Part time child care

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 29 – Ball Toss Activity

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Ball Toss Activity

Physical activity is an essential component of everyone’s overall health and wellness. Getting regular activity offers short- and long-term benefits for your physical and mental health, including reducing your risk of disease, building stronger bones and muscles, increasing energy, and decreasing stress levels. Exercise is essential for everyone throughout their lives, so we need to be educated on the benefits of exercise and how to incorporate daily physical activity as early as possible. Early childhood physical activity promotes increased interest in wanting to continue into adulthood. But what do you do when you can’t go outside? We have a great idea to keep kids active while indoors.

Step 1: Gather various size balls and baskets/containers you have at home. They can be any size. The size of the ball will determine the size of the basket needed.

Step 2: Place the baskets or containers at various distances from where the child will be standing. You can use a measuring tape to record the distance between the child and basket and you can keep a record of how many times the ball goes in at different distances. The builds math skills such as counting, measurement and recording results in a chart.

Step 3: Have your child throw the ball and try and get it into each basket at various distances. Once they have succeeded doing that, you change up how they throw it. For example, opposite hand, between the legs, backwards etc. Record the results of each attempt and how many were successful.

This activity can be done with children any age. For older kids, you may try to use a smaller ball and smaller containers to make it more difficult. You can also add points for each container and add up the points for the total score.

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: STEAM (math) and physical activity. 

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 28 – Measure Me Math Activity

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Measure Me Math Activity

There are several ways to make math fun for children without them realizing they are learning. Children are always asking how tall am I? Have I grown? When will I be taller than you? Some families chart their child’s growth by putting a pencil mark on the inside of a door. Other families may measure their child’s height with a measuring tape.  We have a fun activity you can do inside your home. All you need is some fun tools to measure with. You can use blocks, Lego, spoons, rulers or a measuring tape if you have none of the above. Ensure that the items you are using are the same size.

Step 1: Pick a body part to measure. It could be a hand, foot, leg or your entire body.

Step 2: Line up your measuring tools beside the body part you are measuring.

Step 3: If you are using Lego, blocks, spoons, etc. count how many it takes to be the same length as the part of the body you are measuring. (e.g. foot – 3 lego blocks long)

Step 4: Record your results on a graph and compare your measurement to your child’s. This will show them how much more they need to grow. You can place the Lego beside each other so they have a visual of it as well. You can do this for every person in your household and compare the size of your hands, feet, arms, legs and whole body.

You can take this activity beyond measuring yourselves and you can measure anything. Have your child guess how many Lego’s the TV would be or the height of the chair. You can even measure a family pet, doll or you child’s favourite stuffed toy.

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: STEAM (math) and language and literacy. 

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 27 – Leaf Rubbing Art Activity

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Leaf Rubbing Art Activity

Art is a great way to let your inner creative genius out. It is the one thing that is viewed differently by everyone who sees it. Art brings out feelings and emotions depending on the piece we are viewing. With the weather changing to spring, this is a nice activity that incorporates the new season.

Step 1: Go in your backyard or front yard and find some leaves on the ground. Try to find several different kinds of leaves.

Step 2: Place the leaves under wax paper, parchment paper or plain white paper.

Step 3: With a crayon or pencil crayon turned sideways, colour over the leaf. Rub gently so as not to tear the paper.

Step 4: Watch as the leaf structure, the stem and the veins of the leaf become visible on the paper. Repeat for all the leaves collected.

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: STEAM (science, art) and physical activity. 

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 26 – Rainbow Spin Art Activity

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Rainbow Spin Art Activity

Science can incorporate so many other learning outcomes. Today our science activity incorporates art. Rainbow spin art is a fun way to teach colour mixing and end up with a beautiful piece of art to display.

Step 1: Gather the following items you will need (all items are available at a dollar store):

Red, yellow and blue paint

Large white coffee filters

Salad spinner

Step 2: Place two coffee filters in your salad spinner.

Step 3: Squeeze a generous amount of all paint colours in the middle of the filter. You can also try squirting the paint in circles from small to large or side by side.

Step 4: Place the lid on your salad spinner and give it a good whirl.

Step 5: Open up to see the colour magic. If desired add a second batch of one or two colours and spin again.

Step 6: Remove filter and let dry. Talk about your colour creations and the new colours you made by mixing the colours.

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: STEAM (science, art) and language and literacy. 

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 25 – Polar Bear Hunt Activity

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Polar Bear Hunt Activity

Research suggests that optimal learning happens when children have the opportunity to use multiple senses, such as sight, sound and touch. This type of learning is particularly effective for teaching early literacy. And believe it or not, technology can be the perfect tool for boosting multisensory learning. One of the keys is choosing appropriate material at the appropriate level. It is always best that young children be supervised while using technology.

Today’s activity is a polar bear hunt. Here are the steps to follow to make sure you find just what you are looking for.

Step 1: Collect the following materials you will need: Notebook or piece of paper, iPad or computer and crayons.

Step 2: Visit the link www.kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/polar-bear and research the following things about polar bears:

1. Where do they live?
2. What do they eat?
3. How much do they weigh?
4. How tall do they can get?
5. How much would a baby polar bear weigh?

Step 3: For older children, they can write down the answers to each question.

Step 4: Draw a picture of a polar bear with all of your information.

We would love for you to share your picture with us on any of our social media platforms and we will share the ones we have done. This game is fun and interactive. Even mom and dad can participate.

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: STEAM (technology, science, art) and language and literacy. 

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 24 – Letter Matching Activity 

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Letter Matching Activity 

Literacy is more than just learning to read, it also includes how children interpret and understand what is being read, as well as writing skills and composition. Literacy skills do not just develop overnight. We have a fun and easy activity to do and create at home. All you need is a piece of paper, a few coloured crayons or markers and a pencil. Here is how “Letter Matching” works.

Note: We prefer this approach instead of printing “letter matching” worksheets so that you can work on all the letters of the alphabet. You can also focus on the ones that your child is not familiar with or focus on the letters in their name.

Step 1: On a blank piece of paper make two columns. In one column, write 6 random letters that are not in order. (E.g. A, G, M, W, P, S). Make sure each letter is a different colour.

Step 2: In the second column, write the same letters in a different order.

Step 3: Provide your child with a pencil. The goal is for them to match the letters from one column to the other by drawing a line to connect them.

Step 4: Repeat the activity with a different set of 6 letters until you have done the whole alphabet.

This activity is great for letter recognition. You can also talk about the sounds that each letter will make when you review it with your child. If you have an older preschool children, you can try to incorporate things that might be a bit trickier. For example, you can leave all letters the same colour. You could also use upper and lower case letters on the page and they would have to match the upper case letter to the lower case one. One last thing you could add as a trick is to put a few letters in there that don’t match with anything.

This is a great activity that you could do throughout the week by changing the letters that they have to match as you make your way through the alphabet.

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: language and literacy. 

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 23 – Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

Traditional Easter egg hunts with candy and chocolate eggs are fun but if you want to get creative this year, consider these unique Easter egg hunt ideas to encourage kids, adults, and everyone in between to forget about sweets and have some fun! 

What to put inside the eggs? – Gather plastic fillable eggs and fill them with different items. Depending on the age of the child, you can modify what you put inside. Here’s some ideas of what you can put inside the egg: confetti, stickers, puzzle pieces, tickets, small rubber ball, small bubble bottle, small toy, clues etc. Of course, you could fill a few eggs with food items such as crackers, jelly beans, chocolate/candy eggs and other small candy items. Remember that many small items are choking hazards for children under 3, so be safe and consider the age of the child when filling the eggs.

#1 Bury your plastic eggs in a garden bed or sandbox. Have the child dig using their hands or a shovel to find the eggs hidden in the dirt/sand.

#2 Float the eggs in a big sink or tub of water and children get the eggs out of the water with a utensil such as tongs. This option is great when you don’t have a lot of space for a hunt.

#3 Colour hunting. Have a colour basket for each colour egg. Name a colour and kids only find eggs of that colour to put in the colour basket that matches. When they have found them, name a different colour. This option helps the hunt to last longer when the eggs are easily visible.

#4 Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt. This can be done in the evening, either inside (in a dark room) or outside after it gets dark. Turn off all lights and hide eggs with LED candle lights inside. Then hunt for them in the dark.

#5 Create a treasure map with the locations of the hidden eggs. Children will follow the map trail to find the hidden eggs in a specific order. You can put up signs and bunny prints to help them follow the trail.

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: physical activity and language. 

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 22 – Easter Egg Art

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Easter Egg Art

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: STEAM (art) and language.

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 21 – Easter Egg Activity: Sink or Float

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 20 – Easter Egg Activity: Sink or Float

Children love the sink and float experiment! This is an easy and entertaining science experiment that will keep your child entertained. With Easter coming in a few days, we suggest doing the sink and float experiment with eggs.  

Step 1 – Gather different types of eggs (e.g. real raw egg, real boiled egg, real egg with inside removed, empty plastic eggs, plastic eggs with items inside etc.)

Step 2 – Fill up a clear plastic bowl or container with water about ¾ full.

Step 3 – Talk to your child about all the different eggs that you have and ask them to guess whether they think the egg will sink or float.

Step 4 – Have your child drop the egg in the water and see what happens. Repeat for all the eggs.

Step 5 – Try adding salt to the water and repeat the experiment. (Hint: adding salt to the water should make the egg float instead of sink)

You can continue the sink and float experiment by adding other items around the house and talking to your child about what they think will sink and float in the water.

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: STEAM (science/sensory) and language. 

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 20 – Best Easter Apps for Kids

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are home with their children and looking for things to do. This is a daily post to give you ideas of fun things to do. It comes from activities that we implement at our daycare centre using our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum. Since we are closed during this time, we are sharing the activity for you to implement in your own home. Enjoy!

Daily Activity for Kids – Day 20 – Best Easter Apps for Kids

Looking for some fun Easter-themed apps to distract your kids from the Easter goodies? Check out this list of free Easter Apps and learn math, literacy and art skills with some fun and educational apps.

Step 1 – Download apps to your device and play. Enjoy!

#1 Hidden Egg Hunt: Try to find the most Easter Eggs. Count them as you find them to work on math skills. This app is good for all ages. (Math Skills)

#2 Easter Bunny Games: This is a fun animated puzzle game for toddlers, preschoolers, and kids from ages 2 -6. The puzzles start off easy to play and can be made more challenging – perfect for learning shape recognition and matching. (Math Skills)

#3 Happy Easter Little Critter: Interactive Book reading. Go on your own Easter egg hunt to find 100 eggs hidden throughout the story as Little Critter enjoys all the traditional Easter activities! For 2-5 yrs. (Literacy skills)

#4 Easter Colouring Pages: The Easter Coloring Pages is full of Easter egg coloring pages and Easter bunny coloring pages with 4 ways to color: bucket, brush, spray and color pencil. This app is good for all ages. (Art Skills)

This daily kids activity incorporates many learning areas based on our Four Pillars of Learning curriculum including: STEAM (art, math) and language/literacy.