Category: create

create

Chalk Scraping

Zuby & Beans

Supplies

  • Brightly coloured chalk
  • White card stock
  • Shallow dish
  • Water
  • Popsicle stick
  • Optional: book about colours

Educators: we recommend reading “Festival of Colors” by Surishtha Sehgal and Kabir Sehgal

Instructions:

  1. Fill your shallow dish with just enough water to cover the bottom.
  2. Use a popsicle stick to gently scrape the chalk over the dish of water.
  3. Watch as the chalk sprinkles make a beautiful design.
  4. Gently lay your piece of card stock over the water and lift it quickly. It will have absorbed the chalk onto the paper.
  5. Alternatively: you can lightly dampen your piece of card stock and gently scrape the chalk directly onto the dampened card stock.

Skills

  • Creative
  • Colours
  • Culture – discuss Holi, India’s Festival of Colour
  • Fine motor
  • Literacy and social skills when paired with the book
create

Packing Peanuts Painting

Zuby & Beans

Supplies

  • Washable paint
  • Dish for paint
  • Packing peanuts (foamy things that come in packages)
  • Paper or cardstock

Instructions

  1. Empty desired paint colours into dish.
  2. Lay paper on a table
  3. Use the packing peanuts to stamp shapes on your paper

Adaptations

  • Children can draw a picture and then add the stamping to their drawing
  • Create patterns

Skills

  • Creative
  • Fine motor
create

Beautiful Names Fine Motor Activity

Zuby & Beans

Supplies

  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Glue stick
  • Leaves, flower petals, etc.

Instructions

  1. Collect leaves, flower petals, etc.
  2. Write your child’s name or first letter of their name on a piece of paper.
  3. Break your leaves into pieces or use a large hole puncher/shape puncher to create shapes.
  4. Use a glue stick and encourage your child to stick the pieces to their name.

Skills

  • Fine motor
  • Nature
  • Focus and concentration
  • Name recognition
  • Letter recognition
create, Play

Make a Boat

Zuby & Beans

Supplies:

  • Recyclable items
  • Tape
  • Optional: plastic bottle, containers, toilet paper rolls, styrofoam, egg cartons, foil wrap, straws, paper, string, etc.

Instructions:

  1. Lay out the boat making supplies and encourage children to be creative and make a boat.
  2. As always remember, process over product.

Adaptations/Extensions of Play

  • Put your boat in water and make predictions and observations. Does it float? Does it sink? Why does it float? Why does it sink? Can it hold loose parts?
  • Make different shapes and sizes of boats? Does it change whether the boat floats? Does a bigger boat hold more or less loose parts?
  • Create a tally sheet and have children write their names and tally how many items each boat can hold

Skills

  • Fine motor skills
  • Creative
  • Prediction
  • Problem solving
  • Math: counting, shapes, sizes, more, less, fewest, most
  • Science: buoyancy
create

Soap Making

Zuby & Beans

Children will love creating their own unique soaps! We did this activity with a ten year old and she loved it!

Supplies

  • Soap molds or silicone ice cube trays (we like silicone the best because the soaps easily pop out)
  • Package of glycerin soap cubes
  • Glass measuring cup
  • Optional: food colouring, dried flowers and herbs, grated orange and lemon zest, essential oils, cinnamon, oats etc

Instructions

  1. Place a few of the glycerin soap cubes in measuring cup and heat until melted in the microwave (start with medium heat for 20 seconds).
  2. Add your extras (colour, scent, dried herbs).
  3. Dried herbs can also be added directly to the mold and then you pour the soap over top.
  4. Pour your melted soap into the mold and allow to harden.
  5. Rinse your measuring cup with hot water and repeat for each concoction.

Note:

This activity is hot! We recommend making soap with older children who are able to safely follow instructions.

Skills

  • Following instructions
  • Science
  • Measurement
  • Creative
  • Social emotional skills when done together
create, Play

Magic Bubble Wands

Zuby & Beans

Create your very own and unique magic bubble wand!

Supplies:

  • Pipe cleaners
  • Beads
  • Bubble solution
  • Shallow dish

Instructions

  1. Have children bend their pipe cleaner to create a circle or any shape that will be the top of the wand.
  2. Bead your pipe cleaner to create a handle. Let your unique and creative style show.
  3. Tuck the bottom of your pipe cleaner under the beads to secure your beads in place.
  4. Dip wand in a shallow dish filled with bubble solution and blow!

Skills

  • Creativity
  • Fine motor
  • Math – counting, patterns
  • Colour recognition
  • Science
  • Imaginative play
  • Social skills: create together with friends

Watch how far your bubbles go and then find where they land. What magic spells will you create?

create, Play

Soapy Finger Paint

Zuby & Beans

Supplies

  • 1/4 cup soap flakes*
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • Food colouring
  • Mixer

Instructions

  1. Mix soap flakes and water until the consistently of whipped cream.
  2. If you will be making more than one colour, divide paint into individual containers
  3. Add a drop of food colouring to individual containers and mix with soap paint or use without colour.
  4. Finger Paint on a plastic tray or piece of paper.

Note:

*Soap flakes can be made by grating a (dry) bar of soap.

Adaptations/Extension of Play

  • You can also use this paint to paint the walls of the bathtub. Be sure to have a non slip bath mat in the tub as it can get slippery⚠️. Easily washes away with warm water. Perfect activity for reluctant bathers 🙂

Skills

  • Sensory
  • Process art
  • Creative
  • Science (make it together)
create, Play

Silky Play-Dough

Zuby & Beans

Silky play-dough is a great sensory experience and can be useful in practicing self regulation skills. Older children enjoy the texture of this dough as something to keep their hands busy.

This dough comes out so silky and soft and is lightly scented depending on the hair conditioner you used.

This activity is not for children who put play-dough in their mouth!

Supplies

  • 2 cups cornstarch
  • 1 cup hair conditioner (baby/children brands work well, as they have a lighter scent)
  • Optional: food colouring

Instructions

  1. Mix, knead and add a few drops of food colouring.
  2. Done ✅

Skills

  • Fine motor
  • Sensory
  • Self regulation
create

Simple Nature Weave

Zuby & Beans

Supplies

  • Piece of cardboard
  • Elastics
  • Nature treasures

Instructions:

  1. Create your board by cutting a piece of cardboard into a square shape.
  2. Place your elastics on the board so that they are overlapping.
  3. Collect items from nature: long strips of grass, stems, fallen flower petals, tree bark, herbs, etc.
  4. Practice weaving your treasures through the elastics.
  5. This is a simple beginner weaving activity for young children. Have a magnifying glass on hand to study the items you found!

Skills

  • Fine motor
  • Science
  • Botany
  • Creative
  • Art