The Cathedral School Little Book of Fun Educational Activities for Early Learners

Educating

FOR LIFE LONG SUCCESS

At The Cathedral School we are committed to providing a well-rounded educationto develop the “whole person” through innovative and purposeful learning methods that challenge children to reach their full potential academically, physically, culturally, socially and spiritually. These lifelong learning habits develop inquisitive, confident and compassionate Cathedral students, well equipped to make wise decisions as informed members of society. We hope this eBook will provide you with some helpful tips to practice at home with your child, so that they are comfortable and ready to learn when it is time to start Kindergarten.

WALKER LEARNING APPROACH TURNING CURIOSITIES INTO LEARNING

The school holidays are the perfect time to explore your children’s interests, and promote growth and development in these areas through investigations. Explore our list of activities and projects that you can do with your children over the school holidays. Fun and educational, these activities will assist with building a strong foundation of investigations, encouraging your child to excel in creative exploration when school begins. These activities are a great way to establish and maintain positive learning habits, whilst spending quality time together and interacting with other children.

ALPHABET

Flower Garden

An alphabet flower garden is an interactive way for children to work on letter recognition and sounds. It’s a versatile activity that’s great for a range of ages, and children can even begin to work on spelling words. This project is great to set up at the start of the school holidays and your children can return to play, learn and interact in a variety of ways.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Using the black sharpie, write a letter of the alphabet at the bottom of each of the paddle pop sticks.

Step 2

Place a flower sticker at the top of each.

Step 3

Prepare the garden by lining the tray with green felt. This will prevent the pots from sliding around and will catch any stray beans/pebbles.

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

Reading and writing, numeracy.

You'll need:

Various sized clay pots

Dry black beans or pebbles

Paddle pop sticks

Flower stickers

A black sharpie

A tray

Green felt

Step 4

Fill each of the pots with beans/pebbles, and place the pots on the tray.

Step 5

Add the flowers to the pots, covering the letters, by pushing them into the beans/pebbles.

Let your children explore and create their own games with the flower garden. They can create words,

patterns or even try to spell their name. Encourage them to sound out the letters on the flowers they pick. The flowers can also be used for counting.

A SPACE

To Create

Create a space for your children where they can paint, draw, create and experiment. Provide stimulus or let them create by simply using their imagination.

You'll need:

A small easel

A butcher's paper pad

A selection of paints, pencils and crayons

Paintbrushes in a variety of sizes

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Set up the easel in a peaceful space, indoors or outdoors with sufficient lighting.

Step 2

Set up brushes, paints and pencils.

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

Drawing, fine motor skills, gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Step 3

Let your children experiment, encouraging them to draw shapes and mix colours. Once they’ve completed their masterpiece, ask them to explain what they’ve drawn and why.

ADVENTURE

Recount

Get your child to recount their most memorable and fun daytime adventure, by writing and getting creative with art.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

In whichever order they choose, allow your children to recount the day through drawing and a few short sentences.

Step 2

They may choose to create a collage with newspaper or magazine clippings.

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

Reading and writing, social and emotional development, reading, writing, gross and fine motor skills.

You'll need: Sketch paper and lined paper

Coloured pens, pencils or crayons

Optional: newspaper, magazines, scissors and glue for collaging

Step 3

Once they’ve completed the recount, staple the drawing and written recount together, or glue onto a larger piece of paper.

Step 4

Allow the children to present and discuss their recounts with each other.

Your child may choose to recount their favourite part of the day, something they found exciting or interesting, or they may decide to summarise the entire day. This is a great way to identify specific parts of activities that are memorable to your children. If you do this activity several times throughout the school holidays, you can create a book at the end with all their adventure recounts.

SENSORY

Play Area

Children thrive off sensory play and they love to experiment whilst getting a little messy! By dedicating a space in the home or outside to sensory play, you can interchange provocations throughout the holidays to keep your children interested and excited to learn more.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Set up the station and place your children’s sensory material of choice into the tub or container.

Step 2

Allow them to play, mould, measure, build, create art and learn as they are exposed to a variety of feelings and consistencies.

Step 3

When using water, encourage your children to experiment with floating and sinking objects.

You'll need:

Either an outdoor space or an indoor space with a sheet or tarp to protect the floor

A table

A plastic tub or large container

A variety of sensory materials including shaving cream, playdough, homemade slime, sand or water

Spoons, measuring cups and other utensils

Sensory play with a variety of materials allows your children to explore the consistency of each substance and make discoveries. This type of play is a great starting point for understanding scientific concepts.

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

Cognitive growth, fine and gross motor skills, problem solving skills, and social and emotional development.

A NATURE

Collective

In your backyard, your children are bound to come across some interesting items they can collect. Encourage your children to collect a few items from your backyard.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Let your children collect items from your backyard.

Step 2

Display these items in a space where your children can touch, feel, count and group the items.

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

Physical development, numeracy, social and emotional development.

You'll need:

A table or several boxes to keep collected items

Step 3

Play counting games as they collect more.

Step 4

1, 2, 3 ...

Collecting natural and unique items allows children to connect with nature. Sticks, rocks, leaves, seeds and shells are useful for counting and maintaining interest in numeracy, whilst learning about specific parts of nature.

Our Best Loved Recipes

Playdough RECIPE FOR

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl. Let the children mix the dry ingredients together.

Step 2

Add the food colouring, hot water and oil together in a jug.

Step 3

Remove the bowl from little hands then slowly add the water, food colour and oil mix to the dry ingredients.

Step 4

Use a wooden spoon to mix the playdough together. When playdough starts to become hard to mix, remove the spoon and use your hands to knead the mixture together. Be careful, the playdough will be hot!

Step 5

When the playdough cools down give it to the children to play. Store in an air tight container in the fridge and your playdough will last a week.

You'll need:

4 tbs cream of tartar

2 cups plain flour

1 cup salt

Food colouring

2 cups boiling hot water

Slime RECIPE FOR

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Squeeze the glue into a mixing bowl. Add the bicarbonate of soda and mix well.

Step 2

Add a two or three drops of your chosen food colouring. Less colouring gives a pastel colour; the more you add, the brighter the colour. Mix until well incorporated.

Step 3

Add the contact lens solution and mix. The slime will begin to form, going stringy before coming away clean from the bowl into a ball.

You'll need:

200ml PVA white glue

(children’s craft glue or CE marked glue)

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Food colouring

2 tsp contact lens cleaning solution

Glitter (optional)

Step 4

Once it has formed, take it out and knead it with your hands. It will be sticky at first but after about 30 seconds you’ll have a smooth and pliable ball. Add glitter at this point, if desired, and work in with your hands. Store in a pot with a lid.

RECIPE FOR

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Add hair conditioner to a large bowl.

Step 2

Mix in few drops of food dye.

Step 3

Combine corn flour with the hair conditioner mixture and mix it well.

Step 4

Cloud Dough

You'll need:

1 - 1.5 cups corn flour

1 cup hair conditioner

A few drops of food colouring

Stir until the dough begins to form.

Step 5

Keep kneading until it forms a doughlike consistency. If it’s still too sticky add another tablespoon of corn flour.

BOOK A TOUR

A personalised tour of The Cathedral Junior School enables you to identify just how Cathedral can inspire your child’s academic aptitude and unleash their extra-curricular interests.

You’ll see our flexible learning spaces in action, have your curiosity sparked at our Wonder Hub, be amazed by our STEM workshop and art studio, and feel the rhythm of our music room.

Register for our Open Day held annually in May cathedral.qld.edu.au/enrolment/ enrol/open-days/open-day/