Our Executive School Directors worked together to provide our TGS families with various projects that bring the amazing curriculum at our schools to your home. From child-friendly science activities and art projects to just making healthy snacks to eat, there are lots of opportunities for learning and interaction with your young children. We hope you enjoy engaging with your children in these creative developmental activities. This post shares our favorite playtime activities for children to develop gross motor skills, coordination, and sensory processing skills.
Infants, Toddler, and Twos
Toddler Color Hop
Children will practice color recognition and the gross motor skill of hopping on two feet.
You’ll need:
- Sidewalk chalk
- Large cleared area of sidewalk or driveway
Draw and color in large dots with sidewalk chalk in a circular pattern. Have your child jump on different colors while they are traveling around the circle. Older children can count how many dots of each color are in the circle or name the color word as they jump from color to color.
Bubble Trucks
This activity explores imaginative play with sensory materials.
You’ll need:
- Tear-free bubble bath or body wash
- Water
- Food coloring (optional)
- Any small toys that can get wet (trucks, animals, plastic dishware, or pretend food)
Make bubble foam with 2 parts bubble bath to 1 part water. Add a few drops of food coloring in their favorite color if desired. Use a hand mixer to whip the bubble foam into stiff peaks. Then, add various toys to the bubbles for your child to play with. Encourage them to use their imagination as they explore the bubbly world!
Outdoor Sticky Wall
Children are able to freely explore outdoor materials and choose items for their sticky wall, as well as using fine motor skills to pick up and place items on the wall.
You’ll need:
- Contact paper
- Painters tape
- Items your child finds outside
Cut the contact paper into a square or rectangle and place flat on the ground (sticky side up). Add painter’s tape along the border and then secure to your garage door (or wall or fence). Then, let your child explore and collect items to stick to their sticky wall. If you do not have contact paper at home, you could use strips of masking tape or packing tape and tape them in rows to the garage door, fence, or wall with the sticky side facing out.
Bubble Tub!
Have your child explore bubbles while using hand/eye coordination, fine motor development, and sensory play! Remember that water play must always be supervised by an adult!
You’ll need:
- Large plastic tub or bin
- Water
- Soap
- Whisk
- Food coloring (optional)
Fill a tub halfway with warm or cold water. Have your child add in a few squirts of soap and let them use a whisk to make bubbles appear. You can add food coloring to the water at any point during your play session. Feel free to add other child-friendly kitchen tools to the water for your child to hunt for and identify.
Hair Gel Sensory Bags
The children will be able to explore different colors and textures.
You’ll need:
- Ziploc bags
- Food coloring
- Clear hair gel
- Tape
Open the Ziploc bag and fill the bag 1/4th of the way full with hair gel. Then, add a few drops of food coloring to the bag. Tape the bag shut and put it on your child’s high chair tray or on the table in front of them. Younger children can squish and smush the bag, exploring how the substance moves in the bag. Older children can draw shapes, letters, and numbers on the bag.
Threes, Fours, PreK
Recycled Creations
Children can explore creative thinking while they play and build with recycled materials!
You’ll need:
- Recyclables like paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls, boxes (all sizes), water bottles, milk jugs, and egg cartons
- Scissors and tape (optional)
Allow your child time to explore and create with these materials without expectations. Keep it open-ended to see what they can create without directions. If they have trouble getting started, suggest things like, “How could you build a tower?” or “Could you create something that you or your stuffed animal could play in?” You can also point out two or three items and ask: “Can you build something that uses all of these materials?” or “How could we put these two materials together to change how one of them looks?”
Animal Track Jump
Large motor development, coordination, connection to color, and number recognition.
You’ll need:
- Chalk
- Driveway or sidewalk
Use chalk to draw animal tracks on the sidewalk. Then, have your child jump from track to track! They can practice skip jumping and jumping with two feet. As your child jumps down the path, see if they can call out all the colors or count how many tracks they can jump on!
I-Spy Sensory Bottle
This sensory bottle activity is a mini treasure hunt in a bottle!
- Empty water bottle
- Filler like rice, salt, or sand
- Small items that can be found around the house, such as coins, crayons, hair bows, beads, buttons, dice, figurines, or small blocks.
- Duct tape or glue
Fill the empty water bottle 2/3 full with your filler of choice, then add the toys and household objects to the bottle. Next, use glue or duct tape to seal the bottle. If your child is old enough, they can participate in creating the bottle, or you can make it and then share it with them. Talk about what you see in the bottle and ask them to identify objects, colors, and shapes as they turn and shake the bottle.
Bird Feeder
Learn and discuss bird habitats with your child and practice the basics of the scientific method, including formulating a hypothesis, gathering evidence, and drawing a conclusion.
You’ll need:
- Recycled container (a clear milk or juice jug works well)
- String
- Scissors or utility knife (adults only)
- Three types of bird feed or nuts, such as suet, peanuts, and sunflower seeds
First, clean out the plastic containers. Then, have an adult cut a large hole (or two) on the opposite side of the handle. Make sure there are no sharp edges to harm little hands or little birds. At the top of the containers, poke two small holes on opposite sides, then thread the string through to create a hanger. Ask your child what food the birds might eat, and fill each container with a different food item. Hang them outside somewhere visible to the child so that they can observe each day.
Predict which food will be the most popular. Ask your child how they know which food is the most popular. Observe and watch to see what birds visit the feeders and which foods they seem to enjoy most!
Ice Bucket Fun
Explore what happens when you add paint to a bucket of ice!
You’ll need:
- Large bucket
- Lots of ice
- Red, blue, and yellow color paint
- 3 plastic squirt bottles (you can find these at the dollar store or craft store)
Add a tablespoon of paint to the squirt bottle and fill the rest with water for red, blue, and yellow paint colors. Fill a big tub with ice, hand your child the squirt bottles, and let them explore. Let your child explore the melting ice with old kitchen tools or even some of their easily washable toys.
Ring Around the Yogi
Moving around at various speeds can get out the wiggles and giggles with a fun game! Stand with your child and hold hands. Sing: “Ring around the Yogi” and hold hands in a continuous circle. Sing “Namaste, my friends. Inhale, exhale, we all feel grand!” and throw your hands up in the air and fall down. Repeat to get all the wiggles and giggles out.
Brown Bear Color Hunt
Read a classic children’s book together while your child identifies colors.
You’ll need:
- The book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”
- Sheets of construction paper in many different colors
- A variety of small toys of various colors that match your construction paper colors
First, read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” together. After you’ve finished your read-aloud, lay out all your pieces of construction paper on the floor while asking your child to identify each child. Then, say: “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do YOU see?” and ask your child to find a color item and place it on the corresponding sheet of construction paper.
They can respond to you, “I see a (color and item) looking at me!” Continue the call-and-response game until all the small toys are sorted by color.
Playful Learning Experiences
We hope you enjoy these fun playtime activities that make spending time together with your preschooler even more special. The Gardner School provides your child with a daily schedule that sparks their learning and supports their intellectual, social, and physical growth. Schedule a tour to see our beautiful learning spaces in action.