Kid's Activities
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- Last Updated: Thursday, 26 March 2020 11:36
Learning Websites for Kids
Scholastic Learn At home (For FREE)
Resources for families of students from Pre-K to Grade 9 to help you learn at home. There is everything from stories to lessons in science and history all shared in a fun way. The site is broken down into week segments to make it easy to navigate. It’s a great resource!
https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html
Annapolis Valley Library
They have free ebooks and other services to loan with your library card.
https://www.valleylibrary.ca/download-ebooks-audiobooks
The Halifax Library is also offering free services to all Nova Scotians
https://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/online-resources/
Stargazing
Who has not looked up and gazed at the stars and wondered which is the Little Dipper? What is Orion? Here is a great way to do that with an App that will tell you what those constellations are!
“You don't need to be an astronomer to find stars or constellations in the sky, just open SkyView® Free and let it guide you to their location and identify them. SkyView Free is a beautiful and intuitive stargazing app that uses your camera to precisely spot and identify celestial objects in sky, day or night. Find popular constellations as they fade in and out while you scan across the sky, locate planets in our solar system, discover distant galaxies, and witness satellite fly-bys.”
There is a free version and one for $2.79
https://www.terminaleleven.com/skyview/iphone/
Creative Writing
Do you have a teenager who is interested in writing? Here is a page with some great writing prompts! Maybe have an Online Writing Group, do one prompt a week and share them with your friends.
https://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/blogs/post/write-on-writing-prompts-for-creative-minds/
Reading
Want to encourage your kids to read? Turn on closed captioning on your TV and turn the sound off. Want to help them learn a new language? Watch TV shows and movies in other languages with closed captioning set to that language.
Learn Basic Sign Language with Dr. Bill Vicars – this is a series of You Tube videos, not just one.
Dr. Vicars does a great step by step approach with printed words, signs and repetition many of the basic ASL signs and he uses them in very small sentences. His approach is extremely helpful and makes it easy to learn. (I recommend having closed captioning on so you can read what he is signing as well)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9cFqNYlV1A&list=PL6akqFwEeSphJ6rd50AtRBKNGracfavCi
Start a Book Club! Mainly for adults but could be for teens too! You could start this as a virtual club, pick a book, organize and do an online version via a chat forum and then, when this is all over you could meet in person or continue as you started especially if you have members of you club who do not live locally.
This website which is from the States is free and is connected to Amazon makes it easy to set up meetings, help do book reviews and keep your club organized.
StoryOnline – Actors Reading Children’s Books on You Tube Here are a selection of stories to choose from with some of our very favorite actors reading them!
https://www.youtube.com/user/StorylineOnline/videos
Physical Activities and Games for Kids (and Families)
Sidewalk Chalk -We may be limited to where we can go but we are not limited by what we can do. Here is a great article with some ideas of what you can do with just one piece of sidewalk chalk to help keeps the kids active. Color your sidewalk and have fun outside.
One piece of chalk- 8 active games
https://activeforlife.com/8-active-chalk-games/
Yoga for Kids – this is a great way to teach kids some basic yoga poses. Simple descriptions and fun to do! Yoga is known to decrease stress, help with sleep and focus and improve mood. It’s great for parents too!
https://childhood101.com/yoga-for-kids-a-walk-through-the-garden/
Exercise Dice
This is a crafty way to make exercise fun at home! Make your own exercise dice – you get to choose the exercises you put on the dice. One dice has the numbers 1-6 and the other die has 6 exercise options. Each person takes a turn at rolling both dice and you have to do the number of exercises the dice say. Want to make it a community game? Play it on Facetime with friends! Each of you make a set and play together with your friends!
https://www.education.com/activity/article/exerdice/
Physical Movement (for young children) – From the Active For Life website here are some basic physical movement activities you can do that require very little if any equipment. Some of simple things like a balloon or ball.
https://activeforlife.com/activities/
Animal Races
Have the kids hop like a frog. Or run on all fours like a dog, crawl on the ground like a lizard! Make it more fun with costumes! Which animal is fastest?
Charades! One of the oldest and easiest games for people of all ages to play that if fun, interactive and you don’t sit down to play it. Categories are FILM, BOOK, TV SHOW, SONG, PERSON, ANIMAL, THING, ACTION – everyone writes 3 or 4 for each category and put them all in a bowl and then take turns acting out the word. (make sure you have all agreed on the rules. No talking or noises, what are the category signals going to be, can you point at objects? Is there a time limit etc.)
Pictionary – like charades but bust out your artistic skills. Using a white board and markers eliminates a lot of paper waste.
Free Online Fitness Classes - Barre Body Fitness, a gym in Vancouver has made Dozens of FREE Fitness Classes of all kinds available for you to follow right from their website or on their You Tube Channel. There must be a class that suites you in this library! Check it out!
http://www.barrefitness.com/video-library
Birding is a great relaxing hobby. Spring is here and the birds are back! Here is a Nova Scotia Bird Identification site for you to look at. How many birds can you spot?
https://inaturalist.ca/guides/3746
Don’t forget the Participaction website and the App! It has great resources for the whole family.
Craft and Activities for Kids
Homemade SLIME
Here is a homemade slime recipe made without Borax. You can make this at home and keep it for the kids to play with (or for the adults to play with when the kids are sleeping!)
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/make-slime-without-borax/
Kinetic Sand
Here is a recipe for Kinetic Sand it’s easy to make and the kids will play with it for hours! You do need play sand to make this one!
https://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/blogs/post/the-science-of-kinetic-sand/
Plant a Garden
This is a great time to start seedlings for a summer garden. You can pick up starter kits at the Dollar store and plant some of your favorite herbs and vegetables or flowers. It’s a great time to talk about how things grow, what they need to grow and how to take care of things. If you do this a as an online group activity, make sure you all get different seeds so you can later exchange plants with your friends and have a wider variety.
Learn to Tie Knots!
This site has printable cards
https://geekprepper.com/handy-knot-guides/
And a Knot of the Day How to Tie Knots!
https://www.animatedknots.com/?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com
Easter is coming! Here are some alternative ways to dye Easter Eggs
Cooking with your kids … sounds fun right?! Here is a great Canadian resources for that!