Tip 140: May 2020: Coronavirus – More Home Recycled Activities

Website Educational Tips for Social/Emotional Development

Nancy Lewis Bartlett stated in Children’s Art & Crafts that “the
importance of creative play for children is easily underestimated. Art and
craft projects can excite even the youngest child’s imagination and promote
a sense of great achievement.”

Infants:
Fingerpaints

1. Instant puddings make an edible fingerpaint for infants who can’t keep
their hands

out of their mouth. These are made with 2 cups of milk and beaten for 2
minutes.

2. Toothpaste also can be used as a fingerpaint on wax paper.

3. Liquid starch and food coloring make an excellent inexpensive
fingerpaint.

4. Fill a small zip lock bag with a table spoon of two colors of Jello. Zip
it closed and

seal it with masking tape. Let the infant squish it to mix the colors
together.

Toddlers:
Bottle Caps

1. Make several bottle cap containers out of coffee cans or oat meal
cylinders with a slot

cut into their lids. Make one for metal caps and one for plastic caps.

2. Use an egg carton as a sorting box. Start by putting colored plastics
bottle caps one

side and ask the child to match the color of the cap on the other side.

3. Using the egg carton put only metal caps on one side and asks the child
to find other

metal caps for the other side. Tell them color or size does not matter.

4. Now using the egg carton have the child sort only small caps on one side
and large

caps on the other side. As they get better at sorting, ask them to sort by
color and size.

5. Mount a small sticker (2 of each design) inside the bottle cap. Place
the caps face

down, and have the children take turns finding a match.

Preschoolers:
Bean Bags

1. Place three hula hoops in a row and ask each child to stand behind a
line and toss one

bean bag in each of the three hoops.

2. Have a child sit in a chair and place a bean bag on one foot. Ask the
child to flip the

bean bag up and catch it in their hands. Now repeat the process with the
other foot.

3. Have a group of children form a circle and pass a bean bag around the
circle. Now

add a second bean bag and have them pass it in the opposite direction.

4. Take two clean half gallon milk jugs and cut away the bottom at a slant
to form a

scoop. Have two children play catch with the bean bags using the scoops.

5. Hang a sturdy bell by a heavy string on a tree branch outside. Have the
children toss

bean bags at it to try to ring the bell.

Give new life to household junk. Turn them into inexpensive, creative
projects. Two objectives are to recognize the value of useful materials
before it is thrown away, and use the above projects as guidelines only,
encouraging imagination and creativity.

Keep in mind that the value of a child’s art lies in the “doing”, not
in the end result.

(Nancy Lewis Bartlett)