Sal Onions
02-07-2012, 01:30 PM
Summer is fast approaching and school will be out for 6 weeks have you thought about your planning for the different children you will be caring for and what you will do to keep them all entertained. Its not to late to come up with some great themes and activities that are affordable and stress free.
Below is an A-Z of fun activity days you can hold to entertain all children in your care. Activities a theme can be adapted to suit every one in your care.
A - Animal Day
Make affordable animal masks (pound land and 99p stores have loads of craft packs of foam, glue, pom poms etc), Trip to the library to get animal books, simply use what you have - get children to feed the animals in your garden (be careful of allergies thou), vets role play area, 'Going through the jungle' song each child says an animal they can see.
B - Bugs Day
Go bug hunting in your garden, make bug biscuits, a simple trip out to a pet store has live bugs you can see for free, if you have a local pond near by go out and spot dragon flies, butterflies etc..
C - Cooking Day
This is always a fun one especially with older children. Recipes can be healthy or just fun but make sure you find out about allergies and let parents know what you are doing that day. You can get affordable ingredience for children to cook with remember things out of tins and packets are also good fun and dont for get to encourage children to recycle as well. If you have a patch going spare in your garden you can extend this by getting the children to grow magic plants (after all the children have gone you take out the seeds and replant carrots, poatoes etc for the children to dig up and use the following day) better still if you have grown your own use what you have. Plan cook offs with older children to some healthy competition. Remember you dont have to cook in an oven to have fun cooking - Chocolate crispies, fruit sticks, ice lollies all good fun too. A trip out to the local shops to see food is also a good idea and keeps children entertained.
D - Doctor Day
Doctor role play area (most doctors surgeries give leaflets and posters away for you to use), take children to your local doctors to see how it all works, Make an eye chart and get children to read letters or numbers, Get a family member to pretend to be ill and children can care for them.
E - Egg-tastic day
Egg and spoon races, making eggy bread lunch, Where do eggs come from?, what animals lay eggs?, A trip to a local farm to see some chickens or a pet store to see other animals that lay eggs, Making egg cups.
F - French Day
Start the day with a french breakfast, learn simple french phrases - like how to say hello my name is, Make eifle towers, Dress up area, Make onion soup, Use brochures from local travel agents to cut and stick Paris, look at Disney land.
G - Golf (Crazy golf)
Set up simple and fun golf courses in your garden for children to have using, most older children enjoy planning and making things for the balls to go through - from buildings to people models. Get some one to keep score and have numbers but each model so every one gets ago, Purchase a cheap golf set from Tesco or Asda roughly about £3 - £5 a set.
H - Healthy Kids Day
Plan some simple warm up exercises and some simple fitness activities, Silly dancing to music, simple healthy recipes, going to the park using play equipment or use items in the garden to do an assault course.
I - Italian club
Get children to make simple pizzas or pasta dishes, create an italian restaraunt role play area, go to your local italian restaurant a few days before to get things they could give you or loan you (when i did this they gave me 2 huge salt and pepper pots, a menu, and a chef suit as well as half a dozen pizza boxes - never hurts to ask!!)
J - Journalism day
This is a nice one especially for older children - younger children may not be able to write articles but they are really good at taking pictures and can help on computers. Assign each child a role to do i.e Editor, Photographer, sports, clothing, puzzles, etc.. They have to work on an article for the Childminder post and put it all together - After its done you can print them off and give them to parents, family and friends - I kept mine for my portfolio Ofsted and new parents love to see it. All you need is a computer and a camera - failing that use paper and pens and get children to draw pictures just as good.
K - Kites
Get children to make loads of different kites big and small and have fun designing and making. Once they are all made test them out in the garden or local park - Give points and prizes to the 'most decorated' 'Flies the longest' etc.
L -Lego Day
The great Lego challenge is a good idea - give children equal amounts of bricks and challenge them to make a popular place, person, etc.. Lego treasure hunt in the house/garden, lego free builds, apply for the free lego magazines.
M - Magic day
Get children to make wands and hats, download simple magic tricks children can learn. Have a few copies of harry potter for older children, Challenge the children to come up with a trick to show every one else.
N - Nature Day
Let children explore the garden and local park or ponds, record wildlife and birds they spot. Use local libraries for books, the wildlife trust has lots of activities to print off and do. Make check lists of things to look out for and cross off. Make bird feeders and pine cone birds.
O - Ooey Gooey Day
This one is a messy one but my lot loved it so much we do it every years - Make gloop with corn flour and water (i add food coloring too), fill up water balloons with goo, Buckets filled with slimy jelly is great for older kids, feely boxes with cold spaghetti, cold beans, etc.. Fill a paddling pool with water and jelly crystals (you can get these from any flower shop they expand to millions of little jelly balls and are really fun).
P - Pirate day
Get children to come dressed as pirates or make costumes with children. Paper hats from newspaper, make pieces of eight gold coins, treasure hunt with a map in the garden, make old maps with plain white paper and tea bags, Learn some pirate talk and try some pirate grog children can make.
Q - Question games
Games like charades, guess who, speechless, or make a game show where children have to answer questions to win simple prizes.
R - Reading day
Children choose a story they really like and simply read it and write short sentences about the book to tell everyone else. Dress up as the book characters, or you chose a book for them to read or read together.
S - Science day
Older and younger children enjoy this theme day - Experiments with ice and water, make volcanoes, mints in cola, making electric circuits to turn on small lights, making a weather vein, recording the weather, Science explorers.
T - Television production day
Children can plan out and make there own tv shows, news/game shows/travel/sport etc.. Remember to get permission to record peoples children before the activity day. Use a computer to get children to edit it - there are loads of free editing sites out on the net to download and use.
U - Under the sea day
Sea Biscuits, Sea side role play area, a visit to the sea side if you live close, investigate shells in a treasure tray, use a sand pit for sand castle competitions, ice cream making, make a fish puppet.
V - Video day
Children bring in there favourite films for you all to share - make it more fun by turning your front room into a cinema. Make tickets, and pop corn for the show.
W - Weaving day
Weave baskets, cards, hats. Look at how people had to weave items in the past, challenge children to weave a basket to see who's will hold the fruit the longest.
X - X-treme sports
Lay out obstacle courses with skate boards and bikes - age and stage appropriate. Encourage older children to teach younger ones what to do. Get books from the library or watch clips online of people doing sports. Challenge children to timed tasks e.g. First one to get to the bench and back wins.
Y - Yo-yo Day
Teach children simple yo yo tricks and challenge them to make there own up. Show the children clips online of professional yo yo'ers.
Z - Zoo club
Children can be a zoo keeper for the day, Zoo keeper role play, small world zoo animals in the garden, get children to photograph the animals in the garden and make a scrapbook. Feed the wild animals, face paint children as animals.
Here is just a few ideas to get you going. I hope you have a lovely summer and let me know how you have all got on.
Kind regards
Sal
Below is an A-Z of fun activity days you can hold to entertain all children in your care. Activities a theme can be adapted to suit every one in your care.
A - Animal Day
Make affordable animal masks (pound land and 99p stores have loads of craft packs of foam, glue, pom poms etc), Trip to the library to get animal books, simply use what you have - get children to feed the animals in your garden (be careful of allergies thou), vets role play area, 'Going through the jungle' song each child says an animal they can see.
B - Bugs Day
Go bug hunting in your garden, make bug biscuits, a simple trip out to a pet store has live bugs you can see for free, if you have a local pond near by go out and spot dragon flies, butterflies etc..
C - Cooking Day
This is always a fun one especially with older children. Recipes can be healthy or just fun but make sure you find out about allergies and let parents know what you are doing that day. You can get affordable ingredience for children to cook with remember things out of tins and packets are also good fun and dont for get to encourage children to recycle as well. If you have a patch going spare in your garden you can extend this by getting the children to grow magic plants (after all the children have gone you take out the seeds and replant carrots, poatoes etc for the children to dig up and use the following day) better still if you have grown your own use what you have. Plan cook offs with older children to some healthy competition. Remember you dont have to cook in an oven to have fun cooking - Chocolate crispies, fruit sticks, ice lollies all good fun too. A trip out to the local shops to see food is also a good idea and keeps children entertained.
D - Doctor Day
Doctor role play area (most doctors surgeries give leaflets and posters away for you to use), take children to your local doctors to see how it all works, Make an eye chart and get children to read letters or numbers, Get a family member to pretend to be ill and children can care for them.
E - Egg-tastic day
Egg and spoon races, making eggy bread lunch, Where do eggs come from?, what animals lay eggs?, A trip to a local farm to see some chickens or a pet store to see other animals that lay eggs, Making egg cups.
F - French Day
Start the day with a french breakfast, learn simple french phrases - like how to say hello my name is, Make eifle towers, Dress up area, Make onion soup, Use brochures from local travel agents to cut and stick Paris, look at Disney land.
G - Golf (Crazy golf)
Set up simple and fun golf courses in your garden for children to have using, most older children enjoy planning and making things for the balls to go through - from buildings to people models. Get some one to keep score and have numbers but each model so every one gets ago, Purchase a cheap golf set from Tesco or Asda roughly about £3 - £5 a set.
H - Healthy Kids Day
Plan some simple warm up exercises and some simple fitness activities, Silly dancing to music, simple healthy recipes, going to the park using play equipment or use items in the garden to do an assault course.
I - Italian club
Get children to make simple pizzas or pasta dishes, create an italian restaraunt role play area, go to your local italian restaurant a few days before to get things they could give you or loan you (when i did this they gave me 2 huge salt and pepper pots, a menu, and a chef suit as well as half a dozen pizza boxes - never hurts to ask!!)
J - Journalism day
This is a nice one especially for older children - younger children may not be able to write articles but they are really good at taking pictures and can help on computers. Assign each child a role to do i.e Editor, Photographer, sports, clothing, puzzles, etc.. They have to work on an article for the Childminder post and put it all together - After its done you can print them off and give them to parents, family and friends - I kept mine for my portfolio Ofsted and new parents love to see it. All you need is a computer and a camera - failing that use paper and pens and get children to draw pictures just as good.
K - Kites
Get children to make loads of different kites big and small and have fun designing and making. Once they are all made test them out in the garden or local park - Give points and prizes to the 'most decorated' 'Flies the longest' etc.
L -Lego Day
The great Lego challenge is a good idea - give children equal amounts of bricks and challenge them to make a popular place, person, etc.. Lego treasure hunt in the house/garden, lego free builds, apply for the free lego magazines.
M - Magic day
Get children to make wands and hats, download simple magic tricks children can learn. Have a few copies of harry potter for older children, Challenge the children to come up with a trick to show every one else.
N - Nature Day
Let children explore the garden and local park or ponds, record wildlife and birds they spot. Use local libraries for books, the wildlife trust has lots of activities to print off and do. Make check lists of things to look out for and cross off. Make bird feeders and pine cone birds.
O - Ooey Gooey Day
This one is a messy one but my lot loved it so much we do it every years - Make gloop with corn flour and water (i add food coloring too), fill up water balloons with goo, Buckets filled with slimy jelly is great for older kids, feely boxes with cold spaghetti, cold beans, etc.. Fill a paddling pool with water and jelly crystals (you can get these from any flower shop they expand to millions of little jelly balls and are really fun).
P - Pirate day
Get children to come dressed as pirates or make costumes with children. Paper hats from newspaper, make pieces of eight gold coins, treasure hunt with a map in the garden, make old maps with plain white paper and tea bags, Learn some pirate talk and try some pirate grog children can make.
Q - Question games
Games like charades, guess who, speechless, or make a game show where children have to answer questions to win simple prizes.
R - Reading day
Children choose a story they really like and simply read it and write short sentences about the book to tell everyone else. Dress up as the book characters, or you chose a book for them to read or read together.
S - Science day
Older and younger children enjoy this theme day - Experiments with ice and water, make volcanoes, mints in cola, making electric circuits to turn on small lights, making a weather vein, recording the weather, Science explorers.
T - Television production day
Children can plan out and make there own tv shows, news/game shows/travel/sport etc.. Remember to get permission to record peoples children before the activity day. Use a computer to get children to edit it - there are loads of free editing sites out on the net to download and use.
U - Under the sea day
Sea Biscuits, Sea side role play area, a visit to the sea side if you live close, investigate shells in a treasure tray, use a sand pit for sand castle competitions, ice cream making, make a fish puppet.
V - Video day
Children bring in there favourite films for you all to share - make it more fun by turning your front room into a cinema. Make tickets, and pop corn for the show.
W - Weaving day
Weave baskets, cards, hats. Look at how people had to weave items in the past, challenge children to weave a basket to see who's will hold the fruit the longest.
X - X-treme sports
Lay out obstacle courses with skate boards and bikes - age and stage appropriate. Encourage older children to teach younger ones what to do. Get books from the library or watch clips online of people doing sports. Challenge children to timed tasks e.g. First one to get to the bench and back wins.
Y - Yo-yo Day
Teach children simple yo yo tricks and challenge them to make there own up. Show the children clips online of professional yo yo'ers.
Z - Zoo club
Children can be a zoo keeper for the day, Zoo keeper role play, small world zoo animals in the garden, get children to photograph the animals in the garden and make a scrapbook. Feed the wild animals, face paint children as animals.
Here is just a few ideas to get you going. I hope you have a lovely summer and let me know how you have all got on.
Kind regards
Sal