Playful Pre-schoolers

Games and activities such as the ones below may help support your child's communication and language development:

Talk to your child about what they are looking forward to when starting in their new school. Discuss any fears they may have and encourage them to be excited. Talk about their school uniform and their new routine. What questions would they like to ask their new teacher? What would they like to learn in Reception?

Pre-schoolers continue to love role-playing and imitating what adults do! Encourage your child to help you with basic house chores such as with the laundry. As you do this together, talk to your child about the different patterns, fabric, materials for them to expand their vocabulary.

Role/pretend play are great ways to get your child engaged and having fun together! For instance, you could use toy tea set or just small cups, sauces and pots from your kitchen cupboard and prentend making some 'tea'. Name every object and encourage your child to repeat new words!

Read stories with your child and talk about the pictures, characters and events in the book. Encourage your them to make predictions about what might happen next, talk about their favourite parts of the story and make links to their own experiences.

Find more ideas and information about babies' communication and language development on the following sites: 

Learning to talk 3 to 5 years - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Infancy 3-5 years | Ages and stages developmental milestones | SLT for Kids 

Games and activities such as the ones below may help support your child's physical development:

Threading: use things with holes such as colendars or pasta and encourage your child to insert these through the holes. This can help with hand-eye coordination.

Playdough: encouraging your toddler (age 2+ under supervision) to play with playdough provides a sensory experience that helps them develop fine motor skills, ease tension and improve imagination.

Container filling: pre-schoolers can be great helpers in the kitchen! Encourage them to help you at filling containers with food such as pulses or pasta, or jugs with water. This helps develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Up and down: seek every opportunity to encourage physical activity! For instance, local parks and playgrounds can be quite a fun way to support your child's physical development and gross motor skills while climbing age-appropiate structures.

Find out about more ideas on how to support your babies physical development:

Physical activity guidelines for children (under 5 years) - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

The following games and activities may help support your child's personal, social and emotional development:

Support your child's emotional development and regulation through daily conversations and interactions. For instance, during role play, pretend a dolly has got hurt. Through soothing words such as 'poor baby, she must be sore...' and body language, your child will start understanding their own emotions and those of others.

Role and pretend play are great for developing toddlers' social and emotional development. For instance, your child could also learn how to make social conversation and turn-taking skills, crucial in social situations.

Find out about more ideas on how to support your babies personal, social and emotional development:

Social and emotional development - Support for Parents from Action For Children

Positive parenting (nspcc.org.uk)

The following games and activities may help support your child's literacy acquisition:

Book-reading together is a great way of supporting toddlers' literacy skills. Get your child's attention and spark their curiosity by making interesting or funny noises as you flick through the pages. Your local library can be a great place for inspiration or to borrow your child's favourite books!

A tip for enhancing literacy development in children while reading a book together is to ask your child to think of an alternative ending. For instance by asking them 'what do you think it would have happened if..."

The following games and activities may help support your child's maths understanding:

Measuring: seize each opportunity in the kitchen to enhance your child's learning. For instance, encourage them to help up measuring the ingredients for a recipe, which helps them understand volume and basic addition.

Counting together is a fantastic way of supporting maths understanding too. For example, you could use dry spaghetti pasta as shown here and encourage your child to count pasta tubes as they build a tall structure.

The following games and activities may help support your child's understanding of the world:

Making music with water will fascinate your child! Array a set of glasses or cups filled with water at different levels. Then, use a spoon and tap on the each of these alternating the order. Keep adding small amounts of water and see how it affects the sound.

Growing seeds can be great fun! keep the shells of some eggs (carefully remove the top of the shell). Then, half-fill the empty, washed shells with cotton or compost and sprinkle some seeds (can be bought at some supermarkets and garden centres). Spray some water and wait a few days until these germinate.

Further ideas and useful links:

Fruit & veg for kids to grow | BBC Good Food

Reducing, Re-using and Recycling in the Garden - KidsGardening

Regrow From Scraps: 12 Fruits or Vegetables You Can Regrow (foodrevolution.org)

Germinating seeds with kids - Creative Learner

Quick and Easy Seeds to Grow with Kids - Rainy Day Mum

Games and activities such as the ones below may help support your child's expressive arts and design development:

Messy play is also great for your toddlers expressive arts and design development. For instace, you could join your child while playing with cooked food, such pasta, and make shapes with it. Add a splash of colour by adding a bit of tomato souce or jam.

Playing music (whether on the radio or if you feel inspired to play simple instruments such as a tambourine or an ukelele) and dancing with your child, can be brilliant for toddlers communication skills as you sign together and dance to the rhythm.

Try making some putty with your toddler: to cornstarch add water until the mixture reaches a gooey, runny consistency. Add a few drops of food colourant for fun!

Building mini-houses or dens with recyclable materials can help spark imagination and creative thinking while having fun. Let your child to lead on the activity as much as possible as this also helps them to develop their confidence and self-awareness!

Find more ideas and information about babies' communication and language development on the following sites: 

Activities for 2-3 year olds - BBC Tiny Happy People

5 instruments kids can make | BBC Good Food

Playdough recipe | BBC Good Food

Activities to do at home

Here is a video to show how you can make Cornflower worms at home: 

Flower Pot Rocket: 

Bubble snake: 

Here is a video about a child making music with glasses of water: 

BBC Tiny Happy People testimonials: 

Please find more Sign and rhyme videos in your community language: 

French

Somali

Tigrinya

Albanian

Arabic

Activities for babies, toddlers and kids: Fun games to help development and bonding - BBC Tiny Happy People

Early Learning | ZERO TO THREE

Toddler - Start for Life - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Foundation Years Vodcast: Improving the Home Learning Environment (youtube.com)

The home learning environment - how it helps children's development | www.peeple.org.uk

35+ Summer activities for kids | BBC Good Food

Activities for toddlers - Start for Life - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Twinkl EYFS Free Learning Resources

Other activities and things to do with under 5s:

• Mindful Monsters

• Mr Cress Head

• Den Building

• How to make Playdough

• Pasta Jewellery

• Shake Rattle and Roll

• Brown Bear Physical Activity

• Treasure Basket Babies

• Owl babies story time and activities 

• Messy and sensory play

• The hungry caterpillar story activity pack 

• Family Support indoor activity pack 

• Marble Paper 

• The Gruffalo

• The Rainbow Fish

• Elmer

• Peace at Last Story

• Dear Zoo Story