Resources/activities

Resources and activities for you to do at home with your tamariki

During Rahui (Lockdown), our Kaiako spent a lot of time posting activities and ideas on our Facebook page for you to try out with your children while stuck at home. We thought that these ideas were great and worth sharing on our website, and were things that you didn't need to just be stuck in Rahui to try out! We would love to know if you tried any of them out with your tamariki!

Eggshell glitter

Here is our lovely Grace’s method for making her awesome glitter, start collecting your eggshells!

* Collect eggshells

* Rinse them and peel the membrane off

* Leave to dry for 24 or so hours

* Shake them to get the rest of the membrane off - best done listening to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off at full volume as we do at Riverside!

* Crush with food colouring

Get as creative as you can cope with and post us some cool art!!! You’ve got some amazing wee artists Mums & Dads!

Playdough and other messy play ideas

Today could be the day that you try some messy play recipes with your children.

We would strongly suggest doing this either outside or in a room with no carpet e.g., the garage or bathroom, haha!

If you have more than one child, you can divide the mixture up so that everyone has their own bowl to play with. Then add in a few cups, spoons, eggs cups, or small containers and you should have a lot of messy fun!

Fairy and Dinosaur houses

Ssssssshhhhhhh !!! Have you been in your backyard and heard our Riverside fairies and Riverside dinosaurs? They sure must be lonely and looking for their Kahu, Kea and Weka friends.

So let’s make a fairy house or dinosaur garden with your kids so the Riverside fairies and Dino’s will come visit 😍

You don’t need anything fancy - a box, ice cream container, yoghurt pottles. Decorate it, cut doors and windows into it. Find a lovely place in your garden and place it there. Decorate the garden to attract the fairies and Dino’s.

Now! This is where you ... Mum & Dad .... come into it! Keep the magic going!

*The fairies and Dino’s might need some yummy food delivered to their door (Uber-eats has finally arrived in Wanaka!)

* the fairies and Dino’s love trinkets. Go on a treasure hunt then place them in their house. They will mysteriously disappear when your kids are asleep.

* the fairies and Dino’s might leave a note for your kids when they are asleep 💤 on their pillow

* the fairies and Dino’s might leave some flowers or food or something cool when your kids are asleep

After this is done, you can make a magic fairy wand to call the fairies and dinosaurs to visit! Sticks, feathers, wool, anything and tie onto the magic stick!

Sooooo much fun and magic!!! Here’s some pics to get you started! Have fun peeps! Oh and the Riverside fairies are Buttercup, Dandelion, Tinkerbell and Sparkle.

Bored?? Here are 5 easy things to do with your tamariki!

Heres 5 easy things to do with your tamariki today

1. Build a fort

2. Play a game of cards (snap, memory or go fish)

3. Play in a cardboard box

4. Give your children some of your clothes to play dress ups in

5. Make a big car track on your floor with duck tape or chalk

Some websites to look at

Today I have given you a bit of list of websites etc to do with your wee lovelies. We are seeing some awesome photos of Riverside whanau going on treasure hunts, making fairy houses, going hard on the D-Floor, doing cosmic yoga. Woohoo, you guys are awesome.

Yet ... just remember .... we are in something we have never experienced before, and you are doing your best. Be kind to yourself, take a deep breath and take a break to just chill. Children do not need to be entertained every minute of the day. Snuggles in front of the tv is just as beneficial as all the activities; or time-out for you and kids watching some tv alone, so you can take a break and hit that re-set button.

Take care out there guys x

http://www.getepic.com

Awesome online books Books for all ages that can be read by you, or audio books.

https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/conservation-activities/fun-things-to-make

Amazing colouring in and crafts

https://www.youtube.com/user/mistermaker

Mister Maker - awesome toddlers arts & crafts

https://www.tripsavvy.com/best-livestreams-animlas-around-the-world-4800070

Awesome live streams of animals

https://www.youngoceanexplorers.com/

Really cool videos, songs, questions etc

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour

This is awesome. A variety of virtual tours around the museum such as dinosaurs

https://gonoodle.com

Awesome dance parties!

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/best-of-storytime-rnz

Story time!

Crafty creations!

Here is some crafty inspiration for the day.

1. Make an elephant - Cut an old milk bottle into an elephant shape and then cover it with paint, glitter, paper or anything else that you may have in your art box

2. Weave with nature - using some cardboard, cut a few slits down each side and then wrap the string around the whole piece of cardboard (going through the slits to secure it in place), then weave different things through the string

3. Make a stick family - collect up a bunch of sticks and decorate them with anything that you may have then hope for some great imaginary play

4. Paint stones/rocks - collect some stones, decorate them and then place them around your garden

The Gruffalo

Do you love The Gruffalo as much as us?

Here are a few different activities that you can do with your children.

Check out the website aswell!

https://www.gruffalo.com/activities/activities

BUBBLES!!

If anyone loves bubbles, this is loads of fun! It’ll work with any sized bottle, as long as you can blow through the top of it.

Please post photos of your biggest bubbles for us all to see ☀️

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1196294030712380&extid=hx9zMsp9BdYjXyEG

Treasure hunts

It’s a treasure hunt today!!! I’ve attached some treasure hunts I’ve been doing with my kids on our walks and bike rides to give you some ideas!

And while you’re out today, collect as much leaves, flowers, sticks, acorns and nature treasure as you can ..... cos we will be doing nature art tomorrow!

Nature art

Today we’re doing nature art! Whoop whoop! Hope you all collected heaps of nature’s treasures yesterday! I’ve attached some pics for inspiration .... we’d love to see your nature art creations so send a pic through!

Wacky Wednesday

It has been announced that Wednesday's are now Wacky Wednesday's in your house.

There may be shoes on the wall, clothes worn in crazy ways, hilarious hairstyles, trees in the toilet, photos upside down, fruit in funny places, breakfast served for dinner, dessert for breakfast or sandwiches made inside out.

Let your tamariki get excited and think of some crazy things that might just happen...

Here are some more ideas

* Put the bed pillows at the bottom of the bed instead of at the top

* Serve dessert before dinner

* Turn the glasses and dishes upside down when you set the table

* Move socks to the shirt drawer and shirts to the sock drawer

* Turn all your stuffed animals on their heads

* Move your furniture around

Please share any Wacky ideas that you have beforehand and then share your photos of the Wackiest Wednesday around!

Kia kaha x

Bird feeders

Let’s make bird feeders! We’re seeing so many native birds at home and on our walks/bike rides. All of these work a treat!

You can buy birdseed at the supermarkets

Poke small holes thru the tube and then poke the sticks through

Rub peanut butter or honey all over the tube

Roll the tube in bird seed

Hang up!

Happy bird feeding !

Mud Play

We 💓 💕 mud play at Riverside. So!!!

Grab a big container, oven tray (wash it out later!) or anything else as big as you can find.

Fill it with mud, some stones, leaves and tree branches.

Find your child’s trucks, cars, diggers to put in too.

And let them play!

Nature photography

Around this time of year I normally take groups of interested children on adventures around Albert Town so we can take photographs of our beautiful Autumn leaves 🌿🍁

We normally make a bee- line for Ash Ave but there are loads of trees and bushes around that are red, orange, yellow and brown. If your parents have an old camera or phone that they are happy for you to use see if you can do some photography 😁

Close ups are really good ( especially with the sun shining on the leaves) 👍👍👍

I would love to see your photographs so please post them here for us all to share ❤️❤️❤️

I hope you are all loving spending special time with your families

🍂🍁

I have added some of my Autumn leaves photographs for you to see too

Gayle xx

Some inside activity ideas

Here are a few ideas of what you could do inside today.

You could make a hammock under the coffee or dining table with some big blankets

⛺️

You could collect some sticks/twigs out on your walk around the block and make a dinosaur (or any other animal) skeleton

🦖

Or, you could collect some stones and get Mum or Dad to help you trace around them on some paper. Return all of the rocks to a bowl, then try to match them up to the correct shape

👣

Heuristic play

Heuristic play may look like a collection of ordinary everyday objects, but to a child, this is a collection of WONDER, CURIOSITY, MAGIC & PLAY!

Heuristic play promotes brain development, imagination, creativity, wonder, self-directed play and curiosity. Children don’t need toys, I bet that you have lots of these things around your house for your children to explore.

Love Notes and Kindness Loops

Here's a wee something for Mums & Dads today to do for your wee lovelies. Just a fun way to help nurture kindness, empathy and aroha in your family bubble. I have used both at different times with my kids and they love it and respond really happily to it.

Love Notes

*Write your child a love note acknowledging something awesome about them in a love heart piece of paper.

*Stick it on their bedroom door/bedhead when they are asleep, or give to them at a special time of the day.

Kindness Loops

*Make a Kindness Jar with your kids and place somewhere visible

*Pre cut out paper strips and place these and a special pen in the kindness jar

*Every time you see your child do something kind, make a big deal out of it with lots of praise. And then, together, head over to your kindness jar and write it down on one of the pieces of paper

*Make a paper chain for each child with their kindness loops

When doing either of these .... go crazy! Make a big happy celebration of each love note or kindness loop! Have a happy day!

Sensory play

I thought that today would be a good day to set up some sensory play - RICE (you can use pasta, chickpeas or any other dried food in your cupboards)

The great thing is that you can keep it in a big tub and get it out a few different times. You can use it with little diggers or cars or even spoons and jugs, sometimes we use blocks and whatever else we have close by to make a construction scenario.

If you don’t want to make it coloured, plain rice is just as fun!

To make it

1 cup of white rice - or past or chickpeas

1 teaspoon vinegar

Food colouring

Put everything into a zip lock bag and close, mix until the rice is coated in colour and vinegar, put on a tray to dry.

Lego/ Duplo ideas

Do you have LEGO or DUPLO at home?

Stuck inside? Why not try out one or two of these cool games?

https://www.facebook.com/LEGOAustralia/videos/2925633007530969/

Nature Website

Here’s a wonderful website with loads of cool ideas and activities connecting with nature - which is pretty easy and special given our big backyard this awesome town gives us!

https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/conservation-activities/let-nature-in/

Gratitude treasure hunt

Here’s a really cool gratitude treasure hunt. I did it yesterday with my kids and it was great fun!

Emotional regulation

Now I know you’ve probably all seen this doing the rounds on fb, but I can’t rave enough about it. It really does work! This is an instant mood shifter, and will leave your little one in a much better emotional headspace.

I’ve made up an older kids version of a this for my kids that we do most mornings down at the park before home schooling, and throughout the day. It’s fun, it works. Do it with your wee lovelies, and enjoy the time together!

RIVERSIDE EDUCARE