EASY Play-based Learning Activities

for Home or School

In my previous BLOG post I wrote about the importance of meeting children at their developmental level with learning opportunities both at home and at school to develop the emotional and physical skills needed for success in kindergarten. In this post I offer some easy and affordable ideas for learning activities that foster early learning skills.

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Books that Enhance Play-based Learning

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Button Sorting
Use buttons, coins, colorful pom-poms, or even colorful cereal or mini-marshmallows (use food if your child is still putting small objects in their mouth) and a muffin tin to do this fun activity with children. It helps your child to develop the small muscles in their fingers needed for writing. This activity also encourages children to practice critical thinking by identifying how to sort the objects.

Tape Roads
Use blue painter's tape and some small cars and trucks to create roads on the floor. You can even use small boxes from your recycling to pretend they are buildings. This activity develops spatial awareness skills and cognitive reasoning skills through storytelling and natural play.

Pom-poms and Tweezers
Use pom-poms, marshmallows, cotton balls, or any other small object for this fun activity. If your child is struggling with tweezers, use kitchen tongs. Have your child move the pom-poms from the bowl to another bowl or the floor. Talk about colors, shapes, sizes, and numbers as they play.

Storytelling Basket
Gather some small objects in a basket and use them to tell a story. Encourage your young child to choose the next object from the basket and tell the next part of the story about that object. Older children can choose the next object and add onto the story with their own imagination. This activity encourages language development and sequencing skills.

Clothes Pin Sock Matching
Tie or tape a piece of string to the wall or between chairs and use clothes pins to hang socks onto the string. This activity can be done as a matching game or a patterning game by hanging the socks in different ways. This activity encourages children to think critically as well as exercises the small muscles used for writing later.

Providing developmentally appropriate activities, like the ones listed above, allow children to learn the skills they need to be ready for school. Exercising small muscles, and developing reasoning skills, language development and social skills is necessary for later academic success. I hope that these ideas have inspired you to create some fun learning activities at home for your young children. As always, comment below with what you want to see next.