The chalk and the sweat - Gross motor activity for Kids

Get the kids outdoors in the sunshine and fresh air with this gross motor activity!! 🌞🌈Yes, we are here with one more activity which is a blend of learning shapes and alphabets, along with some sweat glands workout for kids🙌

Easy to setup, you just need chalk and a space like sidewalk or cement patio. You can try out variations in this, but the kids would find their own ways to play with this. Ask ideas from them, to your great surprise they will come up with ideas we haven't thought about.

Lets get into this. Draw different shapes in grid pattern. As you add rows, vary the order, making sure each row has at least one of each shape.

Let the kids chose their own shape (no fighting, please!). They have to jump from one end of the grid to the other, but staying on their shape. LO had great fun as we did this together with my niece and nephew.

For older kids you could encourage they hop from shape to shape. My niece, as she is the eldest among the three found bit bored at the beginning, but she made it interesting by hopping forward and backward, skipping rows,etc.

In the second phase, we included alphabets to extend the play time. The kids helped me out in doing so. And again the fun began.

 The kids tried out all possibilities. I'm sure this fun activity would keep the kids busy for long time.

After they had exhausted all possibilities the kids asked for chalk and kept themselves busy with some creative art!!

Happy Parenting😊

Get the kids moving using a chalk!

Gross motor activities should be essential part of every child's daily life. It helps to develop hand-eye coordination, improve gross motor skills and better physical development.

But I feel LO doesn't get enough physical activity that he should get at this age😔So I always try to find ways to engage him through simple activities at home to keep him moving around. This activity is a modification of the post by 21st Century Teachers which I have already shared on my facebook page. I liked it very much and was waiting for the right time to try this.

We did this activity together with my niece and nephew during their year end vacation. At the start I was skeptical about this move whether the kids would enjoy or not. But to my astonishment kids enjoyed to the core.Very simple to execute with loads of fun guaranteed😀. 

Try this one and let me know the outcome. 

Happy Parenting!😊😊

Magic Bottle Inflates Balloon! STEM activity for Kids

This experiment, I'm sure will leave the kids squealing with excitement!😄 When I decided to do this experiment, I told LO we are gonna make a magic with bottle and Balloon, he got super excited!!😊 Though kids can't catch the idea or the science concept behind the experiment, it would be super fun for them.

While I was preparing for the setup, LO wanted to do everything by himself!😳 I realized my days are not the same as last year. During those days I do all the set-up, call him only while doing the activity, take pictures hassle free, be relaxed all time. Now he is like, " Me, me, me... Let me do... I can do... I will do it... I know how to do.. Please you don't touch Amma... !!". 😀😆😂😂😂 Hmmm... !!

Actually what we do: (For us)

Take vinegar/acetic acid/lemon juice in a bottle.

Fill a Balloon with baking powder (Sodium bicarbonate).

Place the balloon covering the mouth of the bottle.

Slowly when you lift the balloon, the baking powder reacts with the lemon juice in bottle.
The reaction liberates Carbondioxide gas, which inflates the balloon.

Acetic acid(Vinegar) and Sodium bicarbonate reacts to liberate Carbondioxide which finds nowhere to escape, and thus inflates the balloon.

Set Up:

This is a very easy frugal activity which we can do with the supplies at kitchen.

1. Vinegar/lemon juice/Acetic acid

2. Baking powder

3. Balloon

4. Bottle (Glass/Plastic)

5. Funnel, Spoon (optional)

Fill the Balloon with 2 tbl spoon of baking powder. If not balloon, you can use a rubber glove too.

Initially I filled a small glass bottle with the juice from a lemon. This amount of the ingredients wasn't sufficient to blow up the balloon big. Me and LO weren't happy with the size of the balloon.

So I filled a water bottle with approximately 100ml of vinegar(as I didn't have enough lemon in stock), and tried the same. This time we were able to make the bottle inflate a bigger balloon!!😃

LO got super excited on seeing the bottle inflate the balloon!!😁

Finally his understanding was "Lemon juice and baking powder when mixed together, air comes out and fills the balloon!"

And thus the end of Magic!💪

Happy Parenting!!😊😊               

Water Science : Vanishing in Water!!! STEM Activity for Kids

This is LO'S first ever so called "Science Experiment"!!😎I just wanted to do a simple one, to start with, so chose the solubility test. Whether the kids learn or not, understand the science concept or not, it is definitely a fun time for them 😻(not for me though!😆 protecting the glasses and seeing to that the water doesn't spill and taking care that LO doesn't make the place a messy fades all my fun and keeps my eyes big open😂😂😂)

Things you might need:
6-9 cups (no single-use plastics please!, I used glass cups)
A spoon
Water
Pantry items (Your choice)
What I used for the solubility test:

1. White Sugar
2. Brown Sugar
3. Palm Sugar (crystals)
4. Table Salt
5. Rock Salt
6. Washing powder (just for the blue color!)
7. Rice
8. Oats
9. Baking soda

How we tested:

First, I asked LO to fill the glasses with water till half of its level. 

Then I asked him to help me out in adding the solids to the water. 

Trust me I didn't expect him to catch the the meaning of solubility this easy! He stirred the solution in each glass with the spoon to check if the solids are still or got vanished in water.

I asked him which are the substance that got vanished in water, and he was able to identify. And I asked him to write in a paper categorizing the two. He wrote what he observed and what he understood!

But can't convince him the fact that even the washing powder and palm sugar too are soluble in water.Since they both didn't leave the water clear, as salt and sugar did😀😀(tough job indeed!!)

And finally when I was about to clean up the set up, LO said he wanted to keep it as it is, to show his cousin bother and sister, who will come home a month later!!😳😁(as my eyes kept supervising the glasses wide open!!😂😂)

At the end it was a fun filled time for LO, though he didn't realize this as a basic STEM activity.

Happy Parenting😊

Stepping into STEM Activities!

As my LO is in Upper Kindergarten(Growing tremendously fast! Can't believe he is in KG!😲), I thought this is the right time to expose him to organized STEM activities. So you can come across interesting mini experiments and fun STEM activities in this space which would blow the little minds!!

Happy Parenting 😊

Learn Name with Paper Rolls : Pre-K DIY Activity

If your kiddo is crazy about cars this is a great activity to teach them their name during play. Almost no setup play activity, I would say. You just need paper rolls and toy cars. Write their name with each letter on a roll, likewise on the cars. All set and we are ready for the fun learning activity. Place the cars in wrong order and watch them park the cars inside the right roll. 

LO helped me in writing the letters and sticking them onto the cars.

Happy Parenting 😊

Melting Rainbow! Colorful activity for kids

I got this idea when I went to LO's school, and from that time I wanted to do with LO at home. But by then, the winter was almost over and there wasn't any snow shower to my disappointment. Surprisingly this spring we had couple of snow showers🌈⛄☃, and I managed to collect some snow for this painting! I believe it snowed during spring just for me!!😝

When I was thinking what to paint with the snow, idea came through LO! That week, LO's class was doing Rainbow related activities to welcome the spring. So I thought to combine the spring and winter, and thus the Rainbow on Snow idea emerged!😎

I collected snow in an aluminium tray and used washable colors. You can dilute the colors, which when done is much easier to use. We used a dropper to color, which we get along with the tonics.

Used a plastic egg carton to dilute the colors!😬

And finally the VIBGYOR🌈 on snow!

When left undisturbed for some time you can see the snow melting to form a beautiful 'Rainbow on Water'!!🌈

Happy Parenting!😊