For many of us, school is happening at home to help keep our students, staff, and families healthy during the Covid – 19 pandemic. Between us at Education to the Core, we have four children who are used to going to baseball, dance, soccer, Taekwondo, friends’ houses, and tumbling, so sitting at home is driving them nuts. (And in turn, they are driving us NUTS!!) So, we’ve racked our brains to come up with home activities to stay busy, while also trying to keep up with their learning.
This by no means is a comprehensive list, but hopefully it gives you some more ideas of home activities you can do with your kiddos right now. And, if you have some activities that you have been doing at home to pass the time, PLEASE SHARE!!! We would greatly appreciate your ideas!
Indoor Games and Activities
- Hide and seek
- Build a blanket fort
- Play a board game
- Play a card game
- Read under the stars (use flashlights)
- Bake cookies or a cake together
- Go on a Scavenger Hunt
- Puzzles
- Build with blocks
- Watch a family movie
- Play dress-up
- Sing Karaoke
- Fly a kite
- Sticker Books
- Make a maze using blankets and towels
- Play iSpy
- Play “Hot and Cold” game with hidden objects
- Come up with a secret language
- Go through old toys and make a donation pile
- Practice reading skills with Fluency Passages
Outdoor Games and Activities
- Draw pictures with Sidewalk Chalk
- Create a hopscotch game/activity
- Blow Bubbles
- Can You Find and Draw?
- Go for a bike or scooter ride
- Talk a walk
- Jump rope
- Have a picnic in your backyard
- Play a sports game (baseball, soccer, basketball, football, etc.)
- Create a race track or obstacle course for cars
- Try and make pictures out of the clouds
- Plant flowers
- Play catch
- Go to the park
Educational Home Activities
- Solve the Hidden Problems (Write math problems (addition and subtraction) on paper, note cards, or post-its and place around the house – your kids take a piece of paper and “look”for the problems, then solve them)
- Read a Book Here and There (Use this fun checklist that your kids can complete as they read books in a variety of places)
- Hands-On Centers (My kiddos love using hands-on literacy centers to practice their reading skills – we have centers for kids in Kinder-3rd Grade, so you don’t have to create your own)
- Math Snack (So many fun math skills can be done with snacks – counting out amounts, making a pattern, modeling word problems, sorting by color/type; and the best part – they eat it when finished!)
- STEM Activities (These are my oldest son’s favorite! – we read the story, discuss the challenge, and then he gets to design and construct a contraption to test; it is lots of fun)
- Math Manipulative Activities We have created a variety of math based hands-on activities with manipulatives that your children will LOVE! And they will be practicing math skills and not even know it!
- Create a Journal (Have your children write a few sentences each day about what you did together. What was their favorite part of the day? What would they like to do tomorrow? etc.)
- Pretend to be the Teacher (Let your child choose a topic to research. If you have gmail, then you have access to Google Slides. Your child can create a slideshow presentation about their topic and then “teach” it to you. This same activity can be used for your child to “create a story” and then they read it to you.)
- Home Activity Packet (We have put together a packet of FREE materials from some of our most loved resources for your child to practice skills while at home – just click the link, download, and print.)
Check out our Resource Library for other FREE materials.
You will need the code ETTC2020 to have access to the resources.
Websites
- Math Games – your kids can play games, or they can practice math skills by grade level
- Storyline – kiddos can listen to stories being read by famous actors/actresses
- Amazon Kindle Free Books for Kids – if you have a Kindle, kids can read a variety of books for free
- Barnes and Noble Nook Books for Kids – similar to Amazon, Barnes and Noble has a variety of free Nook Books your kids can read
- Online Education Games – this website has some games that your child can play for free; variety of grade levels and subjects for your kiddos to practice with
- Virtual Museum Tours – this site has virtual tours of 12 museums around the world
-Written by Janessa Fletcher
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