Hot Topics: WEEKEND ACTIVITIES

WEEKEND ACTIVITIES
By Ellen Booth Church

Shake n’ taste (Ages 0 - 7)

Skills:
• develops the sense of taste and touch
• promotes language development
• builds an understanding of cause and effect

What you need
whipping cream
baby food jar
bowls
salt
sugar

What you do
1. Fill the jar halfway with whipping cream, pointing out that the cream is liquid. Seal the lid tightly.
2. Let your child shake the jar. He can also roll it back and forth with you on the floor. Every few minutes ask him how the jar looks, feels, and sounds—does he hear something solid bumping in the jar?
3. Open the lid and pour off the extra liquid. Scoop the cream into two bowls and add salt to one bowl and sugar to the other. Give your child a taste of each cream and see which he prefers.

Yummy dough (Ages 0 - 7)

Skills:
• develops the sense of taste and touch
• promotes language development
• encourages creativity

What you need
1 cup flour
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
shredded coconut
plate
bowl
spoon

What you do
1. Your child can pour all of the ingredients except for the shredded coconut into the bowl and together you can mix them. (You might want to use an electric mixer.) Refrigerate the bowl for five minutes. (Children under age 1 should not eat honey.)
2. Give your child a ball of the dough and encourage her to have fun rolling, smashing, and shaping it. Ask your child to describe how the dough feels.
3. Your child can form the dough into small balls. Spread the shredded coconut on a plate and let your child roll the balls through it. Refrigerate the dough balls for a short time and then eat them. Talk about how the doughy balls taste.

Pretty fruit prints (Ages 3 - 4)

Skills:
• develops the sense of sight, smell, and touch
• encourages language development
What you need
oranges, grapefruits, strawberries
construction paper

What you do
1. Show your child the fruits and ask him to describe how they look and feel. Then cut the fruits in half. Ask your child to describe what the fruits look like on the inside.
2. Let your child press each piece of fruit onto a separate sheet of paper. Write the name of each fruit on the paper below the print.
3. Ask your child to close her eyes and then to smell each fruit print. Can she guess which fruit was used? Talk about how each fruit print smells.

Twirl and swirl colors (Ages 3 - 4)

Skills:
• develops the sense of sight
• builds an awareness of colors
• builds an understanding of cause and effect

What you need
paper plate
tempera paint
paintbrush
pencil
masking tape

What you do
1. Draw lines on the plate to make three equal sections. Then have your child paint each section a different color. Ask your child to name each color.
2. When the paint is dry, help your child poke a hole through the center of the plate with the pencil. Wrap the tape around the pencil tip on the top side of the plate.
3. Let your child hold the pencil and spin the plate. Ask her to watch the plate and to describe what she sees. (The spinning motion creates a kaleidiscope effect. As the plate slows down, your child will see the separate colors again.)

Magic mirrors (Ages 5 - 6)

Skills:
• develops the sense of sight
• promotes language development
• encourages creative thinking and problem solving

What you need
construction paper
markers, crayons
scissors
safety mirror

What you do
1. Ask your child to draw a few simple pictures. Then cut the pictures in half lengthwise.
2. Let your child place the mirror next to each half-picture. What does he see?
3. Draw half a shape on a piece of paper. Then ask your child to guess what shape it is. He can use the mirror to see the whole shape. Encourage your child to draw half a shape and to see if you can guess what shape it is—without using the mirror!

Smell the air (Ages 5 - 6)

Skills:
• develops the sense of smell
• promotes language development
• encourages creative thinking
• builds an understanding of cause and effect

What you need
spray bottle
vinegar
water
cloth handkerchief or paper towel

What you do
1. Help your child pour the vinegar and water into the spray bottle. Then wet the cloth handkerchief or paper towel.
2. Explain that really clean air has a different smell than dirty or polluted air and that there are tiny particles floating in the air that we can’t see that make it smell good or bad. Demonstrate the bad air smell by spraying the vinegar mist well above your child’s head (make sure he keeps his eyes closed). As the mist settles, ask your child to describe what he smells.
3. Try the spray again, but this time have your child filter out the bad air by putting the wet cloth over his nose and mouth. Ask your child to describe what he smells. How is it different from what he smelled before? Explain that the bad-smelling particles got caught in the cloth, leaving only the fresh air.

See what? (Ages 7 and up)

Skills:
• develops the sense of sight
• promotes creativity
• builds fine-motor skills

What you need
white paper
red, blue, orange, and gray construction paper
green, black, and orange tempera paints
glass of water
pencil or straw
glue

Kids love the magic of visual trickery. An optical illusion defies the old saying, “What you see is what you get.” Even a simple perception exercise—such as touching fingertips together and bringing them close to your eyes until a “finger bridge” appears—is fascinating to youngsters. Best of all, optical illusions are like puzzles with no right or wrong answer: It’s all in the viewer’s perception. With your help, your child can create some simple optical illusions that will astound her friends.

1. Blind Spot. Explain that everyone has a place in the eye where they cannot see. On a piece of white paper, ask your child to draw an X. Approximately six inches from the X, she should draw a small circle and fill it in with her favorite color. Ask her to slowly bring the paper to her face, with the X coming toward her nose. When the circle disappears, she has found her blind spot.

2. Refraction. Get a pencil or a straw and a (clear) glass of water. Ask your child to examine the pencil or straw for any breaks or cracks. Then ask her to place into the glass. What does she observe? At the surface of the water, the straw or pencil should look bent or broken. (This effect is called refraction.)

3. After Image. Give your child two sheets of white paper and green, black, and orange tempera paints. On one sheet, ask her to use the green, black, and orange paints to create stripes (in that order of color). After she has drawn several stripes, ask her to stare at her drawing for approximately 30 seconds and then quickly stare at the blank sheet of white paper. Does she now see red, white, and blue stripes? (Explain that green, black, and orange are the opposite of red, white, and blue, and that this effect is called an after image.)

4. Colors combinations. Ask your child to cut out squares of red construction paper and glue them to the centers of blue, orange, and gray construction paper. When she looks at the red square on the blue paper, does the square seem to vibrate? Ask her to put the orange and gray sheets side by side. What does she notice about the red squares? Even though the squares were cut from the same sheet of construction paper, do they look the same now that they are against different backgrounds?

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