I CAN, I AM SUNSHINE PLATE

YOU WILL NEED:

  • A paper plate
  • White or coloured paper
  • Black marker
  • Glue or a stapler
  • Yellow poster paint
  • Paint brushes

WHAT TO DO:

  1. During conversation with your child over the next few days, listen to and write down any positive self-talk – “I am” comments that you hear. Things they like about themselves and their lives.
  2. Get them to draw around their hands on pieces of paper and then cut them out.
  3. Get them to paint the plate and the hands the same colour and allow them to dry.
  4. Write something positive they have said about themselves on each hand using the black marker. If they are old enough they can write by themselves.
  5. Now secure each hand onto the paper plate like the sun’s rays, to create and “I Can, I Am Sunshine Plate”. You can post it up on the fridge or on their bedroom cupboard door to help them to remember all the positive things about themselves and good things about their lives.

PICTURES WITHIN PICTURES

YOU WILL NEED:

  • Blank white paper
  • Pencil Kokhi’s
  • Pencil crayons

WHAT TO DO:

  1. Make a scribble drawing.
  2. Now ask your child to find pictures within your scribble.
  3. Give them a kokhi, crayon or pencil crayon and ask him/her to add in eyes to the creatures they can see and draw around the outline of what they can see in a darker colour.
  4. Now get your child to do the scribble and you have to find the pictures within their picture.
  5. For older children I have included a picture of a pattern scribble. Within the scribble your child repeats the same patterns/symbols in various blocks to create an interesting picture. Alternatively, colour in different sections in different colours.
  6. The options with a scribble are endless. Use your own imagination.

FUN WITH A DECK OF CARDS

Sometimes we forget the really simple stuff in our quest for rocket science. Just look at what you can do with a deck of normal cards as you try and teach your child the skills of sorting, group, matching and categorising, which are all important for reading and writing:

YOU WILL NEED:

A deck of playing cards

WHAT TO DO:

  1. Help your child to divide the deck into two different colours, red and black.
  2. Now show them how there are four different suites – hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. Can they group the cards accordingly?
  3. Next, you can show them how a deck of cards is made up of various numbers. Can they find you all the 2’s, 3’s, 4’s etc? Can they group all the coloured cards, Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces? Can they put cards of the same suit in numerical order?
  4. Once they have all this knowledge, then it’s time to teach them basic card games such as Snap and Rummy.

SNAKEY, SNAKEY

I don’t know about you, but my husband has dozens of out of fashion ties hanging in his cupboard that never get used. Perhaps this is the time to put them to creative use!

YOU WILL NEED:

  • An old neck tie
  • Pins Needle and thread
  • Scissors
  • Quick unpicker
  • A small piece of red felt
  • Craft glue or a glue gun
  • Googly eyes (from a craft of sewing shop)
  • Funnel / ruler
  • Rice or plastic shopping bags

WHAT TO DO:

  1. On the wide end of the tie, use your quick unpicker to unpick the lining from the tie.
  2. Now fill the tie with scrunched up plastic bags which will make a crunchy sound when being played with (use a ruler to push them down), or rice for something heavier (use a funnel). Fill as much as you want to.
  3. Now pin and stick the lining back onto the fabric of the tie.
  4. Sew a narrow rectangle of red felt onto the pointed end of the tie for the snake’s tongue.
  5. About four or five centimetres from the tongue glue on two googly eyes.
  6. If you have two ties you could make a mummy and a baby snake by cutting down one tie by about a third on the narrow end and sewing it closed. Fill and decorate as per the adult snake.