The Early Language and Literacy Development Group have been developing home learning environment cards for you to share with your families.
The cards are simple ideas and learning experiences using things we typically have in the home, for families to take part in together.
Developing children’s speech, language and communication skills are at the heart of these experiences, so by encouraging families to take part, we are promoting the use of talk and vocabulary development.
You can print these learning cards out, transfer to your school websites or share on social media.
We will add more learning cards to the website as time goes by. If you have an idea for a new learning card, please email [email protected].
EARLY YEARS
20 second challenge
Suitable for: 4 – 100 year olds!
What to do:
- Choose an object and try to draw it in 20 seconds
- Whoever achieves the most is the winner
- For example, draw a flower or write numbers 1 to 100 as much as you can in 20 seconds
What you need:
- Pen
- Paper
- Timer/stopwatch
Benefits of this experience:
- Educational for children
- Good handwriting/drawing practise
- Good for practising speed
- It’s fun
Alternative fairy tales
Suitable for: 3 – 8 year olds
What to do:
- Read or watch a fairy tale together.
- Play a game where you re-tell your own version of the story by reversing the roles and mixing the characters from different fairy tales, as well as creating plot twists and different settings.
- Role play the events and conversations.
What you need:
- An imagination!
- At least two favourite fairy tales in mind, for example; Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel.
- You could write these out of paper to pick out of a hat.
- Use fancy dress if available.
Benefits of this experience:
Helps children to expand their imaginations. Teaches them communication skills while having fun together creating funny fairy tale combinations.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Mixed Up Fairy Tales’ by Hilary Robinson and Nick Sharratt
- ‘The Great Fairy Tale Disaster’ by David Conway and Melanie Williamson
Autumn walk
Suitable for: 2 – 10 year olds
What to do:
- Go on a walk to the park or woods and collect leaves, pinecones, conkers, sticks. Stomp through the leaves, splash in the puddles and listen to all of the sounds around you.
- Collect some of the natural things you see on your walk and make a picture with them.
- Talk with your child about the patterns and shapes and colours they can see.
- Which natural things have you used for your picture?
- Which of these is the longest/shortest stick?
- What does the pinecone feel like?
What you need:
- A selection of natural objects you find on your walk.
Benefits of this experience:
Children will enjoy running, splashing and exploring in the outdoors. They will have lots of opportunities to match colours, shapes and patterns and to talk about what they hear, see, smell and feel as they explore the natural objects that you find.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen
- ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson
- ‘There’s a Shark in the Park!’ by Nick Sharratt
Beach walk
Suitable for: 4+ year olds
What to do:
- Go on a walk to the beach and collect shells, pebbles and stones.
- Tread through the stones, splash your feet in the sea edge and listen to all the sounds of the waves.
- Look out for ferries and count all the birds you can see?
What you need:
A selection of natural things you find and see on your walk.
Benefits of this experience:
Talk about the importance of keeping the ocean and beaches clean. Opportunities to have discussions
about your surroundings and broaden your vocabulary.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘A Planet Full of Plastic’ by Neal Layton
- ‘Tiny Crab is a Tidy Crab’ by Paula Bowles
Exercise class
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Create a home gym or dance class.
- Write down different ideas for work stations and place on the floor, e.g. 10 sit ups, 5 star jumps,
run on the spot for one minute etc. - Or you could put some music on and just have fun dancing or create a dance together.
What you need:
- Music and energy!
Benefits of this experience:
This will help everyone get some exercise, but it will also help children to hear words to
describe different movements and different body parts.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Busy Body Book’ by Lizzie Rockwell
Indoor gardening
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Fill your chosen container with soil.
- Using your finger, make a hole in the soil, plant and cover your seed.
- Gently water.
- Leave in a sunny spot and wait patiently for the seeds to germinate.
- Water regularly.
What you need:
- Soil
- A sunny spot/windowsill
- Yoghurt pots, cardboard egg boxes, old fruit trays
- Seeds, e.g. cress, lettuce, sunflowers
Benefits of this experience:
Learning new vocabulary such as germination and photosynthesis. Opportunities to talk with your child about how to look after a plant and what a plant needs to grow healthily.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle
- ‘Eddie’s Garden and How to Make Things Grow’ by Sarah Garland
Kim’s game
Suitable for: 4+ year olds
What to do:
- Put a variety of household items on a tray and memorise what is on there
- Cover up the tray and get your child to list what was on there
- Simplify for younger children by taking one item away and getting them to name the item that is missing
What you need:
- A tray
- A variety of household items to put on the tray
- A cloth or blanket to cover the tray
Benefits of this experience:
Traditionally played by scouts and the military to support memory function. Helps develop a persons ability to observe and remember details.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Jungle Book’ by Rudyard Kipling
- ‘Don’t Forget the Bacon!’ by Pat Hutchins
Pots and pans
Suitable for: 1 – 4 year olds
What to do:
- Grab any metal pots and pans you have and wooden and metal spoons
- Together can you tap out simple rhythms or beats?
- Repeat the rhythms
- Copy each other
- Talk about and describe the different sounds that can be made.
What you need:
- Metal pots and pans
- Metal and wooden spoons.
Benefits of this experience:
Playing these games and making and copying sounds will help children to identify and talk about sounds.
Tuning into sounds will help their listening and attention skills.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Animal Music’ by Julia Donaldson
- ‘Mr Men – Making Music’ by Roger Hargreaves – view the book read aloud here.
Rock painting
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Draw something that you like or search the internet for ideas
What you need:
- Rocks
- Pebbles
- Paints
- Pencils
Benefits of this experience:
- Fun
- Easy
- Enhances imagination and could develop into a hobby
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Scribble Stones’ by Diane Alber
- ‘Rock Art!’ by Denise Scicluna
Tea party
Suitable for: 2 – 4 year olds
What to do:
- Gather up any dolls or teddies
- Help your child to set up a tea party
- Has everyone got enough? Help your child to pour drinks for the toys and cut up some fruit or sandwiches.
What you need:
- Plates, cups, knives, forks
- Teddy bears.
Benefits of this experience:
Setting up a tea party will help develop your child’s imagination. If you use the words and phrases “Have
you got enough?”, “let’s count all of the plates out”, “who needs more?”, this will help your child to think
about counting and early maths skills. Talking to your child about setting out the tea party and pretending that the toys are eating and drinking will allow you to use lots of words so that your child can hear how you put words together into sentences.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ by Judith Kerr
Washing fun
Suitable for: 2 – 4 year olds
What to do:
- Fill a bucket or bowl with water and washing up liquid*
- Encourage your child to wash any dolls or their clothes in the bowl
- Make sure you have a towel close by to dry up afterwards!
What you need:
- Bucket, bowls, jug
- Washing-up liquid
- Bowls
- Flannel or sponge and towel
Benefits of this experience:
Your child will love splashing in the water, scrubbing dolls and getting everything clean. Help them learn the different body parts of the doll by naming them as they wash.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Bathroom Boogie’ by Clare Foges
- ‘Maisy’s Bathroom’ by Lucy Cousins
*Never leave children unattended with water.
DownloadWord association
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Pick a topic; animals, countries, fruit and veg etc.
- Choose a letter or topic
- In turn, follow the alphabet; alligator, bat, cat, dog etc.
What you need:
- Paper
- Pen
- Good imagination
Benefits of this experience:
Fun, educating. Can be played anywhere; i.e. car, train, home etc.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Word Collector’ by Peter H. Reynolds
- ‘You Choose’ by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart
KEY STAGE 1
20 second challenge
Suitable for: 4 – 100 year olds!
What to do:
- Choose an object and try to draw it in 20 seconds
- Whoever achieves the most is the winner
- For example, draw a flower or write numbers 1 to 100 as much as you can in 20 seconds
What you need:
- Pen
- Paper
- Timer/stopwatch
Benefits of this experience:
- Educational for children
- Good handwriting/drawing practise
- Good for practising speed
- It’s fun
Alphabet scavenger hunt
Suitable for: 5+ year olds
What to do:
- Think of a letter in the alphabet and challenge your child to find something around the house beginning with that letter
- Set a timer and see if they can find something in 30 seconds
- If you have multiple children, see who can find it the fastest
- See if you can find something for every letter of the alphabet
What you need:
- A timer, if challenging your child to find something quickly
Benefits of this experience:
Get your child thinking about different letters and vocabulary to match each letter.
DownloadAlternative fairy tales
Suitable for: 3 – 8 year olds
What to do:
- Read or watch a fairy tale together.
- Play a game where you re-tell your own version of the story by reversing the roles and mixing the characters from different fairy tales, as well as creating plot twists and different settings.
- Role play the events and conversations.
What you need:
- An imagination!
- At least two favourite fairy tales in mind, for example; Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel.
- You could write these out of paper to pick out of a hat.
- Use fancy dress if available.
Benefits of this experience:
Helps children to expand their imaginations. Teaches them communication skills while having fun together creating funny fairy tale combinations.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Mixed Up Fairy Tales’ by Hilary Robinson and Nick Sharratt
- ‘The Great Fairy Tale Disaster’ by David Conway and Melanie Williamson
Autumn walk
Suitable for: 2 – 10 year olds
What to do:
- Go on a walk to the park or woods and collect leaves, pinecones, conkers, sticks. Stomp through the leaves, splash in the puddles and listen to all of the sounds around you.
- Collect some of the natural things you see on your walk and make a picture with them.
- Talk with your child about the patterns and shapes and colours they can see.
- Which natural things have you used for your picture?
- Which of these is the longest/shortest stick?
- What does the pinecone feel like?
What you need:
- A selection of natural objects you find on your walk.
Benefits of this experience:
Children will enjoy running, splashing and exploring in the outdoors. They will have lots of opportunities to match colours, shapes and patterns and to talk about what they hear, see, smell and feel as they explore the natural objects that you find.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen
- ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson
- ‘There’s a Shark in the Park!’ by Nick Sharratt
Bake some cupcakes
Suitable for: 6+ year olds
What to do:
- Gather together your equipment and ingredients.
- Weigh your ingredients and mix together until pale and fluffy.
- Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake in the oven at 180 degrees celsius / 160 degrees celsius fan for 15 minutes until golden brown.
What you need:
- A bowl, whisk or wooden spoon, weighing scales and cupcake cases.
- 110g softened butter or margarine, 110g sugar, 110g self-raising flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
Benefits of this experience:
There are lots of great opportunities for communication during baking. Encourage your child to read and follow the instructions. Measuring the ingredients is a great opportunity to teach maths concepts.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Perfect Cake’ by Karen Kilpatrick and Yolanda Gampp
- ‘Cake’ by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet
Beach walk
Suitable for: 4+ year olds
What to do:
- Go on a walk to the beach and collect shells, pebbles and stones.
- Tread through the stones, splash your feet in the sea edge and listen to all the sounds of the waves.
- Look out for ferries and count all the birds you can see?
What you need:
A selection of natural things you find and see on your walk.
Benefits of this experience:
Talk about the importance of keeping the ocean and beaches clean. Opportunities to have discussions
about your surroundings and broaden your vocabulary.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘A Planet Full of Plastic’ by Neal Layton
- ‘Tiny Crab is a Tidy Crab’ by Paula Bowles
Build a boat
Suitable for: 5 – 11 year olds
What to do:
- Set sail to your boat in a bath or sink.
- Make your own little boat using your recycling.
- Assemble your recycling to create your boat and decorate it to your liking – get creative!
- Will it float and for how long?
- Can you make your boat waterproof?
- Use your number skills to count how long it floats for or use a stopwatch or a device to time.
- Name your boat.
What you need:
- Old packaging, yoghurt pots, kitchen roll tubes, paper and cardboard
- Scissors and sticky tape
- Colouring pens, pencils
Benefits of this experience:
Your child will love being creative and enjoy the challenge of making a floating vessel with you. You can make more than one so you can race them and see whose will float the longest.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Brilliant Boats’ by Tony Mitton
- ‘Jack and the Flumflum Tree’ by Julia Donaldson
Charades
Suitable for: 5+ year olds
What to do:
- Team up
- Write a range of words/phrases on paper slips
- Fold them up and place them in a container
- Flip a coin to see which person/team goes first
- Pick a slip and the player acts out what’s on the slip without speaking
- The other person/team tries to guess what is being acted out
What you need:
- Paper
- Pen/pencil
- Container
- Imagination
Benefits of this experience:
- Creativity
- Role play
- Free
- Reading and writing
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library where you’ll find lots of books to give you ideas.
DownloadCreate a word chain
Suitable for: 6+ year olds
What to do:
- You need at least two people to play this game.
- The first player writes a word and draws an arrow in any direction from a letter of that word.
- The second player then has to write a new word starting with the letter that the arrow comes from.
- You can make this game last as long as you want, or until you run out of paper!
What you need:
- Paper
- Pens
Benefits of this experience:
This game will help your child to think of words starting with specific letters and can support their vocabulary development.
DownloadDen building
Suitable for: 2 – 10 year olds
What to do:
- Grab any towels, blankets, sheets that you have and together lay them over chairs, sofas, tables or clothes driers to make a dark den underneath.
- If you have pegs, use them to hold the material place.
- You could take a torch inside with some books for a cosy story time too!
What you need:
- Blankets, sheets, towels, pegs, clothes driers, furniture, torch, books.
Benefits of this experience:
There is so much fun to be had when you make a dark enclosed den inside. Children will enjoy covering up
furniture and they will learn and hear the vocabulary of size and shape as you play with them. They will build their understanding of spatial awareness and of how things fit together. And then let their imaginations run away as they pretend and talk about the world they have created.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘This is Our House’ by Michael Rosen
Exercise class
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Create a home gym or dance class.
- Write down different ideas for work stations and place on the floor, e.g. 10 sit ups, 5 star jumps,
run on the spot for one minute etc. - Or you could put some music on and just have fun dancing or create a dance together.
What you need:
- Music and energy!
Benefits of this experience:
This will help everyone get some exercise, but it will also help children to hear words to
describe different movements and different body parts.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Busy Body Book’ by Lizzie Rockwell
Fruit salad fun
Suitable for: 5 -11 year olds
What to do:
- Using the fruit you have at home, experiment with different colours, patterns and designs to make an exciting and fun fruit salad.
- Take a picture so you can always remember your creation.
What you need:
- A mixture of whatever fruit you have or can find
- Knives
- Chopping board
- A bowl or plate
Benefits of this experience:
Opportunities to talk about colour, shape and texture when describing the fruit. Create different designs or faces to make fruit fun.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad’ by Vivian Fench
- ‘James and the Giant Peach’ by Roald Dahl
Guess the drink
Suitable for: 6+ year olds
What to do:
- Line up a variety of drinks, each with a straw in and cover up with a box with a hole for the straw to pop through
- Without being able to see what the drink is, taste through the straw and guess what the drink is
What you need:
- A variety of household drinks (milk, water, squash, milkshake, juice etc)
- Straws
- Cardboard box to cover the drinks so that you can’t see
Benefits of this experience:
Get your child thinking about texture and vocabulary when describing what you can taste.
DownloadIndoor gardening
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Fill your chosen container with soil.
- Using your finger, make a hole in the soil, plant and cover your seed.
- Gently water.
- Leave in a sunny spot and wait patiently for the seeds to germinate.
- Water regularly.
What you need:
- Soil
- A sunny spot/windowsill
- Yoghurt pots, cardboard egg boxes, old fruit trays
- Seeds, e.g. cress, lettuce, sunflowers
Benefits of this experience:
Learning new vocabulary such as germination and photosynthesis. Opportunities to talk with your child about how to look after a plant and what a plant needs to grow healthily.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle
- ‘Eddie’s Garden and How to Make Things Grow’ by Sarah Garland
Kim’s game
Suitable for: 4+ year olds
What to do:
- Put a variety of household items on a tray and memorise what is on there
- Cover up the tray and get your child to list what was on there
- Simplify for younger children by taking one item away and getting them to name the item that is missing
What you need:
- A tray
- A variety of household items to put on the tray
- A cloth or blanket to cover the tray
Benefits of this experience:
Traditionally played by scouts and the military to support memory function. Helps develop a persons ability to observe and remember details.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Jungle Book’ by Rudyard Kipling
- ‘Don’t Forget the Bacon!’ by Pat Hutchins
Make a shopping list
Suitable for: 4+ year olds
What to do:
- Sit with your child and begin writing your shopping list
- Talk aloud as you write, e.g. “we need bread”, “I need tomatoes”
- Invite your child to add to your list or begin writing their own
- Ask your child what they think you need to buy and make suggestions to help
- Chat as you go, asking questions like, “shall we have sandwiches for lunch?”, “What will we need to make them?”
What you need:
- Paper and pen/pencil to write with
Benefits of this experience:
This is a great activity to promote the importance of writing. It will get your child chatting, having a go at writing. It will encourage them to talk about foods they do and don’t like and perhaps try something new. As well as this, it will give them a focus and purpose during a food shop.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Don’t Forget the Bacon!’ by Pat Hutchins
Making music
Suitable for: 5 – 11 year olds
What to do:
- Use your recycling to make your own musical instrument
- Create a shaker with rice or a guitar with a box and elastic bands
What you need:
- Cardboard boxes
- Elastic bands
- Rice
- Tins or cans
- Tape
Benefits of this experience:
Create as a family to form your own band. Playing the instruments will help children to identify and talk about sounds. Tuning into sounds will help their listening and attention skills. It will help children to use and understand vocabulary around the sound they are hearing.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Animal Music’ by Julia Donaldson
- ‘The Bear and the Piano’ by David Litchfield
- ‘The Animal Orchestra Plays Mozart’ by Sam Taplin
Pasta fun!
Suitable for: 5 – 10 year olds
What to do:
- Create different patterns with pasta shapes.
- Take a photo of the picture or pattern you create so you can keep it forever.
What you need:
- Different pasta shapes.
Benefits of this experience:
Lots of talking opportunities come from playing with pasta and dry foods as you make pictures. As you talk
about the shapes, patterns and images being made, your child will hear you use different words to
describe and their vocabulary will grow.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Rigatoni the Pasta Cat’ by Michael Rosen
- ‘Spaghetti Hunters’ by Morag Hood
Rock painting
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Draw something that you like or search the internet for ideas
What you need:
- Rocks
- Pebbles
- Paints
- Pencils
Benefits of this experience:
- Fun
- Easy
- Enhances imagination and could develop into a hobby
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Scribble Stones’ by Diane Alber
- ‘Rock Art!’ by Denise Scicluna
Word association
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Pick a topic; animals, countries, fruit and veg etc.
- Choose a letter or topic
- In turn, follow the alphabet; alligator, bat, cat, dog etc.
What you need:
- Paper
- Pen
- Good imagination
Benefits of this experience:
Fun, educating. Can be played anywhere; i.e. car, train, home etc.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Word Collector’ by Peter H. Reynolds
- ‘You Choose’ by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart
KEY STAGE 2
20 second challenge
Suitable for: 4 – 100 year olds!
What to do:
- Choose an object and try to draw it in 20 seconds
- Whoever achieves the most is the winner
- For example, draw a flower or write numbers 1 to 100 as much as you can in 20 seconds
What you need:
- Pen
- Paper
- Timer/stopwatch
Benefits of this experience:
- Educational for children
- Good handwriting/drawing practise
- Good for practising speed
- It’s fun
Alphabet scavenger hunt
Suitable for: 5+ year olds
What to do:
- Think of a letter in the alphabet and challenge your child to find something around the house beginning with that letter
- Set a timer and see if they can find something in 30 seconds
- If you have multiple children, see who can find it the fastest
- See if you can find something for every letter of the alphabet
What you need:
- A timer, if challenging your child to find something quickly
Benefits of this experience:
Get your child thinking about different letters and vocabulary to match each letter.
DownloadAutumn walk
Suitable for: 2 – 10 year olds
What to do:
- Go on a walk to the park or woods and collect leaves, pinecones, conkers, sticks. Stomp through the leaves, splash in the puddles and listen to all of the sounds around you.
- Collect some of the natural things you see on your walk and make a picture with them.
- Talk with your child about the patterns and shapes and colours they can see.
- Which natural things have you used for your picture?
- Which of these is the longest/shortest stick?
- What does the pinecone feel like?
What you need:
- A selection of natural objects you find on your walk.
Benefits of this experience:
Children will enjoy running, splashing and exploring in the outdoors. They will have lots of opportunities to match colours, shapes and patterns and to talk about what they hear, see, smell and feel as they explore the natural objects that you find.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen
- ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson
- ‘There’s a Shark in the Park!’ by Nick Sharratt
Bake some cupcakes
Suitable for: 6+ year olds
What to do:
- Gather together your equipment and ingredients.
- Weigh your ingredients and mix together until pale and fluffy.
- Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake in the oven at 180 degrees celsius / 160 degrees celsius fan for 15 minutes until golden brown.
What you need:
- A bowl, whisk or wooden spoon, weighing scales and cupcake cases.
- 110g softened butter or margarine, 110g sugar, 110g self-raising flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
Benefits of this experience:
There are lots of great opportunities for communication during baking. Encourage your child to read and follow the instructions. Measuring the ingredients is a great opportunity to teach maths concepts.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Perfect Cake’ by Karen Kilpatrick and Yolanda Gampp
- ‘Cake’ by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet
Beach walk
Suitable for: 4+ year olds
What to do:
- Go on a walk to the beach and collect shells, pebbles and stones.
- Tread through the stones, splash your feet in the sea edge and listen to all the sounds of the waves.
- Look out for ferries and count all the birds you can see?
What you need:
A selection of natural things you find and see on your walk.
Benefits of this experience:
Talk about the importance of keeping the ocean and beaches clean. Opportunities to have discussions
about your surroundings and broaden your vocabulary.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘A Planet Full of Plastic’ by Neal Layton
- ‘Tiny Crab is a Tidy Crab’ by Paula Bowles
Build a boat
Suitable for: 5 – 11 year olds
What to do:
- Set sail to your boat in a bath or sink.
- Make your own little boat using your recycling.
- Assemble your recycling to create your boat and decorate it to your liking – get creative!
- Will it float and for how long?
- Can you make your boat waterproof?
- Use your number skills to count how long it floats for or use a stopwatch or a device to time.
- Name your boat.
What you need:
- Old packaging, yoghurt pots, kitchen roll tubes, paper and cardboard
- Scissors and sticky tape
- Colouring pens, pencils
Benefits of this experience:
Your child will love being creative and enjoy the challenge of making a floating vessel with you. You can make more than one so you can race them and see whose will float the longest.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Brilliant Boats’ by Tony Mitton
- ‘Jack and the Flumflum Tree’ by Julia Donaldson
Charades
Suitable for: 5+ year olds
What to do:
- Team up
- Write a range of words/phrases on paper slips
- Fold them up and place them in a container
- Flip a coin to see which person/team goes first
- Pick a slip and the player acts out what’s on the slip without speaking
- The other person/team tries to guess what is being acted out
What you need:
- Paper
- Pen/pencil
- Container
- Imagination
Benefits of this experience:
- Creativity
- Role play
- Free
- Reading and writing
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library where you’ll find lots of books to give you ideas.
DownloadCreate a word chain
Suitable for: 6+ year olds
What to do:
- You need at least two people to play this game.
- The first player writes a word and draws an arrow in any direction from a letter of that word.
- The second player then has to write a new word starting with the letter that the arrow comes from.
- You can make this game last as long as you want, or until you run out of paper!
What you need:
- Paper
- Pens
Benefits of this experience:
This game will help your child to think of words starting with specific letters and can support their vocabulary development.
DownloadDen building
Suitable for: 2 – 10 year olds
What to do:
- Grab any towels, blankets, sheets that you have and together lay them over chairs, sofas, tables or clothes driers to make a dark den underneath.
- If you have pegs, use them to hold the material place.
- You could take a torch inside with some books for a cosy story time too!
What you need:
- Blankets, sheets, towels, pegs, clothes driers, furniture, torch, books.
Benefits of this experience:
There is so much fun to be had when you make a dark enclosed den inside. Children will enjoy covering up
furniture and they will learn and hear the vocabulary of size and shape as you play with them. They will build their understanding of spatial awareness and of how things fit together. And then let their imaginations run away as they pretend and talk about the world they have created.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘This is Our House’ by Michael Rosen
Dinner at the table
Suitable for: 7 – 11 year olds
What to do:
- Get your child to set the table for dinner together.
- Set out the tableware and get the table ready for you to enjoy your meal.
What you need:
- Knives and forks, glasses, table mats, drinks
- If you don’t have a table, why not have dinner on the floor, sat on cushions
Benefits of this experience:
An opportunity for your child to learn how to set the table, which is a tradition in our country. Learning skills of independence and taking pride in their presentation.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ by Judith Kerr
- ‘Six Dinner Sid’ by Inga Moore
- ‘Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-Ji’ by Farhana Zia
Dinner on a budget
Suitable for: 10+ year olds
What to do:
- Give your child £5 and take them to the supermarket to find and buy dinner on a budget. They must add up the cost of their items as they go and make sure they have bought everything they need, whislt considering the cost.
What you need:
- £5 to spend on dinner
- Access to a supermarket
- A phone or calculator to keep track of costs
Benefits of this experience:
Opportunities for your child to learn about the importance of budgeting and thinking about the value of coins/notes or money. Opportunity to add up their costs (maths) and the independence to have a say over dinner.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Questions and Answers About Money’ by Lara Bryan
- ‘Don’t Forget the Bacon!’ by Pat Hutchins
Exercise class
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Create a home gym or dance class.
- Write down different ideas for work stations and place on the floor, e.g. 10 sit ups, 5 star jumps,
run on the spot for one minute etc. - Or you could put some music on and just have fun dancing or create a dance together.
What you need:
- Music and energy!
Benefits of this experience:
This will help everyone get some exercise, but it will also help children to hear words to
describe different movements and different body parts.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Busy Body Book’ by Lizzie Rockwell
Fruit salad fun
Suitable for: 5 -11 year olds
What to do:
- Using the fruit you have at home, experiment with different colours, patterns and designs to make an exciting and fun fruit salad.
- Take a picture so you can always remember your creation.
What you need:
- A mixture of whatever fruit you have or can find
- Knives
- Chopping board
- A bowl or plate
Benefits of this experience:
Opportunities to talk about colour, shape and texture when describing the fruit. Create different designs or faces to make fruit fun.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad’ by Vivian Fench
- ‘James and the Giant Peach’ by Roald Dahl
Guess the drink
Suitable for: 6+ year olds
What to do:
- Line up a variety of drinks, each with a straw in and cover up with a box with a hole for the straw to pop through
- Without being able to see what the drink is, taste through the straw and guess what the drink is
What you need:
- A variety of household drinks (milk, water, squash, milkshake, juice etc)
- Straws
- Cardboard box to cover the drinks so that you can’t see
Benefits of this experience:
Get your child thinking about texture and vocabulary when describing what you can taste.
DownloadIndoor gardening
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Fill your chosen container with soil.
- Using your finger, make a hole in the soil, plant and cover your seed.
- Gently water.
- Leave in a sunny spot and wait patiently for the seeds to germinate.
- Water regularly.
What you need:
- Soil
- A sunny spot/windowsill
- Yoghurt pots, cardboard egg boxes, old fruit trays
- Seeds, e.g. cress, lettuce, sunflowers
Benefits of this experience:
Learning new vocabulary such as germination and photosynthesis. Opportunities to talk with your child about how to look after a plant and what a plant needs to grow healthily.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle
- ‘Eddie’s Garden and How to Make Things Grow’ by Sarah Garland
Kim’s game
Suitable for: 4+ year olds
What to do:
- Put a variety of household items on a tray and memorise what is on there
- Cover up the tray and get your child to list what was on there
- Simplify for younger children by taking one item away and getting them to name the item that is missing
What you need:
- A tray
- A variety of household items to put on the tray
- A cloth or blanket to cover the tray
Benefits of this experience:
Traditionally played by scouts and the military to support memory function. Helps develop a persons ability to observe and remember details.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘The Jungle Book’ by Rudyard Kipling
- ‘Don’t Forget the Bacon!’ by Pat Hutchins
Make a shopping list
Suitable for: 4+ year olds
What to do:
- Sit with your child and begin writing your shopping list
- Talk aloud as you write, e.g. “we need bread”, “I need tomatoes”
- Invite your child to add to your list or begin writing their own
- Ask your child what they think you need to buy and make suggestions to help
- Chat as you go, asking questions like, “shall we have sandwiches for lunch?”, “What will we need to make them?”
What you need:
- Paper and pen/pencil to write with
Benefits of this experience:
This is a great activity to promote the importance of writing. It will get your child chatting, having a go at writing. It will encourage them to talk about foods they do and don’t like and perhaps try something new. As well as this, it will give them a focus and purpose during a food shop.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Don’t Forget the Bacon!’ by Pat Hutchins
Making music
Suitable for: 5 – 11 year olds
What to do:
- Use your recycling to make your own musical instrument
- Create a shaker with rice or a guitar with a box and elastic bands
What you need:
- Cardboard boxes
- Elastic bands
- Rice
- Tins or cans
- Tape
Benefits of this experience:
Create as a family to form your own band. Playing the instruments will help children to identify and talk about sounds. Tuning into sounds will help their listening and attention skills. It will help children to use and understand vocabulary around the sound they are hearing.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Animal Music’ by Julia Donaldson
- ‘The Bear and the Piano’ by David Litchfield
- ‘The Animal Orchestra Plays Mozart’ by Sam Taplin
Meal planning
Suitable for: 8+ year olds
What to do:
- Give your child some ownership by letting them have a say over what you eat that week.
- Plan the list and go shopping to pick up everything you need.
What you need:
- Pen
- Paper
- Shopping list
- Calendar
Benefits of this experience:
Get your child involved in household discussion making and teach them to plan out everything they need. Teaching your child valuable skills in independence. Get stuck in with the making of the meals too!
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Let’s Eat! Meal Time Around the World’ by Lynne Marie
- ‘Cora Cooks Pancit’ by Dorina K. Lazo
Obstacle course
Suitable for: 7+ year olds
What to do:
- Can you create an obstacle course inside or outside?
- Create your own course with items around your house.
- Jump across pillow lily pads. Hop around the kitchen in Dad’s shoes. The floor is lava. Get from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor.
What you need:
- Household items – pillows, cushions, blankets, shoes, other obstacles.
Benefits of this experience:
Learn problem solving skills by identifying a problem and finding a way to solve it and get around it. Develop team skills by working together to solve a problem.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Splat the Cat and the Obstacle Course’ by Rob Scotton
- ‘Ninjas Go Through a Nija Warrior Obstacle Course’ by Mary Nhin
Pasta fun!
Suitable for: 5 – 10 year olds
What to do:
- Create different patterns with pasta shapes.
- Take a photo of the picture or pattern you create so you can keep it forever.
What you need:
- Different pasta shapes.
Benefits of this experience:
Lots of talking opportunities come from playing with pasta and dry foods as you make pictures. As you talk
about the shapes, patterns and images being made, your child will hear you use different words to
describe and their vocabulary will grow.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Rigatoni the Pasta Cat’ by Michael Rosen
- ‘Spaghetti Hunters’ by Morag Hood
Rock painting
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Draw something that you like or search the internet for ideas
What you need:
- Rocks
- Pebbles
- Paints
- Pencils
Benefits of this experience:
- Fun
- Easy
- Enhances imagination and could develop into a hobby
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Scribble Stones’ by Diane Alber
- ‘Rock Art!’ by Denise Scicluna
Word association
Suitable for: All ages
What to do:
- Pick a topic; animals, countries, fruit and veg etc.
- Choose a letter or topic
- In turn, follow the alphabet; alligator, bat, cat, dog etc.
What you need:
- Paper
- Pen
- Good imagination
Benefits of this experience:
Fun, educating. Can be played anywhere; i.e. car, train, home etc.
Story and rhyme time:
Visit your local library to find these books:
- ‘Word Collector’ by Peter H. Reynolds
- ‘You Choose’ by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart