddlers.


Looking for more recycled crafts? Try these: 
Spring chick juice box cover~ tip to tip grasp, multi-textural craft for Spring

Rainbow recycled cardboard tube craft~ fine motor skills, imagination, pretend play, language skills

Rainbow binoculars~ imagination, pretend play, fine motor skills

Cardboard tube turkey napkin ring~ fine motor work 


Fine motor color sorting activity with recycled grated cheese container~ tripod grasp, color, pattern, and sorting learning skills. This is a great early math activity!

In-hand manipulation activities ~uses a grated cheese container and a recycled two liter drink container to develop in-hand manipulation and translation skills.

Cardboard Tube Zebra Craft

by

 Today we bring you a Recycled Cardboard Tube Zebra Craft.  We love to make and create play ideas and crafts using recycled materials.  Its a wonderful way to upcycle and save crafting supplies and use recycled materials in a greener and more sustainable manner.  This cardboard tube zebra craft hits the mark!


Cardboard tube toilet paper tube zebra craft

Toilet Paper Tube Zebra Craft

We pulled out a cardboard tube to make this zebra, along with a few other items that we’ve used in other play activities.  This post contains affiliate links for a few reusable items you may need.
Use a hole punch to make four holes in the cardboard tube as shown in the picture above.
Use yarn draped in black paint to make stripes on the cardboard tube.
This is a messy painting activity, but oh, so fun!
Once the cardboard tube has dried, use black and white paper straws to make legs on the zebra.  Push the straws into the holes in the cardboard tube to support the zebra.
Add a small section of straw and a smaller section of cardboard tube to make a zebra head.  Snip two triangles from the tube to create zebra ears.  Glue on or draw on eyes for the zebra.  Have fun with your recycled zebra craft!
This post is part of the Natural Parenting and Earth Month series hosted by Allternative Learning.

Math Art Activities

by

These math art activities and math art projects are fun ways to explore and learn! We’ve shared previously, the fine motor benefits in math, so as OT professionals, we love these ideas! Explore the activities below for use in both math AND art!

Math Art

Mathmatics and art have gone together since early artists began creating.  Many great works of art contain mathematics, from buildings and pottery to paintings and statues.  

Today, we’re featuring projects that combine math and art into activities that kids can explore while learning through creative expression.  

Combining the learning aspect with hands-on, creative expression in kids’ activities can be a great way for children who do not enjoy being “artsy” or “crafty” to create.  

These activities are sure to get the kids creating and learning!

 
 
 

What is Math Art?

“Math art” refers to the intersection of mathematics and visual aesthetics, where mathematical concepts and principles are used to create artistic expressions.

It involves using mathematical principles, such as geometry, symmetry, patterns, and fractals, to create art projects or creations.

Art and math can take various forms:

  • Fraction art
  • Graph paper art
  • Sculptures
  • paintings
  • digital art
  • Geometry art
  • Origami art
  • Multiplication art
  • Geometry string art
  • Geoboards
  • More!

 

 


Math and Art Activities for Kids:

Try these creative learning projects for developing skills while learning.

Clockwise from the top image:

Concentric Circles activity
Mandala Segments from Highhill Education
Shell Mandalas Math from Nurturestore
Klee from Kids Activities Blog
Parabolic Curve from What Do We Do All Day
Fibonacci Art Project from What Do We Do All Day


What are your favorite ways to create using math and art?

The Day The Crayons Quit Crayon Shaving Art

by
Have you read the book, “The Day the Crayons Quit”?  This is SUCH a cute book from the crayons’ point of view.  They are TIRED of coloring the same old pictures the same old colors.  Why does the Yellow crayon have to color the sun?  And why can’t the Black crayon color a beach ball?   We loved reading this book over and over again and coming up with our own take on mixing up the colors in a sensory art project using crayon shavings!
And, while your in the crayon theme, be sure to check out our resource on crayons for toddlers and preschoolers to support development of coloring as well as underlying skills using age-appropriate crayons.

 
We are super duper excited to be back at the Preschool Book Club series where we’ll join a few of our favorite kids activity bloggers and explore a fun children’s book every two weeks!
 


The Day the Crayons Quit sensory art

Crayon shaving art craft for sensory play based on the book, The Day the Crayons Quit

This post contains affiliate links.  
 
We loved reading The Day the Crayons Quit
by Drew Daywalt so this sensory crayon shaving art was completely a hit in our house!
 
This sensory activity requires just a few items:
 

plastic sandwich bags
clear shampoo
crayons
permanent marker
 and a small pencil sharpener

 



Use the pencil sharpener to make crayon shavings in the colors you want.  This is a fantastic fine motor activity for little fingers.  Twisting the crayons in the small pencil sharpener really works the intrinsic muscles of the hands.  Not only are kids building the hand strength and endurance for writing and coloring tasks, they are using a tripod grasp to manage the pencil sharpener/crayon.  It’s a resistive task that might cause hand fatigue for little ones, but not much crayon shavings are needed for this sensory activity.

Use the permanent marker to draw a picture on one of the sandwich bags.  Fill the baggie with the shampoo and you are ready to get started!  
Have the kids pinch the crayon shavings into the plastic bag.  We tried to get the colors we wanted into the general area of the picture.  So, instead of a yellow sun, we made ours purple and tried to get the purple crayon shavings near the sun in the picture.  If they don’t land exactly near the part of the picture that you want them, it’s not a big problem, and actually a good sensory and fine motor activity to move the shavings around in the shampoo.
Crayon shaving art craft for sensory play based on the book, The Day the Crayons Quit
Press and push the colors into the part of the picture to make mixed up colors just like in “The Day the Crayons Quit” 
Crayon shaving art craft for sensory play based on the book, The Day the Crayons Quit

Be sure to see all of the amazing activities based on The Day the Crayons Quit: 

Writing Activity from Homegrown Friends
Crayon Box Craft from Buggy and Buddy
Follow Up Story from Mama. Papa. Bubba.
Paper Doll Crayons from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails
 
 
Did you miss some of our other Preschool Book Club activities based on popular children’s books?  Check them out and see all of our Preschool books and activities: 
hands-on activities to explore social emotional development through children's books.

Love exploring books with hands-on play?  

Grab our NEW book, Exploring Books Through Play: 50 Activities based on Books About Friendship, Acceptance, and Empathy, that explores friendship, acceptance, and empathy through popular (and amazing) children’s books!  It’s 50 hands-on activities that use math, fine motor skills, movement, art, crafts, and creativity to support social emotional development.

Turtle Thumbprint Art

by
fingerprint turtle craft

Make a fingerprint turtle and work on fine motor skills! This turtle craft is a huge hit with kids.

We have a love for print crafts.  From creating with handprints to pipe cleaners, stamping art is fun for kids and a creative way to explore shapes, colors, and textures.  
 
 

Fingerprint Turtle

 
 
We made this turtle thumbprint art one day while playing with green paint.  They are so cute that you’ll want to make a whole turtle family!

 
Turtle thumbprint craft for kids
 

 

 
This post contains affiliate links.   
To make Turtle Thumbprint Art, you’ll need a few supplies: 
 
  1. our favorite green paint
  2. white paper
  3. orange paint
  4. Sharpie Permanent Marker
 
 

How to make fingerprint turtle art

This turtle fingerprint art is a simple craft that develops fine motor skills. Here are the instructions to make a fingerprint turtle, but you can modify the activity as meets the needs of the individual. 
 
  1. Paint your child’s thumb pad green with green paint. 
  2. Press the thumbprint onto paper.
  3. Add four legs and a head by pressing fingertips into the green paint.
  4. Lightly tap the fingertips onto the green turtle back on the paper.
  5. Once dry, use the Sharpie Permanent Marker to make smiling faces.
  6. You can also add details to the turtle’s shell by adding orange fingerprints onto the green shell. The orange paint on a fingertip can add details to the shells. 
 
 
 I loved that this craft was a collaboration between my kids, with Big Sister making the shells, Little Brother making the heads and feet, and Little Sister adding orange dots. Everyone had to get in on the fun.  They are just too cute to resist!
 
Try more thumbprint and fingerprint art:
 
 
I love Ewe handprint art | Olive You fingerprint art.