Fun Activities for Little Ones this April!

This month, we have exciting activities to help your little ones grow, move, and explore. From playing games to learning about different cultures and taking care of the Earth, these activities are easy to do and lots of fun.

Jump to the activities! Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4

Week 1: Spring is Here!! (Move More Month)

Theme: Physical Activity & Early Development

Focus: During Move More Month, we emphasize the importance of physical activities for little ones in a fun and engaging way. Here are some activities for HIPPY parents to do with their children, starting as young as 2 years old:

Activities:

• Adventure Obstacle Course:Transform your living room or backyard into an adventure course using pillows, hula hoops, and boxes. Children can crawl through caves, jump over rivers, and balance on tree trunks, enhancing gross motor skills and sparking their imagination.

• Colourful Dance Party: Play music your child enjoys and give them scarves or ribbons to dance with. This promotes coordination, rhythm, and gross motor skills while incorporating a visual element.

Early Skill Development Activities:

• Early Literacy: Dive into The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Parents can read aloud with silly voices, letting your little one turn the pages and point at the pictures.

• Early Math: Sort colourful pieces of paper by colour, shape, and size. Children can count and develop fine motor skills as they cut the paper.

• Motor Skills: Butterfly dance with scarves. Play music and flutter around like a butterfly with colourful scarves.

• Social & Emotional: Sing "You Are My Sunshine" together, making eye contact and smiling.

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Week 2: April 7 – World Health Day

Theme: Health & Wellness

Focus: Celebrate World Health Day by teaching health and wellness in fun ways. Here’s an activity to promote healthy habits.

Activities:

1. Healthy Eating Puzzle: Cut out pictures of healthy foods from magazines, glue them onto cardboard, and create a puzzle. Discuss the benefits of each food group while assembling the puzzle.

2. Magic Handwashing Experiment: Use colour glue to represent germs and show how washing hands with soap makes the "magic germs" disappear, making hygiene fun and memorable.

Early Skill Development Activities:

• Early Literacy: Read Planting a Rainbow aloud and talk about different flowers and their colours.

• Early Math: Introduce pattern recognition using beads or dry pasta. Encourage stringing them in repeating patterns.

• Motor Skills: Set up a garden-themed obstacle course for hopping, crawling, and balancing.

• Social & Emotional: Sing "Ring Around the Rosie" together, adding fun giggles when you fall down.

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Week 3: Celebrate Diversity Month

Theme: Embracing Diversity

Focus: Celebrate the rich diversity within the HIPPY Halton community with activities and books that promote inclusion and understanding.

Activities:

• Interactive Storytime with Diverse Books: Read books that showcase different cultures, languages, and family structures. Use props or puppets to make stories come alive. Featured books for the month:

  • "My Heart Fills with Happiness" by Monique Gray Smith (Indigenous theme)

  • "Malaika's Costume" by Nadia L. Hohn

  • "The Moccasins" by Earl Einarson

  • "Sweetest Kulu" by Celina Kalluk

• Family Heritage Craft: Create a family tree or collage using colourful materials, fostering early literacy and social awareness.

Early Skill Development Activities:

• Early Literacy: Read Guess How Much I Love You with warmth and cuddles.

• Early Math: Shape sorting with paper cutouts to develop shape recognition and fine motor skills.

• Motor Skills: Hop like a bunny, showing your child how to jump around playfully.

• Social & Emotional: Sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" and encourage your child to join in with claps and stomps.

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Week 4: April 22 – Earth Day

Theme: Environmental Awareness

Focus: Celebrate Earth Day with eco-friendly activities that encourage environmental awareness and fun outdoor exploration.

Activities:

• Nature Scavenger Hunt: Take a walk and give toddlers a list of items to find (leaves, rocks, flowers). Afterward, sort and classify the collected items by shape, color, and texture.

• Creative Recycling Craft: Use recyclable materials like paper rolls, bottle caps, and cardboard to create art projects such as robots, animals, or musical instruments.

• April 23 – World Book Day: Spotlight reading and its importance by making it fun and interactive.

• Get a Library Card: Take your child to the library, encouraging them to check out and return books.

• Storybook Theater Playtime: Act out a favorite story with costumes and props, enhancing imagination and verbal skills.

Early Skill Development Activities:

• Early Literacy: Read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, encouraging your child to join in with repetitive phrases.

• Early Math: Number flashcards to help with number recognition.

• Motor Skills: Take a nature walk and go on a scavenger hunt.

• Social & Emotional: Sing "The More We Get Together" and engage in actions mimicking togetherness and friendship.