News for Black Hills Early Learners

We are here to bring you fun activities for any child ages 0-5 years. We want to thank our local early learner providers and educators for their contributions to this weekly newsletter! We hope you find this useful and helpful during this very unusual time. Happy learning!

This week's theme: Bugs

Infant Corner Activities for children under 1

Babies are born learning. Very young children are learning through play, active exploration of their environment and through interactions with the significant adults in their lives. Reading to Babies and Toddlers 3 minute video Everyday Fun with Counting with your Baby 3 minute video Learn how to nurture your baby's development through the power of play. From Magic of Everyday Moments series at Zero - Three. 5 minute video

Busy Toddlers Activities for children 1-3

Physical/Outdoor Stomp the Bug: Create a fun movement game by drawing with chalk a variety of shapes (circle, heart, triangle, etc), add legs, antennae, and faces. Call out a shape for your child to "stomp". How far can they jump? Can they make it to the next bug with just one jump? Science/Sensory Create a super easy sensory bin of "dirt" and "worms". Link to activity here Toddlers love to explore with sticky tape Create a lint roller worm pick up activity!

Literacy Recite the Itsy Bitsy Spider with your toddler. Make a spider with your child's handprints. ‌ Creative Arts Bug Songs! Lots of songs with familiar tunes to sing along with your child! Add homemade instruments to your sing along. Link to songs here

Hands-On Preschoolers Activities for children 4-5 (Thank you to Betty Jo Huff with Northern Hills Alliance for Children for these ideas!)

Physical/Outdoor Get your kids to moving with this fun insect gross motor activity! Can they flap like a   butterfly ? Crawl like a caterpillar, wiggle like a worm, move slow like a snail, run like an ant and buzz around like a bee.

Science/Sensory Watch a 2 minute video to see butterflies grow up and learn to fly. A Life of A Butterfly Make Clear Bug Slime!

Literacy Read The Grouchy Ladybugs by Eric Carle and use it as an opportunity to talk about kindness and feelings. Add math by drawing a lady bug and counting the spots together!

Creative Arts Invite your child to be creative by Building A Bug . Open ended creative insect paper craft for kids. Great for color recognition & fine motor development. Perfect for toddlers as well as preschoolers.