At-Home Resources
We love to celebrate Moms at Little Village Kids! Here are some fun activities for you to do with your little ones for Mother’s Day. You can enjoy these together or drop a not-so-subtle hint to Dad that these might make fun gifts.
Below, you’ll find coloring pages that you can download, print, and perfect. There’s also some “All-About” pages that make for some fun discussion and memorable answers. We’ve included more than just Mom in the All-About pages in case you want to also celebrate other important people that fill the role of mom in different ways.
Finally, there are two videos showing how to make paper flowers. These are a great way to use things like your child’s handprint to craft unique gifts for Mom.
However you choose to enjoy these activities, please know that you (and your Mom) are loved and appreciated by all of us at Little Village Kids. Happy Mother’s Day!
Here Are More Fun Mother’s Day Activities. Just Click, Download, and Print
Early Learning Standards
Social & Emotional
These standards include a focus on your child’s developing abilities to regulate attention, emotions, and behavior. Learning Social and Emotional behaviors allow your child to establish positive relationships with both his or her peers and familiar adults.
Physical & Motor Development
These standards address motor skills and health practices. They include your child’s ability to use large and small muscles to touch grasp, and manipulate objects. They also include his or her adoption of healthy hygene and nutrition practices.
Cognition & General Knowledge
This standard addresses the mental processes that allow all other learning to take place. Cognition & General Knowledges includes concepts of number and quantity, size, shape, and position. It includes concepts of Social Studies like understanding social identity, history, heritage, time, and space. It also includes concepts of Science such as behaviors of exploration, discovery, cause, and effect. Together these concepts provide the skills with which your child can investigate and communicate about the world around us.
Language & Literacy
This standard addresses the fundamental skills your child needs to learn language, reading, and writing. These skills include the ability to recognize print, understand age-appropriate text, use listening and verbal skills, and identify letters.
Approaches Toward Learning
These standards address a child’s initiative, curiosity, and motivationto try new things. Along with these aspects, Approaches Toward Learning address your child’s level of attention, engagement, and persistence as they perform a variety of tasks.
Here Are Some Activities You Can Do At Home
Infants & Toddlers
Window Conversations
Uses appropriate conversational and other communication skills
WHAT YOU DO
Invite your child to sit with you and look out of a widow.
Talk about what you see using descriptive language, e.g. “Wow! That truck really zoomed by. It was going fast!”
Invite your child to say what they see. Add new vocabulary to their descriptions and expand on the sounds they make, e.g., “I hear you say ba-ba-ba. I see that big red ball outside. Is that what you see?”
Silly Animal Walk
Demonstrates traveling skills
WHAT YOU DO
During transitions between activities (playtime to mealtime, playtime to naptime, etc.), invite your child to copy you as you move like an animal. Use the following instructions as you demonstrate each movement.
Let’s pretend to be puppies today.
Let’s crawl around and pick up all the toys. (Use for cleanup time.)
Let’s pretend to be big hairy apes and walk to the door on all fours. (Use for going outdoors.)
Let’s march like horses. (Use for waiting in line.)
The Creeping Ladybug
Remembers and connects experiences
WHAT YOU DO
Sing to the tune of “Are You Sleeping?” and walk your fingers down the child’s body as you sing, pausing on each body part.
The creeping ladybug, moving slowly
From your head to your nose
Crawls down to your tummy,
then onto your kneecap,
Down your legs, to your toes.
Clapping Hands
Demonstrates positive approaches to learning
WHAT YOU DO
Chant the rhyme and perform the movements.
Clap for you, clap for me. (Clap and point to yourself first and then the child.)
Clap your hands: 1, 2, 3. (Clap three times.)
Clap them big and clap them little. (Clap using broad arm movements and then narrow ones.)
Clap them from your head to middle. (Clap in front of your ace and then down toward your waist.)
One For You, One For Me
Uses number concepts and operations
WHAT YOU DO
Give your child a small pile of objects, e.g., large crayons, blocks, other small, chunky toys. Ask your child to share them with you by dividing them into two small containers. Demonstrate as you say, “one for you, one for me.” Encourage your child to continue until the pile is gone.
PreSchool
I Spy
Uses language to express thoughts and needs.
WHAT YOU DO
Look around the room through a pair of pretend binoculars, e.g., your cupped hands.
Say, “I spy with my little eye something in the family room. It is next to the couch. It is shaped like a ball.”
Tell your child to give a thumbs-up sign when they think they’ve figured out what the object is. Ask, “How do you know?” Ask them to explain.
Take turns “spying”. Ask questions as needed to help your child describe the object’s characteristics.
Give clues to build specific literacy and math skills. Try the following:
- Positional Words, e.g., “I spy . . . (something beside, under, near, or between).”
- Three-dimensional objects, e.g., “I spy . . . (something that is shaped like a box).”
- Beginning sounds, e.g., “I spy . . . (something that starts with the /t/ sound).”
- Patterns, e.g., “I spy . . . (something with this two-part pattern: brick, cement, brick, cement [a brick wall]).”
- Measurement comparisons, e.g., “I spy . . . (something that is taller than the chair).”
What's In The Box?
Demonstrates positive approaches to learning
WHAT YOU DO
- Put a small object in an interesting box and shake it gently.
- Ask, “What do you think is in the box? Why do you think that?”
- Think aloud about he size of the box and the noise the object makes when you shake it.
- Give clues about the purpose of the object and its shape, e.g., “You clean your hand with it. It is shaped like a rectangle.”
- Reveal just a small part of the object before you show the whole object.
Give clues to build specific skills. Try the following:
- Give clues, such as the first letter sound or a word that rhymes with the name of the item.
- Use familiar classroom objects in the box, e.g., a block or a box of crayons.
- After your child identifies the object, give directional clues as they look for more of that type of object around the house.
- Use three-dimensional shape terms to describe their shapes, e.g., sphere, cube, and prism.
Strolling Through The Park
Remembers and connects experiences
WHAT YOU DO
Say the following rhyme and pretend you are walking through the park, woods, or play yard.
We were strolling through the [park] one day,
In the merry, merry month of May.
We were taken by surprise,
By a pair of ghoulish eyes . . .
Before you finish the rhyme, ask your child what might be looking at them.
Have your child describe what it looks and sounds like.
Finish the rhyme with the following verse.
We were so frightened, we ran home
All the way. But the next day . . .
To build skills, try the following:
- Repeat the entire rhyme with your child’s other ideas.
- Call attention to the words that start with the /m/ sound or other alliterative words.
- Adapt the rhyme to include other words, e.g. “We were strolling through the [house, store, or building] on day . . .”
- Invite your child to act out their idea for you to guess at the end of the rhyme.
