Table Time
Activity: Shaving Cream Drawing
Materials:
Shaving cream
Smooth surface
Skill Check
This activty targets fine motor skills, tacting colors and body parts and exploring tactile play.
Growing My Skills
Smooth out shaving cream
Discuss who is in family
Draw a cirle and add eyes, build on with other body parts and details
Add family members, pets, etc.
Floortime Play
Activity: “Family Finger” Finger Play
Materials:
Coloring Sheet Printable Image
Song Lyrics: Daddy finger, daddy finger, where are you? Here I am, here I am How do you do? Mommy finger, mommy finger, where are you? Here I am, here I am How do you do? Brother finger, brother finger, where are you? Here I am, here I am How do you do? Sister finger, sister finger, where are you? Here I am, here I am How do you do? Baby finger, baby finger, where are you? Here I am, here I am How do you do?
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to spend time together and engage in a song together. You can even change the lyrics of the song to anyone/anything they want to increase imagination! Lots of silliness is key while singing songs with your child!
Growing My Skills
First prepare materials (cut out/color faces) and wrap around your fingers or your child’s fingers. If these materials are not available, just use your fingers during the song!
Tape pictures of your own family on each finger to support family member identification and sing the song with your family’s pictures!
Relaxation Time
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to spend time together, slow down, and strengthen listening and focusing skills. It also allows children to think about who is in their family and how they are all connected.
Growing My Skills
What does your child like about this story?
Who is in your child’s family?
What do they like to do with their family members?
Creative Time
Activity: Family Tree Craft
Materials:
Photos of family members
Construction paper
Glue
Crayons or markers
Skill Check
This is an activity to help visualize how family members are related. Starting with the immediate family (siblings, parents, pets) leads to a nice conversation about who your child lives with. Expanding it to include grandparents, cousins, etc allows your child to see that you have parents and how they are connected to more family members. It also supports fine motor control as they can cut, paste, and write.
Growing My Skills
Gather your materials
Print out photos of family members
Tape or glue your child’s photo in the middle of the page
Ask them to find photos of mom, dad, siblings, etc and tape/glue them nearby
Ask them to find photos of specific family members and glue or tape them on the page too
You can write names near the photos
With your child find a place to hang up your family tree so they can look at it regularly
Movement Time
Activity: Playground Games with Family
Materials:
Safe area or room to play in- in case we lose our balance!
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to get the whole family to work on movement or playground games!
Growing My Skills
Work on listening to directions, strengthening, spatial awareness, and getting some sensory input during any of the following games
Ring Around the Rosie: switch directions and go fast or slow motion to work on grading of movement and listening to directions
Simon Says: take turns being the “Simon” and work on listening to directions, moving our bodies, and coming up with ideas
Balloon Play: hit it back and forward, watch it fall and use good timing to catch with both hands, or play “keep it up”
Tug of War: use a bedsheet or beach towel and work on holding it tight with two hands to pull the other side
Mealtime
Activity: Making a Family Portrait Out of Food
Materials:
Finger foods you can use for the heads (ex: crackers, banana slices, bread, pancakes)
Small food for eyes/mouth/nose/ears (ex: raisins, chocolate chips, sprinkles, blueberries, grapes)
Stick foods for arms and legs (ex: pretzels, celery sticks, apple slices cut into small sticks)
Optional: use leftovers (ex: pasta, bacon, or bread) for hair!
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to explore new or non preferred foods without the expectation of eating.
Growing My Skills
How to make a family portrait:
Wash hands
Gather materials listed above on an accessible surface
Prepare a face with crackers, pancakes, waffles, or flat piece of food
Use raisins or chocolate chips or blueberries to make the eyes/ears/mouth/nose
Give the face a body, arms, and legs
Optional: use extra ingredients (ex: pasta, bacon, sun butter, or peanut butter) to make hair
Examples: Making Faces From Food or The Best After School Healthy
Language Time
Activity: Family Portraits
Materials:
Housecraft: precut strips, small rectangles, and big triangle out of construction paper; black construction paper; glue
Popsicle Family craft: popsicle sticks in different sizes (cut to make shorter), paper, glue, markers
Family Tree Craft: Big tree drawn/made out of construction paper; blank white circles to draw family members on (markers, crayons); glue
Playdoh family: download & print family playdough mats from Family Playdoh Mats; playdoh
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to build vocabulary related to the family. Work on identifying family members in pictures, and then work towards labeling (e.g. brother, sister, aunt, pet dog). Discuss defining characteristics of each family member. For example, “Sara is the oldest sister with red hair, she likes to play soccer”. Use the craft activities below to help facilitate descriptive language.
Expanding Skills
Make a picture of your house, talk about everyone who lives in your house
Popsicle Family craft: Make a portrait of your family using different size popsicle sticks (can cut them), decorate them to look like your family
Family tree craft: draw each member of your family on the tree
Playdoh family: Make portraits of your family out of playdoh, have people guess who it is
