Hello Bigs!

Many of you are starting, or will soon start, meeting with your Little virtually. How exciting! Below we came up with different things you can do with your Little virtually. If you come up with something new, please let us know so we can pass it along to everyone else.

Have a very fun virtual activity
Cami & Julieann

Activity Ideas for Virtual Matches
Ice Breakers
·          Make a list of activities to do together. Use this list and your own ideas to talk about what to do in the next few calls.
 
·          Watch a drawing tutorial and create a drawing together. While coloring, ask each other would you rather questions . Low on art supplies? Watch this video on making a collage. All you need is paper and crayons or colored pencils. The Treasure Valley YMCA has other fun crafts, cooking ideas, and ways to get moving too.
 
·          Pick a word and spell it out doing the exercises with the Exercise ABCs . The longer the word, the more exercises to complete! Pick words that are meaningful to each of you and talk about why you chose them.
 
·          Determine a mascot for your Match and then learn about that animal. Draw pictures, collect figurines, make Lego versions of them.
 
·          Brain Teasers and Jokes Here are a few to get you going and then you can encourage your Little to make up their own.
o    Click here for 100 Brain Teasers With Answers for Kids and Adults .
o    Click here for 217 Hilarious Jokes for Kids
o    Check out these 27 Corny, Funny Jokes for Teens
 
  • Give each other a home tour. Pick different topics like the quietest place in the house, the place you spend the most time, your favorite food currently in the refrigerator, etc.
 
  • Try out a new recipe with your Little, both of you cooking at the same time in your own kitchens. Chat while you cook and enjoy a meal together, savoring your creations. Here are some recipe ideas from Food Network's Cooking With Kids to get you started.
 
Games
·          Co-Author a Story: Consider starting a story of any kind, mailing or emailing it to your Little, and asking him/her to fill in the next section or chapter (or even just the next paragraph or line!) and send it back to you. Send it back and forth as long as you can keep it going!
 
·         Play Scattegories
 
·          Play Draw Something together, a free app like Pictionary.
 
 
·          House of cards challenge- see who can build the biggest house of card in a set amount of time. Here is a tutorial to get you started.
 
·          Play a game together on Roblox . The Roblox platform is intended to be a safe and fun space for all players but we still want parent/guardian permission before playing a game.
 
·          Challenge each other to a scavenger hunt with a twist. Give each other some clues so you must first guess what you are trying to find with these scavenger hunt riddles .
 
Letter Writing
·          Pretend you are spies- Write letters in invisible ink and send them to each other Knowing how to make an invisible ink message will make you feel like a spy in no time! There are many ways to make your own invisible ink but here are five ways to get you started .
 
·          Make a booklet using just paper and scissors.
 
·          Choose a secret code to write your letters.
 
 
STEM Activities
·          The Idaho STEM Action Center has added a new resource to their website, STEM@ Home to provide ideas for STEM activities at home.
 
·          Project MC 2  -This Netflix series is about the adventures of McKeyla McAlister and her best friends, who work for a government organization called NOV8 (pronounced "innovate"), a highly secretive group of female government operatives who are trying to protect the world. After you watch it, there is a website with ideas for experiments .
 
·          Make paper airplanes and see whose can fly the farthest.
 
·          Who can design the best Lego boat? Talk about how to make a boat that will hold the most weight and see how many pennies your boat can hold.
 
  • Are you having a day with bad internet connection, not a problem with this activity. Print off the Debug the Maze worksheet and play the coding game without a computer.
 
  • Quick, Draw Can a neural network learn to recognize doodling? This is a game built with machine learning. You draw, and a neural network tries to guess what you’re drawing. Can you draw a doodle in under 20 seconds that the neural network can guess?
 
  • NASA has made their entire photo collection free to all right now. Make a collage of your favorite photos and send it to your Little. Click the Most Popular tab to see amazing photos!
 
 
Miscellaneous
  • TedEd- What if human flight wasn't just the stuff of epic comic book stories? Is it scientifically possible to fly? In this series from TedEd, Joy Lin tackles six superpowers and reveals just how scientifically realistic they can be to us mere mortals. TedEd has many other series you can watch and talk about too.
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·          Harry Potter- Is there a cuter fantastic beast than the Niffler? How about creating your own to show off to your friends? Here is a tutorial and after you complete your drawing, share it in your match and with your Match Support Specialist.
 
·          If you are craving more Harry Potter activities after you finish your drawing, there are many more things to do on the Wizarding World website.  Matches can also complete a Hogwarts digital escape room together!
 
·          Art Museum Visits
 
o    The Met: #MetKids- Lots of fun clips, including animations and “how to” videos. (Make a potato print, make a flip book, etc). Visit the Look Together page for ideas for talking about the art.
o    The Louvre - check out the Egyptian Antiquities
o    The National Gallery in London - Immerse yourself in Renaissance masterpieces from Northern Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, including works by Titian, Veronese, and Holbein.
o    National Gallery of Art - During the temporary closure, visit the Gallery virtually through video tours of current exhibitions, in-depth looks at highlights of the collection, online learning opportunities, audio and video recordings of lectures by artists and curators, and more.
o    Questions to ask about art - Learn about 6 main categories of questions to ask children to start a discussion about art.
 
 

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