I’ve made some “goody bags” from items that I had around the house and from my crafting supplies. Here are a few ideas for activities and crafting for young children.
Here’s what is in my bags:
Shaker Eggs (Music)
Place some dried beans or rice into plastic eggs and seal with tape. I only fill about 1/3 or 1/4, you don’t need a lot.
Model the hand motions of your favorite fingerplays and songs. Encourage your child to imitate.
Verbally model sounds and words as you sing your favorite songs: “Wheels on the Bus”, “Twinkle, twinkle . . . “.
Have your child follow directions to place the eggs in a container for clean up and count them as you put them away.
Practice labeling body parts. Ask your child where to dump the eggs . . . “on my head, on my leg, on my arm” . . .
Tube & Stickers
You can use a paper towel tube or pringles can with the bottom removed.
Decorate the tube with the stickers, crayons, and colored paper. Use the tube for an “I-spy” game. Model for your child:
“I see you!”, “I see ___.”
See what you can find while going for a walk around the neighborhood or your backyard. Look through the tube and play “I-spy”.
Use as a horn! Take turns. Encourage handing the tube back and forth for appropriate social engagement.
Practice some animal or car sounds using the tube.
Use the tube for placing small soft or light toys. Hold the bottom of the tube until it’s time to dump them. Say, “Ready, set, go”, or count the items as you put them in.
Feathers
Use the feather to practice the “p” sound. Hold the feather in front of your mouth and watch the feather move.
Practice: “Ready, set, go!”. Hold the feather up high, then let go of it and watch it drift to the ground.
Play tickle with the feather and ask your child where he wants to be tickled. Assist in pointing when your child doesn’t respond.
If your child doesn’t like to be tickled, have him tickle you as you label body parts as you play. Maybe your child would be interested in tickling his plastic animals instead.
Place some picture cards or plastic animals on the floor. Drop the feather from above. Talk about/label the item that it lands on.
String the Shapes
These shapes were cut from foam sheets. Use a shoelace or other string that you have.
Talk about the colors or shapes as you string them.
Encourage your child to say or sign “help” if she needs assistance. Model the word “help” and assist with the task.
Hide the shapes in a bean or rice bin and label them as you find them.
Place the shape inside a plastic egg and “hide” them around the room or backyard. Talk about where you found them: on the table, under the chair, in the box. Or use a single word: table, chair, box. Open the eggs and label what you found.
Also, use the plastic eggs for hiding a variety of objects. Place small toys (pompons, small plastic animals) in the eggs. Use whatever is appropriate for your child’s age and abilities.
Pompons and Bunny
Cut a bunny shape from card stock or construction paper.
Use the pompons as a tail for the bunny. Talk about “big” and “little” while placing different sized pompons on the bunny’s tail. Talk about the different colors of pompons that you are playing with.
Add a face to the opposite side of the bunny. Label the facial features as you draw them. Encourage your child to color the bunny or use stick glue and pieces of construction paper to decorate.
Rip small pieces of construction paper into even smaller bits for a fine motor task.
Place the paper pieces in a bowl and practice the phrase, “I want ____, I want blue. I want red.”
Or practice the phrase, “I want to play” as you take turns placing the pieces of paper on the bunny.
Encourage your child to imitate the gesture of having the bunny hop on the table or floor as you say, “hop, hop, hop”.
Velcro Sticks
The colorful sticks with Velcro can be used to make a variety of shapes, including a square that you can hold up to frame your face, “I see you”.
Talk about the colors, practice taking them apart and putting them together. Model for your child “help” if he is unable to pull them apart on his own.
Have your child follow the direction to place the sticks inside a can, tube or plastic container. Help with problem-solving as needed.
Clothes Pins
Look up: “Printable Clothespin Puppets” on Pinterest for some fun examples of finger puppets for kids.
Pick up pompons with the clothespins. What else can you pick up?
Play Dough
Use store-bought play dough or make your own. Play Dough Recipe
Use fun cookie cutters to make shapes and match to a picture. Use a laminated sheet to hold the picture or card for matching.
Laminated Sheet
On one side of the laminated sheet, draw some small pictures with a permanent marker or dry erase marker. Insert a piece of black construction paper. Cut a flashlight shape with it’s path of light also included, from white card stock. (Refer to picture.)
Slide the “flashlight” between the pictures on the laminated sheet and the black construction paper to “light up” the pictures.
Talk about the pictures and hand the “flashlight” back and forth as you take turns finding the pictures.
Other Ideas from my blog:
Froggy
Sensory Wallet
Table Cloth
Pool Noodles
Skills
If you are wondering what other skills you are working on while engaging in these tasks (besides just having fun creating and using your imagination), here they are:
turn-taking, social interaction, verbal imitation, gestural imitation, attention to task, following directions, tolerance, patience, joint attention, sensory integration, transitions between tasks and/or environments, fine and gross motor skills, initiating asking for help or to request, sequencing, choice-making, problem-solving, so much more!