1. Let the kids paint using water and watch how the “painting” magically disappears

1. Let the fun begin with kids seeing their footprints following them and disappearing.
2. They’ll love to pat their hands on the floor to see their handprints too appearing and disappearing.

Yamini, USA

1. Select the subject which you will like to explore with your child. Eg. Inside and Outside
2. Cut about 30 pictures from the magazine of things that are inside the house and outside the house. eg. Sun, car, bed, moon etc.
3. Let the child stick it on cards (appprox. 7 cm by 7 cm) that you’ve cut.
4. Take a bigger picture showing Outside and one showing the inside of a house and stick it on two 15cm by 15 cm cards.
5. You write the names of the objects at the bottom of the cards.
6. Place the cards upside-down and let your child sort them one by one giving a reason for each.

Jenny, UK

1. For the basic level let the child practice pinching skills by fixing the pegs on the sides of an old shoe-box.
2. You can also teach counting and colours through this simple project

1. Cut out a large cardboard circle (approx. 15cm diameter).
2. Draw a face on both sides.
3. Punch holes for hair.
4. Put a small bead on each end of the thread.
5. Now show the child how to pull the thread through the hole to give the “person” hair.

1. Cut 7cm x 7cm cards.
2. Draw 1cm X 1cm wide straight lines on dark construction paper for the cage.
3. Show the child how to paste the pictures of animals on the cards.
4. Show the child how to make strips by cutting along the lines. You can do it yourself for younger children.
5. Put dabs of glue on the vertical edges of the cards and stick the paper strips to make the cage.
6. Make multiple cards of different animals.
7. Cut the rolls into 2cm high rings.
8. Make small slits on the cards. The distance between the two slits should be equal to the diameter of the rings.
9. Slide cards into the rings to stand them easily

Jenny, UK

1. Make a pattern of colours by fixing pegs on an old shoe box.
2. Let the child repeat the pattern.
3. You can make the pattern more complicated by having multiple pegs of colours while making the pattern. Eg.a pattern of  2 reds, 1 yellow, 2greens

1. Place construction paper in direct sunlight.
2. Put objects on it making sure they don’t move/fall down.
3. Check back after a few hours to see difference in colour of exposed paper and that  below the object where sunlight wasn’t falling directly.
4. Talk about what is being observed.

Cubsmom, USA

1. The child sits in the box and pretends that its his boat/car etc.
2. Sing some sailing or rowing or relevant nursery rhymes.
3. When the rhyme finishes, you pretend that a few of the stuffed toys want to hop aboard with your child into his boat/car. The child chooses which toys hop aboard.
4. You count how many? Are there more aboard or on the ground? Are there big ones with the child or small ones? What colour? How many of which colour?

Momme, USA

1. Cut pictures of objects (2 x 2 inches) that the child is familiar with from catalogues, newspapers or old magazines.
2. Paste them neatly on a sheet of paper making sure the paper is not crowded. (eg. 6 to a page). You could put a dot of glue while the child pastes the picture.
3. Using construction paper, cut rectangles, 2 cm longer and wider than the cut pictures. These are the curtains.
4. Write an Alphabet on each rectangle.
5. The child now needs to cover the picture with the curtain that has the same beginning letter as the picture. Eg. E curtain covers elephant picture.
6. You can glue the curtain at the top end of the respective picture so the child can do peek-a-boo.
7. Staple all the pages together to make a book that you can read with your child.

Momme, USA

1. Cut pictures of objects (2 x 2 inches) that the child likes from catalogues, newspapers or old magazines. You could draw them if you like.eg. 1 horse, 2 eggs, 3 cars, 4 dogs etc.
2. Paste them neatly on a sheet of paper making sure that the paper is not crowded. (eg. 6 to a page) You could put a dot of glue while the child pastes the picture.
3. Using construction paper, cut rectangles, 2 cm longer and wider than the pictures. These are the curtains.
4. Write a number on each rectangle
5. The child now needs to cover the picture with the curtain that has the same number of objects in the picture. Eg. 5 curtain covers the picture of 5 flowers
6. You can glue the curtain at the top end of the respective picture so the child can do peek-a-boo
7. Staple all the pages together to make a book that you can read with your child.

Momme, USA

1. Cut pictures of objects (2 x 2 inches) that clearly display familiar shapes. You could draw them if you like. eg. egg, door, pizza, caterpillar, moon, ice-cream, sun, kite, box, mirror, STOP sign, road, plate, eye etc.
2. Paste them neatly on a sheet of paper making sure that the paper is not crowded. (eg. 6 to a page) You could put a dot of glue while the child pastes the picture.
3. Using construction paper, cut rectangles, 2 cm longer and wider than the pictures. These are the curtains.
4. Draw a shape on each rectangle.
5. The child now needs to cover the picture with the curtain that has the similar shape as the object in the picture. Eg. Oval over egg, Triangle over pizza
6. You can glue the curtain at the top end of the respective picture so the child can do peek-a-boo
7. Staple all the pages together to make a book that you can read with your child.

Yamini, USA

1. Help set-up the shop with the toys displayed neatly.
2. Cut construction paper into rectangular pieces (6x4inches) and fold from the middle so that the cards can be labels for displaying the cost of each toy.
3. Decide on the cost of each toy.
4. Start with the minimum value coin/bill. Eg. 1cent or 1 dollar.
5. On each label draw the corresponding number of  coins/bills needed for the price shown.
6. Give enough money for your child to go shopping.
7. Have fun as your child counts coins to shop. A nice way to introduce concept of prioritization as well. With money running out, the kids would need to make choices!

Aliya2, UAE

1. Cover your child’s palm with paint.
2. Let the child press his/her hand down on the sheet of paper making as many clear hand-prints as possible.
3. Let the paint dry-up.
4. Count the fingers in each hand and number them. Point out that each hand has 5 fingers.
5. Introduce the concept of adding  in fives. Eg. 2 hands have 10 fingers, 3 hands have 15 fingers and so on. This can be related to the marks on the clock to help reading time.

Sonia, India

1. Choose 2 different colours of paint.
2. Dip the child’s hand in paint and make a row of handprints.
3. Make a row of handprints of the other colour in the second row.
4. In the third row, use the first colour.
5. In the fourth row use the second colour. You are thus alternating between the two colours.
6. In the fifth row you can ask the child to suggest what colour will be used.
7. You can make this activity complicated by introducing more colours.

Sonia, India

1. Cut the vegetables in cross-section.
2. You can carve shapes eg. Triangle, square on the potato.
3. Let the child dip the vegetables in paint and press them firmly on paper.

Harshita, India

1. Start with shapes and you can move on to numbers and alphabets once the kids have understood the game.
2. Draw a shape on each large sheet of paper. Tape the sheets at easily visible locations in the room or backyard. These sheets are houses with the shape representing the address.
3. Cut rectangular cards (approx. 5x6inches). On each card make a shape corresponding to the shapes you’ve made on the sheets of papers. These cards are the letters which need to be delivered to the houses. The symbol is the address.
4. Give the child (the postman) the letters in a bag. The postman needs to match the address to the house and post the letters.
5. Once the child gets the hang of the game, you can move on to numbers and alphabets being the addresses.

Finger painting

 Sonia, India

1. Dampen paper.
2. Scoop out a blob of paint onto the paper.
3. Mix music with painting. Let your fingers dance to the beats of the music.

Dripping colours

 Sonia, India

1. Pour 5 tbs water in each muffin cup. Add food colouring.
2. Fold paper towel into eigths/sixteenths.
3. Dip corners into different colours.
4. Open towel and allow to dry.

Trish, USA

1. Draw a line (zig-zag, square, rectangle etc) on the paper using the scale.
2. Ask the child to see how many of the beans/cheetos can be fitted onto the line.
3. Count as you put more of the beans/cheetos on the line.
4. You could even glue them on to make it more fun.

Yamini, USA

1. Make 2 stacks of cards.
2. For the first stack, make dots on the cards. And for the other stack write numbers on the cards.
3. Draw a card from the Dot stack and one from the number stack. If its a match, you keep the pair.
4. The person to make the maximum pairs wins.