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Great Authors for under 5s
Click here for a list of
authors and their websites. Some of these websites should keep your
child amused for ages, before they've even seen the books!
Links
www.kidscraftweekly.com/outdoor_activities
It has some old-fashioned things to do with
small kids in the garden - they're all free and easy to
do.
Once you come back inside, try some lovely, simple bug craft
activities. Kids Craft Weekly always has great ideas for things
to do with little ones, but this selection is
particularly appealing: http://kidscraftweekly.com/bugs
Cookie Mag has ideas for 101
Indoor Activities for all ages which you could try. There must be something here that would
keep you and your little monkeys happy for an
hour or so. If all else fails,
playing at "shops" is an old favourite and you
can print out play money for this at Activity
Village. If you print the page straight
onto some white card, the process of cutting out the
coins can become part of the game. You can also
talk about all the different coins with your child as
you cut them out. (Explaining that two 20ps and a
10p make the same amount as one 50p for example.)
When the weather lets you down, little ones might like to stay inside with
these lovely cartoony colouring pages of bugs from
Funschool.com
Then, when they do get back out into the
garden they can hunt for the ladybirds, grasshoppers,
bees and ants that they have been colouring.
www.wallaceandgromit.com
is a great site for all ages.
There's lots to do at Gordon the Garden Gnome's
own website. You'll find 'print and colour in' sheets, a box
garden craft idea and interactive games - watch out for those pesky
slugs though!
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/characterpages/gordon/ Postman
Pat has a terrific website where you can print off everything
you need to build your own Post Office. You can print
and colour in bank notes, stamps, passports and all sorts of other
stuff. The bank notes could be used for shopping games with
mum and your friends as well.
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/printables/funmakes/post_office/postoffice.shtml
If you like this you could also print off the airmail
paper aeroplane, the jess notepaper and Pat envelope to be found
here:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/printables/funmakes/post_office/mail.shtml
Crafty Kids will find
hours of inspiration at this wonderful site: www.kidscraftweekly.com/printables
This link will take you straight to the printable instruction
sheets. The Teeny Tiny Party Buckets look great and
would be fun to make either before or during a party.
If the weather is unpredictable, what could be nicer
than spending time together learning some action rhymes? Mums
will be surprised by how many of these they recognise!
www.preschoolrainbow.org/preschool-rhymes.htm Meet
a different fluffy animal every day on this cute site:
http://petoftheday.com/ I'm
sure the CBeebies website needs no introduction:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies
CBeebies also have an
extensive list of things to make and do indoors:
CBeebies
Make & Do
For a bit of arty fun try this website www.jacksonpollock.org
All you need to do is wiggle the mouse and click it!
There is a fun printable Chinese mask you
can print out from here. You
can colour a whole alphabet's of printable colouring pictures at:
http://funschool.kaboose.com
If you enjoyed the film of "Curious George" you'll
love this publisher's site, which is choc-full of activities on a
George theme. They even have everything you need to host a
Curious George party.
www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features
Free
Play
Stage
Your Own Olympic Games - at home!
Mini Olympic
Games
Here are some printable pages for you to use as resources for your
own mini Olympic Games.
Olympic Torch
Click below for a torch image for you to print and cut
out.
Print the two pages of the image. In the second the image is
reversed (so that you can put the two
images back-to-back and have it on both sides).
If you print onto card, you can simply stick the two sides together
and it should be strong enough.
If you print onto paper, you might want to stick the two sides
together then slot the torch inside
an empty loo roll or kitchen roll tube.
Olympic
Torch 1
Olympic
Torch 2
Now you can put on some rousing music and race around holding
your torch aloft, to signal the
start of your Games!
Flags
To hold a proper Olympic Games, you would need to have lots of
different countries involved.
If you print out the following page and cut out all the little
flags, you can then either sellotape
them to the ends of pencils or slot them into a specially snipped
cut in the top of a drinking straw.
Then you could each choose a country and its flag for the
Games. If you like, you could print
out extra flags for friends, teddies and dolls to hold, so they can
wave them when you win.
Flags
of the world printable
Olympic Medals
It would be no fun to hold a mini Olympics without any
medals. Just print out the page below,
cut out each of the medals as neatly as you can, then colour them
in. The gold medal can be
yellow, the silver can be grey and the bronze can be brown.
Then ask mum if she has any safety
pins you can use to pin them on to the winners' t-shirts.
Olympic
Medals Printable
Mini Olympics Games events and Score Sheet
Now that you have all the accessories, you will need ideas about
events. It's easy to stage
lots of the events that are in the real Olympics, you just need a
tiny bit of preparation
and lots of imagination!
You can print off a score sheet for each athlete here:
Olympic Score Sheet
Here are some suggestions for how to stage each of the events:
Long Jump
- stand on a line or marker and, with both feet together jump
as far as you can. Ask someone
to measure (with a tape measure or ruler) how far you've jumped.
High Jump
- ask mum and dad or two friends to hold a skipping rope or piece of
string off the ground while
you jump over it. See how high they can lift it before you
have to stop. (If you're having trouble
jumping over it they can always drop it, so you don't get caught in
it).
Hop, Skip and Jump
- do just what it says! Hop once, skip once, then jump as far
as you can.
Shot Put
- hold a bean bag, wet sponge (!), or ball up to the side of your
face then throw it as far as you can.
The wet sponge works best because it won't roll away (and it makes a
nice splat) but that's best done
outdoors.
Discus
- ask mum for some paper or plastic plates and spin them as far away
as you can. Measure how
far they away they land.
Javelin
- roll up some double pages of old newspaper very tightly diagonally
and then throw them like spears.
See how far you can make them go. You might need lots of
"javelins" because they only work once
before they get too bent.
Short and Long Running Races
- decide on two distances to run then time yourself and your friends
to see who can run the fastest.
If you have smaller brothers and sisters you might like to give them
shorter distances to run.
Relay
- this is just a race where teams take it in turns to run a certain
distance, one person at a time, and the
team that finishes first wins. You can run, then
"tag" the next person to show it's their turn to
run. If
you are in the garden, though, it's good fun to run with a bucket of
water, which you empty into a bigger
bucket when you get to your destination. You then bring the
bucket back for the next person to do the
same. The winning team is the one with the most water in their
big bucket at the end of a certain amount
of time.
Rowing
- this is a bit nutty, but it is possible to pull yourself forward
with your feet on the ground whilst sitting
on your bottom and pretending to row. Don't make the race a
very long one though because it's hard work!
Swimming
- this a bit like the rowing but you can cheat by saying you are
doing front crawl and crawl as fast as you can
to the winning post.
Basketball
- use a nice bouncy sort of ball and see how many times you can
bounce it with the palm of your hand
before it gets away.
Football
- set up a few obstacles, then take it in turns to dribble a ball
around them, timing each other to see who
is fastest.
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