Welcome to the Activities Zone!

Whilst keeping up to date with our home learning is really important during the lock down, it is essential that we

find a balance between formal learning and having fun, keeping active and being creative. When you are finished with your home learning for the day, and want to do something else to occupy your time, but are struggling for ideas, this page is packed FULL with fun and imaginative ideas for keeping your children busy and making sure the words "I'm BORED!" are heard a little less often...

Keeping Fit and Active

Even though we are spending a lot more of our time at home right now, we can still find creative and fun ways to keep fit and active and get our daily exercise in. Going for a daily walk, run or bike ride is a great way to get moving and get some fresh air with the whole family, making sure we follow government guidelines of staying 2 meters apart from others. However, if you are needing a little bit more inspiration for other fun ways to keep fit and active, see the links and videos below!

Nature and Being Outdoors 

As well as exercising outdoors, it is so important during the lock down that we spend sometime in the great outdoors. Children are innate scientists and love to experience the sights, scents, sounds, and textures of the outdoors. Nature provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, problem-solving, and STEM education. Interacting with natural environments allows children to learn by doing and experiment with ideas. It is really important that we set time aside for outdoor play and connecting with nature. See the videos and resources below for some inspiration on how we can do this from the comfort of our own gardens. Some simple ideas to get you started are:

• Making daisy chains
• Helping out with some gardening at home
• Having a picnic in the garden
• Leaf painting/printing 
• Cloud watching 
• Sketching in the garden
• Creating a fort in the garden 
• Feeding the birds

See the images below for more inspiration on hands-on nature focused activities. From hunting insects to rock painting, these fantastic activities are a great way for your child to get a little closer to nature. Of course, due to the lock down, some of these ideas and activities might have to be modified slightly to suit current social distancing guidelines.

Underneath the images, we have also linked some websites which have even more ideas for nature based play and crafting which could be fun for the whole family to spend a little bit more time outdoors in your garden. 

* Click on the images below to enlarge them. 

Cooking & Baking 

The Corona Virus lock down is the perfect time to teach children how to cook - and fun, messy recipes are the ideal place to start. Experimenting with baking and cooking is an ideal opportunity to keep children busy for a few hours during lock down. Some simple ideas to start out with could be:

• Home-made pizza
• Scones
• Banana bread
• Chocolate chip cookies 
• Home-made chilli 
• Brownies 

Rainbows for Optimism and Key Workers - 

It seems we’ve embraced the rainbow as a tribute to our NHS key workers in our bakes – and if you want to have a go there’s plenty of inspiration. To show your appreciation, decorate cupcakes or buns with food colouring, icing, rainbow laces or edible rainbow rice paper toppers (which are available online).

Science Experiments 

Science activities and experiments will help entertain, excite and educate your child. Learn interesting science and technology facts by experimenting with different materials that react in surprising ways. You'll find many experiments can be done using simple ingredients found around the house. Basic materials can help you perform experiments that are simple, safe and perfect for kids. Enjoy fun science experiments, make cool projects, show friends & family what you've discovered and most importantly, have fun! (Parental guidance is advised.) 

Why not try ...

• Floating Eggs : Eggs sink in normal water so what can you do to make them float? Adding salt can give some surprising results.
• Melting Chocolate : Under what conditions does chocolate melt? Is it different for white and dark chocolate? Experiment to find out!
• Oil & Water : What happens when you try mixing oil and water? Do they want to be mixed? Give it a go and find out!
• Floating Ping Pong Balls : See some amazing forces in action when you combine a hair dryer with a ping pong ball.
• Seed Germination : Plant seeds and learn about germination. Watch seedlings grow as you look after them with the right amount of light and water. 

Building & Creating 

Another way to stay busy and active during the lock down, is to put your children's imagination to the test by doing some building or creating. Building things increases children's fine and large motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination and visual and spatial awareness; skills that are essential in Early Years development. See our resources below on how you can incorporate building into your stay home play. Some simple ideas are:

• Lego
• Jenga 
• K'Nex
• Building a fort/den with cushions, sheets and furniture
• Building something with cardboard boxes if you have had any deliveries 

Arts & Crafts

• Draw a self-portrait 
• Finger painting
• Colouring 

Games to play at home 

• Flatten out a box and draw a road in marker pens or sharpie pens. Add blocks, toy cars and other toys for children to build a city.

• Find some recycled materials and let your children paint them to see what creations they can craft.

• Hang up a target to test your children's paper airplane making and throwing abilities.

• Play balloon ping-pong - all you need are paper plates, empty paper towel rolls (or ice lolly sticks) and a balloon!