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Leaf Caterpillar

Go for a walk and collect some leaves to create a leafy caterpillar! Take a basket or bucket for your child to collect and then glue them on your paper and create a face and legs!

It’s great to provide our children with lots of fun activities to keep them entertained but so much learning can be involved too without you even realising it! Lots of activities can be extended to support their learning and development and you as their parent or carer are the key element!

Here’s how this activity could link into the Early Years Foundation Stage…

Communication and Language – Talk about the lifecycle of the caterpillar and butterfly. Talk through the activity, modelling good language for your child to hear and repeat. Rather then asking “what are you doing?”, try and talk through stages of the activity for your child to hear language and learn how to use it; and use repetitive language for your younger children.
“Let’s collect some leaves”, “Good gluing”, “Stick, stick, stick”, “Eyes, nose, mouth, legs!”

Physical Development – On your walk ask your child to run, walk, tiptoe and skip. Allow your child to glue the leaves and draw the features. Encourage the correct pencil grip for older children.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Encourage cooperative play, invite a friend to go for a walk too to take turns with collecting. Praise your child as they create their caterpillar to develop good self-esteem and confidence.

Literacy – Read ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ by Eric Carle

Mathematics – Use language such as big, small, long, short to describe leaves. Count how many leaves your child uses or how many legs.

Understanding the World – Go outside and see if you can spot a caterpillar or butterfly and talk about the lifecycle.

Expressive Arts and Design – Get creative and use an assortment of media such as pens, pencils, paint or chalks. Create a butterfly too.

Forest Friends is based at Squirrel Wood, Doncaster, DN6 9FE and offers a completely outdoor playgroup, weekly classes and story trails with a variety of activities including mud kitchen, bug hunting, rope swings, den building, hammock, crafts and much more! Click below to view what’s coming up…

What’s coming up at Forest Friends…

Simple Activities to do at Home

Giant Building

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Let’s face it! Who has several Amazon boxes delivered weekly? Maybe some of you even daily! It’s so easy nowadays to purchase online goods; just one click and it’s here next day! Next time you have a delivery, start saving all those boxes and do some giant building with your children, they’ll love it! You can make the most giant towers and when they all come crashing down, you don’t even need to worry about the injuries!

Here’s how this activity could link into the Early Years Foundation Stage…

Communication and Language – Talk about building the tower, how high, how wide. Extend it by making a castle or a den, talking about people who may live in different houses or cities. Use descriptive language such as taller, shorter, open, closed; or if your child is a young toddler, use repetitive language such as ‘big, big, big tower!’

Physical Development – Allow your child to build the tower as tall as they can. Use a crate to stand on to reach higher. It’s good to encourage your child to climb and balance, building those core muscles which in turn supports and links into fine motor skills such as writing and even the ability to pay attention!

Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Develop cooperative play by taking turns and discussing good ways to build the tower, working together.

Literacy – Link your building to books looking at different structures or buildings of the world.

Mathematics – Use language such as tall, short, high, long, small, big. Count your boxes as you build.

Understanding the World – Look at books to see structures from around the world or explore animal dens.

Expressive Arts and Design – Get creative and paint or decorate the boxes with collage materials. Make a den with sheets and pegs and encourage imaginative play.

What’s coming up at Forest Friends…

Simple Activities to do at Home

Spice Painting

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Don’t throw away out of date spices, paint with them instead! Search through your cupboards for some old spices, mix them up with a little water to create a paste and simple paint with them! Encourage your child to smell each one, great spices to use could be ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric and even cocoa powder!

Here’s how this activity could link into the Early Years Foundation Stage…

Communication and Language – Use descriptive language such as sweet, nutty, smelly or fusty. Talk about where you may have smelt them before, for example cinnamon might remind you of Christmas or cocoa might smell like that delicious cake Nanny baked!

Physical Development – Develop finger and hand muscles by mixing the spice paint and using different sized brushes to paint.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Talk about past experiences that the smells remind you of. Take turns to mix the paints encouraging your child to become co-operative.

Literacy – Extend the activity with reading a story such as ‘What can I smell’ by Annie Kubler. Older children can write labels for each of the spices. Younger children should be encouraged to use big circular movements and up and down movements as these are the first movements to develop writing skills.

Mathematics – Use a variety of brushes such as thick, thin, long or short. Paint different shapes.

Understanding the World – Go on a smell hunt, search your cupboards for other smelly things or go in the garden and find flowers.

Expressive Arts and Design – Create a painting using the spices, use all the senses to smell, touch, feel, look and if you’re brave enough….TASTE!

What’s coming up at Forest Friends…

Simple Activities to do at Home

Playdough Stickman

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Go for a walk and collect some natural resources to create a stickman! Talk about what you need to create a stickman such as a head, arms, legs, eyes or a nose. What could you find? Can you make a stickman family? Have a look for some Y sticks for legs.

First make some playdough, there’s lots of playdough recipes out there but here’s what I use…

2 cups plain flour
1 cup water
1 cup salt
1 tsp cream of tarter
2 tbsp veg oil
Food colouring if required

Mix it all together in a pan and cook on a medium heat, mixing occasionally until it forms a dough. Then wait for it to cool down.

Or for a quicker recipe if you’re not worried about keeping your creations; is simply flour and water and mix until you make a dough!

Here’s how this activity could link into the Early Years Foundation Stage…

Communication and Language – Talk about the natural resources, use descriptive language such as rough, smooth, knobbly when finding sticks. If you have a young toddler, use repetitive language so your child has an opportunity to hear words often. For example, ‘big, big, big man!’

Physical Development – Develop their little hands by kneading the dough. When out for a walk ask your child to tiptoe, walk, run and skip. Encourage your child to use their fingers to pick tiny objects up and push them into the playdough. All these big and little movements all link to writing skills!

Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Encourage your child to keep trying, if their model isn’t going how they wish, support them with completing it to build resilience. Invite a friend to go on the walk to develop friendships and collect the objects together to share.

Literacy – Extend the activity by reading ‘Stickman’ by Julia Donaldson, ‘Stanley’s Stick’ by John Hegley or ‘Not a Stick’ by Antoinette Portis.

Mathematics – Use mathematical language such as big, small, long, tall. Sort the objects into size or shape. Use a measuring tape to measure the sticks. Create a stickman family of small, middle and large.

Understanding the World – Talk about where the objects came from. Listen to the birds as you walk through the woods. See if you can spot animal tracks or a flower.

Expressive Arts and Design – Use the playdough to create a stickman. Get creative and maybe make playdough monsters too!

What’s coming up at Forest Friends…

Simple Activities to do at Home

Easter Egg Potato Printing

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Have some Easter fun with your children by simply using potatoes to print Easter Eggs. You can carve different shapes and patterns into the potatoes, use different colours or practice counting skills as they stamp away. Why not create some cute Easter cards for friends and family?

Here’s how this activity could link into the Early Years Foundation Stage…

Communication and Language – Talk about shapes, sizes, colours. Use descriptive language such as bigger, smooth, lumpy, round, slimy.

Physical Development – Allow your child to have a go with cutting the potato. It doesn’t have to be perfect; having a go will help develop their fine motor skills which all leads to early writing skills! Allow your child to paint the potato themselves then stamp the potato onto the paper.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Talk about healthy eating and how many different ways you could cook a potato. Talk about washing hands after the activity, promoting hygiene routines. Praise your child whilst they are carrying out the activity which will lead to good self-esteem and confidence.

Literacy – Extend your activity by reading an Easter story or make some signs for an egg hunt in the garden, encouraging your child to make marks or write a word.

Mathematics – Count the eggs as they print, talk about shapes, sizes and the patterns.

Understanding the World – Extend the activity by planting your own potatoes in the garden.

Expressive Arts and Design – Create patterns with the potatoes, allow your child to express themselves with the paint, feel it and above all get messy!

What’s coming up at Forest Friends…