Kids Activities Blog

Fun Learning Activities Kids

  • Home
  • Kids
    • Baby
    • Toddlers
    • Preschool
    • Kindergarten
    • Elementary and Beyond
    • Family – All Ages
  • Learn
    • Arts & Crafts
    • Learning
      • Colors
      • Writing
      • History
      • Math
      • Reading/Phonics
      • Science
    • Coloring Pages/Printables
  • Mom
    • Food
    • Organize
    • Travel
    • Stories
    • DIY
    • It’s Playtime
  • Celebrate
    • 4th of July
    • April Fools Day
    • Birthday Parties
    • Christmas
    • Cinco de Mayo
    • Columbus Day
    • Earth Day
    • Easter
    • Father’s Day
    • Hanukkah
    • Halloween
    • Labor Day
    • Memorial Day
    • Mother’s Day
    • New Year’s Day
  • About
    • Work with Holly Homer
    • The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments
    • 101 Kids Activities that are the Bestest, Funnest Ever!
  • Shop
You are here: Home / Kids Activities (by Age) / 10 Things That Say ‘Play With Me’

10 Things That Say ‘Play With Me’

January 15, 2013 by Marnie Craycroft 9 Comments

Pin167
Share29
Tweet
+123
Stumble
Email

Kids love to find objects that just shout Play with Me!   Here is a list of 10 things that can be invitations to play for your child.   We love simple fun at Kids Activities Blog.

play with me

10 Things

I like to create “Invitations to Play” and leave them out for my sons, either in the morning or after a nap, to discover on their own. Below are a few of my favorite “Invitations to Play”.

1) Coloring Pages

I love to leave out coloring pages for the boys to discover when they reach the breakfast table. There are great ones available obviously in coloring books but also online. My favorite is to convert personal images into coloring pages from your using one of several Free Online services, or print out these amazing coloring pages created from Kids Activities Blog

2) Homemade Playdough

One of my all time favorites. I love making homemade play dough for many reasons. It is easy to make from ingredients right in your kitchen and you can get really creative by using different smells, colors and textures.

3) Fabric Collage

Recently I left out a piece of cardboard, a small squeeze bottle of glue and a basket of fabrics. I have lots of fabric scraps in our supplies. If you don’t have fabric around your home, go to a fabric shop, ask for the scraps or buy inexpensive pieces to bring home. All you need is a basket, fabric scraps, glue and a piece of card stock or card board (which is what we used). I set it out for my boys to discover. The result was amazing to observe as both my boys (2 and 3.5 years old) took to creating the piece of artwork, together.

4) Basket of Scarves

This one I learned from reading about Waldorf. Grab a basket, scarves (I used some I had collected over the years stored in my closet but you can also buy “play” scarves from a variety of places), and clothespins. I left this basket out for my sons to discover one morning. It was son after they finished breakfast that they not only discovered the basket of scarves but also had built a fort using only the scarves and clothespins (attaching to various items in the house). Observing the act was pretty amazing.

5) Contact Paper Collage

Cover a table or portion of a wall or window with contact paper and leave out a few items for your child to use his imagination to decorate the paper. My all time favorite is using objects from nature. When finished, cover the collage with another piece of contact paper and you have a gorgeous piece of work and a great sensory experience. I love the textures created from pine needles, flowers, leaves and pine cones.

Play with Me

6) Cardboard Box

You got it. That is it. A cardboard box. Sometimes I leave out markers and crayons, stickers, or a basket of cars. On more daring days when we can be outside I have left out a box with squirts of paint smeared inside it ready for some good old messy play.

7) Create your own Scene

Line a table with paper and leave out stickers, markers and crayons. Often I will start the “Scene” to inspire my boys. You’ll be amazed at their imaginations.

8) Bubble Wrap Path

bubble wrap play with me

We order from Amazon a lot. So we have lots of packing materials to recycle. Bubble wrap is great for many activities. Our favorite is to create a path, or road with it. The boys love to feel the wrap on their feet and work hard to pop the bubbles.

9) Sensory Gloves

So simple. All you need are latex gloves and items to fill the gloves such as kidney beans, lentils, corn starch, sugar, flour, baking soda, corn kernels and rice. Tie at the wrist and you're on your way to a fun sensory experience for you and your children! My advice is to keep it simple. Don't decorate the gloves, don't even add smell. Isolate the quality of experience so your child can reach his sensory potential. Introduce new language such as crunchy, smooth, grainy, granular, bumpy, rough, wrinkle, hard, soft and tough.

 

10) Sensory Bins

On particularly daring days I set out a bin full of rice, beans, pasta and bury all sorts of goodies in it for the boys to sift out. Sometimes I create a theme for the bin, like Earth Day when we used real soil for the base, or Winter Wonderland with Insta-Snow as the base.

10 things that say play with me

I hope you found some inspiration in this list of favorites! Please leave a comment, we love hearing from you!

Marnie

More Kids Activities  

Are your kids still saying “Play with me”?   If these 10 things don’t keep them entertained, we have more ideas for you.    Check out these kids activities for some more great ideas:

  • 10 things to do with bubbles
  • Play with food {while learning}
  • Learn with blocks (10 things to do)
Pin167
Share29
Tweet
+123
Stumble
Email
4 days later teeth whitening

Filed Under: Kids Activities (by Age) Tagged With: 10 things, play with me

About Marnie Craycroft

Marnie writes Carrots Are Orange, a Montessori inspired homeschooling blog she started in 2010 after the birth of her first son. She hails from Maine, a wonderfully down to earth place to grow up. Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999, currently living in Seattle with her husband and two young boys. She is pursuing Montessori certification. Marnie can be found on Facebook, Twitter @OrangeCarrots, Pinterest and Google +.

« Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
For the Love of Peanut Butter »
Subscribe Here to get the 30 Days of Play Calendar!

Comments

  1. Kim says

    January 15, 2013 at 9:54 pm

    These are all great ideas! Thanks for sharing 🙂

  2. Andie Jaye says

    January 15, 2013 at 11:58 pm

    lots of fun to be had here! great roundup! pinned it 🙂

  3. JDaniel4's Mom says

    January 16, 2013 at 6:19 am

    These are awesome ideas. My son loves to “find” things I have left out for him.

  4. Wills from HGV courses says

    January 17, 2013 at 12:51 am

    Brilliant ideas. I should let my kids try this out.

  5. dolly says

    January 19, 2013 at 4:24 pm

    i got lot of ideas which is great for every day and inexpensive. great website.

  6. Marnie says

    January 20, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    Thanks, Kim!

  7. Marnie says

    January 20, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    Thanks Andie! I LOVE invitations to play (clearly)…thanks for your comment!

  8. Marnie says

    January 20, 2013 at 3:21 pm

    Thanks so much…The best days start with an invitation to play, I swear by it! 🙂

  9. iGameMom says

    February 20, 2013 at 8:06 pm

    I need start doing that – leaving things out as incentive!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

BABYTODDLER PRESCHOOLKINDERGARTENELEMENTARYFAMILY

Most Popular Posts

Rain Boot Easter Basket

Rain Boot Easter Basket

5 Things to Include in your Stocking Stuffers

5 Things to Include in your Stocking Stuffers

Snowy Slime

DIY Snowy Slime

Teaching Kids Healthy Brushing Habits

Teaching Kids Healthy Brushing Habits

DIY Sick Kit

DIY Sick Kit

Printable Halloween Bingo

Printable Halloween Bingo

halloween costumes for boys

31 Totally Awesome DIY Halloween Costumes for Boys

Quesadilla Mummies

Quesadilla Mummies

PintrestMore than 280K follow Holly. Follow our All Things Parenting Board for tons of parenting resources!
FacebookJoin the over 3.1 million people who like us on Facebook where we love to share and hear from you!
twitterMore than 20K follow @4KidsActivities and 14K follow Holly Homer at @Texasholly

Copyright © 2018 · Premium Wordpress Hosting by Servously.com