🎉 Thirty Days of Fun Activities Celebrating Early Childhood! 🎆
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day One
Activity: 🎵Create a Kitchen Band with pots, spoons, etc. 🎶
This was a 🤩favorite🤩 from our Music Monday activity and at our Farmer’s Market booth last year.
Explore different types of kitchen containers- metal pans and pots, wooden bowls, plastic cups, etc. Combine that with different utensils and see what music you can create together! One video we took last year was a cheese grater over the bottom of a textured pan. Metal bowls also have a great reverberation like bells.
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Two
Activity: Play 🏀 Basketball inside with rolled 🧦 socks and a laundry basket!
Doing chores together can be fun, and many hands
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Three
Activity: Go on a color hunt!
Inside or outside-
👀You can play eye spy.
👀You can bring along some paint chips and try and find different hues.
👀You can bring pieces of colored paper and set matching colored objects on the paper.
👀You can write down on a piece of paper or draw the colored things you find.
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Four
Activity: Use 📚Children’s Literature📖 to share examples of being helpful.
Try finding ways to pay it forward after you have read about examples. Will you help a neighbor? A stranger? A local organization?
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Five
Activity: Have an indoor picnic!
Picnics are fun! If it is warm enough, have it outside, but inside picnics are still fun. Have everyone pick a food to eat at the picnic. Work together to get the picnic ready- young children can help with washing fruits and vegetables, or setting out the blanket and plates, etc.
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Six
Activity: Fly a kite!
Getting outside and moving together is an important part of raising a healthy family. Get moving, and even if the kite doesn’t fly, do your best and focus on having fun!
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Seven
Activity: 🍓🥗 Cook healthy meals together for the week ahead. 🥦🍲
It is important for children to learn how to cook- it is an essential life skill that has an abundance of real-life math and science lessons built right in. Children that help cook meals are more likely to eat those meals!
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Eight
Happy Week of the Young Child!!
Activity: 🎵💙
From the National Association for the Education of Young Children:
“Young children love to sing, make music, and move to the beat. They feel competent when they learn a new song, powerful when they pound a drum or shake a tambourine, and proud when they invent a new dance. As children explore and enjoy music, they can develop skills in math, literacy, and social studies. Teachers relate music to diverse subjects and your family can continue this learning at home.
“Young children explore music through play. They make discoveries through trial and error—”If I hit the tambourine lightly, it makes a soft sound. If I hit it hard, it makes a loud one.” They listen to the musical beat and dance along with it. They make up new words or add choruses to familiar songs. They ask parents and other family members to sing with them or, in some cases, ask to perform a solo.”
We have several activities available
Thank you to Luce Road Early Childhood Learning Center, Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum, Tunes n Tales by Tricia, and Child Advocacy-Gratiot County for supporting this event!
Resources from NAEYC:
For Families
Playing with Music at Home
Support Math Readiness Through Music
Sing With Me Baby!
10 Ways Babies Learn When We Sing to Them
Message in a Backpack™–Make Animal Music
رسالة في حقيبة الظه (Message in a Backpack™) اصنع موسيقى من أصوات الحيوانات (Make Animal Music)
书包金点子 (Message in a Backpack ™) 制作动物音乐 (Make Animal Music)
Mensaje en la mochila™: Los
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Nine
Happy Week of the Young Child!!
Activity: Tasty Tuesday
From the National Association for the Education of Young Children:
“Tasty Tuesday isn’t just about eating your favorite snacks together. It’s also about cooking together and connecting math with literacy skills and science while introducing ways to incorporate healthy habits into children’s lifestyles. Use the tips, resources, and recipes below to get started.”
Cooking meals together as a family has many benefits!
First, it is a way to set aside quality family time.
Second, it gives children important life skills, allowing them to care for themselves and build self-confidence to complete tasks and try new things.
Third, children are more likely to try new foods if they helped prepare them.
Fourth, cooking is a real-life application of many classroom subjects such as literacy, math, science, and arts.
Fifth, it can be fun! What is your favorite meal to cook together as a family? Could you share some of your favorite family recipes?
Resources from NAEYC:
For Families
“I Helped Mama Too!” Cooking with a Tiny Helper
Heathy Fit Families
Let’s Eat (Well)!
Message in a Backpack™–Learning through Everyday Activities
Mensaje en la mochila™: El
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Ten
Activity: Work Together Wednesday
Build a fort together!
From the National Association for the Education of Young Children:
“When children build together they experience teamwork and develop their social and early literacy skills. Grab some materials and create!”
Building forts is a childhood favorite. Something is magical about creating a secret space that is your own! Check out this link for cool ideas for indoor forts. Use chairs and other pieces of furniture create tunnels and caves. Hang out and read a book, play a game, or eat a snack.
Resources from NAEYC:
For Families
Five Essentials to Meaningful Play
Making at Home
How to Support Children’s Approaches to Learning: Play with Them!
10 Prop Boxes for Ideas: Mini Learning Centers at Home
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Eleven
Activity: Artsy Thursday
Offer an open-ended art activity for your child and frame their artwork.
From the National Association for the Education of Young Children:
“Children develop creativity, social skills, and fine muscles with open-ended art projects that let them make choices, use their imaginations, and create with their hands.”
Creating art can come in many different formats and mediums. Paint can be on paper, canvas, a wall, wood, and more. Children can sculpt from clay or other solid 3D objects. Allow children to take photographs to show their perspective of the world, and frame the results. What children create doesn’t have to be an object or a clear thing, it can be
Resources from NAEYC:
For Families
Message in a Backpack™ Family Field Trips: Museum
Meaningful Art Projects Parents Can Fit Into a Busy Day
Supporting the Development of Creativity
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Twelve
Activity: Family Friday
Have a Family Dance Party
From the National Association for the Education of Young Children:
“Parents and families are children’s first teachers. Family Friday focuses on engaging families to support our youngest learners.“
Spending quality time with family not only creates warm, lasting memories for children; it strengthens their attachment. Children with strong attachments take the risks needed to learn and have a better time regulating their emotions and needs. Have some fun today celebrating each other, your family, and Early Childhood Education!
Resources from NAEYC:
For Families
Am I Really My Child’s First Teacher?
Explore the Great Outdoors with Your Child
Message in a Backpack™–Bubbles
رسالة في حقيبة الظهر (Message in a Backpack™) الفقاعات (Bubbles)
书包金点子 (Message in a Backpack ™) 泡泡 (Bubbles)
Mensaje en la mochila™: Receta de burbujas
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Thirteen
Activity: Family Pajama Party!
Stay cozy at home in your PJs!
Play games, snuggle, read books, cook a big breakfast or brunch together, or just enjoy the time together not filled with anything.
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Fourteen
Activity: Take a day trip to a children’s museum.
There are very few places where children can be told: “Yes, you can.” Children’s museums are set up for your child to have fun while exploring and learning. They can touch, play, jump, throw, climb, build, and LEARN!
Here are some local options for children’s museums:
Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum,
Midland Center for the Arts,
Dow Gardens,
Impression 5,
Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum,
What is your favorite children’s museum to visit?
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Fifteen
Activity: Donate toys and clothes and toys to a children’s charitable organization
Our county has a lot of children in need, and there are several organizations that could use your help! Include your child in this activity, because helping others gives children an amazing experience. It builds their self-esteem and empathy. Talk with your child about local efforts to help other children. Select one organization to help. Have your child go through their clothes and toys. Are there items that are only collecting dust? Are they still in good condition? Clean and prepare the items together. Ensure all the parts are together and drop off the items to the organization together.
Not sure where to donate? Try these organizations:
The Baby Pantry
Mid Michigan Foster and Adoptive Coalition
Salvation Army
Your childcare or school
What organizations do you like to donate and volunteer for?
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Sixteen
Activity: Practice a Family Safety drill and review safety procedures.
Emergency situations and severe weather can be a scary prospect! Help your child feel more in control of these situations with a plan in place that they have practiced.
It is a good idea to talk with children in a calm, factual manner about what to do in case there is ever an emergency.
Some family safety drills you can practice are:
🔥 Fire: Talk about ways to exit the home if there is ever a fire. Activate your smoke detector so your children will know what it sounds like. Talk to your local fire department about ways to help your family in case of emergency.
🌪 Tornado: Talk about where to go in your home if there is a tornado, and listen for your area’s emergency siren the next time it is tested. Gratiot County Emergency Management has some advice.
↗️ Evacuation: Weather evacuating your home for carbon monoxide or evacuating the area for flood or other reasons, make a plan. Where will you meet? How will you contact each other if you get separated? Talk with your local police department about local safe shelters in an emergency, and how to prepare your family.
‼️ Medical Emergency: Talk with your children about what to do in a medical emergency: What if Mom or Dad are sleeping and you can’t wake them up? What do you do if Mom or Dad are bleeding a lot? Talk about where the first aid supplies in your house are, and how to call 911. Contact your local emergency medical response personnel about helping you with this talk.
*Remember the age, abilities, and temperament of your child as you plan this activity. Reassure your child that when you plan and practice your response to these types of emergencies, you are helping everyone in the family to stay safe. If these talks and practicing cause your child to be scared or worried over several days, consider talking with a Child Development professional on ways to help soothe your child’s worries.
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Seventeen
Activity: Work with your child to organize blocks by size.
Build a block tower together. How many different kinds of block structures can you build with the same blocks? How would you do it differently to make the tallest, longest, or the most stable? Can you build a structure that looks like a famous building in the world or your community? Can you make a bridge?
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Eighteen
Activity: Set up an obstacle course- inside or outside.
Here is a link to 25 ideas for obstacle courses. Practice going over, under, around, and through different obstacles. Try running, climbing, jumping, and crawling. Be creative, make it fun! For more fun, go through the course with your child!
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Nineteen
Activity: Find an object around the house for every letter of the alphabet.
The best learning is hands-on, so make a game of learning literacy.
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Twenty
Activity: Ask your child to help you make a grocery list, shop together.
Making the grocery list together helps everyone feel like they have contributed. Your child may help remind you of things that have run out. We have a few grocery lists below that we used at the Farmer’s Market last year. Use a shopping list that is appropriate for their abilities. Pictures only, pictures and words, or fill in the blank. Ask your child to help you manage the list as you go through the store. Ask what is next on the list and ask them to check things off as they go in the cart.
Discuss with your child why you pick one brand or item over another. You may select frozen or canned vegetables because the vegetable you need is not in season right now. You may choose the brand for a better price per ounce or for lower sodium content. The grocery store is a great place to learn about healthy food choices and good budgeting choices.
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Twenty-One
🐰 Happy Easter! 🐣
Activity: Limit the use of electronic media. Go outside and explore!
Maybe you don’t make it outside today because you are visiting family for the holiday. Try to keep the screens off and put away today! Interact with each other and have conversations with one another!
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Twenty-Two
🍃🌎 Happy Earth Day! 🌊♻️
Activity: Discover a new favorite author with a trip to your local library!
Reading together is one of the best ways to instill a love of reading and learning in your child. Local libraries have a wealth of choices for selecting new books to read! Utilizing your local library is the green choice in reusing books, and reducing consumption.
For younger children, check your local library for story times:
If you don’t already attend a storytime at a local library with your preschool-aged-child, you are in luck! Gratiot County has one nearly every day of the week!
Mondays:
Ashley District Library holds a storytime for preschoolers at 11:15 am. There will be a story, time to look at books, and learning about library etiquette.
Tuesdays:
Alma Public Library holds a storytime at 10:00 am. One hour of stories, songs, and other activities and a craft.
Wednesdays:
Howe Memorial Library Breckenridge holds a storytime at 10:30 am. Stories along with “Move and Groove” time, there may also be a craft or sensory activity!
Thursdays:
Thompson Home Public Library holds a storytime at 10:00 am for preschoolers. There is free play, a craft, a story, and an activity.
T.A. Cutler Memorial Library holds a storytime at 10:30 am for ages 3-5. There will be one or two stories read and a snack.
Alma Public Library holds a special “Stories with Seniors” on the third Thursday of every month at 10:00 am, located at Warwick Living Center.
Families that have a child under 5 years old, remember to enroll your child in the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library!! Your child will get 1 book mailed to them each month until they turn 5 years old!
https://imaginationlibrary.com/usa/affiliate/MIGRATISAB/
For older children, see if your child is old enough to sign up for their own library card! It is a great way to help your child begin to learn responsibility!
If you would like ideas for new books or authors, ask your local librarian, or check out our March Reading Extravaganza list!
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Twenty-Three
Activity: 🚲 Take a family bike ride! 🚲
Enjoy the spring weather together and explore your community while being active. If you don’t have bikes, then take a family walk. What is your favorite hiking/biking trail?
🎉Early Childhood Celebration!🎆
🎈Day Twenty-Four
Activity: Draw with chalk outside!
Enjoy the spring weather together and explore your creative side together! An alternative is to use paintbrushes and water on the sidewalk or pavement.
Join us on Saturday, April 27th for our Bowl-A-Thon fundraiser!