Let's Learn the Vowels

Take an old snack tray that you don't use and color it in red, blue, green, yellow and orange.

Now that the paint is dry draw the vowels in each color. This will help the child to remember the vowel through the use of color.

Make vowels of different shapes, sizes, materials  and let the child play while he learns them.

Let's Create, Play and Learn with Kanikiando

Piggy Bank for new Words

Get a medium size can that has a plastic lid.

Cover it with the homemade glue and paper and let it stand until its completely dry.

If you have used newspaper to cover the can you should cover it with white paint.

I decided to cover mine with assorted colors of tissue paper and then paint a bit of black so we can add the name and purpose of the can.

When its finished and ready to use, we can put inside the words that we have successfully learned with the children.
we can use it for numbers, verbs colors or anything that you would like to save.

Let's Create, Play and Learn with Kanikiando

Let's count and feel

Gather a few cap bottles and open a hole through them.

Gather different colors to differentiate from one another.

Now that all the caps have a hole, get a piece of wire and pass it through them.

Now lets work on the body of the toy.

We use a mixture of  homemade glue with recycled paper or newspaper.

We cover the paper with the glue to make it stronger and long lasting. We let it dry thoroughly before we give it some color,

I chose orange, depending on this color you can work on the  design.

Now that is painted I chose my design, and I have decided to draw a rainbow and then fill it in with crepe paper. 

This is a great material for the child to sense and adds great texture and color to the toys.

I have decided to make different designs with the crepe paper so the child senses the different textures and talks about the different colors of the rainbow

After I finished my rainbow, I decided to add a few clouds and rain. It is great for the child to feel and talk about all the different colors and textures of the drawing. It will help him with his eye hand connection, talk about the weather, rainbows and talk about the different materials we have used to decorate it.

For the other side I have decided to decorate  it with a mountain scenery and a few textures like feathers, a towel texture and a small tile. the object of this is for the child to touch all the different textures of the toy.

We put the wire in a colored cork and then place it  in the holes. 

Add the bottle caps in the wire, they will help the child to count and learn the different colors.

Now we add a few numbers to the top of the toy, so the child moves his fingers at the same time that he counts the numbers from one to twelve

And when its finished is time for the children to play with it.... so like I always say !!!!

Let's Create, Play and Learn with Kanikiando

Speak & Spell

I always try to make my toys out of recyclables so, it's great to use one of these boxes to make the dice

Now for the surface of the game we use cardboard and we cover it it with a paper mache mixture.

We cover it with three layers of paper and glue. 

I always make my games to be used in both sides. 

Next we color one of the sides with different colors and we decide what type of activity we will write for each color. 

In the other side we draw a snake, This will be the design of the game

We paint it with lively green colors.

As soon as we are finished with the other side we decide what activities we will write down in each color

Now that we have the snake almost finished we put a few ladders to make the game more interesting.

The object of the game is to learn to count and  also spell different words depending  on the level of the child. When he lands on a ladder we ask the child to spell or read a word. If he succeeds he will go up the ladder but if he fails he will remain in the same place. 

Now the other side we have different names, we can make up a game as we go along and depending where the arrow lands.

We can ask him about numbers, colors, parts of the body, verbs. Or if you have your own different design you can put different headings

Objectives of this game:

The objectives of this game is for the child to work in his fine motor skills, by moving the counter within the spaces.
Establish and develop a hand and eye connection.
Learn to count from 1 to six
Enhance social skills and to get along with his peers.
Learn to take turns.
Expand his vocabulary.
Learn to spell,
Learn the different colors.
Tell stories and read them.