Sorting is an essential skill for children to learn, and it can be a fun activity when done creatively.
Sorting is an essential skill for children to learn, and it can be a fun activity when done creatively.
Looking for a fun and cost-effective way to celebrate Valentine's Day? Look no further! These cards are perfect for bringing a special touch to your Valentine's Day celebrations.
These cards are colorful, fun, and, most importantly, free! You can print as many as you need!
Printable Dinosaur Valentine's Day Cards!
Check out a unique and fun alternative for candy - using Learning Resources Dinosaur Counters and our FREE Valentine's Day Card Printables.
Cut out and give to friends and loved ones this Valentine's Day!
Big Feelings Pineapple and Learn-a-Lot Avocados Valentine's Cards.
Valentine's Postcards
Make your very own postcard to send to a friend or family member!
Looking for a fun and cost-effective way to celebrate Valentine's Day? Look no further! These cards are perfect for bringing a special touch to your Valentine's Day celebrations.
These cards are colorful, fun, and, most importantly, free! You can print as many as you need!
Printable Dinosaur Valentine's Day Cards!
Check out a unique and fun alternative for candy - using Learning Resources Dinosaur Counters and our FREE Valentine's Day Card Printables.
Cut out and give to friends and loved ones this Valentine's Day!
Big Feelings Pineapple and Learn-a-Lot Avocados Valentine's Cards.
Valentine's Postcards
Make your very own postcard to send to a friend or family member!
I love it when the leaves start to change color, and it creates so many fun Fall-themed learning opportunities for my three- and seven-year-old. For this activity, we enjoyed a leaf hunt outside, looking for all sorts of shapes and colors of leaves. I then added a few simple tools and ingredients to turn our new leaf collection into an exciting sensory water table.
Some of my all-time favorite activities start with a nature walk; there’s just something so special about the learning and creativity that comes from the great outdoors! Before we left the playground, we worked together to gather up a fun selection of leaves that had fallen from the trees. As we did so, we spoke about the different colors and shapes we could see. I put my seven-year-old in charge of counting how many leaves we had in our collection.
Once we got home, the kids refueled with a snack while I quickly set up the water table. I used our IKEA FLISAT Children’s Table with two small TROFAST bins and one large one. I added water and five drops of green food coloring to the large bin placed the leaves in one of the small bins, and then the fine motor and cutting tools in the other small bin. It was terrific how inviting this setup looked, considering its simplicity!
I always try to keep sensory bin setups as open-ended as possible to build my children’s confidence to explore independently. Straight away, my seven-year-old started experimenting to see whether the leaves would float or sink in the water. Together they spent ages using scissors to cut the leaves into different shapes. We had a star, a man, a dinosaur, and even a boat floating on the water. The fine motor skills at work were awesome. This is where having an older sibling helps because it encourages creativity and imagination for the little one!
Both my kids enjoyed exploring the different fine motor tools. Big bro liked using the Squeezy Tweezers™ and Handy Scooper™ to rescue the leaves from the water and then drop them back in. Meanwhile, baby sis was all about making the leaf confetti and sprinkling it into her bowls of green leaf soup!
Adding a magnifying glass to any sensory setup can stimulate more in-depth conversations and observations. The kids were fascinated by the veins running through the leaves and experimented with ripping the leaves to explore them further.
This was such a fun sensory and fine motor setup, and best of all, it appealed to both ages. It pays off to ensure a range of open-ended tools and containers with a sensory table because you never quite know how kids will choose to play with it.
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.
I love it when the leaves start to change color, and it creates so many fun Fall-themed learning opportunities for my three- and seven-year-old. For this activity, we enjoyed a leaf hunt outside, looking for all sorts of shapes and colors of leaves. I then added a few simple tools and ingredients to turn our new leaf collection into an exciting sensory water table.
Some of my all-time favorite activities start with a nature walk; there’s just something so special about the learning and creativity that comes from the great outdoors! Before we left the playground, we worked together to gather up a fun selection of leaves that had fallen from the trees. As we did so, we spoke about the different colors and shapes we could see. I put my seven-year-old in charge of counting how many leaves we had in our collection.
Once we got home, the kids refueled with a snack while I quickly set up the water table. I used our IKEA FLISAT Children’s Table with two small TROFAST bins and one large one. I added water and five drops of green food coloring to the large bin placed the leaves in one of the small bins, and then the fine motor and cutting tools in the other small bin. It was terrific how inviting this setup looked, considering its simplicity!
I always try to keep sensory bin setups as open-ended as possible to build my children’s confidence to explore independently. Straight away, my seven-year-old started experimenting to see whether the leaves would float or sink in the water. Together they spent ages using scissors to cut the leaves into different shapes. We had a star, a man, a dinosaur, and even a boat floating on the water. The fine motor skills at work were awesome. This is where having an older sibling helps because it encourages creativity and imagination for the little one!
Both my kids enjoyed exploring the different fine motor tools. Big bro liked using the Squeezy Tweezers™ and Handy Scooper™ to rescue the leaves from the water and then drop them back in. Meanwhile, baby sis was all about making the leaf confetti and sprinkling it into her bowls of green leaf soup!
Adding a magnifying glass to any sensory setup can stimulate more in-depth conversations and observations. The kids were fascinated by the veins running through the leaves and experimented with ripping the leaves to explore them further.
This was such a fun sensory and fine motor setup, and best of all, it appealed to both ages. It pays off to ensure a range of open-ended tools and containers with a sensory table because you never quite know how kids will choose to play with it.
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.
Slide the stone, brush the ice, and try to hit the target! Curling is one of the most iconic winter sports in the world; it’s even on TV these days! Usually, a round of curling requires too much equipment to play at home, but you can play your own version of this famous sport with the help of Botley the Coding Robot!
1. Set up a starting line at one end of the room. At the other end, set up Botley’s orange goal piece.
2. Put Botley behind the starting line, making sure that he’s aimed straight at the goal piece.
3. Before you start coding, have each player estimate the number of FORWARD coding steps it will take Botley to reach the goal without going past it. (Here’s a hint: Botley moves 8 inches with each FORWARD step).
4. After everyone has their guesses, have the first player code Botley to move forward.
5. When Botley stops, place one of his flags at the spot on the floor where he stopped. If you have lots of players, you can even write each person’s name on their flag with some masking tape and a marker.
6. Repeat until everyone has gone. The person closest to the goal is the winner!
If you want to add an extra element of challenge, snap on Botley’s detachable robot arms and make this rule: on each turn, players can choose to code their way towards the goal, or knock a previous player’s flag off the course. In this version of the game, the first person to land Botley in the goal wins.
Slide the stone, brush the ice, and try to hit the target! Curling is one of the most iconic winter sports in the world; it’s even on TV these days! Usually, a round of curling requires too much equipment to play at home, but you can play your own version of this famous sport with the help of Botley the Coding Robot!
1. Set up a starting line at one end of the room. At the other end, set up Botley’s orange goal piece.
2. Put Botley behind the starting line, making sure that he’s aimed straight at the goal piece.
3. Before you start coding, have each player estimate the number of FORWARD coding steps it will take Botley to reach the goal without going past it. (Here’s a hint: Botley moves 8 inches with each FORWARD step).
4. After everyone has their guesses, have the first player code Botley to move forward.
5. When Botley stops, place one of his flags at the spot on the floor where he stopped. If you have lots of players, you can even write each person’s name on their flag with some masking tape and a marker.
6. Repeat until everyone has gone. The person closest to the goal is the winner!
If you want to add an extra element of challenge, snap on Botley’s detachable robot arms and make this rule: on each turn, players can choose to code their way towards the goal, or knock a previous player’s flag off the course. In this version of the game, the first person to land Botley in the goal wins.
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