Table Time Activity: Healthy Food Sort
Skill Check
This activity focuses on fine motor skills, tasting foods, and recalling information.
Growing My Skills
Gather writing utensils, scissors, and glue.
Follow the link to activity and print.
Assist the child with cutting out food items.
Review healthy and unhealthy foods.
Provide the child with one image at a time and identify if the food is a healthy or unhealthy snack.
Color pictures, if desired.
Floortime Play Activity: Baby Animal Charades
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to spending time together in a playful, imaginative way.
There should be limited structure and a lot of pretending.
Growing My Skills
Sit down with your child and make all the sounds of their favorite animals.
Begin crawling on your hands and knees as if you are the animal too.
Encourage your child to pretend to be an animal.
Don’t be discouraged if your child does not pretend, go back to making animal sounds and try again.
Build on the idea by drinking water like a cat, eating elephant cupcakes, and peeling a banana like a monkey.
Relaxation Time Activity: Mindful Breathing
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to practice bringing attention to breath in a fun and playful way.
Growing My Skills
Read the book together.
Point at the pictures and emphasize the different yoga positions that are familiar to you and your child.
Imitate the different yoga poses in the book *use “I am Yoga” mantra to your child throughout your day to focus your attention on the here and now.
Discuss with your child the different timers that they can practice yoga in their day.
Creative Time Activity: Paper Towel Butterfly Craft
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is for your child to use fine motor skills while being creative with art.
Growing My Skills
Have your child color a paper towel.
Use a spray bottle filled with water and spray the paper towel. This will give it a tie-dye effect.
Let dry.
Use a pipe cleaner or twist tie to finish your butterfly!
Movement Time Activity: Tree Pose
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to stay balanced on one foot while raising your arms toward the sky, like a tree!
Growing My Skills
When standing on one foot, reach the opposite hand into the sky, creating a new position. Switch hands while staying balanced.
Try to pop bubbles or hit a balloon in your tree position.
Try looking up or closing your eyes.
Have everyone in the family do the tree pose and try to connect branches.
Mealtime Activity: Play with Food
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to assess your child’s responses to new foods and promote exploration in a safe and supportive environment.
Growing My Skills
This might be difficult if you child is a “picky eater”. Focus on their ability to explore foods without signs of distress. Praise your child for small victories such as playing with new foods for 5 minutes!
Practice scooping foods with a spoon by having races to see who can fill up a small Dixie cup with food first.
Once filled, try moving the scooped food playfully towards your child’s face, mouth or nose (wherever the child is comfortable).
Play “restaurant” and order different variations of kabobs.
Use the fork as a “kabob” and pierce different types of food.
Ex. “I would like a watermelon, orange slice kabob.”
Take turns being the “chef.”
Sing familiar songs while practicing using utensils.
Scoop and pour soup, applesauce, or pudding to create a “rain shower” while singing “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring.”
Language Time Activity: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to provide opportunity for your child to increase use, expand, and improve understanding of language through play.
Growing My Skills
Read the Very Hungry Caterpillar book with your child. Depending on your child’s language skills, you can read the words from the page (Or, keep the volume up on the YouTube clip) or use your own words to provide simple description of the pages (Or, mute the YouTube clip and use simple description).
Go on a Very Hungry Caterpillar kitchen scavenger hunt and see if you can find the items he ate in your own house!
This activity targets comprehension and story recall.
You can take the book with you for visual support to help your child remember the food items.
You can also provide choice support to assist (e.g., Did he eat a red crunch apple or a big yellow banana?).
