What to teach a 5 year old at home

At age 5, your child’s sense of independence will skyrocket. Accompanying that growing independence is a sponge-like eagerness for facts about the world around him. Meanwhile, your child’s internal landscape is still ripe with imagination.

This combination yields a powerful time for exploration and creativity. Prepare to be delighted and surprised by your child's growth on a daily basis!

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Counting collections provides valuable opportunities for children to practice their oral counting and to develop…

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Early Years Fine Motor Colour Activities

September 13, 2021 1 Comment

I am a big fan of learning centres in classrooms!  They are great places for…

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Sensory Play with Gloop: 

If you haven’t made Gloop yet, then this is a must for any toddler or child to try. It is super fun and super messy, I am not sure who had the most fun, me or the kids!!   Gloop is an interesting mixture with a unique texture to explore and play with.  Playing with Gloop is a fabulous sensory and science activity to learn about the concepts of what a solid and liquid is.  Read more…….

A Rainbow Salt Tray: A great and fun activity to practice writing alphabet letters. Why would you need crayons, textas, pencils and paper to draw when you can have more fun with a Rainbow Salt Tray? Read more…..

Paint Pops:  Making painting fun using frozen paint on a pop stick.  Create endless paintings as the paint melts!  Read more……

Back Yard Water Park: We set a range of different theme stations for the kids to play and explore, some were more sensory play based and others were imaginative play based. Altogether we had seven water play stations in our Back Yard Water Park. Read more…..

Counting and Subitising:  We often recognise the number associated with a particular pattern straight away, even before we have had time to count the items.  These dice activities I have set up for Miss 4 is to practice and develop her subitising skills and to also involve Miss 2 to help her begin this learning of subitising and also counting. We have used a number of props and fun drawings to make the learning fun and motivating!  Read more…..

Number Sort: Number sort is a fun, hands on activity to play and learn with numbers. It sets a challenge of searching for specific numbers amongst a jumble of numbers. Read more…..

Sensory Alphabet Hunt: Making learning your alphabet fun by searching for alphabet letters in a sensory tub with strawberry scented and pink coloured rice. This sensory play activity is a great game to motivate kids to learn their alphabet. Read more…..

Create a Spring Play Dough Garden: Here is a great spring theme activity for the kids, creating a Spring Play Dough Garden. The play dough has been scented with a herbal shampoo to smell like flowers and is textured with small coloured flower petals. It is a great activity for kids to explore their creativity and imagination as they create their very own spring garden. Read more…..

Stand Up Alphabet: The Stand Up Alphabet is one of my favourite activities here on learning4kids! Once you have made your own set, you can use them for a range of literacy activities Read more…..

Homemade Number Chart and Memory Cards: Making a number wall chart and a set of memory game cards using number paintings from a previous number painting activity. Read more……

Imaginative Play – Planting a Garden : Coming Soon!!

Jelly Play Dough Critters: Recently I shared a recipe for Jelly Play Dough; this is what we did with it! We created some funny Jelly Play Dough Critters, frogs, owls, funny faces, monsters and a little kitten. The ideas and the imagination are endless. Read more…..

Coloured Felt Ice Creams: This is such a fun hands on activity for kids to promote the learning of colours while playing creatively and making felt ice creams. This activity involves kids to creatively stack coloured felt ice cream on top of felt cones and then label the colours with Velcro cards. Read on to find out more and print your own! Read more…..

Hippity Hop Sight Word Game:  Hippity Hop Sight Word Game is a fun and interactive game to help motivate and encourage kids learn their sight words.  Read more…..

How to make a Foaming Monster?: Why does it bubble? The reaction between the vinegar and bicarb soda makes carbon dioxide, which causes tiny bubbles to form. Why does it come out its mouth? The dish liquid mixed with the vinegar/bicarb combination causes a reaction that makes the foam pour out of the monster’s mouth. Read more…..

Imaginative Play Wet Washing: Imaginative play washing line is so simple to put together but yet so effective for kids to pretend, engage and make sense of their world. Practising and experimenting with the various skills they will take into adulthood. Read more…..

Marble Painting: Create some fun masterpieces with paint and marbles. Rolling marbles through paint on top of a sheet of paper creates some fun and interesting patterns. Read more……

Number Cookies: An irresistibly yummy numeracy activity for kids! So much learning happens when we cook with our kids. The social interactions, processing information, following directions, problem solving and coordination. Read more…..

Pompom Hockey: Getting active indoors when the weather is too hot or too cold and wet to go outside with Pompom Hockey. It will entertain the kids for hours!! It is a super simple activity you can set up at home for the kids, that is fun, challenging and exciting. It also gets little bodies moving! Read more….

DIY Skittles & Games: Our Homemade Skittles would have to be one of the most played with toys in our house. My girls are continuously finding new and fun things to do with them. Read more….

Washing a Toy Baby: Watching Mum and Dad washing a baby sibling is an example of an experience that children copy and re-enact. Watching and learning from this experience then practising, imitating and experimenting this through imaginary play. Read more…..

Bubble Wrap Painting (shapes): Bubble wrap is so much fun to explore for kids! Feeling the various textures of the puffy bubble pouches and hearing the noise of popping them. Bubble wrap is great for creating interesting patterns and shapes with paint. Here is an activity using bubble wrap painting and learning your shapes too! Read more….

Alphabet Play Dough: We had so much fun playing with our Alphabet Play Dough! It is a fun activity to help kids learn their alphabet letters and build up their fine motor skills at the same time. This activity involves using play dough to create letters in the alphabet, using the FREE Printable Alphabet Play Dough Mats as a guide. Read more…..

Ice World: Ice World is a sensory activity for toddlers and pre-school children involving playing with ice, water and sea theme props. Read more…..

Invitation to Play with Paint & Sponges: Setting up an invitation to play with paint and cut up sponge pieces. It is always interesting to see the difference each child thinks creatively as they explore the paint and sponge pieces. Read more…..

We’re Going On a Teddy Bear Hunt: We have a gorgeous book which comes with a CD that tells the story of the adventure of going on a bear hunt. My kids have played this CD over many times as I watch them pretend to walk through long, wavy grass and run away from a bear. So I thought I would bring this story to life some more by creating the different scenes in the book. Read more…..

Number Play Dough: We had so much fun making numbers with our Orange Scented Play Dough. It is a fun activity to introduce or reinforce learning about numbers for kids and develop an understanding of ‘how many’ to make a number. Free printable number play dough mats. Read more…..

Bottle Top Leaf Boats: What I love about winter is that there are lots of puddles to play in. Recently after days of rain and being stuck inside, we put our rain coats and gum boots on for a splash about in the puddles. Read more….

Number Theme Play Room: The Numbers Theme Playroom Ideas was inspired and motivated by the current interests of my kids. Our play room was filled with games, activities, puzzles and other number related resources such as books and environmental print. Read more…..

Puffy Paint: There is something magical about Puffy Paint and it is a must try for any child or toddler to paint and play with. It is super easy to make with all the ingredients you need right in your pantry and after your child has finished painting, place it in the microwave for the magic to happen…….It is SO much FUN!! Read more……

Play Dough and Buttons: Setting up an invitation to play with play dough, and buttons to inspire the imagination and creativity. Read more…..

Sorting Coloured Match Sticks: In the early years, we often hear discussions about the importance of fine motor and gross motor development in kids. Here is a great activity that is fun and exercises those little muscles to develop strength! Read more…..

Alphabet Hide & Seek: My kids get very excited when we play this game. The challenge and anticipation of searching for something brings so much fun to learning your alphabet letters! The Hide and Seek Letter Hunt involves hiding the letter pairs around the house and your child goes around finding them. Free printable. Read more…..

Counting Octopus: Octopus Counting is a fun and creative way to introduce numbers, learn to count, or for the older kids skip counting. Read more…..

Pipe Cleaner Maze: Exploring and playing with pipe cleaners and beads with the Styrofoam while exercising the fine motor muscles. Read more…..

Imaginary World of Felt: Felt is a sensory toy, brightly coloured, hands on playing, creative and great for storytelling. It brings so much imagination and learning to play times. Read more…..

Painting with Homemade Number Stamps: These Homemade Number Stamps will make learning your numbers FUN for kids as they can make endless paintings of numbers prints and sing-a-long as they learn and play! The Number Stamps are low cost, require very little materials and are super easy to make! Read more…..

Peg-A-Number-Facts: Peg-A-Number Fact is a fun maths game that allows kids to practise basic numbers sums and encourage the use of strategies to solve maths problems. Read more…..

Play Dough – Bottle Tops and Straws:It is always fun to watch and see what kids will come up with when you give them simple props to promote play in an open-ended and unstructured way.

Here I have set up our activity table with play dough, bottle tops and straws to inspire the imagination and creativity. Read more…..

Imaginative Play Baker’s Shop: Imaginative play bakers shop was inspired by our mini cupcakes which we made previously. They make a brilliant prop to encourage the imaginary world in a bakers shop. Read more…..

Getting Active with Dice: Active Dice is a fun game to get little bodies moving! It is much like a blend of two games Simon Says and Twister. Free printable available to assist yo with making your own. Read more…..

Bottle Top Money: Play/toy money just does not last; it either gets damaged or lost as the coins are normally quite small! My kids love to play with pretend money and use it in their imaginative play games, so we made our very own money using milk bottle tops and printable coins. Read more…..

Paint Me: Paint Me is a cute and quirky activity that kids will enjoy making!

I plan to use ours as keep sake to giggle at in years to come. It is a perfect snap shot of the size of your kids hands and feet to compare with when they get older. Read more…..

Imaginative Play Ice Cream Shop: The fun and joy of exploring the imaginary world of an ice cream shop.

Today I am sharing some ideas for setting up an imaginative play ice cream shop. My girls had so much fun with this (and Dad) and took part in adding their own ideas of what they thought an Ice Cream Shop should have. Read more…..

Colourful Cellophane Sticky Art: Cellophane Sticky Art is a great activity to introduce kids to colours!! I believe it is never too early to start learning about concepts such as colour and that through setting up opportunities to play and learn will begin the journey of developing an understanding. Read more…..

Alphabet Archaeologist: Taking on the role of an archaeologist looking for artifacts and bones in the sand or in this case searching for alphabet letters. It is a great activity to promote the learning of letter names and the sounds that they make. Read more…..

Indoor Camping: It’s raining, it’s pouring…..and we have been stuck inside a fair bit lately with the weather.

To entertain the kids and give them something to do we set up an indoor camping trip to beat the boredom and promote imaginative play. Here are a few ideas for setting up your own Indoor Campsite. Read more…..

What can I do with my 5 year old at home?

Which is the best activity for a 5 year old child?