Learning Games & Activities
The games and activities listed below are designed to help your child learn and grow at the skills necessary for kindergarten and beyond. Each one comes with book recommendations to help build the skill, as well as additional suggestions for helping your child succeed. Pick a skill from the menu below to check out activities you can practice in your home.
Math | Language Arts | Music and Art | Other
math
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Line up family members from shortest to tallest or tallest to shortest. Help your child measure the height of each family member with a tape measure.
Let your child pick out other things around the house to measure with a ruler or tape measure. Help your child count how long the items are in inches or in feet.
Recommended Books:
Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
How Big Is A Foot? by Rolf Myller
To help your child succeed:
Suggest some more creative things to measure like hands, fingers, doors, shoes.
Write measurements down on paper and let your child help write in the numbers.
Use words like bigger and smaller, shorter and taller.
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Use counting activities when you are in the car with your child.
Choose things your child can see from the car like stop signs, red lights, yellow cars, dogs or white houses.
Decide how many of the same objects your child will count.
Help your child keep track of the number as they find the object.
Recommended books:
Counting with Apollo by Caroline Gregoire
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow
To help your child succeed:
See how far you and your child can count while waiting for a light to change.
Make it fun. When the light changes, use a funny voice to say “ready, set, go” or “let’s roll” as the car starts.
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On a piece of paper, draw a shape like a circle and ask your child to name the shape.
Help your child find things in the home that are in that same shape, such as dinner plates for a circle.
Recommended Books:
Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Shapes All Around by Betty Vereen
Shapes, Shapes, Shapes by Tana Hoban
To help your child succeed:
Work with only one shape at a time.
Let your child choose the shape.
Let your child draw the shape on the paper next to yours.
As your child learns the basic shapes, add shapes like diamonds, cubes, spheres and cylinders.
LANGUAGE ARTS
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Talk with your child about what a rhyming word is. Give them some examples like, cat, hat, bat.
Place objects in a basket such as scissors, books, a doll and a cup. Have your child make up a word that rhymes with each object that they pull out of the basket. The word doesn’t have to make sense as long as it rhymes. Have your child pick an item and see how many words they can come up with that rhyme with the word.
Help your child make up rhyming sentences like: “The fat cat sat on the mat.”
Read nursery rhymes and books written in rhyming patterns to your child.
Recommended book: Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas
To help your child succeed:
Introduce new rhyming words to your child.
There are no wrong answers or words when it comes to rhyming.
Remember that children enjoy making up their own language when it comes to rhyming.
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On a piece of paper, write a letter and ask your child to name the letter.
Talk about the sound of the letter and help your child find things around the house that begin with the same sound. If your child picks the letter D, help him or her find a door, dog, dresser, and so on.
While in the car or at the store, help your child find things that begin with the letter.
Story book: Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom! by Bill Martin
To help your child succeed:
Identify only one letter at a time and have your child find only items that begin with that letter.
Let your child choose the letter.
Let your child write the letter on the paper next to yours.
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Write your child’s name on a piece of paper.
Help your child name the letters in his or her name.
Help your child find and cut out the letters in his or her name from a newspaper or magazine then arrange or glue them in order on the paper.
Recommended books:
My Name Is A Story by Ashanti
A Squiggly Story by Andrew Larsen
That’s Not My Name by Anoosha Syed
To help your child succeed:
Talk about how each letter sounds and talk about the shape of the letters.
MUSIC AND ART
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To make homemade Maracas:
Collect small plastic drink bottles (water bottles are great). Remove the labels.
Help your child put small household items inside each bottle like rice, beans, paper clips, or pebbles.
Tape the lid securely to close the bottle.
Let your child decorate the bottles using paint or permanent markers.
Shake and dance with Maracas!
Recommended books:
The Ants Go Marching One by One by Richard Bernal
Ten Go Tango by Arthur Dorros
This Old Man by Carol Jones
To help your child succeed:
Have a discussion about what will fit into the bottle.
Predict what sound it will make.
Turn on the radio and shake the Maracas to the beat. Have fun!
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Combine 1 cup flour, 1 cup water, ½ cup salt, 1 Tbsp cooking oil, 2 to 3 tsp cream of tartar (the addition of tartar makes the play dough last longer), 1 package Kool-aid mix (6g pkg). Let your child help measure the ingredients, pour them into a saucepan, and mix them together. Have your child watch while you slowly add the water mixed with oil and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens to dough. Let cool for a few minutes and then knead until smooth.
Let your child pick his or her favorite kool-aid and talk with your child about the color of play dough you will be making.
Talk to your child about the feel of the play dough. Is it cold? Is it hot? Is it hard or soft?
To help your child succeed:
Talk with your child about measurements: cups, teaspoon, tablespoon and so on.
Talk about cooking safety rules.
Let your child be creative in sculpting the play dough or rolling and cutting it.
Note: Do not allow children to eat! This play dough will last up to 6 months if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
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Help your child find items around the house with different surfaces that he or she can draw on such as cardboard, aluminum, foil, paper towels or old fabric.
Talk with your child about how the surfaces feel, such as rough, smooth or slippery.
Ask your child to draw on the different surfaces with crayons, pencils or markers.
Talk about how your child’s pictures look on each of the surfaces.
Recommended books:
The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
The Crayons Book of Colors by Drew Daywalt
Llama llama Colors by Anna Dewdney
To help your child succeed:
Draw your own pictures on the different surfaces, and talk with your child about how the pictures look on the different surfaces.
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You will need washable paint in two different colors and a ziplock plastic sandwich bag.
Let your child pick his or her favorite colors of paint.
Help your child squirt or pour the paint into the bag and make sure the bag is sealed. Tape the opening closed with masking tape to prevent accidental opening.
Let your child play with the filled bag of paint, squishing and squeezing it.
Talk with your child about what they see, feel, and what is happening.
Let your child make designs in the paint with his or her fingertips and watch the paint change color.
Recommended books:
I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More by David Catrow
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
To help your child succeed:
Let your child tell you what the paint feels like such as hot or cold, soft or hard.
Let your child squish the two colors together and guess what the new color will be.
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Let your child pick a place like the beach, the park, the grocery store, etc. and write the name of the place on a blank piece of paper at the top or the bottom.
Talk about things you may see or find at the place your child selected.
Let your child cut pictures from magazines that go with the place he or she picked.
Have your child glue the pictures on the piece of paper to make their collage of a beach, park, store, etc.
Recommended book: It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
To help your child succeed:
Explain to your child that a collage is something made of paper, pictures, and other materials glued together to make art.
Help your child recall, or think about what he or she will find, or do at the place they picked.
Try another collage activity based on a theme like a birthday.
OTHER
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Pick out something in the room that you want your child to find, like a red ball.
Say, “I spy with my little eye, something that is red.”
Ask your child to guess what the item might be.
If your child cannot guess the object, add another simple hint and say, “I spy with my little eye, something that is red and round.”
Continue adding simple hints until your child guesses the object.
Recommended book: I Spy Little Toys by Jean Marzollo
To help your child succeed:
Pick a simple and visible object to make sure your child knows how to play the game.
Make sure your child knows the colors and shapes or other words you use as hints.
Let your child pick an item for you to guess.
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Ask your child questions about food: What color is it? How does it taste? How does it smell?
Let your child sort food according to size, color, or shape.
Let your child put food away (cold food in the refrigerator, canned food in the cupboard or pantry, or by matching labels)
Let your child draw pictures of food and color the pictures.
Have your child tell you his or her favorite food.
Recommended books:
Feast for 10 by Cathryn Falwell
10 for Dinner by Jo Ellen Bogart
The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
To help your child succeed:
Demonstrate how food changes from whole to slices, or solid to mashed.
Help your child identify foods that are fruits, vegetables, or meat.
Help your child describe food with more than one word. Example: a banana is yellow, long and soft
Talk about where foods come from or how foods are made.
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Help your child connect events through simple conversations about their day.
Ask your child specific questions about his or her activities for the day like, “What was your favorite part of the day?” Or, “Tell me what you built in the block area today?”
Listen to your child’s answers and ask follow up questions to keep your child engaged in the conversation. An example might be: “How did you feel when that happened?”
Recommended book: I’m Gonna Have A Good Day! By Paula Johnson Neal
To help your child succeed:
Keep your questions specific. Refrain from asking questions like “What did you do today?”
Do not ask questions that require a right or wrong answer.
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Play the “What if” game with your child to help him or her learn how to solve problems.
Let your child make up all of the answers and remember, there are no wrong answers in this game.
Start the conversation with questions about things that your child is familiar with, such as, “what if our car could fly?” Or, “what if your bedroom was made of food?”
You want to get your child thinking, so don’t correct the answers, but instead, keep using the “what if” to get your child to think through entire situations.
Recommended books:
What If! by Samantha Berger
What If Everybody Did That? By Ellen Javernick
Any Questions? by Marie-Louise Gay
To help your child succeed:
Start with simple “what if” questions as a conversation starter at the dinner table.
Get siblings involved in the game.
Encourage silly and fun answers to keep your child talking.
Let your child ask you the “what if” questions, take turns asking and answering.
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Let your child do the following on their own:
Brush teeth and hair.
Pick out clothes and get dressed.
Set the table and dish out food.
Recommended books:
Llama llama mess mess mess by Anna Dewdney
Help the Lion Brush His Teeth! Sophie Schoenwald
All by Myself! By Aliki
To help your child succeed:
Show your child how to brush the fronts, backs and sides of teeth.
While in front of a mirror, show your child how to brush his or her hair.
Help your child match clothes, or store the clothes as outfits in drawers or the closet.
Help your child pour their own milk by holding the cup, or help hold the milk carton.
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Make a list of items that your child would like to find, or collect when the two of you are on your walk.
Take a baggie with you to collect the items.
Help your child check the items off on the list when you return from your walk.
Recommended books:
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Maisy Goes on a Nature Walk by Lucy Cousins
We’re Going On A Nature Hunt by Scholastic
I Went Walking by Sue Williams
To help your child succeed:
Make a collage of the things you and your child collect on your walk.
Focus on trees during your walk and how they will look in each season.
Talk about any community helpers you and your child see while on your walk.
