Fun for Black Hills Early Learners

We are here to bring you fun activities for any child age 0-5 years. Happy learning! At the end of each activity domain and goals for the activities are provided. For a copy of the Early Learning Guidelines click on the photo

FUN ACTIVITIES Infants Watch the video below on how you can make your own baby sensory cards to stimulate the child's sense of touch, sight and sound. These help with infant brain development, discover learning and helps to calm babies down. Link to Activity Here Construction of Knowldege: Thinking and Reasoning Goal CD-1 Squishy bags are perfect for sensory play without the mess. They are cheap and easy to make and your child will enjoy manipulating and playing with them. Link to Activity Here Scientific Explortion and Knowldege Goal CD-8 Create a Construction Sensory Bin for babies that is perfect for encouraging little ones to explore all 5 of their senses! The best thing about this sensory bin is that the filler is edible, so although you don't want to encourage eating it, you don't need to worry about babies and toddlers putting it in their mouth. Link to Activity Here Scientific Explortion and Knowldege Goal CD-8 Toddlers Imitating the way animals move is a great gross motor activity for toddlers. Link to Activity Here Motor Development Gaoll HPD-4 Create this game for toddlers to sort and place colored pompoms into the matching colored cardboard roll and catching them in a bowl. Link to Activity Here Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning Goal CD-2 These Homemade Number Puzzles are a matching number activity that can be easily incorporated into the home or classroom environment. They are super easy to make and can be easily adapted to the suit the individual ability and needs of the child. Link to Activity Here Mathematical Thinking and Expression Goal CD-4 Preschoolers Create a fine motor challenge using the felt balls, suction pads and tweezers. Link to Activity Here Motor Development Goal HPD-4 Provide the materials and invite the children to create little toilet roll people! Link to Activity Here Creative Arts and Expression Goal CD-12 A Den Den Drum (also known as a Japanese Pellet Drum), is a musical instrument. It is a two headed drum on a rod with beads or pellets hanging on threads on either side of the body of the drum.  This homemade version is easy and inexpensive to make. Link to Activity Here Creative Arts and Expression Goal CD-12

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OUTDOOR FUN Infants Fresh air and sunshine are beneficial for everyone, including babies. However, babies have weak immune systems, so it's important to take a few precautions before leaving the house with your newborn. Watch this video to learn more. Link to Video Here Physical Health and Growth Goal HPD-2 Enjoyable outdoor activities for babies can be as simple as laying on a blanket under a tree and watching the leaves move in the breeze. Talk to your baby about what you hear and see. Physical Health and Growth Goal HPD-2 Toddlers Soap boat races can keep toddlers busy and cool on a hot day. Link to Activity Here Scientific Exploration and Knowledge Goal CD-8 Painting with pinwheels is a simple and fun outdoor painting activity. Link to Activityn Here Creative Arts and Expression Goal CD-12 Here is a fun adaptation to the vinegar and baking soda mix - make errupting Ice Chalk. Link to Activity Here Scientific Exploration and Knowledge Goal CD-8 Preschoolers This is a unique and fun cup race game to play outdoors with water guns (or water squirter of your choice)! Link to Activity Here Motor Development Goal HPD-5 If you have a twister game you might want to consider turining it into a water blob to add to the challenge. Link to Activity Here Motor Development Goal HPD-4 The creator of this cool process art project was inspired to create this salt art activity after a visit to museum. Link to Activity Here Creative Arts and Expression Goal CD-12

EVERYDAY MOMENTS Infants/Toddlers Tooth decay is the most frequent childhood disease, but it’s also very preventable. The most common cause of tooth decay in young children is frequent, prolonged exposure of the teeth to sugary drinks. The article below shares some tips to avoid tooth decay starting when your child is a baby. Link to Article Here Self-care, Safety, and Well-being Goal HPD-6 Preschoolers If your child is starting preschool this fall, you may be approaching this major milestone with conflicting emotions. With the article below learn what you can do to make this big transition to preschool easier for your child.  Link to Article Here Self-Regulation and Pro-Social Behaviors Goal SED-4

LITERACY Infants  Make a sensory bottle to supplement a favorite book! Link to Activity Here Foundations For Reading Goal CLL-4 Storytime is a wonderful time to bond with your baby. But it is also a way to enrich your baby’s language development. To learn speech skills, your baby also needs to learn nonverbal communication and sounds in response to everyday things. Instead of reading through a book, make reading fun by adding facial expressions, voice inflections, sound effects, and animal sounds. Communication and Oral Language Development Goal CLL-3 One of the biggest language developments a baby will make is learning/recognizing his/her name! While it’s different for every baby, most babies will recognize and respond to their names between 3 to 6 months of age. To help baby along with this language development, say your baby’s name whenever possible. Two fun ways to say your baby’s name include: Adding his/her name to a silly song, Replacing the names of book characters with your baby’s name. Communication and Oral Language Development Goal CLL-1 Toddlers Making Toddler Books are a Wonderful Way to Foster a Love For Books. Here are some ideas for making books of your own.  Link to Activity Here Foundations For Reading Goal CLL-4 When you go on a walk with your toddler, point out the directions you are going: turning left or right, going uphill or downhill. Point out which direction is north, south, east or west. Communication and Oral Language Development Goal CLL-3 This brief video from Home Reading Helper, provides tips on extending your child's oral language skills by asking questions to encourage them to expand on their descriptions of things they see. Link to Video Here Communication and Oral Language Development Goal CLL-3 Preschoolers Create a writing center either in classroom or at home to engage children in pre-writing activities. Link to Ideas Here Foundations For Writing Goal CLL-9 It’s never too early to nurture children’s development of language and literacy skills. Even at a very young age, experiencing different genres of books, hearing stories from the adults who care about them, and exploring books alone or with peers helps them learn how to listen to and understand language and how to share their thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Below Teaching Strategies highlights eight ways to support language and literacy skills development in your own early childhood classroom. Link to Article Here Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL) Children this age love them!!! (They usally don’t understand standard jokes-but do think Knock-Knocks are fun.  Check out These Knock-Knock Jokes Communicating and Oral Language Development Goal CLL-3