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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 16 2012 at 8:19pm | IP Logged
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My 4 yo is a very chatty, social 4 yo. She wants "work" like her older brothers and sister during lesson time. I've been able to come up with some activities for her shelf from my stash, but I feel the need to freshen ideas here. Help me come up with some ideas. They need to be:
** Hand to child and go
** Child directed
** Buy me about 15 minutes of time
** Imaginative and work in the real world (in other words, not involving screen time)
Things we already have and enjoy:
** Eeboo matching game and Alphabet and Number matching cards - she loves these!
** Small cash register
** Objects for counting and sorting
** Lacing cards - a favorite here
** Favorite ABC magnets and magnetic boards
** Dominos
** Blocks
** Lots of great art supplies and newsprint paper for drawing
** Coloring books
** And of course....lots of picture books, games and real life learning opportunities!
As you can see, we have some lovely options to make use of - I'm just looking to freshen a bit! Share with me your FAVORITE preschool/Kindergarten--child-directed--gentle learning opportunities for the young child that wants their "own work" and needs some independent activities while Mom works with older siblings!! THANKS!!!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 16 2012 at 9:14pm | IP Logged
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change up the things you already use..
lacing - instead of cards.. put out yarn and pony beads if she can handle those safely. (or pasta for stringing)
art supplies - it's actually somewhat boring to have everything available all the time. Change up what colors are available or what type of paper or what coloring mediums. Add in some cutout paper.. it can be very interesting to work around a shape that's cut out in the center of the paper.. simple things like squares or circles is fine. If you work with all orange and pink and green one week then the next week getting yellow and blue and purple will be different and then having all the colors available again will be fresh as well.
Save empty cartons and boxes and such for a while and change up your blocks with these.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
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guitarnan
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| Posted: April 16 2012 at 9:23pm | IP Logged
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Cut along straight, curved and spiral lines (you will need to pre-print or pre-draw these).
Use an eyedropper to move water from a large container to smaller ones. More fun if the water is colored with food coloring.
Simple mazes.
Birds or other favorite animals to color. (Try 50birds.com or use Enchanted Learning if you already have a subscription. Dd did a huge bulletin board of birds she colored and cut out when she was 6 - you might have to do the cutting for your child.)
Learning puzzles (U. S. map, for example).
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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stellamaris
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You might vary the presentation of certain items. For example, one activity that my children loved was coloring (with marker or crayon) on a large vertical sheet of paper. I just taped a sheet to the side of the frig (or somewhere that you can clean easily if they color over the edges). Coloring vertically also is a good strengthening exercise for the arms to prepare for writing later.
Washing plastic or non-breakable dishes in a warm-water-bubble-filled dishtub set on a beach towel is great fun. Including measuring spoon and cup sets (plastic!) makes it educational. I still remember loving this as a child--my grandmother would have this activity set up at her home when I visited her. She had these oh-so-wonderful copper and green plastic handled measuring spoons...
You can also use sand in the dishtub.
Crumpling bits of tissue paper and gluing on a picture. Use a glue stick, not Elmer's. Draw a very simple outline of a tree or flower--not too big. Provide tissue paper for her to tear into small pieces and wad up. This was actually an occupational therapy activity we used with my ds. It strengthens the muscles of the hand to prepare for writing.
Can she cut yet? Practicing cutting on lines (as Nancy mentioned). Also, have her cut out pictures of food from circulars and make a "dinner" by gluing pictures on a paper plate. Tell her to be sure to include some vegetables! Early nutrition lesson! Other ideas to vary this might be cutting out animal pictures (I used to just tear out the pages in magazines that had animals on them and keep them in an envelope for this purpose) and sorting by types--bird, fish, mammals, etc.
Play-doh/clay activities are messy, but engaging. Also, once again, these have been critical activities for developing our ds's fine motor skills. It's amazing how many things I thought were just sort of pointless turn out to have important developmental aspects.
Sorting out the buttons in the button box. Another grandmother-inspired idea! Let her decide the "rule" for sorting and explain it to you. Early science=identifying properties and sorting 
Tracing is always engaging if you tape the paper to the table and have her trace and then color easy pictures from coloring books.
Decorating a large box as a playhouse/castle/barn. If your dh can cut a door and window in the box, so much the better! This uses planning, vertical coloring (upper arm strengthening), imagination, and provides a great place to look at picture books! We have had several pretty awesome cardboard castles over the years! 
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Caroline
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: April 17 2012 at 7:04am | IP Logged
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Great ideas here! I'm taking notes for my 4yo!! Not much to add except a few things that are popular with mine right now:
Pattern blocks and covering designs with them.
For stringing beads, my 4yo likes to put them on chenille stems. They don't fall off as easily and the finished project can be shaped into something (sort of). If nothing else, it's another way to use an old favorite.
If you have metal insets my 4yo is REALLY into these lately.
Making patterns with various stamps and stamp pads in multiple colors.
Washing rocks! My 4yo has been collecting rocks on our nature walks. He keeps them in a bucket and every now and then he likes to wash them. I think he just likes the way their colors seem more vivid when they are wet. It can be a messy process - he usually gets soaked - but it buys some time for me. It's a nice warm weather activity that he can do outside on the porch.
I recently saw an activity where lots of small boxes were collected and the child painted them. Then they are put on a poster board with a road drawn through it. The boxes make little houses and child can pretend to drive a car through their little town. Or, my dd would have liked using a small doll like a polly pocket and pretending to live in her little town. I think you could take this a bit farther by naming the streets to help the child learn her address or other points of interest in her neighborhood.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 17 2012 at 8:00am | IP Logged
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stellamaris wrote:
You might vary the presentation of certain items. For example, one activity that my children loved was coloring (with marker or crayon) on a large vertical sheet of paper. I just taped a sheet to the side of the frig (or somewhere that you can clean easily if they color over the edges). Coloring vertically also is a good strengthening exercise for the arms to prepare for writing later.
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This is similar to some of the concepts in Don't Move the Muffin Tins. In creating art opportunities, she will change up the shape of the paper, making it a circle or heart or even flower shape (she points out that preschoolers don't color in the corners anyway). I know that is specific to art, but it might be an easy way to make coloring exciting.
For YEARS I have intended to find cafeteria trays to set up water color painting in that child friendly way Regina Doman describes here. I would think that in general, paints, clays, etc... would cost you whatever time it bought you in the end (of course, so would washing dishes or rocks in my house  ), but this might be a method that would work.
Since you know you like Eeboo, you might look to Land of Nod for some ideas. I like browsing their educational toys as well as their arts and crafts.
For instance, their I'm Not Bored Anymore Jar might inspire you to make your own from supplies you already have OR make smaller, manageable snack-baggy sizes to pull from for your younger child so the mess is more contained.
Also, just yesterday, my 5 year old spent a lot of time with an older, already "used" DK Sticker Book. There is a lot of twaddle to wade through, but they have lots of nicer ones as well. I was thinking I need to keep them in mind as something my boys would like more of for rainy days.
I suppose just sheets of stickers and a special notebook might keep her busy for a while as well. This way, you could dole out a specific number of stickers and stretch it out instead of her potentially doing the whole book in one sitting.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 17 2012 at 8:03am | IP Logged
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Wonderful ideas everyone! 
We do have most of the things suggested, and for several years now I have been an affirmed fan of varying the things I set out for my little people. So....I'm good to go there. We have a number of Montessori activities in addition to those listed. We really have most (all??) of the standard-tried-and-true preschool activities. Craft items are NOT hand-and-go-without-supervision items for this child.  And that's what I need so I can give full(ish) attention to older children (just for about 15 minutes at a time), so I need things that are pretty self-contained with low potential for destructiveness and no need for intervention....so while she can use scissors, it is something that is likely to require intervention here which interrupts other lessons. It's not that we don't do crafty stuff....we just do it when I can be more present and attentive to this child. What I'm looking for are some great low(no)-interaction activities to rotate off and on her shelves - ideas that are pretty self-contained and maybe even a little new to the scene.
Becky Parker wrote:
| Pattern blocks and covering designs with them. |
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This is a great idea, and I have some pattern blocks. I may have to consider setting these out for her!
Becky Parker wrote:
| For stringing beads, my 4yo likes to put them on chenille stems. They don't fall off as easily and the finished project can be shaped into something (sort of). If nothing else, it's another way to use an old favorite. |
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You know....I was just thinking of this this morning! And I started wondering if I could find some longer than standard stems for stringing her wooden beads (which she really loves to do!). Great idea, Becky! I'll check into that!
Becky Parker wrote:
| If you have metal insets my 4yo is REALLY into these lately. |
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I do have them. They made it into my rotation closet and off the learning room shelves some time ago. It could be time to bring them back out and introduce the inset. I could see this providing some self-directed time. You're on a roll, Becky!
I decided to start looking through the Rainbow Resource catalog for ideas...and maybe I need to cruise through the eeboo site for a few more ideas. Their materials are so nice - affordable, pretty, and very engaging!
And, I think I may be feeling things are a little stale since we're closing in on the end of the year. I think I may need to freshen my rotation closet before summer. I always manage to come up with a few new ideas when I empty and sort through my Montessori rotation closet. Freshening shelves is always inspiring here - I think I'll put my energy there! I need to empty it and paint in there anyway.
Do keep sharing - especially any new ideas or games you may have found recently that can be completely self-directed!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 17 2012 at 8:06am | IP Logged
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Oh how exciting! I didn't know about this source! I'll reward myself with looking through this site with my afternoon cup of cafe' au lait! Now I have something to look forward to! Thanks, Lindsay!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Wildflowers and Marbles
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 17 2012 at 8:07am | IP Logged
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Oh, and while I keep it put away much of the time (and forget to pull it out more) because of the choking hazard, my boys have a set similar to this one that they have a lot of fun with (it is primary colored, but since you have a girl, this one is probably fine).
We also have this alphabet stamp set that periodically sees lots of use.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: April 17 2012 at 8:53am | IP Logged
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One other idea with wooden beads that my ds likes -
I use the cheapy wooden chopsticks from the grocery store, stand them in a ball of clay and my ds makes towers with the beads. You could use this to teach patterning but I haven't done that yet. Right now he just likes to make towers with them.
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Becky
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Grace&Chaos
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Great ideas!!
My little ones like the Magnetic pattern blocks, this keeps them busy for a while.
Home made bean bags and a basket always gets lots of counting use.
I just had my four year old help me make his own alphabet pouch with round wood disks and stickers like this one.
Our nature table always has a puzzle or wood/soft toys related to our current theme.
I also purchased in the dollar section at Target their magnifying and bug viewers so the very little ones can use and since they will get broken it's not to bad of a loss. These sit on the nature table too.
Lots of Chalk for our chalkboard door!!
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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: April 17 2012 at 8:57am | IP Logged
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I forgot to mention some of those soft toys have been coming from one of my new favorite Etsy shops: The Handmade Classroom.
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Jenny
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ShannonJ
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I always could use some brainstorming in this area. Keeping things fresh can be difficult. I started a Toy Rotation Helper chart that I keep with several categories.
Crafts Ideas - we do these weekly or as needed
Toddler Toys - These must be quiet!! 1 or 2 in the schoolroom each week.
Quiet Toys - for the schoolroom shelves. Include tangrams, building pegs, etc.
Building/Activity
Games - these are games that the kids can play without my help.
I really need to inventory items from my seasonal selections too. This makes things a bit easier for me to rotate things out when I am pulling from around the house.
- Geoboards are fun and and provide several minutes of fun for both my 6 and 2 year old.
- Cutting different things besides paper. Yarn is easy and fun and needs a little more concentration.
- Small bouncy balls or a jacks set
- Puzzles of course.
- Etch a sketch
- Magnets. Magnet wands and various magnetic/non-magnetic objects. We have Magnetic Match Rings. It comes with pattern cards that you have to try and recreate. A big hit here! Magnetic fishing - easy to make. My kids seem to love all kinds of magnets so I try to pick up different varieties. My son loves to run around the house seeing what he can attach magnets too. He giggles like crazy when he finds something magnetic that you wouldn't expect like the reinforced corner in a wall.
- Stickers - no explanation necessary!
- Small balloons with a pumper. The pump works well with air and fairly simple for the kids to fill their own balloons. Don't want to tie them? No problem they usually enjoy watching them deflate.
- Eye Spy Books
- Pick Up Sticks
- CooCoo the Rocking Clown. This company has lots of different toys that look like quiet fun!
- A ViewMaster
Hmmm. I'm out of ideas for now. I'm sure you have most of them already, but maybe something will help!
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JodieLyn
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Rubbings! Leaves work well for this.. but you can also use things like stencils.. and of course there's also using the stencils.. I think you can get cheap ones at the dollar store or the like.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
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AmandaV
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Mackfam wrote:
Wonderful ideas everyone!
Becky Parker wrote:
| Pattern blocks and covering designs with them. |
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This is a great idea, and I have some pattern blocks. I may have to consider setting these out for her! |
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Here are some pattern block mats that are printable. My boys have enjoyed them.
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Amanda
wife since 6/03, Mom to son 7/04, daughter 2/06, twin sons 6/08 and son 7/11, son 1/2014
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mamaslearning
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What a timely topic! I was just researching Montessori inspired trays and boxes for my preschooler's enjoyment next year. I love all the suggestions!
Here are some sites I browse for inspiration. I'm sure you've probably seen these already, but I enjoy them.:
Paula's Archives
Living Montessori Now
Michael Olaf
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Lara
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Child-directed preschool-kinder ideas
