For PRESCHOOLERS
Activity 1)
Getting your child to eat her
fair share of healthy fruits and vegetables can sometimes be difficult. Here's
a project to inspire your child to start eating super healthy: make a Healthy
Foods Rainbow! In this activity, your child will color a rainbow, glue on
fruits and vegetables, and keep track of which healthy super-foods she eats
throughout the week in a colorful way.
Not only will your child's
fine motor skills and and bar graph skills improve, but she'll also get to
create a wonderful picture that'll help her keep healthy eating habits for
years to come.
Create a Rainbow of Healthy Foods
What You Need:
·
Grocery ads
·
Scissors
·
Glue stick
·
Crayons
·
2 cotton balls
What You Do:
1. Discuss
what colors make up a rainbow. Tell her the order of the rainbow’s colors (red,
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet). Color the rainbow.
2. Have her
cut fruits and vegetables from the grocery ads. You might want to have her trim
them smaller so they fit onto the rainbow. Try to find a healthy fruit or
vegetable for each color of the rainbow.
3. Let her
name the fruits and veggies, and glue them onto the correct color of the
rainbow. For example, strawberries and red bell peppers would be glued onto the
red section of the rainbow, while oranges and butternut squash would be glued
onto the orange part.
4. Make puffy
clouds to complete the picture by stretching each cotton ball and gluing it
into place on the rainbow drawing.
5. Now hang
the rainbow on your refrigerator to remind your child (and family!) to eat all
the colors of fruits and vegetables.
6. Use the
graph to show the different colors of fruits and vegetables that your child
eats during the week. Beginning at the bottom of the bar graph, color a box for
each color of fruit or vegetable eaten. For example, if you eat a carrot stick,
color an orange box.
Can your preschooler eat a
rainbow of fruits and vegetables this week? Try it and see!
Activity 2)
Practicing
shapes is important for preschoolers, but most preschoolers would rather play
outside. With the game, you get the best of both worlds: shape practice
masquerading as a fun sidewalk game. Draw shapes on the ground, and let your
preschooler walk, hop, and skip her way to learning all about rectangles,
triangles, and circles. All you need is some sidewalk chalk and a bit of
concrete to get started.
Twist N Turn
What You Need:
·
Sidewalk chalk
·
Flat, paved area such as a driveway
·
Pen or pencil
·
Slips of paper
·
Small paper lunch bag
What You Do:
1. Choose
5 shapes you want your preschooler to become more familiar with, such as
triangles, circles, rectangles, squares, diamonds, ovals, stars, pentagons, or
cubes.
2. Write
10 simple instructions, each one on a small slip of paper. Try to incorporate
color, shape, and direction. Here are a few ideas:
·
Put your left foot on the pink triangle
·
Hop to the yellow pentagon
·
Walk backward to the blue square
·
Put your right hand on the purple circle
·
Hop on your left foot to the green diamond
3. Place
the slips in the small paper lunch bag.
4. On the
pavement outside, ask your child to draw the 5 shapes with sidewalk chalk in
the corresponding colors you used to create the instructions. Remember, the
shapes need to be large, so you’ll want to guide your child’s chalk work.
5. Ask
your child to pull a slip of paper from the bag, and get twisting and turning,
or hopping and running! Encourage your preschooler to help “read” the
instructions.
6. Take
this activity to another level by letting your child make up movements
for you to carry out. No written directions needed, just let
your child be “boss” and get creative!
