Have your child decorate an oatmeal container like a drum. They may paint it or cover it with construction paper. Let them play it like a drum. |
Let your child play in the mud. Supply paper cups, buckets, shovels,toy dishes, etc. Hose them down when they're done. |
Help your child find some interesting rocks. Let them paint them if they want, and display them. |
Talk to your child about what Winter is like where you live and where other's live. Read "Katy and the Big Snow." |
Let your child paint with the "Earth colors," black, brown, and green. |
Have your child help you fertilize a tree. Put the fertilizer stakes in the ground in a circle around the tree, thanking the tree for it's shade, beauty, and air. |
Visit your older relatives, or a local Retirement home. |
Make a "Touchy-Feely Bag." Fill a cloth bag with small, everday items, like a rubberband, a clothespin, an eraser, a crayon....then have your child feel in the bag and try to identify the item by touch only before taking it out of the bag. |
Make clay pinch pots. Roll clay into a ball, and pinch out the center until it's a small bowl. You can make coil pots too, by rolling the clay into a long snake. First coil it into a disk. Then coil around the edges of the disk to form the walls of the pot. |
"Mud" Desert: Take a clear plastic cup. Have the children crumble two oreo cookies in the bottom of the cup. Then make chocolate pudding. Spoon in pudding on top of cookie crumbs. Sprinkle the top with more cookie crumbs or chocolate sprinkles. You can add a gummy worm if you wish. |
"Mud" Fingerpainting: Clean the table carefully. Then Put a bib on your child. Let them "fingerpaint" on the table with chocolate pudding and eat it as they do. This incredibly messy, but very fun and yummy. |
Salt Sparkle Pictures: Mix kosher salt with your paint. When it dries, it will sparkle. |
Adopt a Tree: Have your child pick a tree that is special to them. Observe the tree throughout the year. Make bark rubbings (hold paper up against the bark and rub with a sideways crayon.) Collect leaves from the tree. Fertilize the tree. Have them hug the tree. Have them draw pictures to record the changes in the tree. Have them measure the width of the tree. Have them draw pictures of any widlife living in the tree. |
Rhythm Sticks: Have your child pick out 2 nice, thick dowels. Have them sand them lightly. Then they can either paint them or color them with markers. Spray them with clear acrylic. Then the can beat them together while you march and/or play music. |