Social-Emotional Learning

Your soon-to-be-Kindergartener was built for summer! There’s so much to do, see, and explore, both inside and outdoors. If you’re looking for some fresh, fun ideas to help keep your rising Kindergartner engaged and learning for the rest of the summer, have we got the activities for you! Read on for three days’ worth of developmental, educational, and social-emotional activities – plus some bonus activities, just for fun. And don’t miss our summer minicamp activity ideas for three- and four-year-olds

Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.

Download this free, printable worksheet, grab some counters, and practice numbers and counting with your kiddo! Count the letters in their name (writing it out on a sheet of paper might help), their age, the number of siblings they have, and more!

You may have seen the pretty, painted rocks people are leaving around neighborhoods across the country as a symbol of kindness. You can do the same! Take a walk and find some medium-sized rocks with nice flat or rounded surfaces. Clean them off and pop them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes – you can use the time to talk about things that make your kids happy as inspiration for what they might draw. Let the rocks cool just a bit, then use crayons to draw their ideas! When the rocks are dry, use a Sharpie to write caring messages like “Kindness”, “Love”, or “Joy”. Then place them in your neighbors’ gardens to brighten up their days! Find other kindness activities here.

End your first day of minicamp with another cool-down activity – making a snowstorm in a bottle! Gather a glass or see-through plastic jar, vegetable oil, white paint, glitter, and an Alka-Seltzer tab, and follow these instructions to make it snow inside!

Using the proper pencil grip is the key to legible writing. Help your kiddo practice this summer by providing a sheet of properly formed capital letters to trace using a variety of differently sized crayons, markers, and pencils. Around age five, kids should be able to manipulate a writing utensil with three fingers rather than move their wrists or arms. Learn more about proper pencil grasps here.

Brush up on those math skills with a scavenger hunt around the house! Print this list of things to look for and set off to find everyday math items, including number words, items of certain sizes and shapes, pairs of things, and more!

Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers?  Draw a picture? 

Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?

Stretchy, sticky, and squishy, you probably know that slime is awesome. But did you know that slime also helps builds fine motor skills? Measuring, pouring, mixing, stirring, squeezing, smashing, rolling, and twisting are all great ways to strengthen hand muscles and build fine motor skills! Start your last day of minicamp off with some slime, using our favorite recipe.

Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row. 

The forces of physics are all around us, and summer is a great time to see them in action. Floating in the pool, rolling a ball, and dropping an ice cream cone (oh NO!) are perfect examples of buoyancy, motion, and gravity. These simple activities will demonstrate some of the most fundamental properties of physics in a fun way – and you can follow up your lesson by making a simple machine (instructions included).

Print this free career worksheet, cut out the word cards and images, and match them up! Talk about each job, the responsibilities of each job, the qualities each requires, and which one interests your child the most (and the least).

Summer marches on, and many families are ready for some fresh new activity ideas to keep their kids engaged and learning. To help liven things up – and prepare your four-year-old to start preschool in the fall – we’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for preschoolers (click for minicamps for three- and five-year-olds, too). Check out these fun ideas, starting with:

Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.

Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.

Solid social-emotional skills are a must for preschool. This free, downloadable, matching worksheet will help your little one learn to recognize emotions, from silly to sad to calm and nervous. Then talk about the feelings that go with each face, whether your child has ever felt that feeling, and what they might do to help a friend who’s feeling the same.

If your camper can’t get enough animals, they’ll love this fun-on-the-farm activity! Set out a few plastic bowls filled with animal “food” (think oats, dry pasta, chickpeas, and nuts), then let your little one use a spoon to fill cupcake liner “troughs.” Place the troughs on a play tray and your plastic farm animal figurines, and watch the pretend play unfold!

Nothing says summer quite like apple pie! Kick off day two of minicamp with a sensory stimulating activity bin full of oats, play apples (or red, green, and yellow pom poms), scoopers, sifters, tongs, cups, and spoons, and let your little learner loose. Sorting and matching by color and size is a key foundational math skill, and manipulating the tools in the bin builds fine motor skills. Find more ways to play here.

This hands-on habitat activity lets kids learn about different animals and their various environments! Start by asking your child to choose a favorite animal figure. Talk about where that animal might live, what they might eat, and what you’ll need to create the perfect habitat. Take a walk around the house, out back, and to the park to collect these items, then build your habitats using a shoebox or Tupperware container, dirt, sand, rice, pebbles, bark, twigs, beads, marbles, etc.

Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers?  Draw a picture? 

Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?

Day three of your minicamp will be fantastic, thanks to our printable preschool worksheets! Build hand strength, graphomotor skills, hand-eye coordination, and more with a pack of free, fantastical preschool printables, including color by numbers unicorn, a mystery maze, and a coloring sheet. Then practice cutting with kid-safe scissors to create pretend play unicorn and dragon masks.

Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row. 

Knowing other people’s feelings and doing what you can to help are two hugely important SEL skills. Put your playdough letter practice to good use by thinking of a friend or family member who might enjoy receiving a picture or letter from your child in the mail, then make one! Help your little one write a simple message, draw or paint an image to go with it, address an envelope, insert their work, and let your sweetie apply the stamp. Walk the letter to the mailbox, and off it goes! Find other ways to practice everyday kindness here.

Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.

With summer vacation well underway, many parents are looking for fresh new ideas for summer fun and for ways to keep their kids’ brains engaged. We’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for three-year-olds (click for minicamps for four- and five-year-olds). So, turn off the screens and shake up your summer routine, starting with:

Start your day with some fine motor fun! Build fine motor skills, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination with a batch of swampy brown Oobleck and plastic toys you have around the house. Toddlers use animal figurines, toy cars, and other shaped toys to make imprints in the Oobleck, then use their hands to smooth the Oobleck out and make another print with another toy. Find the Oobleck recipe and instructions for our Swampy Jungle Footprints activity, here. 

Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.

A calm down corner is the perfect place for little ones to process big feelings and your kiddo can help you get yours set up! Choose a quiet, low-traffic spot, then let your child choose a favorite pillow, blanket, books, and stuffed animals. Select some soft, soothing music – together – and you’re all set for the next time they need a quite minute to gather themselves. Learn more about calm down corners, here.

Once the day has heated up, head outside for some water play! Water play builds motor skills, coordination, and balance, encourages new vocabulary, and introduces simple science and even a bit of math – and it’s so simple! Find ten fun water play activities here, from trike wash and sponge toss to color labs and science experiments.

Kick off the day with fun physical activities designed to build your toddler’s gross motor skills! Head outside and challenge your child to a game of hopscotch, catch, freeze tag, or follow the leader. Use painter's tape to make a balance beam and see if your little one can walk the line. When it gets too hot for outside play, go wild inside, replicating the way different animals move (find inspiration on YouTube first!) and see who can stand still on one leg the longest or frog hop the highest. Find details about ten balance and coordination activities here.

Slip some science into your toddler’s summer with this multi-activity butterfly lesson! Click here for step-by-step instructions to make your caterpillar and butterfly puzzles, then add a sensory-stimulating step by filling each section with dry beans, rice, and noodles. Add a library book about butterflies and use proper vocabulary to describe their amazing transformation.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.

Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.

Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.

Montessori’s 5 Cs

Raising a Curious, Confident Learner

If you’re familiar with the Montessori method, you know that schools following these teaching principles focus on child-guided, hands-on learning. There are no lectures or timelines – students explore concepts at their own pace, in their own way, working until their personal curiosity is satisfied. In fact, curiosity is the first of Montessori’s powerful “Cs”. Learn more about these concepts so that you can support your child as they follow their own learning path at home:

Curiosity – Present your child with an activity, demonstrate it for them, then step back and let them explore on their own. Watch as they discover various elements on their own, using each piece or the whole as they wish. Let them play as long as they are interested, without intervening, but redirect if you sense they are becoming frustrated.

Communicating – Speak to your child calmly and lovingly. Praise their exploration, curiosity, patience, and perseverance rather than their efforts or outcome. Encourage them to continue exploring and ask them questions about what they’re doing. Demonstrating positivity and support not only builds self-confidence in your child, it also teaches your child how to speak kindly to others.

Correcting – The ability to recognize a mistake and try again – without becoming frustrated or defensive – will serve your child well throughout their life. Teach them that mistakes are part of the learning process by gently redirecting problems and suggesting a possible solution to try next. Sticking with a problem is more important than getting it right the first time.

Conceptually – You may have heard about Growth Mindset – the idea that everyone is capable of learning a concept and just because a student doesn’t understand it – YET – doesn’t mean they never will. Montessori believes that learning is a journey and there is much to be learned by the process itself. Encourage your child as they embark on the journey and every step of the way.

You can build a curious, confident learner by following these tips from Montessori. Set out a new activity for your little one today and see how they respond!

Are your kids obsessed with any surprise toy (or even more baffling, watching other children unwrap surprise toys on YouTube)?!?! It’s a magical mystery to us adults, but boy, oh boy, surprise toys are such a fascinating concept for today's children. So well done to Learning Resources® for embracing that sense of surprise in some of their new products. We have a few of their ‘Sorting Surprise’ range, but the hot new favorite in our home is this fun Picnic Baskets set.

What’s Included?

In the set, you get ten colorful picnic baskets, and each basket has a vibrant food surprise inside. The baskets are also clearly numbered 1-10, which adds a sneaky and useful numeracy element to the product. I’ll come back to this little gem, but a cute mini butterfly is also included in the box.

Surprise!

My preschooler couldn’t wait to open up each little basket. As she did so, I asked her to tell me the color of the basket and what number was written on it. It’s always a good idea to try and engage your child in these types of conversations as they explore. It can add new vocabulary and reinforce what they already know, which helps to build their confidence. Of course, she couldn’t wait to tell me what she found inside each basket. I tried to ask a few prompt questions to expand her vocabulary again. We spoke about colors, shades, sizes, and even flavors.

Once my daughter took all of the surprises out of the picnic baskets, she had lots of fun matching them again. Opening and closing the baskets and manipulating the small pieces of food were great for her fine motor skills. It’s so funny how mini food items are so entertaining!

Extending the Play

What I wasn’t expecting was how long my daughter played with these items and how she played so creatively with them. Whoever thought of including a small butterfly in this set is a genius! This little butterfly inspired an hour of pretend picnic play. My preschooler wanted the butterfly to taste test every single item, carefully opening the baskets and letting her new ‘pet’ have a nibble or slurp. The butterfly rated the items from favorite to least favorite and would fly around the picnic to get energy boosts for her wings. Avocados are just what butterflies need to go ‘super-duper fast.’

We have been enjoying the baskets as an addition to our toy room, but I also can’t wait to start pairing them up with some sensory and small world play. I want to expand on my little one’s love of the butterfly by using some green crinkle paper, a napkin, and baskets to set up a little butterfly’s picnic. Alternatively, we could add the baskets to a sensory base like rice or water beads. Using a magnifying glass to seek and match the food items to their baskets would be fun. So many play possibilities!

Writer’s Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.

Water play is always a huge hit, and this fun sensory bin has an added surprise element that will keep your little one entertained!

To make cloudy water:

1. Add water to a bin

2. Mix in the food coloring of choice

3. Add just enough corn starch to make the water opaque and mix

Next, add in loose parts and have your child search the water to find the pieces and sort them by color! Add in tweezers or scoops to help develop fine motor skills. We used Sorting Surprise Picnic Baskets for this bin!

We’ve talked about essential milestones for three-, four-, and five-year-olds, but the growth doesn’t stop there! Big kids are tackling some important tasks and becoming more independent with every passing day. From academic achievements to physical growth and development, the middle childhood years of six and seven can be exciting. Remembering that every child learns and grows at their own pace, read on to learn what your big kid might be doing over the next 12-24 months!

Social-Emotional Skills

Sixes and sevens are building their confidence and, in turn, becoming even more independent from their family members and caregivers. You can encourage their independence by assigning age-appropriate responsibilities and applauding their efforts to master things on their own, no matter the outcome. Over the next two years, your big kid is also likely:

• Becoming more compassionate, able not just to recognize emotions but to empathize, as well
• Making authentic connections, enabling them to make and keep good friends
• Cooperating with others while performing a task, playing a game, or working with a sports team
• Understanding fairness and rewards that are based on better or worse performance or effort

Language Skills

Speaking in complete sentences, your big kid can express themselves clearly, share thoughts and opinions verbally, and may even start to express themselves clearly in written form. They’ll also be working on:

• Building their vocabularies – to the tune of five to 10 new words a day
• Their sense of humor! Advanced language skills bring a better understanding of jokes and puns
• Proper punctuation in letters and other written communications (although not in texts!)
• Taking turns speaking – learning not to interrupt can’t come soon enough

Cognitive Skills

First graders are working on addition and subtraction, writing and spelling, shapes and measurement, etc. Practicing at home will help, especially with:

• Reading! Reading skills are blooming, so be sure to have plenty of books and magazines on hand
• Telling time days, learning the days of the week, and the months of the year
• Skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s and working with math manipulatives
• Counting coins and adding their sums

Physical Skills

Your six- or seven-year-old is getting a better feel for the things they enjoy and maybe pursuing hobbies and showing an interest in different sports. At this age, your child may be mastering:

• Passing and catching a ball by throwing or kicking
• Dancing to the rhythm and beat of their favorite music
• Riding a two-wheeled bike, which requires balance, coordination, and confidence
• Drawing, painting, and writing more clearly (a sign of solid fine motor skills)

Your support makes a world of difference in your child’s development, so keep reading, talking, playing educational games, counting change at the store, asking their opinion, and telling them how capable they are.

Red pants with a purple shirt… snow boots on the bottom, sun visor on top… sweatpants under a tutu… we've all been there! While our toddler's fashion choices may leave something to be desired, there are lots of reasons to tolerate – and even celebrate – your little one's desire to dress, including:

1. Encouraging Independence

When your child wants to dress themselves, they're asserting their independence. They've watched as you've selected their clothing and helped them put it on, and now they're ready to give it a go on their own. This is something worth supporting – and applauding!

2. Building Motor Skills

Zipping a zipper, buttoning a button, even fastening Velcro shoes requires fine motor dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Your child will need your help at first, but the more opportunities you provide for practice, the better they'll get!

3. Boosting Self Confidence

Getting both legs into a pair of pants, pulling a sweater over their heads, slipping a foot into a boot (the right boot, even!) – these are no easy feats. Mastering the skills needed to dress is a big confidence builder and knowing you believe they can do it is the first step!

4. Supporting Self Expression

All those shapes, colors, patterns, and textures! Choosing their favorite pieces and putting them together in an outfit is a wonderful way for your child to express their style and personality. Encourage this creativity by applauding each selection!

5. Developing Perseverance

Your snappy dresser won't be able to put on that sock the first time and probably not the second or even third. But they'll keep on trying, building the stick-to-it-ness they'll need to overcome difficult challenges down the road.

Getting dressed isn't easy! This developmental milestone requires logic and problem solving, motor skills and balance, perseverance, and confidence – all good things. So as long as your little one's choice is weather appropriate, give their next ensemble a big thumbs up and save your battles for something more important than fashion choices.

We’ve all been there, in line at the library or grocery store, or maybe at home, before naptime or bedtime… you see the telltale signs of a toddler meltdown, and then – WHAM – your kiddo is out of control. Depending on the child, this might look like crying, screaming, hitting, body stiffening, running away, or whatever creative outlet your child’s body instinctually chooses. Although a normal part of child development, toddler tantrums are upsetting for everyone involved. Understanding why they happen, what to do when a tantrum hits, and how to prevent the next one can help both child, and parent navigate these tricky times.

Let’s start with the why. Tantrums usually begin around age one and last through the twos and threes, years coinciding with a lack of verbal communication skills. This means your little one is experiencing big emotions but doesn’t have the cognitive skills to identify exactly what they are and wouldn’t have the communications skills to tell you, anyway. Your child could be feeling overwhelmed by feelings of hunger, fatigue, pain, distress, fear, or overstimulation, with no way to express themselves. How frustrating that must feel! This frustration builds and builds until it bursts out in the form of a tantrum. 

What should you do when your toddler throws a tantrum? Stay calm! Take a deep breath (or three), then intervene with a soft, calm voice and slow, gentle movements. Acknowledge their feelings – you can see that they are angry, sad, frightened, etc. Reassure them that you are there and stay physically close until your child has calmed down. This is not the time to reason with your little one, talk the scenario through, or teach a lesson. Resist getting angry or upset – remember, your child is not in control of their emotions in these moments, and they’re not throwing a tantrum to upset you. As hard as it is, this is one of those times when they need your steady, loving hand most.

Okay, so you made it through the last tantrum. What can you do to prevent the next one? Helping your child identify their feelings and communicate them more appropriately is the foundation for healthy social, emotional behavior. When you see your child become upset, intervene immediately, helping them identify and label their feelings, then offer a few solutions. Don’t discount the power of distraction, either. “I can see you feel angry that your brother is playing with the blocks. Would you like to help me with this special puzzle?” Positive reinforcement is also key – praising and rewarding good behavior each time you see it. “I love the way you shared your blocks with your brother! Can I give you a hug?” 

It takes lots of time and practice for kids to learn to regulate and express their emotions, so tantrums aren’t going to disappear overnight. But with consistent responses, social, emotional growth, and lots of love, you’ll both see better behavior soon!