Dominoes are such a great learning tool for kids. As well as helping preschoolers develop number recognition, they also help teach patterns, subitizing, 1:1 correspondence and even fine motor skills. There is such a lot of learning in such a simple toy! In the following activities, I actually use paper dominoes that I have made into a printable worksheet. You can scroll down for your own FREE copy if you would like.
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This is what you will need:
Dominoes
Pom poms
Tweezers (optional)
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This is what you will need to do:
1. Print out your FREE copy of the paper dominoes and carefully cut around each individual piece with scissors. Match pom poms to the dots on the dominoes. Count the dots and pom poms as you go.
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2. You may like to extend the activity by making it into a rescue game. To do this, place a dominoes piece into each well of a muffin tray. Add some pom poms to each well and then tape down some layers of sticky tape.
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3. Then carefully snip away the washi tape to reveal your dominoes and pom poms. Once the playing pieces are revealed, match the pom poms to the dominoes.
!WARNING! Remember that scissors are sharp! Always supervise children when they are using scissors!
It feels a little strange writing this blog post about fall activities as it’s actually spring here in Melbourne. In fact, it’s a lovely sunny day! I do love Fall crafts though, especially ones I see coming out of the northern hemisphere where the falling leaves are beautiful reds and orange in color. Where we live, the leaves obviously fall, but we don’t really get the vibrant color changes. Mostly just green to brown!
We have tried a few fall crafts over the years, but this one was really fun! I do want to point out that it does require single use plastic bags – which from an environmental view – we hate using. To make the activity worthwhile, we added quite a bit of paint to each bag, so that it didn’t dry out and we could play longer, and we ensured that once we had finished with the bags, we disposed of them carefully. And you could always wash the bags out and reuse them again too if you like!
And please read through right to the end of post to find some fun FREE fall printables!
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This is what you will need:
Leaves
Zip-lock bags
Black marker pen
Paint
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This is what you will need to do:
1. Head outside to collect some leaves. Remember to always watch for car and bicycle traffic when you are walking your neighborhood, and make sure that adults accompany children at all times.
2. Trace the leaves onto the zip-lock bags with marker pen. You will have to make sure that you collect leaves that are slightly smaller than your bags. And if you can’t find any leaves that you LOVE, you could print some paper ones like we did!
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3. Then add some paint to your bags. I wanted to make our activity a color mixing activity as well as a fine motor activity, so we added two colors to each bag.
4. Once the paint is in the bag, you might like to tape the bag closed to secure. The last thing you want is little people opening the bags and spilling paint everywhere. My girls are older now and know not to open the bags, so I haven’t taped these ones!
I definitely recommend taping the bags though and supervising carefully throughout the activity to avoid any paint spills and damage to clothing and furniture.
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5. Once the paint is safely in the bag, squish it with your fingers. The idea is to both mix the colors together and keep the paint within the outlines of the leaves. This can be a little tricky for small children, especially when you are trying to mix the color evenly at the same time! See how you go!
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My girls really love this type of activity, and I love it because it’s relatively mess free! They get to use paint, which they really enjoy, and the paint stays in the bag for a quick and easy clean up!
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Have you seen this craft on my Instagram? These are leaves that we collected from our neighbors oak tree and colored with oil pastels. It looks much better over on Insta, but this is fun too if you are looking for a quick prep activity!
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And I nearly forgot to include these FREE printables! Enjoy! Jacinta Xx.
There are so many fun games that you can play to help your kids learn their times tables. These times tables wheels are one of our favorite ways to play and learn. They are great as they allow for both memorization and self correction. Children can play and learn on their own or in groups in a classroom. And, you can answer the times tables as you go around the wheel or pick and choose each multiplication sum at random. There are so many fun ways to play!
Times table wheels are so easy to make! And once you have made a set, you can use them over and over again for lots of learning fun.
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This is what you will need:
Print out of the times tables wheel file
Colored construction paper
Scissors
Glue
This is what you will need to do:
1. Print out the times tables wheel file. You will find the file here:
2. Cut around the perimeter of the circle and snip along the lines to the center circle to separate each number. Fold the sections back.
3. Paste the wheel down onto a colored piece of paper. Make sure that you only glue the center of the circle to the paper. You will need the snipped sections to be free so that you can fold them back to reveal your multiplication answers.
4. Write the answers to each sum under the folded pieces of paper.
5. Play!
I hope this makes learning times tables in your house more fun! Enjoy! Jacinta Xx
cintaandco.com 