Early Learner Activities

We are here to bring you fun activities for any child ages 0-5 years. We want to thank our local early learner providers and educators for their contributions to this weekly newsletter! We hope you find this useful and helpful during this very unusual time. Happy learning!

This week's theme: Community Helpers Community helpers are very important; they keep the community safe and healthy, make life better for the people in the community. Other community helpers assist us in times of emergency, such as police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians. Check out this link to Meet the Helpers

Infant Corner Activities for children under 1

Development Thinking Skills: Your child is learning how the world works by playing and exploring. Through play, babies and toddlers learn about how things work and how to be good problem-solvers Encourage your child to explore toys in different ways— by touching, banging, stacking, shaking. Play Here is a simple sensory exploration for infants that can be put together in 5 minutes, and clean up is a breeze Link to activity here Check out this easy gross motor scarf pull. Link to activity here

Busy Toddlers Activities for children 1-3

Physical/Outdoor Help the fire fighters put out the fire! Draw a flame with side walk chalk. Use a spray bottle or even a small bucket to 'put out the fire'. Look at this photo Community Helpers Simon Says. Make up your own helper related moves. Examples include - (Simon says: climb the ladder like a fire fighter, open wide for the dentist, swim like a life guard.) Science/Sensory Talk to your child about different community helpers. Enjoy this puzzle/matching game to help recognition. Link to activity here Create a community helper sensory box activity. Great time to create a construction site sensory box. You could use sand, dirt, beans, rocks, truck, cars or anything else you imagine would be on a 'construction site'.

Literacy Talk to your child about dialing 9-1-1 for an emergency. Link to activity here Fire Finger Painting!? Use some yellow, red and orange paint and have your tot paint flames, and draw letters in the paint. Look at this photo to get some ideas Creative Arts Take some time to dress up. Don't have any costumes? See the link below for free prop hat designs. Prop Hats Talk about going to the dentist and how the dentist helps keep your teeth healthy. Have fun practicing using a toothbrush

Hands-On Preschoolers Activities for children 4-5

Physical/Outdoor Have a Cotton Ball Race. Provide cotton balls and straws. Create a START line and a FINISH line either on a table or the floor. Use the straws to blow the cotton balls from start to finish. Make a game of teaching your child to Stop, Drop and Roll Link here

Science/Sensory Talk about the role fire fighters play in our communities. Try this fund 'flame' activity. You may also reach out to a local fire station to see if they have hats that they would be willing to share. Fire Explosion Making this easy construction site slime could be hours of fund for your preschooler! Construction Site Slime!

Literacy Check out these two read and listen books about Garbage trucks and the garbage people that help keep our communities clean Garbage Trucks! There has never been a time to write a letter to a loved one! Have your preschooler think of what to write to a friend or family member. You can also take time to talk about how letters are mailed or drive by your local post office.

Creative Arts After reading the Garbage Truck books, try out this 'Trash to Treasure' Activity! Find it here Play Doctor and make some fund DIY doctor kits. Pretend a stuffed animal is a patient. Doctor DIY kit here Veterinarian DIY kit here