Early Learning Activities
Beginning educational activities with your child at an early age increases their ability and eagerness to learn. Many activities are basic and can be at any time throughout the day. This is a place for direction on how to help your child thrive and learn.
Please click on the link category below that you would like to jump to.
Activities to do with your child
The Minnesota Department of Health has developed this listing of easy, inexpensive and age appropriate activities to do with young children.
Brain Booster Activities
Basic Tips:
- You don't need to spend a lot of money to boost your child's brain power-the more basic the toys, the more children develop imagination and creative thinking.
- Let your child lead. Avoid finishing the task if he is struggling, rather give suggestions to help him problem solve. For example, rotate, or suggest rotating, a puzzle piece.
- Bring different toys together to aid creative thinking and give and extra brain boost. For example, combine blocks and farm animals or playdough and cookie cutters.
- Keep in mind that children develop at different levels. Your child may be able to do some of these activities sooner or later than the age listed.
- Play with your children! Many of these activities can be done alone and will be great for your child, but with a parent playing along and helping to draw connections, brain power can be increased even more.
- Children interacting with other children also increases learning.
Creative/Dramatic Play:
- This is one of the biggest brain booster categories-fosters imagination, problem solving, and can be used to teach just about anything
- Provide props for your children- old/toy telephones, castaway shoes/clothes/handbags from your own closet, boxes, toy dishes, etc.
- Your child will come up with activities on her own if provided with some basic props, but here are some suggestions:
- Have mock phone conversations with your child- pretend to call grandparents, order a pizza, a friend or other relative, etc. (1 year +)
- Play zoo- take turns pretending to be different animals. Suggest different animals or guess what animal each is. Use sounds, actions or both. (1 +)
- Play "pretend"- school, house, restaurant, shopping, library, doctor, or other. (2 +)
- Re-enact a scene from a favorite book or movie. (2+)
- Provide some basic instruments- pots and pans, tambourine, recorder, shakers, etc. Play along with a song, march around the house, make up your own song. Make your own shakers by putting some beans into a canister with a lid. An empty coffee can is a ready made drum. (1+)
- Reading/Language- READ, READ, READ!!!!!!! This is probably one of the most critical activities to language development and can be started at birth!
Fostering language development:
- Talk to your baby and young child. Imitate the coos, goos and other sounds that your infant makes. Have a conversation- listen to her and respond. (Birth +)
- Provide a running narrative of your and your child's actions and activities. "Now we're putting your socks on," "Now daddy's washing the lettuce," "You are shaking the rattle/crawling/standing" etc. (Birth +)
- Offer choices so your child can respond using words. "Would you like the blue cup or the red cup?" If your child responds with words, great! If your child points, label the choice he made: "The red cup!" (1 +)
- When your child says something, add one more word to it. For example, if your child says "ball," you can say, "Yes, a green ball." When you point out objects to your child, use lots of descriptive words. "A green ball that bounces." (Birth +)
- Don't immediately jump in and fulfill a need you anticipate- give your child a chance to ask for it. Similarly, don't complete your child's sentences. (18 months +)
- Picture books with bright, simple images and short phrases are good for infants. Point out objects ("see the dog") in the book for young children.
- As your child gets older and develops a longer attention span, increase the number of words, moving to books with an actual story line. You can ask a toddler to name or point out objects ("where's the dog"). An older child can be asked more complex questions like, "What is the dog doing" or "what do you think the dog will do next."
- Nursery rhymes and other rhyming books, such as Dr. Seuss, are excellent for children. You can also make up rhymes, and as your child develops words, he can make up rhymes too. (Birth +)
- Sing! Children (and adults) can remember words better when they are set to music. Songs can also be used to teach almost anything: letters (The ABC song), counting (Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed), and much, much more. Sing anything: nursery rhymes, songs from the radio, show tunes, whatever! You can buy books or CDs of children's songs, or just make some up! Songs with hand motions or actions are great and also help a child remember better. (Birth +)
- Read in a sing-song voice, vary your pitch, use different voices for different characters, and exaggerate every syllable, especially for young babies and toddlers (Birth +)
- When responding to your child saying a word incorrectly, model the correct pronunciation rather than criticizing how she is saying it. For a child who says "wabbit," simply say, "Yes, that's a rabbit." (1+)
- Teach your child sign language, or a foreign language. (6 months +)
Math, Science and Memory:
- Take your child on a nature walk. Feel different textures- grass, flower petals, the bark on trees, dirt, etc. Lay on the grass and point out different shapes in clouds. Find bugs, worms, leaves, twigs, acorns, and other natural items to examine. Plant seeds and watch them grow. (1+)
- Let your child play with different textures- fill a bucket with dried beans, sand, flour or rice (2+)
- Let your child play in a sink or tub full of water with some funnels and cups. He/she can learn about volume, and have a whole lot of fun. (2+ --- never leave a child unattended when playing with water).
- Building blocks- these can teach all kinds of things as well- develop fine motor skills when stacking, learn about gravity (knock 'em down!), shapes, colors, counting, sorting, addition and subtraction. (18 months +)
- Let your child help you bake cookies from scratch. Let your child hold a measure spoon while you fill it, dump ingredients into the bowl, stir the batter, roll the cookies into a ball, etc. You can teach your child about measurements and help develop fine motor skills. Baking bread and having your child help knead is also great. (18 months +)
- Count everything! Fingers and toes for infants, birds on the pages of a book for toddlers, and have your older child help set the table and count places.
- You can also teach basic addition and subtraction to a child starting around age 3- "There are three apples. How many will be left if we eat one?" For a younger child, help him/her count. An older child may be able to figure it out on their own.
- Make cutout cookies with number cookie cutters to help your child recognize numbers. You can also do this with letters. (2 +)
- You can play memory games starting in infancy. For babies, take and object and hide it under a bowl. "Where's the ball?" As your infant gets older, add a couple of bowls. You may need to "find" the object at first, but eventually your baby will be able to! You can also play the traditional "Memory" card game with toddlers. Start with just a couple of pairs, face up, and help your child match them. Once she understands matching, you can turn the cards upside down. Again start with a couple of pairs, and add more as your child gets the hang of it.
- Let your child help you sort laundry- this can help teach colors and categorizing. (18 months +)
- Puzzles! There are single piece wooden puzzles that toddlers can do and huge floor puzzles that preschoolers can do.
- Make a photo album with pictures of relatives and go through it with your child. (Birth +)
- Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repetition is a huge part of learning for children and helps boost memory. Read the same stories, sing the same songs, over and over and over. (Birth +)
- Have a color themed day. On blue day, wear blue, eat blueberries, do a blue craft and point out blue objects inside and out. (2+)
- Art- let your child draw, color, paint, make a collage, and play with playdough. (18 months +)
- Help your child develop a sense of time by marking off days on the calendar.
- Talk through your day, review what you did yesterday and discuss what you will do tomorrow. Talk in sequences- first, next and last. (Birth +)
- Shape sorters are excellent for learning shapes, colors, spatial skills and developing fine motor skills (18 months +)
Back to Top
Children’s Literacy
Ortonville Pubic Library- 839-2494
Children’s Summer Reading Program.
The Ortonville Public Library has a summer reading program for preschool (age 3) through Kindergarten for six weeks in the summer. The program involves story time, a craft, games and usually a snack. Register June 11-16. The program runs June 20, 27, July 5, July 18. The final program and awarding of prizes will be on July 28 at 10:30. Ages 3-5 meet daily at 4:30 in the Ortonville Library basement. Cost: Free
**Johnny Pineapple will perform at the Library on July 25 at 1:30.
Open to all children. Cost: Free
Back to Top
Ortonville Summer Recreation
Soccer
Youth Soccer ages 4-8 August 7 and 9 from 6-7 p.m. at the football field. A chance to get together and run around and learn about soccer. This will be non-competitive. Cost: Free
T-Ball
T-Ball if for 4 -K. They will meet Tuesday and Thursday from June 11 - July 19th from 5:30 - 6:30. This league emphasizes teamwork, sportsmanship, and fun! Participants will work on the fundamentals of the game and participate in the inter-squad scrimmages. Cost: $15
Swimming
Parent/Baby swim will be held July 9 - July 20 at 5:30 at the pool. Cost: $25
Red Cross Learn to Swim. Program Levels 1 & 2 meet Monday-Thursday at the Ortonville Pool. Each class lasts 45 minutes.
There are 3 separate sessions.
Session 1 June 18-June 29 5:00 PM. Session 2 July 9-July 20 5:30 PM.
Session 3 July 31-Aug. 10 11:15 AM. Cost: $25/session
Story Stretchers
This class allows kids to listen to stories and engage in exciting activities relating to the story! Come ready to use your imagination! This class is offered for children age 4 years – 2nd grade. Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays July 31-Aug. 9 at 9:30-10:45 in the Ortonville School. Cost: $15
Back to Top
 Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to open pdf documents. If you don't have Adobe Reader you can click here to download Acrobat Reader free.
|
