With children at home, it can be difficult to come up with activities to keep them occupied throughout the day. How do teachers do it?!
We’ve outlined some activities you can do with your children at home that mirror subjects children learn every day in school. All activities can be done with items you can find around your home. If you’re struggling to get your child to participate, don’t be afraid to let them choose what activity they want to do!
Health/PE
- Practice different yoga poses
- Play Simon Says with exercise moves
- Help prepare meals and pick out what ingredients are fruits, vegetables, or proteins
- Have a dance party!
Social/Emotional
- Write or draw your feelings
- Call or FaceTime loved ones
- Practice breathing exercises (breathe in for 5 seconds; breathe out for 5 seconds with eyes closed)
- Talk to your family about how you feel
Art
- Use recycled materials to create a sculpture
- Draw in your backyard with chalk
- Use pens, markers, or crayons to make a self-portrait
- Create a suncatcher using coffee filters
- Take pictures with a phone or camera of things you think are beautiful
Reading
Phonemic Awareness
- Play rhyming games (“I spy a bear, what rhymes with bear?”)
- First sounds—go on a scavenger hunt around your home for things that start with a specific sound
- Clap and count syllables in words
Letter Recognition/Sight Word Practice
- Write your letter or sight word in shaving cream, sand, sugar, or flour
- Build letters or sight words with legos, blocks, or Lincoln Logs
- Find letters or words in magazines or books (if a magazine—cut them out and make a collage!)
- Play hopscotch with the letters or words
Phonics
- Build words with play dough
- Stretch out sounds in stories
- Change one letter in word you write to see what new word you get (ex: bug; change the g to an s and you get bus!)
Read every day by yourself or with a family member!
Writing
- Draw and label things in your home
- Write a poem about an object in your bedroom, kitchen, or living room
- Write a letter to a friend or family member
- Practice writing letters or words with different materials (chalk, pens, paint, etc.)
Math
- Count out your favorite cereal or snack
- Estimate how many pieces of something are in a box—then count and check your prediction!
- Graph objects from your home or nature
- Sort objects (toys, things in your kitchen, etc.) by size or color
- Add and subtract objects that you might eat
Science
- Do a nature scavenger hunt
- Plant a seed and watch it grow
- Bake something with a grown up and watch how the different ingredients change
- Make slime or oobleck with things in your kitchen!
- Engineer an invention using recycled materials
- Design/create your own animal with adaptations that would help it survive in your house
Social Studies
- Create a map of your home
- Research a country or culture that is interesting to you
- Design a new country and write about it!
Do you have questions? Email Education@sdcdm.org