HOLIDAY IDEAS

To all our families:

A few ideas for those “what are we going to do today” days.

Water play:

• Water trays or tubs in a shaded spot
• Coloured water with food dye if using clear containers
• Containers of various shapes & sizes
• Jugs & cups
• Spoons, scoops, ladles
• Sponges
• River pebbles, glass shapes, marbles (finding toy fish among the rocks)
• Small plastic water pistols
• Brushes tied to buckets for water painting
• Spray bottles filled with water (Crazy Clint’s)
• Watering cans
• Sinking & floating- ping pong balls, corks
• Try sending a wind-up bath toy to and fro
• Place a mirror in the bottom of a bowl of water & encourage your child to look into it. Play at rippling the water to change the reflection
• Give your child a fishing net / butterfly net / sifter & see if he can scoop a ball out of the water (hand-eye co-ordination skills). To increase motivation for this activity use a favourite toy or object
• Alternatively, make fish from ping pong balls with eyes/mouths drawn on in waterproof marker pen and see how many you can scoop into your nets

Washing Clothes:

• Water in basin
• Soap, warm water
• Small sizes dolls clothes, pairs of different sized & coloured socks and small hand towels
• Various pegs
• Clothes line (strung between poles)

Bathing Dolls

• Soft plastic doll with limbs that move & identifying features including hair if possible
• Basin or baby’s bath
• Warm soapy water
• Face washer
• Hand towel for drying
• Baby powder
• Small disposable nappy & singlet
• Blanket in which to wrap doll
• Baby bottle
• Baby capsule, basket or stroller

Stickers:

• Threading pasta / large buttons / cotton reels / toilet paper rolls
• Threading onto plastic straws & pipe cleaners

Dress ups:

Cooking:

• Rolling out cookie / scone dough
• Cutting into shapes
• Mixing, pouring and stirring

Torches - covered with cellophane.

Balloons - large, different colours:

• Bat to each other with homemade bats made from stiff cardboard
• Draw or stick a picture onto the surface eg. Thomas the tank engine, picture of child
•  Look out for the helicopter-type balloon whereby the balloon sends a propeller whizzing around the room- a great attention grabber! Blow them up, pause and wait for your child to indicate for you to let go

Build a series of sand castles. Then, after a count of three, jump on them one at a time.

Bubbles: blowing bubbles with bubble wands; make lots of little bubbles with plastic fly swats dipped in bubble mix and waved to and fro.

Picnics:

(Have a pretend one first using teddy’s and appropriate crockery etc.)

• Encourage pretend feeding bears, making appropriate sounds of eating
• Use some of the cookies or scones you might have made on another day
• Maybe use a simple script which can be repeated each time. Once he is engaging in play you might want to introduce a plate & biscuit for him and you, but make sure the bears are fed their pretend food too!
• Picnics are good fun inside too!

Ice Cubes:

• Drop ice cubes one by one, taking turns, into a shallow transparent dish and see what happens
• Try pressing them down into the water and watching them bob up again. Freeze pieces of fruit into the cubes or freeze blocks of juice so your child can try holding and licking them. If too uncomfortable to touch, use a spoon but tempt him to touch the blocks when you can

Making cubbies:

• Inside / outside e.g. use tables, old sheets, chairs, large boxes

Obstacle courses:

• Inside / outside
• Might include: Boxes, ladders placed lying down on ground, cushions, large bean bags, ‘stepping stones’ (e.g. placemats or cushions) for lots of under / over and through

Don’t forget some of our special play times this year:

• Camping – at home in the backyard: tent, sleeping bags, lilo, torches etc.
• Going to a restaurant – at home!: menu’s special table
• Going to the hair dresser – play combs, curlers, water spray
• Going shopping – shopping leaflets, play money, empty food packets